Adventures of Ise

Chapters

Under the Blood Moon
Soul of Crystal
A Silent Storm

Under the Blood Moon

Ise shivered hard, the harsh blizzard chilling him to the bone. He had thought the ice caverns of Equestria’s northern mountains were cold, but now that he had left what he could only hope was the right exit, and ventured out into a storm so fierce and powerful that even the Green Lightning was brought to a crawl, only now did he know what true cold was. For the first time, Ise wished he brought more to wear than his trademark purple jacket.

Still, the cat came up to this remote region with a mission. He trudged on, the harsh snow stinging his eyes on top of obscuring his sight, the frost gluing itself to his fur until the two became indistinguishable. Before long, he thought his whiskers would become so cold and ice-laden that they would break off entirely.

However, after what seemed like an eternity of trudging through the white wasteland, he saw a vague silhouette among the howling winds. As he approached, he found the figure to be a rare sight in these regions: a dragon, seemingly adult, yet still well behind the growth spurts that make most dragons titans. Her scales were a dark, unforgiving purple, with a menacing shade of magenta stretching from just under her jaw down her belly and to the tip of her tail. Her midnight blue spikes did little to make her appearance any friendlier, especially with the ones on her head bending to cover her right eye. Resting on her shoulder, she carried a shotgun in her right arm, an invention made necessary in Klugetown due to the cutthroat nature of its residents, and a weapon one could tell at a glance that this dragon knew her way around. Her left arm hung limp at her side, the midnight blue-practically black-nails on its claw noticeably longer than the nails of the other. Overall, this dragon carried an aura of dead seriousness and danger that most other dragons seemed to lack.

And Ise wouldn’t have her any other way.

“Couldn’t you have at least brought a coat?” The dragon inquired disdainfully.

Ise gave her a cocky snicker. “Like you’re one to talk. How long have you been freezing your scales off?”

The dragon turned her head in annoyance, then shivered. For all their massive strength, the fiery reptilian dragons took to cold like children to vegetables. “Let’s just say you took your sweet time getting here,” she snapped.

“Hey, you’re the flier; maybe next time you’ll give me a ride,” Ise shot back, before relaxing his sneer into something more genuine. “Seriously though, good to see you, Ash.”

Rather than take the friendly remark, Ash just shook her head. Whether this was due to putting up with Ise or with the sheer cold, even she wasn’t quite sure, just that she could handle both easily. “Guess, we’d better go through the front door, give any spooks that are left a visit.”

Front door? Ise tried as hard as he could looking past Ash, but all he could see was a sea of white. Was the storm really that bad? So much that his destination was still completely obscured when it was no more than ten feet in front of him? He took a few cautious steps forward...and then his view turned dark, as a great castle suddenly hit the point where he could see it through the blinding snow.

“Spooks, huh?” Ise wondered. “Well, getting haunted might not be so bad. Maybe I could get the ghosts to get me a drink every now and then.”

Yes, he thought, time to find out if ghosts exist. For if they do, and if spirits still lingered in this lonely fortress...there was no way they’d be happy with the unlikely duo after what they were sent there to do.

It had been an average day for Ise. Klugetown was bustling; well, as bustling as a town built on crime could be. Certainly enough for the local bar to be lively, which was where Ise had spent his day, enjoying the local tavern music while drinking a glass of milk. On the rocks. Because it tastes better so long as you have it immediately. Not that anyone ever dared question that little quirk of his anymore; didn’t take long before the knives came out and whatever creature gave him grief found out where he got the name Green Lightning.

Or he’d just threaten to throw Ash’s favorite drink in their face: lava on actual rocks. Not that he’d ever do it, but it shuts creatures up quick.

It was then that he came through the door, a mysterious figure shrouded in a cloak, who seemed to make a beeline for Ise’s booth. Not that the green cat paid him that much mind: “mysterious figures” were all too common in a place like Klugetown, mostly thieves and marauders that Ise knew full well he could take on. And as for the guy making himself comfortable on the other side of the booth, well, that was just how Ise did business. Which brings up what mind he did pay this creature: at the very least, he knew he had a job on his paws.

“You’re the Green Lightning, yes?” the creature asked. Though very little of his face could be seen under the cloak hood, Ise could tell he was a fellow Abyssinian, with an off white coat that had subtle stripes of gold.

“How do you figure that?” Ise asked back, toying with his client a bit.

“There are many cats in this city, but only one of them is green,” the other cat pointed out jovially, picking up on what Ise was doing. “I’ll get straight to the point: you’re a well known mercenary around these parts, and not just as hired muscle like most. I hear you’re specialty is...acquiring items, whether they be relics long forgotten in some ruin, or priceless treasures held under the tightest lock and key. Or both...as was the case when the Sapphire Statue suddenly disappeared from its display case in the Canterlot Museum.”

“Yeah, what of it?” Ise replied with a smirk, leaning back. Though impatient to hear what job this cat had in store for him, he wasn’t exactly subtle about just how well his client had stroked his ego.

“Well, there’s something that I need procured, and I’m afraid the job is much too dangerous for most.” The client pulled out a map of Equestria, with a prominent red dot marking a spot just northeast of Starlight’s village. “In this remote region of Equestria, far from the prying eyes of any civilization, there is an ancient castle of unknown origin. Protected by mountains on all sides, and further still by a harsh blizzard that hasn’t stopped in centuries, few creatures have ever set foot inside...and none have returned.”

“And let me guess,” Ise responded, “there’s some priceless treasure that’s supposed to be in there, and you want to send me to fetch it. Or at least be the canary in the spooky castle.” The green cat was slightly annoyed that he was basically being asked to throw his life away, but hey, that’s the job. He’d heard similar stories about many an ancient ruin, and for every place where “none had returned”, he had been the first. Ultimately, he looked forward to the challenge this odd castle posed.

“Well yes, there’s almost certainly treasure in there,” the client began, “but I’m not after any normal treasure. In fact, on top of my payment-2,000 bits, by the way-you’re free to keep anything you pocket in there. All I ask for is one object, one of great power and importance...”

“The Orb of the Blood Moon.”

“Are. You. Insane!?” Ash pressed the green mercenary, both verbally and physically as she slammed him against the wall of his own home. With one claw pinning him in place, she held a nail of the other right under his muzzle. Though that irritating cocky attitude hadn’t left the cat, a flicker of fear flashed in his bright blue eyes; he knew full well that those claws were deadlier than they already seemed.

“Relax, we’ve been through way worse,” Ise replied, trying to calm her down.

“You haven’t been through ME,” Ash snapped back, pressing even harder on his shoulder as noxious smoke passed though her snarling teeth. “All of that ‘worse’ is just the crap I didn’t feel like keeping your sorry plot out of! You really think you can handle this!?”

“What, you think you can’t?” Ise snarked back. “Besides, that’s why I’m asking you to come along. I know you’ll have my back.”

Ash paused, his words ringing true yet filling her with rage. She suddenly pulled her claws away, leaving Ise to drop to the floor, and crossed her arms as she turned her back to him. “My answer is no. This death wish is your bed, you’ve made it, now lie in it.”

“I’ll take the pay, you keep all the treasure.”

Ash’s mood softened...barely. “Oh yeah? What if we find buck all in there?”

“If there’s no treasure, we’ll split the pay 50/50.”

“75/25. You owe me for even considering this.”

“Deal.” A major loss for Ise should there be no treasure, sure...but then again, he was never in it for the money.

Even with the favorable deal made, Ash was still stewing. To make matters worse, now that Ise wasn’t struck with the fear of Luna, he was back at full cockiness. He made his way from the lonely corner where he had been pinned to a beaten up couch on the other side of the room, casually sitting down next to a round rabbit plush that he seemed to care quite a bit for. Some days Ash wondered why she ever partnered up with this loser.

“Come on, Ash, you know you wanna come along. I mean, a sinister castle possibly filled with frightfully dangerous monsters? You know you wanna find out which ones can take a blast to the face.”

“Need I remind you,” Ash shot back, “that most of the times I’ve had to shoot temple guardians to bits was because YOU threw caution to the wind!”

“It was still fun for you, right?”

“Is that really the argument you’re-“ She stopped herself, not really being able to argue with the cat. Besides, even if she could, she knew full well that Ise would keep shilling the adrenaline rush until she ran out of steam. Ash’s rage slowly subsided, and she went back into aloof mode. Grabbing her shotgun from where she propped it up, she asked...

“So, where was this stupid castle again?”

As casually as he could in the sub-zero storm, Ise walked forward and opened the great doors of the castle. No point wasting time to steel himself or muster up the courage, that wasn’t his style anyway when he’d rather just get on with it. Ash followed in after him, the doors slamming shut behind them. They were left in a dull entryway, surrounded by oppressive gray stone, a dark purple carpet at their feet guiding the way to a large foyer they hadn’t quite reached. The interior of the castle was far calmer than the snowy landscape around it, simply due to shielding its occupants from the howling blizzard, but the cold was not held at bay in the least. On the contrary, the imposing atmosphere seemed to warp the chill, coating their very souls with frost. Every fiber of the mercenaries’ beings told them they really, REALLY shouldn’t be here.

That feeling was confirmed as they took a few steps into the foyer. And yes, the large empty space, pressing down on them with darkness as only what little light made it through the storm and heavily tinted stained glass allowed them to see. The details didn’t help either, the large room empty save for two large staircases up to a balcony far above them, and a great chandelier hanging tenuously above their heads, lacking in splendor without light to grace it. However, the oppressive atmosphere threatening to crack them wasn’t what suddenly had their fur and scales standing on end.

No, that was the faint presence of a monster far out of their league, a monster that soon made itself known.

“Well well, seems I have visitors. Welcome to my...humble home.”

A pony teleported onto the high balcony, not with the flash of light that accompanied most spells, but with a cloud of darkness, blending into the poorly lit surroundings so as to make her sudden arrival imperceptible. Yet Ise, his feline eyes able to make out more than most in the darkness, got a good look at the mistress of the castle as she walked her way down the stairs to greet them.

Every bit of her body was covered in differing shades of crimson, from the dark blood red of her short-cut mane and tail, to her bright yet sinister eyes. Her horn was gnarled, less like a spike and more like a piece of root. And, oddly enough, she had wings, bat wings like the thestrals in Luna’s night guard, clasped together under her chin to form a sort of cloak. However, even in this regal stance, Ise could tell these wings were twisted like her horn, the joints where they met her back especially gnarled and deformed. He could tell just from looking at them: this pony was not born an alicorn, nor did she earn that status, but instead gained the extra limbs through some twisted and horrible process. And yet only her horn and wings were gnarled; otherwise, she looked very much in her prime.

Behind the clasped wings, Ise could see a necklace with an ominous dark red orb hanging from it, and he knew immediately that this was what he was sent to collect.

“My name is Carmine,” the pony introduced herself, a wicked, fang-bearing smile on her face. “How nice of you to come all this way in the bitter cold to visit me. Don’t worry...I’ll make sure the cold never bothers you again.”

“Not today, thank you!” Ise shot back, jumping back while reaching out his paw to shoot lightning at someone clearly hostile. The lightning...that was a trick that, for all Ise knew, he was always able to do; how he came to have it, he didn’t quite know. Nor did he care much: he didn’t really feel like looking into why a non-pony had magic when he could just have fun with it. Carmine flicked her head, her horn glowing ever so slightly as she effortlessly stopped the bolt inches from her face. Ise expected this, considering just how powerful her mere presence was...but the real point of the attack was to illuminate the room, letting his dragon comrade see and directing her toward something to shoot. Ash took the opportunity and blasted Carmine with her shotgun, just before the room went dark again…

...and in the darkness, Ise was left stunned. The pellets actually landed, yet Carmine didn’t even flinch. In fact, the wounds not only didn’t bleed, but soon began a slow but sure regeneration process. This pony wasn’t just a powerful dark mage or something like that; she was something far more dangerous and terrifying.

Carmine simply laughed. “It’s been a while since I’ve felt cold steel,” she mocked. “Shame it doesn’t really do much to true children of the night. Still, you have no idea how entertaining it is to have prey that fights back for once. Maybe I’ll turn you instead of simply draining you; depends on how good a time you show me from here.”

“Not interested,” Ash flatly refused, firing once more at the vampire now that she knew where Carmine was. However, pain soon shot through her arm, the pellets having been sent right back at her. Luckily, in falling to her knees from the shock, she managed to avoid all but the one pellet that grazed her right arm. As this was happening, Ise leaped around the foyer, bouncing off walls and railings at breakneck speeds, coming to rest atop the chandelier. From there, he pulled out one of his trusty knives, and casually dropped it from atop the chandelier, letting it fall blade first into Carmine’s back.

The vampire didn’t even register the blade, simply walking toward the wounded dragon...but that wasn’t the point. Using his lightning powers, Ise electrified both the fallen knife and the chandelier, giving just enough of a spark for Ash to see what was happening and roll out of the way. And with his friend safe, Ise used his other knife to cut the chandelier down, magnetized and falling toward the blade stuck in Carmine’s back. The vampire was utterly crushed, Ise jumping off right before impact, but she simply teleported once more to get out from under the shattered remains of her unused light fixture. However, as she rematerialized, Ash rushed toward her, close enough to see, and stabbed her left claw squarely into Carmine’s side.

The vampire started laughing again, cracking even, not from insanity, but enjoyment. The claw stab, like everything else the two had thrown at her, did nothing of any significance, yet she could tell as the nails touched her dormant blood that this was more than just a simple impaling. “I don’t think you quite get it,” Carmine taunted. “The undead don’t exactly care about most forms of harm, not steel, and certainly not poison.”

Carmine shifted her body, taking advantage of the claw stuck in her side to pull the dragon attached to it closer. Conveniently for her, Ash was dragged along so that her neck was just below Carmine’s face. “Yes, you’d certainly make an interesting...compatriot,” she mused. “Welcome, my friend, to the life of a vampire.” She raised her head, winding up to clamp her fangs down…

Suddenly, a green bolt shot past her, a blade slicing her face as Ise made off with his partner. With Ash safe from a neck munching, he made another pass on Carmine, taking a mere second to grab the knife left behind from his chandelier stunt. He hadn’t earned the title Green Lightning for his electricity powers: it referred to his agility and acrobatics, to how he could bounce around at blinding speeds, before rushing in for the kill when a Target was disoriented. And so a momentarily stunned Carmine was disoriented just long enough to get another slash across the face, one that only widened her resulting smile.

“You’re pretty amusing as well, cat,” Carmine complimented the rogue. “Very well. End this futile charade of a battle, and I’ll make sure you and your friend survive this night as vampires, free to stalk the night to your heart’s content.”

“Gee, that’s a tempting offer,” Ise replied...before holding up his paw with the dark orb inside it, ripped right off the vampire’s neck in the confusion. “Thing is, I like actually living, so we’ll go now, thank you very much.”

And so he barged through the door, leaving Carmine stunned, then outraged. She rushed forward to try and retrieve her precious orb, but the storm outside finally began to settle, allowing the sun’s light through to the castle and the front gates. And so the angry vampire was forced to let the burglars go, vowing to seek out the orb once night covered the land.

A good ways back down the mountain, Ise let Ash walk on her own; she wasn’t unconscious or handicapped, but Ise’s speedy jumps were better for putting distance between them and the castle so they weren’t hunted down. And once she was walking for herself again, Ash was more than happy to slap the cat across the face for her trouble, her nails scratching his cheek...and puffing it up due to her poison, an odd toxin unique to her that seemed to cause adverse effects at random once in the bloodstream.

“Yhep, Ah desherve that,” Ise slurred.

The two continued to make their way down the mountain, soon reaching the ice cave that led them to this remote corner of Equestria to begin with. At the entrance, their mysterious client stood waiting for them, standing stoic as part of the mystique, yet shivering as his robes were hardly enough to help stand the freezing cold.

“Ah, I’m glad you made it out in one piece!” The client rejoiced. “I knew I hired the right creatures for the job. Now, hand the orb over.”

“I should really slap you too, but you’re not my client directly,” Ash grumbled. Ise walked over, dropping the Orb of the Blood Moon into the client’s paw, then turning his own over in a request for payment. The client handed over a bag of bits, all 2,000 promised, and Ise threw it all to Ash, changing the pay split to 100/0 to make up for the crapshow.

“Okay, I’ve gotta ask,” Ise queried, his swollen cheek subsiding enough for proper speech thanks to having gotten a minimal dose of Ash’s poison, “what the hell is this orb? Why did you want it, and why did Miss Vampire up there seem to treasure it?”

The client paused, then acquiesced. “The Orb of the Blood Moon is an artifact of immense dark magic, possibly chaotic in nature. The master of that castle is a living example of the power this thing has, at least according to what information I could find on her: it seems she was turned not by another vampire, but by the Orb itself, taking its power and making it her own for longer than Celestia has ruled Equestria. Such a dangerous artifact shouldn’t remain in the world; that’s why I asked for its retrieval, to seal it away and make sure it will never again see the light of day. Or night for that matter.”

“Riiiiiiiiight…” Ash replied, completely skeptical. Still, she just shrugged her shoulders; she was far too done with this whole ordeal to let the fate of this stupid ball be her problem.

“One last thing,” Ise called, as the client began to walk away. “Mind telling us your name?” The client paused, then slowly turned his head, his feline eye glaring at the mercenaries from under his hood.

“My name is Cyphus Clay.”

Soul of Crystal

The streets of the Crystal Empire, bustling centers of joy and merriment, grew quiet as their recent visitor wandered through the town. A Diamond Dog, an anomaly not only in this land of crystal equines, but among his own kind, made his way through the city to a destination he couldn’t discern. His stride was slow and uncertain...and bipedal; he found the half bi-, half quadruped stance of other dogs unnatural for a reason he couldn’t describe. Likewise, his clothes were unique to him among his race, a regal black jacket he mustered the will to have the local tailor make.

He was an anomaly, and the true nature of the silence reflected that: the Crystal ponies around him didn’t feel threatened, he hadn’t done anything to harm them, yet they always felt uneasy in his presence. Not that he could blame them: his mind was a broken mess, void of memories, only the nagging feeling that he was missing more than just his past. He himself felt uneasy in his own skin, what with the constant haze looming over his psyche. It was that haze that led to his aimless wandering, seeking a path forward that he wasn’t even sure existed.

The only clue he had to who he was, unfortunately, didn’t really help the unease he seemed to spread in these poor ponies. Attached to a belt around his waist was the sheath to a brilliant sword, a beautiful blue gem embedded in the hilt. Of course no one would want to approach him while he openly carried a weapon through the city, even if he had no intention of using it. Still, he couldn’t leave it be or toss it aside: some fragment of his mind told him the blade was vitally important, either as a piece of who he was...or to forge a new path to the future.

His wandering soon brought him to the outer edge of the local park. A place of peace and tranquility...yet this one section elicited nothing but dread from the populace. Even in his hazy state, he couldn’t help but notice the house across the street, once a brilliant work of crystal like the others around it, now impaled on towering black spires. That had been happening a lot lately, and the ponies’ speculation didn’t seem to make sense; in the same breath that they mentioned this “Sombra” character, they would say that he was already gone. Not that the dog really bothered processing gossip; he had enough on his plate as it was. Seeking tranquility, he absentmindedly took a seat on one of the park benches.

“You new around here too?”

The dog nearly jumped out of his seat, startled by the green cat on the bench he had failed to notice. The cat gave him an odd, but concerned look. “You okay there? You seem kinda out of it.”

“Y-yes,” the dog replied, regaining what composure he had. “I’m sorry, I just…” He trailed off, unsure how to respond…

“Not used to talking, are you?” the cat asked, fiddling with his purple jacket. “Can’t say I blame you; they may be all about friendship, but these ponies aren’t exactly as friendly with other species as they’d like to be. I’ll bet walking around town like a zombie wasn’t making you any more approachable, either.”

Well, you’re not exactly wrong there, the dog thought to himself. However, he couldn’t seem to verbally respond outside of stutters. The cat gave off this exuberant energy that had been completely foreign to him for quite some time, and he seemed completely unable to process it.

“Oh, sorry, haven’t introduced myself yet,” the cat realized, moving the conversation right along as he held his paw out. “The name’s Ise. What’s yours?”

“Ee...say…?” The dog wondered, before his hazy mind slowly processed the introduction. In turn, he gently reached forth and took the cat’s paw in his. “My...my name is...Alex.”

“Alex, huh? Weird name for a Diamond Dog, but I think it suits you,” Ise noted. “Well, I can’t leave you here; why don’t you come grab lunch with me?”

“H-huh? But-“

“Hey, it’s fine, I’m paying. Now, there’s gotta be a good food joint around here somewhere…”

“Ah, that hit the spot,” Ise sighed as he finished his half of pizza.

Alex sat silently with his food, taking his time rather than wolfing it down, ironic for a “Diamond Dog” with more similarity to a wolf. Though he enjoyed the meal, he simply stared into space, beyond the silver hair that hung just off to the sides of his eyes, too lost in thought and awkward to start a conversation with this strange creature who treated him like a close friend.

“You look like you have something to say,” Ise noted, breaking the silence as he took a sip of his milk. “You can speak up, I won’t bite.”

“...why are you being so nice to me?” Alex asked.

“Honestly, because you look like you need it,” Ise replied. “You just look...lost. And I’ll bet a good part of that is how lonely you’ve been.” He downed his milk, leaving the empty glass on the table as he leaned back. “You need a friend, and I’m happy to fill the role.”

“That’s nice, I guess,” Alex replied somewhat gratefully, “but that still doesn’t explain why you of all creatures are reaching out like this.”

Ise gave a playful smirk. “That’s just who I am.”

“Who you are…” Alex trailed off, lost in thought. “I don’t even know who I am, I haven’t for quite some time. My...my mind is blank…”

“Join the club.”

“What?” Alex shot back, surprised.

“You heard me,” Ise answered, that smirk still on his face. “I’ve got a pretty big blank space in my memories too.”

For a short moment that seemed infinite to the wolf, he sat dumbfounded at this revelation...or rather, at the smug smile on his new acquaintance’s face. For all this time, he had struggled with his lost past, among other things...and right across from him sat a creature in the same situation, who seemed proud of his lost memory. “Don’t...don’t you wonder who you were?” he finally mustered out.

“Eh, not really,” Ise casually replied, shocking Alex once more. “I mean, sure, I occasionally wonder who I was before the amnesia, but I’ve built a pretty good life for myself without my memories. I’ve rebuilt from scratch. And the way I see it, who I was doesn’t really matter when I’m quite happy with who I am.”

Rebuilding...starting from scratch to build a new “self”...somehow these thoughts had never occurred to Alex. “That’s just me, though,” Ise continued, noting his new comrade trying to process. “If you feel what you lost is important to you, by all means seek it out. Even then, though, clearly what you’re doing now isn’t working.” Right around then, the check arrived. Ise put a pawful of bits on the table, and got up to leave...but not before one look back at the wolf.

“Seems like it’s high time you stopped looking for who you are, and decide that for yourself.”

The cat left the restaurant, leaving his canine companion to contemplate their discussion on identity. As Alex dwelled on his words, he felt, for the very first time, the haze in his mind beginning to lift.

It had only been a couple days prior that Ise had come to the Crystal Empire on a job. A very special job, as his clients this time were none other than the royal family themselves. The job was a bit tricky, but that just made the cat more interested: shadow magic was seeping into the Crystal Empire, covering the city in black crystal a little bit at a time. The attacks were distant and small enough for Princess Cadence to undo the darkness with the Crystal Heart, but that was starting to drain on her day after day, and there were still repairs to be made afterward.

“Okay, so why call me?” Ise inquired almost immediately. “I mean, it’s a good call, but I’d heard you guys were, uh, well-versed in this kind of stuff. And I gotta say, the guards up here look far more capable than their friends down south. I’m glad you called me, but why do you NEED me?”

“Yes, we do have very able guards,” Prince Shining Armor acknowledged, “but we’ve learned the hard way that shadow magic is much harder to fight than you’d think. I have no doubt that our soldiers could track down the criminal; bringing them to justice is a different story.” The Prince looked to the side with this last statement, clearly frustrated that the best his Empire could provide, an effort far better than other pony military, was still proven inadequate in this situation.

“Say no more,” Ise replied, a wide grin involuntarily spreading across his face at the mere thought of throwing down with power like that.

“You’re free to join the search for the perpetrator,” Shining explained. “Your presence doesn’t invalidate the guards; you’re here to help them, not replace them.”

“I’d be worried if I was,” Ise pointed out. “You still gotta keep your ponies safe from everything else too.”

“Daddy? Is something wrong?” Ise turned to see Flurry Heart enter the room, wiping the sleep from her eyes with her wing.

“No, sweetie,” Shining comforted her, embracing his child, “everything’s going to be alright.”

Ise took in this warm embrace, realizing the peace this father wanted for his child now rested on his shoulders. “Alright, you have my word. I’ll see this through.”

Alex found himself wandering again, this time out into the snowy fields beyond the city. Ise’s words continued to echo in his mind, making him question the shell of a life he had been living for the past few years. Finally, he came to a stop, letting his thoughts sink in.

“Make my own ‘self’, huh?” he contemplated. “As if it were really that easy.”

Just then, he remembered the sword attached to his waist. For all the importance he’d felt it had, all this time he had never drawn it. Now might be the time, he thought. He still had no intention of harming anyone, but as he pulled the blade from its sheath for the first time, let the silver blade and the jewel on its hilt gleam in the pale light of day, he knew this was the first step toward his future.

As he held the sword aloft, his thumb shifted, lightly touching the jewel...and suddenly the sword burst with magical energy, the blade singing with frigid cold, the gem shining with power. Alex shied away from his own blade, almost dropping it. As the shock wore off, however, he examined this odd magic within his weapon. He quickly noticed that, though he was no longer touching the jewel after his bout of surprise, the blade’s chilling air still poured forth. And yet, when he began to wonder how to stop this reaction, the magic suddenly died. It didn’t take long for Alex to realize what this meant: the gem was a catalyst, but the magic was inside him.

“Nice light show.” Alex whipped around, surprised to see Ise behind him, clapping at this discovery.

“I...I don’t understand,” the wolf responded. “That was magic. I have magic. How can someone who isn’t a pony have magic?”

“Don’t quite have an answer for you, sadly,” Ise replied. “That said, you’re not the only one.” He held up a paw, letting electricity crackle from his claws.

This gesture both reassured and confused Alex. “Why us, then?” he wondered. “Why are we so different from our own kind?”

“Hmm, couldn’t tell you,” Ise responded. “Then again, maybe ‘our kind’ isn’t our species.” He took a few steps forward, placing a friendly paw on Alex’s shoulder. “Maybe ‘our kind’ is each other. We’re unique, and we should celebrate that.”

“I’m not sure I have much to celebrate,” Alex lamented, “though that’s not to say I have nothing. Not anymore.” He looked down at his blade, contemplating his power. “The path ahead isn’t quite clear yet...but I finally feel there’s something I can reach.”

The wolf began to sheath his sword, ready to return to society. “Hold up a second,” Ise called out. “Mind if I look at that for a second?” Confused, Alex handed the sword over. The cat examined the hilt thoroughly, his fingers finding a button where the grip met its center. With a press of the button, the metal around the embedded jewel retracted, leaving the gem free to be removed from its setting.

“Interesting…” Ise noted, taking the gem from the hilt. Keeping it, he gave the blade back to its owner. “Hey, mind if I hold on to this beauty for a bit? I’ll have it back by tomorrow, promise.”

Alex was confused by this request, but looking into his friend’s eyes, he felt he could trust him. “Alright then,” he acquiesced, taking the empty blade and sheathing it. “Guess I’ll...see you tomorrow, then?”

Ise gave a friendly smirk. “Plan on it.”

Swift Sapphire grumbled under his breath as he watched the sun set from the door of the post office. His coworkers passed him by, going on their way home with smiles that irritated him more, turning back and waving at the stooge they forced to work overtime sorting the mail late into the night. He shouldn’t have even been stuck with the job; he was a delivery pony, not a mail sorter.

“Hey, Ruby,” Swift called out to the last coworker to leave. “Remind me again why I’m the one stuck with this?”

“Oh, I dunno,” the rose-colored pegasus replied in a playfully malicious manner. “Why don’t you ask the last three ponies you tried to deliver pastries to?” Swift had no response but more grumbling; pastry packages didn’t really agree with him...as his coworkers would constantly remind him by sticking the returned boxes full of splattered treats in his locker. Ruby chuckled. “See you tomorrow, Swifty.”

Reluctantly, he headed back into the now quiet building, resigning himself to a long night of boring sorting. The hours passed slowly, the lights in the back room becoming a beacon among the eerie darkness of midnight. Amidst that darkness, Swift could barely discern a shadow passing by, just out of the corner of his right eye, not obscured by his midnight blue mane like his left. He gave only a second’s consideration to this, before assuming his mind was playing tricks on him, and returning to his work.

And then all hell broke loose.

Swift jolted upward as he noticed the room darken. The lights hadn’t dimmed; rather, the very crystal the building was made of was dulling. Then the dark spikes began to burst forth from the floor. Quite quick on his hooves, Swift tried to rush outside...but even he wasn’t fast enough. Before he could leave the room, let alone the building, the spikes blocked his path. Before he could even consider his next escape route, giant dark crystals burst forth from the ground, pinning him to the wall by his neck. He tried his hardest to break himself free, but with the spire pressing on his windpipe, he lost his strength fast. The last thing he saw was the darkness fully overtaking the post office, before his whole world turned black.

“Alright, everypony, get back,” one of the Empire’s majestic purple guards ordered to a curious and frightened public. “Nothing to see here.”

The desecrated post office was cordoned off, not that anypony would have that fun a time getting into a structure mostly filled with dark crystal at this point. Even so, many ponies gathered around, whispering in fear as morbid curiosity forced their hooves toward the disaster site. Most notably, the mail ponies who worked there gathered, regretting how their actions the night before had put one of their own in harm’s way.

“If I’d known this would happen, I never would’ve made him stay,” Ruby lamented.

“Don’t blame yourself, Miss,” the guard responded. “None of you could have known. Thankfully, we were able to break him free; he’s likely still unconscious, but we were able to save him. For now, go about your day...uh, as well as you can, without a place of business.”

Grateful for the news, the mail ponies left the scene. The rest of the crowd started to clear out soon after, leaving only the guards in charge of the scene. The first guard was soon approached by one of his identical comrades. “Geez, this stuff is getting worse and worse by the day,” the second guard complained.

“Yeah. I mean, the attacks haven’t been this bad before,” the first guard responded, turning toward the dark wreck behind him. “For Celestia’s sake, somepony almost died this time.”

“I noticed the last few attacks haven’t even been cleaned up yet,” the second noted. “Princess Cadence must be having a really bad time of it. Think we’re gonna be okay?”

“...can’t say for sure,” the first lamented. “If Sombra has returned, I doubt we’ll be able to take him down, as much as I hate to admit it.”

“Good thing he’s not back then, eh?” The two guards swiveled around to see the feline mercenary had casually walked up to them while they were both lost in thought.

“Well, if it isn’t the outside help,” the second guard scoffed. “And how exactly HAVE you been helping, huh? By laying back and enjoying yourself while we’re under attack?”

“Oh please, you wound me,” Ise snarked. “Look, I may not have seen Sombra...ever, but I’ve done my research since I got here. And frankly, these smaller strikes just aren’t his style. From what I’ve heard, he’d just storm in and take the place over on day 1, rather than waste time on smaller attacks.” He walked past the guards, putting a paw to the dark crystal. “No, this is something else.”

He has a point, the guards begrudgingly thought. After all, he was spot on about Sombra’s style; that was pretty much how things went the last time he attacked. Even so…

“You never even considered someone else could even do this, could you?” Ise called them out. “It’s written all over your faces.”

“Alright then,” the first guard began, just about done with being talked down to by this outsider, “who do you think IS behind all this.”

Ise simply responded with his trademark smirk. “You just leave that to me.” He turned to leave, only to stop himself as he passed the guards again. “Uh, could either of you tell me where I can find a good jeweler?”

Once again, Alex wandered into the frozen wastes beyond the city limits. This time, however, he wasn’t doing so out of his usual aimless meandering: Ise had specifically called him out here. As he trudged through the heavy snow, he kept his eyes on the green cat right in front of him, the jacket hanging so loose that even from behind, he could tell the feline had left it open.

“Aren’t you cold?” he asked.

“Of course, it’s cold as Tartarus up here,” Ise replied honestly. “Then again, if I let the cold get to me, I wouldn’t be good at my job, would I?”

“Job…” Alex noted, realizing he hadn’t even considered what his new comrade did for a living. “What exactly IS your job?”

“I’m a mercenary,” Ise responded. “Funny word for saying I do odd jobs. Protect a town here, nab a priceless relic there, so long as I get paid and I have fun with it, I’ll take it.” Finally, the cat came to a stop, quickly whipping around to throw a bag back at the wolf. “Oh hey, this is for you.”

Alex barely managed to catch the bag, surprised as he was by having it sprung on him in the first place. Opening it, he saw it was full of gems like the one he had loaned to Ise the day before, all different kinds cut the same exact way. He reached inside and pulled one out, a flawless ruby.

“Thought I’d help you test out your powers,” Ise explained. “I guessed your power doesn’t react the same to every jewel. Why don’t you try that out now?”

Though Alex obliged, he didn’t bother drawing his sword. Holding the ruby in his palm, he focused hard on the gem, attempting to get a reaction from it with solely his own power. It worked almost immediately, the jewel bursting into flame in his paw.

“Yes, figured it would work like this,” Ise cheered. “Or, I hoped, at least; those jewels weren’t exactly cheap. In any case, that sword of yours seems to let you swap the jewels out, so if you don’t want to go around freezing stuff, you can swap in something else. Oh, and the old one’s in there too; it was only on loan, after all.”

After dropping the ruby back into the bag, he reached further in. Sure enough, he pulled out the same turquoise gem he’d always had. Pulling out his sword just enough to mess with the hilt mechanism, he put the gem back in its place, and hung the sack opposite his sheath on his belt. He opened his mouth to thank his comrade, but something stopped him, a sudden curiosity in this cat’s life.

“I’m assuming you’re here on a job,” Alex states instead. “What could bring you to a place like this?”

“Right, the job,” Ise chuckled. “Don’t worry, this one’s on the up and up. I’m just helping the guards with their recent...problem.” The look on Alex’s face told him no further explanation was needed.

“Ah, I see,” Alex replied wistfully. “So, when the dark crystals are dealt with...you’re going to leave?”

“‘Fraid so,” Ise answered honestly, feeling Alex’s sadness stab him through the heart. “I’ve got a home all the way on the other side of the planet, and my jobs take me all over the world. I can’t really afford to stick around.” Suddenly, he had an idea. “You know what, I should probably give the royals a report anyway; maybe I can pull a string or two and get you in to meet them.”

“Wait, what?” Alex wondered, absolutely dumbfounded by the prospect.

“Hey, you want local friends, I’m gonna help you make some,” Ise explained with a smile on his face. “Well, in this one way that I can; I don’t exactly know anyone else up here either.”

Alex was paralyzed, unable to process the offer he was given. Slowly, though, the shock made way for delight. “Yes, I...I think I’d like that,” he finally replied.

“Great!” Ise cheered. “Now then, I’d better go work out the details. See you tonight.”

As the sun began its descent, just beginning to give the sky an orange hue, Alex stood frozen at the gates of the crystal palace. Every nerve in his body was tingling, screaming at him to turn away from this fateful meeting. The voice in the back of his mind hammered doubt into him, making him wonder if the royals would accept him, if they even agreed to Ise’s proposal to begin with. However, slowly he pushed his doubts aside, remembering that he had nothing to lose here. Carefully, he put a paw on the front door, finally setting foot inside the palace.

He was immediately greeted by two guards, their stoic expressions tinged with hostility. For a moment, Alex believed his worst fear had come true, that he had been rejected outright. He turned to leave, to return to wandering the city streets…

“You’re Alex, are you not?” one of the guards addressed him. “The Prince and Princess have been expecting you. Please proceed to the dining hall.” Despite this open invitation, the guard’s voice still had a hostile tone; Alex realized the guards probably weren’t too happy with their leaders’ decision to allow a stranger into the palace. Not that he’d helped his case in the days leading up to this event; he had sort of unnerved everypony in the city.

The wolf made his way up a spiral staircase to the palace proper, following a red carpet down a hall made of brilliant blue crystal. Soon enough, he found a door wide open, leading into the dining hall. The table, like most objects in this city, was made of crystal, in this case having a deep rose color. The same was true of the crystal chairs, padded with deep violet cushions to ensure comfort. The food on the table was rather modest for a feast, but fitting for one attended by only a handful of creatures: each occupied seat, plus one meant for Alex, had a steaming plate of spaghetti in front of it, waiting to be devoured. Alex found this rather normal dinner rather odd for royalty, but before he could think about it more, Ise noticed him and waved him over.

Making his way over and taking his seat, Alex took in his first glance at the royal family. As he suspected, unlike the guards at the entrance, these ponies didn’t seem hostile to him at all; on the contrary, he could just feel most of them were already ready to welcome him. Across the table, Cadence met his gaze with a warm smile, the first he’d seen on any resident of the Empire, at least directed at him. Shining Armor had a similarly friendly expression, a surprise for an outsider like Alex to see from the leader of the Empire’s military might. Sitting next to the wolf was their child, Flurry Heart, looking up at him with starry-eyed curiosity. Staring down into her eyes, Alex couldn’t help but feel his heart melt.

“You must be Alex,” Shining greeted the wolf. “Nice to finally meet you.”

“Th...thank you,” Alex stammered in response. “I must admit...I’m surprised you agreed to meet me.”

“Yeah, I was surprised too, at least with how quickly they accepted,” Ise cut in, leaning back in his chair. “Turns our pony royalty is more chill than you’d think.”

“Ise made it clear that you needed help,” Cadence replied. “We couldn’t turn you away in good conscience.”

“So long as you’re here, we’ll do our best to help you find your way,” Shining pitched in.

“...thank you,” Alex slowly replied, taking a tentative bite of his dinner. After that single bite, however, he stopped, his fork hovering above his meal.

“Is something wrong?” Cadence wondered.

“It’s nothing, just…” Alex began. “I’m not used to kindness. For as long as I can remember, no one has paid me any mind. I was an outcast, someone to be shunned, simply because I had no sense of who I was. Until now.”

“You must have been so sad,” Flurry responded, looking down in sympathy. Yet again Alex felt his heart melt; sympathy was yet another emotion he had not felt from others in years.

“Well, you don’t have to feel that way anymore,” Shining reassured him. “No matter where your life takes you from here on, you will always be welcome in the Crystal Empire. I can assure you of that.”

“I...I can’t thank you enough,” Alex stated once more. From there, dinner started properly, the group all discussing their lives, and granting the wolf the kindness and peace he sorely needed to start rebuilding his broken psyche.

“Yay! I win!”

“Ah well,” Alex sighed with a smile on his face, simply happy to enjoy the board game he was playing with the young Flurry Heart, regardless of outcome. “Another round?”

“Okay! You wanna go first this time?”

“Alright,” Alex accepted. However, as he went to roll the dice once more to make his move, he noticed something. The board and pieces, like most things in this Empire, was made of crystal, the dice in particular made of diamond. A grin spread across his face as an idea crossed his mind.

“How about we start this round off strong?” Channeling his power into the diamond dice, he threw them high into the air. The magic burst forth from the gems, filling the room with dazzling light. Flurry stared up into the light, awestruck. The light faded as the dice fell to the ground, but only slightly, reducing the light show from a blinding flash to a series of colored beams that made the room sparkle. Flurry giggled with glee, amazed at the sight. Seeing the bundle of joy impressed by his trick warmed Alex’s heart to no end.

“Oh!” Flurry gasped, finally looking away from the lights and back to the game. “You got double sixes!”

“...so I have,” Alex noted, himself only just returning to the game. He moved his piece the great leap forward his roll had allowed him, starting off another round as they played their game through the night. Shining Armor watched them as they played, happy to see the joy his precious daughter felt while playing with this wolf. He could tell at a glance that Alex shared that feeling as well.

Finally, it was time for Flurry to go to sleep. “See you tomorrow,” she mumbled to her new friend as she drifted off.

“Looks like Flurry’s taken a shine to you,” Shining told the wolf as he left the room. “And I bet you’ve warmed up to her as well.”

“...yes,” Alex simply replied. “You have a wonderful daughter. I commend you.”

“I just have one question,” Shining began. “If anything were to happen to Flurry, would you protect her?”

Almost instinctively, Alex’s paw rushed to his blade at the mere thought of the precious child he’d befriended getting attacked. “I would make sure no harm came to her.”

“Glad to hear that,” Shining answered. “I was thinking, how would you like to join the Crystal Guard?”

“M-me? But I’m a-“

“Please, your species doesn’t matter,” Shining reassured him. “All that matters is that you have the strength and will to protect the Empire, and I can clearly see you do. So what do you say?”

“I...I would be honored,” Alex replied, kneeling before his new boss.

“Thank you,” Shining told him, turning his gaze to his sleeping daughter. “I think she’ll be happy you’re sticking around, too.”

Shining returned to his duties, leaving an overjoyed Alex to roam the halls, and familiarize himself with the layout of the palace. Soon enough, he came across a balcony, where he found his first friend. Ise was leaning on the railing, a dark and dusty book in his paw, an uncharacteristically somber expression on his face. As soon as he looked up and noticed the wolf, however, his usual smirk instantly returned.

“So, how did things go?” he wondered.

“I’ve been offered a position in the guard,” Alex replied, joining him at the railing. “I can’t thank you enough, you know. I never would have had this opportunity without your help.”

“Nah, I didn’t do much,” Ise shot back. “What, you really think royalty would listen to a nobody like me? Nah, you only have them to thank for being so kind and willing to give you a chance.”

“You were right, you know,” Alex mentioned. “I needed this. Before I met you, I had no sense of self, no purpose, no point to my existence. Now, I feel whole, for the first time I can remember.”

“Hey, congrats!” Ise exclaimed, placing his free paw on the wolf’s shoulder. “Things are finally as they should be.”

Turning to his friend, Alex finally took notice of his book. “Hey, what’s that you’re reading?”

“Oh, just doing some research,” Ise nonchalantly replied, closing the book. “I’m still on the clock, after all. Gotta figure out this dark crystal crap soon if I wanna get paid.”

“Ah, right.”

“I think I’ve got a lead now, so I think I’m just gonna go check that out,” Ise mentioned, starting to walk away. “I hope your new life goes well, Alex.”

As Ise left the balcony, Alex turned his attention to the stars above, a warm smile on his face. For the first time he could remember, the haze over his mind was gone. His lost memories were still lost, but in their place was a new path forward, a new life for him to lead. The wolf was on top of the world…

...and then he blacked out.

“So, what did you think of our guest?” Cadence asked her husband.

“I think he’ll fit in just fine around here,” Shining replied.

“Oh, so he’s sticking around, then? Good, I think Flurry will like him.”

“Oh, I think those two are already on pretty good terms,” Shining mentioned, a smile on his face. However, it was only then that he noticed his wife seemed troubled by something. “Is something on your mind?”

“It’s nothing,” Cadence replied dismissively, only to quickly change her mind. “It’s just...that cat, Ise. Earlier, I saw him reading Sombra’s diary.” The mere mention of the book perplexed Shining: it had been left down a dark staircase and beyond an enchanted door, both requiring dark magic to access, and yet this cat had somehow managed to swipe it.

“I had heard he was good at stealing stuff, but I never thought he was THAT good,” Shining pondered. “Did he mention why he took it?”

“He said it was for ‘research’ into our little dark crystal problem,” Cadence noted. “He seemed particularly interested in the pages regarding the Mother Crystal.”

The Mother Crystal. Mother of Sombra, and a whole race of shadow ponies like him, the Umbrum. The sworn enemy of the Crystal Empire, and master of dark magic. “I suppose that would be a good place to start looking,” Shining considered. “The attacker is clearly using dark magic, so looking into the source makes sense…”

Suddenly, sounds of chaos and panic echoed down the halls to their bedchambers. The two rulers quickly rushed down the hall to assess the danger...and what they found wasn’t pretty: dozens of their guards trapped in dark crystal, knocked senseless. Some guards clearly weren’t even able to draw their weapons before getting taken out of the picture. As the rulers made their way through the devastation, fear rose in their chests as they realized the path of destruction was leading them straight to Flurry’s room. Sure enough, when they reached it, they found nothing but foreboding spires of dark crystal waiting to greet them; their child was nowhere to be seen.

What...what’s happening to me?

As Alex ran through the moonlit snow, his consciousness took time to process just what was going on. The first thing he realized was that he had no control over his body, it was moving on its own. The next thing he noticed was that he was carrying something. He did what he could to turn his eyes down toward the object, his peripheral vision partially obscured by a green glow and purple mist; he realized with slight horror that these odd phenomena were coming from his eyes themselves. However, he was even more horrified by what he was carrying: an unconscious Flurry Heart, dark crystals growing from her horn.

This...this is wrong! Why am I doing this!?

Suddenly, his body came to a stop. Stuck within its prison, Alex could do nothing but watch as the force that had taken him over put Flurry down, then used his power to summon a cage of dark crystal around her. His body then drew his sword, the jewel within it blood red-definitely not the color it was before-and advanced. The wind was harsh, a blizzard pelting the snowfield, but soon Alex could make out a silhouette, the reason his body had stopped. The shadow walked forward, revealing itself to be Ise. Alex’s dread and pain welled up at the sight of his other friend, unwilling to assault him like his possessed body was preparing to do...but then he saw the stoic, hardened expression on Ise’s face, as if the cat...expected this.

“You know, I was really hoping I was wrong,” Ise started flatly, “but I guess we’re doing this.”

He flipped open a couple of pouches on his jacket, pulling out a couple of knives. Before the possessed wolf could react, the cat lunged forward at blinding speed. Alex’s body countered by raising a dark crystal spike directly in his path, letting it sink in for the trapped consciousness within that this force that had taken over had full access to his power. Rather than ram headfirst into the spire, however, Ise shifted himself to land feet first on its surface, and bounce right off. The wolf continued spawning dark spires, attempting to impale the cat, but he only gave Ise more places to bounce around him. Before Alex knew it, Ise blindsided him and kicked him right in the face, sending the wolf flying. He hit his head on one of his own spikes, and with the blow, the possessive force seemed to leave his body. His eyes stopped glowing and emitting purple mist, and his sword’s jewel reverted to its natural turquoise color.

“Well, that was easier than I expected,” Ise gloated. “Then again, that wasn’t quite ‘you’, was it? I think I get it now: you weren’t in control, I’m guessing. Don’t worry, I think we can sort this out.”

As Ise talked, Alex thought about what had happened to him, and the attacks on the Empire...and things started to click. And as they clicked, he looked up at his “friend”...and started seeing red. Ise held out a hand to help him up...and instead the wolf slashed at him.

“Woah there!” Ise shouted in surprise. “Are you not all back yet?”

“You!” Alex screamed in rage. “You know the whole time, didn’t you?” He started slashing away at the cat, charging his blade with frost, as he continued his tirade. “That whatever that...thing that took me over was using my body the whole time, using me to attack the Empire. Why didn’t you tell me!? Why didn’t you let anyone know!?”

“Because I hoped to Luna that I was wrong!” Ise shot back, blocking Alex’s blade with one of his own, and bringing his face up to the wolf’s in the blade clash. “Yeah, I connected the dots I had, that a wolf showed up in the Empire right as the dark crystal crap started happening.” The two broke their blades free of the clash, only to cross them again. “But I was like you once. I used to be exactly like you were on the day we met!” The two broke free again, jumping back, before rushing forward once more to slash at each other. “You didn’t need to be stopped; you needed a friend! And that’s exactly what I tried to be!”

In his passion, Ise’s lightning powers activated, a swing of his blade sending electricity down his arm and out through his claw in a bolt that just barely missed the wolf. In response, Alex jumped back and used his own power, swinging his blade upward to channel the ice from his jewel into a wave of glacial spikes. As with the crystals, Ise simply jumped away, using the wall to bounce around his opponent. He descended on the wolf once more, just like before, but Alex spun around, using the bounce tactic to his advantage to slash at the cat when he would be unable to dodge. Ise only barely avoided the attack, blocking it with a dagger before bouncing away.

“If you wanted to be my friend, you should’ve told me I was a threat!” Alex scolded Ise.

“And isolate you even more from everyone around you?” Ise speculated. “Let you go on spinning what wheels you had instead of getting you on your feet? That’s not what friends do!”

Alex screamed in rage, his power surging through his blade, making the blizzard around them share his fury and grow harsher and harsher. He rushed forward, his blade glowing white with frost, and Ise ran forth to meet him with his own electrified knives. They clashed once more, magic surging from their weapons, bursting forth in a wave of energy that blasted the two apart once more. Alex’s nerves tingled with electricity, numb and stiff, but he slowly managed to get back on his feet. His opponent, half frozen over by the blast, and less sturdy to begin with, was having a bit more trouble recovering. Alex took his chance, walking forward with determination, giving Ise just enough time to get on his feet before sending a burst of cold from his sword that froze him solid anyway. With only his head free of the block of ice his body was now encased in, Ise could do nothing but watch as the angry wolf approached him, blade in hand. A raged snarl across his face, Alex raised his arm for the final strike, the car closing his eyes in resignation…

Instead, he heard a shattering sound, opening his eyes to see Alex had intentionally missed his head when bringing the blade down. The sword had smashed through the ice by his left shoulder, and soon the rest of the ice broke away as well, Alex using his power to will it away. Not that it mattered that much; the fight had left Ise to tired to move, his freed body flopping into the snow, quickly getting lost in the white powder as the blizzard covered him.

Alex turned his attention away from one friend, and to another. He trudged his way through the snow to the crystal cage where he had left Flurry Heart while possessed. Putting his paw to the crystal, he poured his power into it, causing the crystal to fall away like the ice. He did the same with her horn, freeing it from the dark inhibitor. It was at this moment that Flurry finally opened her eyes, utterly confused as to how she ended up in the snowy wastes.

“It’s okay now, everything’s going to be alright,” Alex comforted her. “Fly on home now. I’ll take care of things here.” Putting the child down, he stood up, looking with grim determination through the white blizzard, in the direction his possessed body had been traveling. Somewhere, at the end of this road, was the cause of all this madness. And so he made his way through the darkness, disappearing into the blizzard. Flurry, still confused, could tell nonetheless that her new friend had taken on some sort of grim burden…

“Gah, dammit!” The young princess had her wits scared out of her when, only a few yards away, a green cat burst forth from the snow. Ise struggled once more to get to his feet, still far from full strength. With no one else to ask about the situation, Flurry flew over to the cat.

“Hey there,” Ise greeted her, beating her to the punch, before taking a look around. “Where’d Alex go?” Flurry simply pointed out into the wastes; it didn’t take long for the cat to understand what was happening.

“That idiot,” he grumbled, fully getting on his feet, and starting to trudge in that direction. “Alright, I’ll handle this. You head back home.”

“Why? What are you going to do?”

“I’m gonna make sure someone has his back. That’s what friends do.” And with that, he too disappeared into the darkness.

The dark, frozen expanse extended as far as Alex could see for miles around him. He’d been traveling for what felt like hours, his determination starting to waver as he started to question if there was anything waiting at the end of his journey. Still, after everything he had learned about what was happening to him, he couldn’t leave things alone. He had to end it, tonight.

Finally, a shadow emerged from the blizzard. As the wolf approached, he found not a creature, but a dark red crystal sticking out of the snow. A normal creature would see this as nothing more than a chunk of rock; Alex, however, recognized the blood red color from the corrupted form of his gem, and could sense the dark power emanating from every facet of the thing. He could tell immediately, this was what he was after.

Well, this is a surprise, a sinister voice echoed in his mind. I wasn’t expecting you to arrive after that cat broke my hold on you. A shame you didn’t bring the child like you were meant to. I guess you’ll have to do in her place.

“You seem to have the wrong idea,” Alex noted, drawing his sword. “I don’t plan on being controlled any longer.”

Oh, you poor sweet child, the Crystal’s voice chastised him. Who said you had a choice in the matter?

Alex suddenly spasmed as dark power took over his body once more, his eyes once more glowing green. This time he was ready for it, his consciousness steeled to wrest control of his body from the dark force, but the best he could manage was an impasse, his body dead still as he fought for control.

Oh? Finally starting to fight back, I see, the Crystal noted. This is why I was hoping to claim a new host. Your unique power made you susceptible to my influence, but only so much; there were limits to what I could do with you.

“That’s why you wanted Flurry,” Alex realized, using what control he had to speak. “You needed full control, someone you could pull the strings of in the light of day.”

Exactly. I have plenty of my own servants, but a creature of the light is less susceptible to its power, the Crystal explained. I’d been hoping those little distractions would weaken that abhorrent Cadence to the point where I could have you attack the palace directly for the girl; I hadn’t expected that cat to get you invited in, but I’m pleased that he fast-tracked my plans. Almost makes me want to spare his life for ruining them. Almost.

“Yeah, I’d like to see you try.” A green blur fell from the sky, knife in paw ready to shatter the Mother Crystal. However, a dark spike shot forth from the ground, knocking the dagger from his paw before he could land the blow. He jumped back, landing next to the immobile Alex.

“I-Ise!? ...why?” Alex wondered.

“Hey, I can’t let you do all the heavy lifting, now can I?” Ise told his friend, a cocky smirk across his face. He turned his attention back to the Crystal, jumping just in time to avoid getting impaled on a spike. High in the air, he shot off a bolt of lightning, only for a wall of dark rock to raise and absorb the blow. Changing plans, the cat landed and started bouncing around his stationary opponent, dodging dark spires and using them as new points to jump from as he looked for his opening to finish the job.

He never got that chance. A lucky spike caught him in the shoulder, stabbing through and slamming him into another spire. “Crap,” he whimpered, before losing consciousness.

Congratulations, the Crystal commended him sarcastically. You walked right into the lion’s den. Alex, still immobile, could do nothing but watch as yet another spire of dark crystal, more slowly and deliberately than the rest, grew to land the killing blow on the mercenary.

A burst of golden light suddenly shot forth from the sky, smashing the crystal that had Ise pinned and dropping before he could get impaled. Looking into the sky, Alex’s heart sank, this last minute save actually being the worst case scenario. Having listened to neither creature, Flurry Heart had followed them to the very being who wanted her for its own sinister plans.

My my, you all feel like making things so much more convenient, the Crystal gloated. Very well. Come, young princess. Surrender yourself to my dark embrace.

Flurry shot forth another magic blast, this one aimed directly at the Mother Crystal. This, however, was blocked like Ise’s lightning before it, the crystal wall dropping after the guard so the blood red gem could release a blast of dark energy. The blast hit its mark, and Flurry fell to the ground. Her horn was once again covered with dark rock that sealed her magic, but this time, the crystals were growing. Before long, the blockage had changed from a bunch of rocks on her horn to a black coating along its full expanse, continuing to grow along her forehead. Likewise, similar crystal growths formed and spread across other parts of her body. Between weakness from her injuries and the loss of movement from the crystallization, Flurry could only watch in horror as her body transformed.

The terror in your eyes is just priceless, the Crystal laughed. You have two choices, young princess: live the rest of your life as a chunk of rock, or submit your mind to my will. Either way, from this day forth, you are mine.

As Flurry watched in horror, though, Alex watched in anger, his blood boiling as he could seemingly do nothing to save this poor soul. That anger fueled his drive to regain control, his consciousness starting to win the war against the dark power within him. As the corruption faded from his eyes, he used the ground he was gaining to slowly, deliberately make his way to his enemy.

The Mother Crystal quickly took note of this, choosing to eliminate her old pawn before it could turn on her. Dark spires burst forth to impale the wolf, but they were blocked by walls of ice, summoned by his power. Panicking, the Crystal raised a wall around itself; this ultimately did nothing, as Alex swapped his sword’s turquoise for a garnet, granting him the power to rend the earth raised to bar his path like it was butter. The Mother Crystal could do nothing as the wolf walked right up to her.

“I’m not your pawn, monster; I am me!” Alex shouted, pulling back his sword arm. “And I will not let you hurt others any longer!”

He thrust his blade forward, deep into the dark crystal. From the strike, the Mother Crystal cracked, more and more, before finally shattering. And with its destruction, the dark crystals it had formed shattered with it, its influence forever gone.

“So you’re leaving?”

“After everything that’s happened, I feel I have to,” Alex apologized to the royal family.

“Flurry Heart will be sad to see you leave,” Cadence mentioned. Even after hearing everything that had happened, everything he had done, albeit unwittingly, she was still willing to accept him.

“What you did under that Crystal’s influence doesn’t matter,” Shining reassured him. “What matters is how you acted when you had control. And from what I’ve heard, you would make an excellent knight.”

“That offer still stands, you know,” Cadence mentioned. “You’re still welcome to stay.”

“And I’d very much like to take you up on that offer,” Alex replied, “when I feel I have earned it.”

With that, the wolf took his leave. He was a bit disappointed that Flurry herself couldn’t be there to see him off, as she was still recovering from the night’s incident. Then again, she likely would’ve made it harder for him to leave, and he felt he needed to. With the help of his new friends, he’d finally gotten some semblance of identity, but he felt it wasn’t quite enough. To keep growing, he needed to decide for himself who he was...and he couldn’t do that in the Empire.

“Turning them down? Can’t say I saw this coming.”

Alex looked over his right shoulder, as Ise emerged from the shadowy corner of the main hall. “There’s certainly a place for me here,” Alex explained, “but I have to decide for myself if it’s the right one.”

“Off to see the world, then?” Ise noted. “You could hang with me for a bit, help me with a job here and there. I go all over the place for my work; it’d be a good excuse to see what this world has to offer you.”

“Thank you, but this is a journey I have to experience for myself,” Alex politely declined. He took a few more steps toward the exit, then stopped.

“Something wrong?”

“Though the haze on my mind is gone, my memory hasn’t returned,” Alex mentioned. “That is, all but one word. A word that, by itself, holds no meaning…”

“Delta.”

“Delta? Odd,” Ise noted. “But, uh, why are you telling me this?”

“You were the first one to even bother with me,” Alex replied. “I may not agree with...how you handled things, but you are still my friend. And shouldn’t friends be open with each other?” The wolf gave his own attempt at a cocky smirk, a bit unnatural on his face. “See you around,” he concluded, finally taking his leave.

“Delta…” Ise pondered. “Why does that ring a bell?”

A Silent Storm

A lone boat rode the rough waves, buffeted on all sides by the sea and the storm. Every crest, every wall of water violently rocked the vessel, threatening to smash it apart. Its sole passenger, a cloaked Abyssinian, gritted her teeth against the onslaught, flinching slightly as a bolt of lightning struck the ocean just a few feet from her boat. Still, she thrust her paddle into the waves as if to slay them for their aggression, pushing herself onward. Her pace increased as the storm grew worse, the jagged mountains of her destination coming into view.

Suddenly, the boat began rising into the air, the ocean choosing to carry the tiny vessel on a wave since the constant bashing didn’t seem to have an effect. Bigger and bigger the wave rose, quickly closing the distance to the mountainous island the cat sought. As she braced for impact, the wave crashed onto the shore, sending the boat flying. It slammed into a cliff face, splintering on impact while bouncing the poor cat off onto the dark sand below. She groaned slightly, but bore the pain; what were a few more bruises after the hardship she went through to reach this place?

As she lay on the beach, gathering her strength, the cat looked up the sheer cliffs toward her true destination: the foreboding castle of the late Storm King. The tyrant who had terrorized half the world, looting entire countries in his pursuit of conquest for conquest’s sake. The monster whose legacy stood so long after his demise that no other would dare venture near his palace even now, the very reason the cat had been forced to cross the seas to this island in a humble fishing boat. Most importantly, the Storm King was the one who had destroyed Abyssinia, leaving the once proud nation a shell of its former self.

The cat heaved herself up, the torrential downpour matting her maroon fur and melding it with the dark, wet sand, and she began trudging up toward the towering structure above her. This day was a long time coming, the end of her arduous, solitary journey. Years of national poverty, years of solitude simply from creatures running at the mere utterance of the Storm King’s name, were about to come to an end. The late King had taken far too much from the Abyssinians; now it was time to take it all back.

A bolt sliced through the sky, touching down somewhere in the turbulent seas on the other side of the island. The cat was going to pay it no mind, but she started to hear a clattering sound coming from the mountains from that direction. Suddenly, another small vessel, much like the one that had carried her to this forsaken island, came flying out from the ragged peaks, before crashing into the rough waves behind her and splintering apart on impact. A second boat… Had someone else been brave or foolish enough to go on the same journey she had? And if so, how had she not met this creature on her travels? She soon shrugged these questions off, however: if there was another creature like her, they all but certainly perished in that crash, if not on impact with the mountains. The cat continued on, leaving this odd moment behind as a grim reminder of just how lucky she was to still be breathing.

Slowly but surely, she climbed the path up to the imposing castle above. The whole way, the storm beat down on her, rain pelting her hard as hail, her single braid drenched and slapping against her face like a whip. As she reached the top, however, she immediately ducked down behind the top crest of the path as a flash of off white entered her vision. She took another peek at the gates to confirm what she had seen: the snow-furred soldiers of the late Storm King’s army, standing guard as if nothing had changed with his death.

The cat let out a near silent grunt, her teeth gritted in frustration. She had come to the island expecting the palace to be an empty ruin; finding the place populated had complicated matters quite extremely. With another peek, she confirmed only two guards at the entrance. Small enough numbers for her to handle, but if the entrance had a couple guards, no doubt the interior had far more. She wasn’t interested in making this a suicide mission by alerting the soldiers to her presence immediately. Seeking an alternate entry point, she turned her eyes upward, noticing a great pair of windows above the gate in the Storm King’s insignia. There: if she could make it up there undetected, that was her way in.

Backtracking down the path a ways, she found a spot where she could climb the steep cliffs out of the guards’ sight. The harsh rains made the rocky surfaces damp and slippery, but she was still able to find suitable holds for her claws. Clambering onto the rough, rocky plateau, the cat stopped to catch her breath for only a second, before swiftly yet silently making her way along the cliff side to the windows. With a mighty leap, she jumped over to the outer sill, extended a claw, and jammed a nail into the glass. With absolute precision, she cut a large hole into the window, and quickly grabbed the chunk of glass she cut free before it could fall and loudly shatter on the ground. Setting the glass aside, and steeling herself for the task ahead one last time, she jumped through and down into the palace.

The interior was dark; not literally, the halls were actually rather well lit, but the oppressively dark grays and purples of the stones and tapestries seemed to swallow that light up regardless. Much like everything else related to the Storm King, his palace was designed purely with conquest in mind, a true evil overlord’s lair meant to intimidate all who enter. Though a great skylight stretched across the ceiling from one end of the entrance hall to the other, the eternal storm around the island ensured no ray of sunshine could break through and pierce the room’s inherent darkness. The cat quickly darted into the shadows, sneaking along the walls and dashing behind pillars as she made her way down the hall. As she slipped into a side passage, she saw the white fur of guard patrols contrast the dark colors of the room, as the soldiers passed by just a hair too late to notice her.

Breathing a sigh of relief, the cat began making her way down the side hallway...and bumped straight into another guard. As she bounced off and collected herself, she silently cursed her own carelessness at having given herself away so soon. The guard quickly turned around, pointing his two-pronged spear at her with an odd uncertainty for an imperial soldier.

“H-halt! State your name and your business here!” The guard stammered.

As strange as the soldier’s behavior was, the cat didn’t have time to question it. In one swift motion, she reached into a pouch on her belt, pulled out a smoke bomb, and threw it in the guard’s face. As the disoriented soldier tried to find her in the haze, she backflipped, kicking up into his chin hard in the same motion. She planned to rush by once she touched down, but she noticed guards on the way, investigating the commotion. She turned tail and zipped into the entrance hall once more, only to be met by another squad of soldiers after only getting a few steps into the hall. Under the skylight, she found herself surrounded, not by unsure, stammering wrecks, but stone-faced knights facing down a hostile. After all the effort she’d gone through to get here, her mission had ended in failure almost immediately…

A sudden shattering sound caught everyone’s attention as something smashed through the skylight above. Though smaller shards flew off in different directions, one giant piece plummeted straight toward the congregation below, spinning much faster than one would expect on the way down. The guard closest to the cat only had enough time to realize how screwed he was before the pane landed right on his head, thankfully with the flat surface and not the sharp edges. In utter shock, time seemed to slow for the cat, not because of the sudden shattering of the skylight, but because of the sudden appearance of the creature who had shattered it. Crouched atop the broken pane, having ridden the thing down from the roof to the guard’s face, was another cat, his fur an unnatural and shocking bright green, an offensive contrast to the dark purple jacket that blended into the palace around them. In that one stretched out second, he looked up, stared her in the eyes, and smirked.

And just like that, the moment was over, time moved normally once more. Ise leaped from the glass pane as it broke in two on the guard’s skull, landed sideways on a nearby pillar, and immediately shoved off again to barrel into the next soldier, sending him flying into a wall. The remaining guards, having been initially dumbfounded by his chaotic entrance, sprang into action to dispatch the feline intruders. The other feline, however, was just as quick to act against the soldiers behind her before she could be overtaken. As one thrust his spear at her, she grabbed the weapon, and in one motion, wrenched it from the guard’s grasp and flung the bottom end up into his chin. She then let go of the spear just long enough to turn around, catching the weapon again to bash its prongs against another soldier’s face mask. Meanwhile, Ise was going to town, bouncing around the hall as he downed guards left and right. Bouncing off a pillar, he landed squarely on a soldier’s shoulders, knocking him to the ground and riding his body as it slid across the floor. Another guard prepared to strike the green cat as he approached on his mount, only to have his lance deflected by a dagger Ise pulled out with lightning reflexes. Using his free claw, Ise grabbed the guard by the chest plate as he sped past, used his remaining momentum to help throw the poor guy up before his ride stopped sliding, and jumped up to kick the soldier down to the ground. He landed with his back to the other cat’s, who had fought her way through another few guards herself, new chinks in their armor showing where they’d soon develop heavy bruises and concussions. Between the two of them, the whole platoon of guards had been taken down. However, heavy noise echoed from the far end of the hall, indicating backup wasn’t far behind.

“So, Miss, ready for Round 2?” Ise asked the other cat, acknowledging her presence for the first time. The cocky smirk he gave her couldn’t make it more clear that he was ready to throw down again.

“Yeah, no, I didn’t come here to die, thank you,” the female feline replied, throwing a smoke bomb down to help mask her escape from the coming guards. Under cover of darkness and smoke, she slipped away into a side hall and into the first door she could find, entering into a storage room. Safe for now, she leaned on a crate and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Fair enough, I guess,” Ise sighed, startling the other cat. She’d assumed he’d stayed behind to take on the Storm Army singlehanded; instead, he had chosen to bail with her.

“Look, I’m happy you helped me out of a tight spot, but I really don’t need your kind of help,” she chastised the green feline. “Only the brave or foolish would come to this island, and you are VERY clearly a fool.”

“Ooh, that stings,” Ise replied sarcastically, smiling as he said it. “I guess that makes you brave, then? The girl who tried to take on an army with only smoke bombs? Or am I missing something?”

“I know how dangerous this place is. I knew the risks going in,” she shot back in defense. “And I came anyway, because someone has to make these creeps pay!”

“Pay for what?”

The female feline was dumbstruck by that response. “Are...are you serious? The Storm King ravaged half the world. He utterly destroyed Abyssinia and left the whole country as a poverty-stricken slum. Don’t pretend you don’t know!”

“Sorry, none of that’s ringing a bell,” Ise admitted, scratching his head. “I mean, I’d heard that ‘Storm King’ name here and there, but my memory doesn’t go back far enough to have a clue who he was. And as for Abyssinia, no memory there either. I haven’t been ‘home’ in years...if I ever was there in the first place.”

“Then...then why did you even come here!?”

“Looting a dark stormy castle that no one wants to touch? Sounded like fun,” Ise explained...and was immediately slapped by the other feline. She trembled with anger at his reply: she had spent years to get here, driven by the grim determination to take back the riches stolen from her home, while this fool simply came here on a whim. His lack of motivation was an insult to her noble cause.

“Get out of my sight,” she snarled at him.

“No can do,” Ise refused. “Look, I get you care a lot about this heist of yours, clearly way more than I do, but I don’t think you’re gonna get far on your own. Besides, if you’ve got a buddy with you, that’s more money you can take back to try and fix up your home. Split it 100-0; I’m just here for the fun, I don’t need the money.”

The other cat opened her mouth to utterly refuse the offer, but then she thought things through. The fool was right: she was capable, but not so much as to pull off a heist like this singlehanded. The encounter in the entrance hall was proof enough of that: she’d be fine if she could avoid being spotted or tripping alarms, but she hardly had the combat prowess to take on an army should she fail. And the odds of perfectly sneaking by every obstacle were minimal at best, especially after that early encounter. She had only come alone to this place because no other creature would dare join her...until now. Now she was face to face with a potential partner who could help her handle combat, and this guy was even willing to forgo a cut of the spoils. Reluctantly, she agreed that she needed his help.

“Alright, but just this once,” she accepted. “Once we’re done, I don’t want to see you again.”

“Guess that’s fair,” Ise acknowledged. “By the way, my name’s Ise. What’s yours?” He held out a claw, and the other cat reluctantly took it and shook.

“Cassandra,” she answered. “Cassandra Scarlett.”

“Nice to meet you,” Ise returned. “So, uh, first order of business...you got a way out of here? My boat kinda...went flying over the mountains.”

“Wait, that was yours!?” Cassandra wondered with only minor shock as she thought back to the boat she’d seen flying off the cliffs earlier. After the grandiose entrance he’d made earlier, she wasn’t exactly surprised. “Sorry to say, my ride’s sunk too.”

“Hmm. Well, crap,” Ise grumbled. “Guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, then.” He opened the door just a tad, peeking outside from the safety of the storage room’s shadow. “Looks like the coast is clear...wait, no.” As he peeked, a guard passed the door as he searched the hall outside for the intruders. Pulling out a dagger, he threw it at the guard’s head, the hilt impacting his skull with enough force to knock him out. Then, with his powers, he magnetized the blade to return to him like a boomerang. “Okay, NOW it’s clear.”

Cassandra blinked. “How did you…?”

“Long story,” Ise dismissed her. “Let’s just say that trick won’t work for you. Mind helping me hide this guy?”

Cassandra put any questions she had aside; making sure further alarms weren’t raised took precedence. Discreetly coming out of hiding, scanning the hall in case her impromptu partner missed any sentries, she took hold of the guard’s ankles while Ise grabbed his shoulders, and they dragged him into the storeroom. Making their way into its deepest recesses, they left the soldier slumped over out of sight. Cassandra frisked the unconscious yeti quickly, disappointed to find no keys or other forms of security clearance on him. As she turned to leave, she placed the spear she was still carrying from the earlier fight by a bunch of similar weapons propped up against the wall, the lance blending in perfectly with the others. If another guard were to walk into the room after they left, they would find nothing amiss; even their poor victim could be mistaken for a layabout sleeping on the job.

“You just gonna leave the spear?” Ise queried. “Might be handy if we get into another scrap.”

“Unlike you, I’d rather avoid any more fights with the guards,” Cassandra explained venomously. “A big thing like that would only complicate a stealth approach.”

“Fair enough,” Ise conceded. “In that case, let’s get on with the sneaking before we have to knock out ANOTHER guard.”

The two cats quietly made their exit, sticking to the shadows as they made their way down the palace’s dark, foreboding halls. Though stealth was her preferred tactic, Cassandra had her doubts about her new partner going undetected, with his bright green fur that stood out like a firework amidst the aggressively dark colors of the halls. However, Ise did a surprisingly good job keeping up with her, staying nearly silent as he darted from shadow to shadow, letting the darkness conceal his fur as his dark violet jacket blended in with the surroundings. Though the palace was still on high alert after their earlier skirmish, the two managed to sneak past several guards undetected.

However, the hall eventually came to an abrupt end, with large doors greeting the two intruders. Cassandra silently cursed; a storeroom was one thing, but any other chamber in the palace was likely to have significantly more guards-and significantly less places to hide-than the hallways had. Perhaps they would get lucky, and the room beyond would be empty, allowing them to pass through or rethink their route in peace. Optimistically, she opened the door a crack...only to find the opposite: a mess hall filled with soldiers eating their lunches.

“Well, no sneaking through there,” Ise noted, pulling a knife out. “Ready to raise Tartarus?”

“Is fighting the only option you can think of!?” Cassandra quietly snapped, outraged at Ise’s blatant disregard for danger and overwhelming odds.

The green cat paused for a bit. “No, of course not,” he replied. “It’s just the easiest one, most of the time.”

“Maybe against the Equestrian royal guard, but not here!” Cassandra retorted. “These things have actual combat experience, and there’s at least a couple dozen of them in there, let alone anyone else you might draw in by causing a scene!”

Ise contemplated this for a second. “Yeah, still like those odds.”

“What is wrong with you!?”

“What, you got a better plan?”

Rather than respond, the still fuming scarlet feline looked around for anything she could use to bypass or distract the creatures inside the mess hall. It didn’t take her long to find what she needed: a vent cover on the ceiling of the hall, not two far from the cats. Unfortunately, the walls around them were smooth, with no way for Cassandra to climb up to the cover...but maybe she didn’t need to.

“You see that vent?” She asked Ise, before reaching into her pouch and pulling out a tiny black orb. “Get up there and throw this in there.”

“Um, alright,” the green feline complied. “Not sure what this will do, but if you think it’ll work…”

In a single bound, Ise jumped all the way to the cover, carefully opening it in a way that let him hang from the vent opening the entire time. With the cover removed, he threw the ball in, then replaced the cover before silently dropping to the ground and dashing back to his partner. Cassandra, meanwhile, watched the mess hall intently, waiting for the sign that her plan worked. It didn’t take long to see that sign: black smoke started pouring out of similar vents in the cafeteria’s ceiling. This smoke soon triggered an alarm in the mess hall, causing every soldier within to panic and flee the room. None of the soldiers who fled in the cats’ direction paid them any mind, as they glued themselves to the corner by the door to remain as hidden as possible.

“So, what was that, exactly?” Ise wondered.

“Just a little something I cooked up for situations like this,” Cassandra explained. “It’s a tiny incendiary device, with a small amount of fuel that releases a lot of smoke. Drop it down, especially in a vent where no one notices, it burns just enough to trip the fire alarm, and you’ve got creatures in chaos you can use to your advantage.”

“Literal smoke bomb. Clever,” Ise complimented her. “I think I see a door in the back. How about we keep moving?”

The two slid their way through the empty cafeteria, burying their muzzles in their cloak and jacket as they did so to keep the smoke out of their lungs. Passing through to the opposite hall, they swiftly yet silently made their way down the corridor, sticking to the shadows once more in case there were any onlookers they failed to notice. As they approached a sharp turn in the hall, Cassandra motioned for Ise to halt, discreetly taking a peek around the corner to check if the coast was clear…

It wasn’t, not even a bit. A whole platoon of guards stood waiting around the corner, blocking the felines’ advance and leaving no blind spots to move undetected. Though most wore the usual Storm soldier armor and wielded their usual spears, one yeti at the front of the pack stood out: he wore no helmet, leaving his eyes exposed to burn an intimidating determination into Cassandra’s own, and he held a cutlass made of some sort of semi-translucent blue material, one somehow charged with electricity that sparked that same azure hue around the blade. Cassandra zipped her head back around the corner and motioned to Ise to stay silent, praying to Celestia that the platoon hadn’t noticed them.

“I know you’re there,” the captain declared, dashing her hopes. “Surrender now, intruders; I think we’d both rather keep this civil. I’m sure you know what will happen if you resist.”

Cursing, Cassandra turned toward the mess hall again, hoping a mad dash back the way they came might be enough to lose the guards. Before she could even take a step, however, Ise grabbed her shoulder, and simply shook his head when she turned to him in surprise.

“Bad idea,” he whispered, immediately catching on to her plan. “Oh sure, you MIGHT lose these guys if you run now...and then have to run off again when they set another platoon somewhere else. Or you could run right into that other squad while escaping. We’ve had a good run, but I don’t think we can just sneak past a whole army.”

“Okay, what’s your plan, then?” Cassandra hissed. The green cat wasn’t wrong, but she didn’t like where he was going, not when she pulled the smoke grenade stunt to avoid this exact situation. “You want to fight a whole platoon and that one guy’s lightning sword? That’s suicide!”

“On the contrary,” Ise replied with a smirk, “that’s my part in our little operation.”

Faster than Cassandra could blink, Ise jumped from his place hidden around the corner to the far wall in front of the platoon, then bounced off that right into the guards. He grabbed the fuse soldier he hit by the face mask, letting his momentum carry the two through the guards behind him. As a dozen of the guards still standing surrounded the small hole he made in their ranks, he back flipped off his first victim, aiming to land safely outside their ranks before making his next move. Unfortunately, one yeti was able to keep up with him, ready to thrust his spear and the bounding feline; in response, Ise used his powers to magnetically force the pike away from him, causing the soldier to suddenly lower his spear as he thrust and graze his friend’s leg instead.

Only about two thirds of the platoon were focused on Ise, however. Immediately upon the cat’s assault, the captain motioned to his frontline soldiers to move in on Cassandra instead, hoping to capture her and force her comrade to surrender. The scarlet cat was quick to catch on, however, throwing down a smoke bomb as soon as her pursuers rounded the corner. Amidst the fog, she nailed one guard with a fierce uppercut while he was blinded, then in a single motion she grabbed his spear and slammed it into another guard’s helmet. Chaos erupted in the smoke cloud as the cat gracefully moved from guard to disoriented guard, taking out each one in turn in a display only barely visible to those outside the cloud. Tired of seeing his soldiers getting destroyed, the captain rushed at the smoke cloud, dispelling it with one stroke of his blade...but Cassandra was already gone, leaving only unconscious guards in her wake.

Ise, meanwhile, was having a blast fighting in such an enclosed space. The Storm soldiers may have proved a challenge to some, but they had not fought a foe like him, one who used the walls around them to his advantage, bouncing around them before turning his momentum to his foes and striking them with enough force to knock them out in a single blow. Still, he could only have his attention in so many places at once, and with so many soldiers to fight, it wasn’t long before one lucky yeti saw a chance to run the green cat through when his back was turned. Seizing his moment, he thrust his spear forward...only for it to be knocked aside by Cassandra as she dove in to aid her partner. In the split second of surprise the guard had at being blocked, Cassandra bashed him over the head, and he fell into darkness like the rest of his platoon.

“So, what was wrong with brute forcing our way through here again?” Ise jabbed at his more stealth-minded comrade.

“Shut up. We’re not out of the woods yet.”

As if on cue, the captain, the only soldier still standing, brought his blade down on the pair, the cats only barely dodging the strike that left the air singing with electricity. “Now we’re talking!” Ise cheered, a grin on his face at the thought of facing a more worthy opponent. “Try to make this interesting, will you?”

Once more the lightning blade sliced through the air, but rather than dodge it, Ise pulled out a knife and blocked it. Holding their blades in that clash, Ise stared into his opponent’s eyes, eyes filled with outrage, and flashed back his own feelings of giddy excitement. Cassandra took her opportunity to strike the captain while he was occupied, but he was no fool; he immediately broke the blade clash and made a powerful slash at the cat, slicing the end of her stolen spear clean off and barely missing her head. This did little to deter Cassandra, using the remains of her spear more as a staff to continue the fight...only to have the captain force his free claw through it with enough force to split it in half, grabbing her by the collar of her cloak and lifting her helplessly into the air.

“I don’t know what drove you fools to come here,” the captain began, “but neither of you have any right to assault our palace. You should never have come here, but I will make sure neither of you ever leave.”

“Yeah, have fun with that.” Ise suddenly darted between them, slicing into the captain’s arm as he passed by. The yeti recoiled in pain, but rather than let go of Cassandra’s cloak, he held on so tight as to tear the garment off, leaving the cat to fall to the floor. She still had her pouch of tricks, attached to a belt around her light tan pants, so she took the opportunity to throw down another smoke bomb and get some distance between her and her adversary. Before the captain could dispel this cloud, Ise returned for another assault, landing squarely on his opponent’s chest in hopes of knocking him to the ground and ending the fight.

The captain didn’t budge an inch, leaving Ise to just drop to the floor. The cat rolled backward to avoid a retaliation slash, continuing the motion into a backflip from the floor, hitting the wall behind him, and jumping off that over the captain. From there, he intended to strike back at his opponent...but he didn’t get the chance; the captain found his opening as the cat landed, stabbing his great blade straight through Ise’s back.

“ISE!” Cassandra cried out as she saw her comrade take such a critical blow. The captain, on the other hand...was confused. Though the cat clearly took the blow as badly as anyone would take a sword through the back, the electricity coursing through the blade didn’t seem to be having any extra effect…

“Twilight dammit,” Ise cursed, grabbing the tip of the blade that had come out the other side. “I really liked this jacket, you know that?”

Suddenly, the electricity in the blade went haywire, coursing faster and faster as it started pumping more and more volts into its victim. And yet, the cat wasn’t being electrocuted, or even in any pain aside from the obvious; on the contrary, it seemed like he was taking in the electricity to charge...himself? As the blade seemingly pumped its power into him, Ise started crackling with electricity himself, not an azure color like the blade’s, but the expected yellow and white, with some hints of green. When he felt he had absorbed enough electricity, he forced the blade in his stomach back through his back, staggering the captain. He then turned around, grabbed the yeti by the face, and discharged all of that electricity into him. For almost half a minute, the yeti fried, and when the spectacle died down, his blackened body fell over, unconscious.

Ise soon followed suit.

Cassandra rushed over to the green cat. “Are you alright!?”

“Of course not,” Ise groaned. “You think anyone can just walk off getting stabbed straight through the abdomen?”

“There’s gotta be a place to hide around here,” Cassandra thought aloud. “Let me get you there, and I’ll try to patch you up.”

The feline picked up Ise’s broken body, then started carefully rushing down the hall, hoping to find a place to rest. Before she had made it ten steps, however, another posse of guards rounded the corner ahead, blocking their advance. Holding the wounded mercenary in her arms, Cassandra had no way to reach her smoke bombs, and if she put him down to throw one, she wouldn’t have time to pick him back up before the smoke cleared. If she wanted to leave the palace with her prize, she was going to have to leave her partner behind. That was what all logic told her...and yet she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She came to a halt, desperately analyzing the situation to find some way to escape with the wounded Ise...or, failing that, go down with him.

Hanging on to consciousness, Ise turned what was left of his attention to the approaching horde, limply raising an arm toward the soldiers...and with a weak flick of his wrist, he shot forth lightning and smote them. The guards sparked with electricity, falling to the ground as their bodies locked up.

Ise immediately fell unconscious as well.

“No! Stay with me!” Cassandra shouted at the limp cat. “Don’t you die on me!”

She rushed past the fallen guards with Ise in her arms, seeking a safe haven where she could attempt to tend to his wound. By sheer luck, she found such a place quickly, spying a room labeled “North Wing Medical Ward”. Cracking the door open a bit, she found the place to be empty; it seemed the ward was not currently in use, though that was sure to change after their invasion.

Wasting no time, the scarlet cat did what little she could to make their stay in the ward as quick and inconspicuous as possible. Granted, there wasn’t much she could do about the latter issue; she found the most out of the way bed in the ward to lay Ise down, and pulled the curtain hanging around it to try and keep him hidden should the soldiers start using this ward to treat the guards the cats had harmed. A pitiful attempt at hiding away, but it was the best she could do; now it was on her speed attempting to treat Ise’s wounds, and sheer luck hoping that the yetis didn’t come in.

As Cassandra rushed around the ward looking for first aid supplies, Ise drifted into a deep sleep. Though he was already unconscious, some part of him had tried to hold on, fully aware of the danger the two felines were still in; left to rest, however, even that part of his consciousness drifted off…

“What are you doing?”

Ise drearily observed the oddest dream he had ever had. Though, he couldn’t quite place his finger on why this dream was so odd. He had the same scattered feeling he had when dreaming normally, as if he was an outsider in his own dreamscape, simply watching chaos unfold from some higher plane. And yet, this dream didn’t seem as chaotic. The landscape and denizens weren’t constantly changing: the scene in front of him stayed normal, instead of devolving into a battle against an alien in a courtroom or something else weird like that. And yet the two figures conversing with each other still looked off; that was normal, his dreams tended to not really render well, but still…

“Don’t act like you’re not complicit,” one of the figures barked, walking away from the other. This left Ise mildly confused: clearly he missed a few steps in the conversation. That’s what he got for losing himself in thought, he assumed. Still, he couldn’t quite tell, given how little detail his dreams actually had, but something seemed vaguely familiar about the figure speaking. As for the other...the green feline could tell at a glance that he had never seen that creature before in his life.

Oh wait, it looks like that other guy is yelling, Ise realized. Crap, I missed something again, didn’t I?

“Well, that’s how it turned out,” the familiar figure replied, “and it suits me just fine.” Enraged, the other creature rushed the speaker, only to be met with a punch to the jaw. As they lay reeling on the ground, the familiar figure proceeded to kick them in the gut and bring their foot down on their skull.

“How amusing,” the familiar figure laughed. “You know, I don’t even need you anymore. So, why don’t you make one last...contribution?” Reaching down, the familiar figure grabbed the other creature by the collar, and pulled their barely conscious body up to eye level.

“It’s been a pleasure working with you...Ise.”

Ise? That...that clearly wasn’t the green feline. Wait, no, the familiar figure didn’t make that pause in his speech, he didn’t actually call his comrade Ise. That was…

“Ise!”

The cat’s eyes shot open as Cassandra shook him awake...and then they half closed again as all the fatigue and pain he still had from his injury hit him like a truck. Looking down, he found a shoddy stitch line going across the length of his abdomen, and he had to assume a similar set of stitches lined his back. Looking back up, he looked Cassandra in the eyes, and finally had a good look at her without her cloak on.

Cassandra’s coat was a muted scarlet tone, tinged with snow white at the edges of her face and claws. Her hair was a deep crimson, wild and jagged in style, dropping down behind her to about shoulder length. A single braid of that hair hung in front of her face, dangling over Ise as she sat above him. She wore a leather vest and simple cloth pants; if not for her scarlet fur, she would blend in to a crowd of her kind. Her soft, emerald eyes stared into Ise’s azure ones with concern.

“Well hello there,” Ise tried to say with joking charm, but he immediately felt a sharp pain in his gut just from saying that.

Cassandra rolled her eyes, then immediately returned to serious mode. “The guards are coming. Even if they don’t specifically look for us here, it’s not gonna be long until they start bringing their injured ranks in here. And you’re in no shape to be moved.”

“I’m better than I was, thanks to you,” Ise responded. “I didn’t take you for a medic, but I’m glad you are.”

“No, no I’m not,” Cassandra admitted. “Yeah, you learn some basic stuff living on the street, but nothing serious. All I really did was close your wounds; you need ACTUAL medical attention.”

“Welp, I’m sure not getting that here,” Ise pointed out. “Who’s gonna examine me, the Storm soldiers? They’d probably just kill me to save themselves the trouble.”

“That’s...probably going to happen anyway,” Cassandra told him, looking somber. “We have no way out of this room, let alone off this island. You’re already down, and the soldiers will probably overwhelm me pretty quickly. I think...this is the end of the road. For what it’s worth, I’m glad I met you at the end.” As she finished her admission of defeat, the sounds of several sets of footsteps echoed down the hall outside, until it was clear a great number of guards was about to barge into the medical ward.

“Oh Cassandra...you wound me.”

As the door to the ward burst open, Ise snapped his fingers, and lightning shot forth from his claw and fried the entire squad coming in. “Don’t consider me down for the count just yet.”

With great effort, the thief slowly got out of the hospital bed, careful not to burst his stitches. Cassandra, however, was still concerned. “H-hey, you shouldn’t be moving!” she yelled.

“Well, it’s not like I’m gonna get any proper help here,” Ise reminded her. “Might as well try getting off this rock before I think about resting...after we get some of that treasure, of course.”

“You must be insane,” Cassandra responded. “How can you even think about pulling off a heist in your condition!?”

“Hey, it’s what I do...urk,” Ise tried to quip as he left the room. As he continued through the hall, he limped along, clutching his gut the whole way.

“I take that back,” Cassandra grumbled. “You’re not insane, you’re insanely stupid.

“I’m sorry, didn’t you say you were ‘glad you met me’?”

“...shut up.”

As the two cats meandered through the shadows, they made their way deeper into the palace. Finally approaching the end of the maze of hallways, they hid around the corner from a whole squad of soldiers guarding the throne room. Peeking from behind that corner, the two found the same captain that had impaled Ise there as well, giving orders to the guards. Once he had finished, he made his way down the hall, missing the felines as they glued themselves to the wall to avoid detection. Once they were sure the captain was gone, Ise took one more look around the corner, extended his claw out, and snapped his fingers to zap the guards unconscious.

“Being a lot more liberal with the lightning, huh?” Cassandra noted.

“Don’t really have a choice,” Ise explained. “I can’t really do anything physical while I have this barely plugged hole in my stomach.”

“Where did you even get that kind of power, anyway?” Cassandra wondered. “Abyssinians don’t have magic, that’s just a fact of life.”

“Well, I do,” Ise shot back. “Always have, as far as I know.”

“What, was one of your parents a pony or something?” Cassandra snarked as the two made their way into the throne room.

“Hell if I know,” Ise replied. “My memory only goes back...a few years, I guess?”

Wait, what?” Cassandra exclaimed. “Sweet Celestia, what kind of wackjob are you?”

“Celestia? Who’s that?”

Cassandra just stopped. This guy was kidding, right? The sovereign ruler of Equestria for over a thousand years, only recently replaced by Princess Twilight...and this green doofus had NO idea who she was. Only now was it hitting the poor girl that her impromptu partner was a walking question mark...and she didn’t feel like waiting until they were in the clear to start peeling away at that mystery.

“Okay, back up. What exactly DO you remember?”

“Well, uh...hm,” Ise thought. “I wandered around for a while, until I found my friend Ash. Moved into her place in Klugetown, and...then I started doing everything I’d already been doing. Bouncing around, wiping the floor with creatures like those soldiers, swiping stuff. It’s just that I get paid for it now. That’s been my life for the last two, three years.”

“And the ruler of Equestria?”

“Twilight, right? Why does she matter?”

“Just confirming...how much you’ve missed.”

“Well, that’s probably not gonna be relevant going forward, why should I care?”

“You’re not the least bit curious about what memories you might be missing? There’s no way you’ve only been around for a couple years.”

“I’m pretty happy with my life right now,” Ise remarked. “I don’t need to find any missing memories to feel fulfilled.” As Cassandra broke from her pondering to rejoin Ise, now he stopped and turned to her. “Well, that was my story, short as it was. How about yours?”

“Um...excuse me?”

“You said before that you grew up ‘on the street’. I guess life has been pretty rough for you?”

Cassandra paused for a second, then sighed. “You could say that. Abyssinia was one of many countries that took a heavy blow from the Storm King’s conquest. By the time he was done ravaging us, the country as a whole was robbed of its wealth. I was one of a number of casualties, a normal girl forced into the life of a starving thief by the sudden decline of my home. It just happens I was one of the luckier ones who learned to survive in that kind of environment. Still, the best creatures like us can hope for us just barely getting by. Nothing was gonna get better for us unless Abyssinia could rebuild, and even after the Storm King was defeated, that seemed like an optimistic fantasy.”

“Which is why you came to steal from the Storm Empire. Take back what’s yours.”

“Pretty much,” Cassandra replied. “It took me years to get in a position to reach this place, all of which I had to do alone because no one else would consider coming here. Guess I’m glad I ran into someone who didn’t have the memory to fear the Storm Empire in the slightest.”

“Heh, guess so,” Ise chuckled, before holding out his arm to motion for a halt. Behind the great throne, the back wall of the room was lined with great windows looking out upon the massive storm that permanently circled the island. Ise had opened a door behind the throne, opening into a balcony being peppered by the harsh rains. A bridge stretched out from the balcony to a tall outcropping, where the two assumed the treasury was...but the bridge, unlike the rest of the palace, was made of metal. As such, the bridge was getting constantly peppered with lightning bolts, making it impassable.

“How do the Storm soldiers even cross this?” Cassandra wondered.

“Gotta have a lightning rod somewhere or something,” Ise guessed. “Luckily, that’s what I’m here for.” Walking out into the storm, the green feline raised a claw, and it was immediately struck by lightning...with no effect on him whatsoever. “My power only applies to electricity, so you’re gonna get wet.”

“A...are you sure you’ll be okay?”

“Of course. I control lightning, it can’t hurt me.”

Ise stepped forth onto the metal bridge, using his power to act as a living lightning rod and keep the electricity off the metal. Cautiously, Cassandra made her way across the bridge as well, getting thoroughly drenched, but otherwise crossing unscathed. On the other side, they finally found themselves face to face with the treasury door...they assumed.

“Locked, I’m sure,” Cassandra thought allowed, as she pulled a lockpick out of her pouch. “Alright, leave this to me…”

“Not so fast.” Turning around, the two felines found the guard captain on the balcony behind them, his sword crackling with fury. “I‘ve had just about enough of you two. I’m ending this now.”

Cassandra froze with the panic of a cornered rat, but Ise calmed her down by lightly touching her shoulder. “Go. Just get this thing open. I’ll take care of this.”

“Wha-? But you can’t! You said so yourself, you can’t fight him in your state!”

“Oh, I don’t intend to,” Ise snarked. “Don’t worry, I’ve got a plan.” As he said this, the cat’s eyes turned to a cave entrance barely visible at water level on the island cliffs.

“I’m not sure how you quelled the storm,” the captain barked, “but all you’ve done is trap yourselves.” He marched forward onto the bridge, setting a deliberate pace as he prepared to slice the cats into chunks.

As Cassandra fumbled with the lock, Ise snickered. “You really shouldn’t have done that.” He released his hold on the storm, letting lightning freely assault the metal bridge once more, while also directing the electricity he had absorbed at the bridge as well. Caught out on the chunk of metal, the captain took all the volts at once, convulsing as so much electricity coursed through his body. When Ise was done discharging the lightning he had absorbed, he shot a bolt of his own electricity at the captain, blowing him off the bridge and onto the balcony. This last blast was more of a mercy shot, ensuring the captain didn’t just keep getting zapped on the bridge until he died.

Right about then, Cassandra finished picking the lock. “Alright, let’s get going!”

“You go,” Ise ordered. “I’ll catch up, trust me.”

“Why? You don’t need to sacrifice yourself!”

Ise just looked at her with a cocky grin. “Do I look like the kind of creature to throw his life away?” With that, he ran back across the bridge, despite his injury, and began hopping his way down the cliff face.

With no other choice, Cassandra turned back toward the treasury and made her way inside, locking the door behind her to buy time in case the soldiers made their way across the bridge. Inside, she found a spiral staircase descending into the depths, and saw a faint golden glimmer coming from below. As she made her way down the stairs, that glow intensified, until finally, she found herself at the bottom, in front of an utter sea of bits and other treasure. More than enough to help rebuild Abyssinia, if only she had thought to bring some way to carry such quantities of riches…

...but something felt off about the hoard. The entirety of it was a mountain of treasure. Just treasure. The Storm King was known for seeking out magical artifacts in the kingdoms he conquered, hoping to build his own power...and yet nothing in the pile seemed remotely magical. How odd… Even so, Cassandra shrugged this discrepancy off. The riches were here, and that was all she wanted.

Suddenly, the wall burst open, exposing the treasure room to the outside. The Storm King’s dreaded airship hovered just outside, and it extended a ramp into the treasure room. To Cassandra’s surprise, it wasn’t a platoon of Storm soldiers, but Ise who walked off the ship. Or limped, rather; clearly his little stunt outside was not a good idea.

“What is this?” Cassandra asked, confused.

“Our escape route,” Ise explained, panting heavily. “Get on, you’re piloting this thing. I’ll grab the treasure.” Weakly raising a claw, he used his powers to magnetize the treasure, as well as the interior of the ship, slowly sucking the riches in like a vacuum. “You might wanna hurry up.”

“You’re not just gonna carry the treasure with your magic?” Cassandra wondered.

“I do magnetism, not levitation,” Ise explained. “Magnetism can CAUSE levitation, but it doesn’t work the same as when unicorns do it.”

The two felines made their way about the airship, leaving the magnetized ship and treasure to do the loading work for them. Once they felt they had a pretty good haul, Ise disabled the magnetism and Cassandra, now at the airship controls, closed the side hatch. Finally, they began to take off, albeit a bit slower than normal due to the heavy load.

With their exit basically assured, Ise retired to the main cabin to relax...as well as he could. He was pretty sharp, noticing the airship dock cave from the bridge to the treasury, but jumping down to it was a terrible idea in his state. He’d only gotten five steps into the cabin before he coughed up blood, his head beginning to swim. He just barely limped his way into bed before passing out from his worsened injuries. He had no dreams this time, just a sprawling abyss of darkness and nausea…

However, the felines’ escape was not assured. As Ise had pulled the airship out of the dock, the guard captain woke up to see it. He had taken his chance, jumping onto the aircraft and clinging for dear life to the hull. Now, he had finally climbed his way to the deck, and he was ready to obliterate the intruders.

Cassandra only noticed the captain with just enough time to get away before he tried to bring his sword down on her head. She scrambled away from the wheel, making her way into the cabin. The color in her face drained when she found Ise there, clinging to life, in no shape to fight back. It was up to her to keep the brute outside away from the green feline.

Looking around the cabin, she noticed a full rack of Storm soldier spears. Weapons, good, that was all she needed. As she started dragging the entire rack along with her, she felt the ship turning back around toward the palace, as the captain voided their escape. All the more time to set up, she thought. Pulling the rack outside the cabin, she placed it just outside the door, catching the knob on a ring to ensure entry into the cabin was as hard as possible. She then took a single spear, leaving the rest as backup, before heading back up to face her enemy.

“What, your sparky friend isn’t here to save you this time?” the captain queried, seeing Cassandra coming to face him alone.

“I don’t need him to beat you!” the feline snapped back.

As Cassandra rushed him, the captain pulled his arm back to slice her spear clean in half like he had before. However, the cat reached into her pouch and pulled out a smoke bomb, throwing it directly in the captain’s face. As he recoiled and tried to clear his vision, Cassandra slid toward him and swept him with the spear, knocking him off his feet. She planned to immediately strike him again as he fell, but she accidentally struck the ship’s wheel, sending it leaning sharply. As the lean sharpened until the deck became more of a wall, Cassandra held onto the pedestal the wheel was a part of in order to stay on the ship. The captain, meanwhile, stabbed his lightning blade into the deck to give himself a hold.

That was her chance. Cassandra stabbed her spear at the captain’s hand, forcing him to let go of his blade, and fall down to a wall where the hull rose to surround the aft deck. Quickly spinning the wheel back to correct the tilt, she then dropped down before it finished, putting her weight into the spear as its prongs dug into the hull to pin the captain by his throat.

“You miserable filth,” the captain spat at her. “You had no right invading our palace!”

“You invaded my home first,” Cassandra reminded him. “This is payback.”

“Imbecile!” The captain punched her hard, throwing her down to the mid deck as the ship finished righting itself. He pulled out the spear, then moved down to finish his opponent...only to find she wasn’t there. She had scurried back to the weapon rack to get another spear, and as soon as the captain fully came down the stairs to the mid deck, she blindsided him. Her spear sank into his side as she pinned him to the railing. The captain tried to fight back, but was met with another smoke bomb to the face that let the cat effortlessly disarm him.

“Maybe I can’t take revenge on the Storm King himself,” Cassandra began, “but I’ll gladly settle for you.”

With that, she kicked into the captain as she pulled out her spear, dislodging the weapon as she sent the soldier overboard. With the return course to the dock, the airship was low enough to the water that the fall wouldn’t kill the guy, not that Cassandra had wanted that to begin with. Now it was finally time to go home…

Panic finally hit the feline, in a way that no part of the battle had. Now that she wasn’t in danger, she was able to process Ise’s deteriorating health. Before taking the wheel again, she shoved the weapon rack aside and burst into the cabin to check on her partner. What she found wasn’t good: Ise was glued to the wall next to his bed, which was now covered in red, a sign that his wounds had opened up again. The ship tilting had worsened the cat’s injuries when he was already clinging to life.

Cassandra rushed to his side. “Don’t die on me now! We’re almost out of here!”

Slowly, drearily, Ise opened his eyes. It took several seconds for the image in front of him to come into focus, and when it did, he found two creatures standing over him. One was Cassandra, looking down at him with sincere relief and concern. The other was Ash, looking at him in apathy and disdain.

“Well, since you’re here,” Ise snarked, referring to his dragon friend, “I guess I’m not dead.”

“Oh look, he’s well enough to crack jokes,” Ash replied tersely. “In that case, wanna explain what the hell you thought you were doing?”

“Go easy on him, okay?” Cassandra implored the dragon. “He’s been through a lot. Besides, I don’t think I could have made it out of there without him.”

“Which is why you’re just as bad, little kitty,” Ash snapped back. “Sounds like you needed to wait around for a few more years before you even thought of doing something this stupid. I’m just glad I wasn’t a part of this suicide trip.” With that, the purple dragon stormed out of the room.

“...yeah, sounds about right,” Ise judged. “So, uh...what happened?”

“You were in really bad shape by the time we got on the airship,” Cassandra explained. “ I took the ship and rushed you to the nearest hospital I could find...which just happened to be in Klugetown.”

“Geez, hope I didn’t get my organs stolen or something.”

“Hey, it’s my fault the hippogriffs don’t have a hospital set up yet,” Cassandra shot back, before looking a bit regretful. “The thing is, being Klugetown, saving your life cost a pretty penny…”

Ise suddenly realized, “Oh no, the treasure…”

“I still have some, of course, our haul was huge. But more than half of it went into fixing you up. It’s just...you did so much for me back there, I wasn’t gonna abandon you for my own idealistic goals.”

“Well, at least you still have a good starting point,” Ise replied. “Oh, and thank you.”

“I only did what I felt I needed to,” Cassandra replied. “By the way, you didn’t tell me your ‘friend’ was Ash Blackmire, destroyer for hire. That girl is bucking scary.”

“Yeah, you got a taste of the real her...which is just as intense as her public face,” Ise mentioned. “Still, she’s got a heart in there. It’s just buried in edge. Not brooding or self-pity, just edge.”

“And you live with someone like that?”

“Yep. Pretty fun netting her by just being me.”

“Alright, I should get going.” Cassandra made her way to the door of the hospital ward, then turned around. “Maybe we’ll meet again someday.”

“I think I’d like that,” Ise replied, smiling, before Cassandra left the room.

Stewing in his hospital bed, the guard captain seethed with rage as he thought about the cats who had made a mockery of him and his troops. The red one had used underhanded tactics to gain an advantage, utterly humiliating him in single combat. The green one, though...the green one gave him whole new reasons to hunt him down. Besides his annoying personality.

That lightning power… There was no way it could be possible. And yet, it was the only explanation…

“Captain Jupiter?” A soldier asked, coming into the room. “Are you doing alright?”

“Those intruders,” Jupiter muttered. “They quelled the Storm enough to cross the bridge to the treasury. How do you think they did that?”

“I, uh...I don’t know, sir. We’ve been trying to get back in there for ages.”

“I’ll tell you how. That green one, he had a certain power. One that used to be ours, before that other cursed feline went back on our deal and stole it from us.”

“You...you mean he had the Stone of Storms?”

“Oh no. He used no stone. The power of the Stone of Storms, the power to control the storm around us...he used it freely as his own.”

“But sir, how is that possible?”

“I could not tell you,” Jupiter admitted, “but I do know one thing…”

“I will hunt that wretched cat to the ends of the earth to get back what’s rightfully ours.”