Never say die.

"Shit, watch out!"

A bolt of magic blast past one of the guards, almost hitting her in the face. She nodded her thanks at me and continued battling the oncoming horde of changelings. I parried one who thought it was smart to take me one on one.

It didn't work out well for him.

His head fell off of his shoulders, blood pouring from the neck. I smirked, readying my sword once more. "Come on, is that all you freaks have got?!"

I heard a massive explosion behind me. I snapped my head around to see the changeling who I had spotted earlier.

Chrysalis. The queen of these weirdos. I dodged an oncoming swipe from a changeling to my side and kicked it in the face, knocking it out clean. Before I could recover from the kick, I was pulled backwards and towards the queen. She held me in her magic, licking her lips and smirking.

"My my, what do we have here?"

I felt the magic...loosen up on me? The insect seemed as shocked as me, except she wasn't grinning like me. "Seems like that trick won't work, queenie." I cloaked and got behind her, grabbing her and throwing her into the nearest wall. She grunted, rubbing her forehead. I readied my sword for the final blow, but she lunged at me from the floor, pinning me down. A row of sharp fangs emerged from her now open maw as she tried to bite down on my neck. She missed by an inch as I movied my head and used my legs to kick her off of me. I flipped back onto my metal feet, silently thanking my martial arts skills as I threw a shuriken at her. It hit her one of her forelegs, making her scream and fall to the floor. Green, disgusting liquid started to poor out of her leg slowly. She looked up at me from the floor and growled.

"You'll pay for that, cretin!"

Her horn lit up, a glow surrounding it and her leg. As she started to heal herself, I lunged towards her and kicked her in the face, making her tumble against the same wall that she did earlier. Her eyes rolled back into her head. I walked up to her, about to swipe my sword down, before I heard a scream from quite a way away. And I recognised it all too well.

"Moonie!"

I jumped out of a nearby window, not caring about Celestia or her guards at the moment. I know that sounded evil, but Moonie was the only thing on my mind right now. I heard another scream. Same voice. I picked up the pace, putting my prosthetics into full force, going faster than I ever thought was possible for a human. I eventually turned a corner and heard the same scream yet again.

It was the alleyway that I saved that girl from a while ago.

I ran into the alleyway and my eyes widened at what I saw. Dead threstrals everywhere. But there was one in the middle that caught my eye.

"Shit shit shit..."

I ran up to Moonie's unmoving body. She had blood on her face and one of her wings had been pulled off. I put my head down to her chest and sighed in pure relief as I heard her heart beat.

"Thank god...don't worry, Moonie. You're going to be okay. I'm going to get you some help."

I heard a chuckle behind me. I turned around, glaring at the thing. It was another bug freak. But this one was...rather bulky. It had a giant axe in its one of its hooves. It looked at me, readying its weapon.

"Too easy. I thought threstrals were supposed to be tough. What a..."

He grunted as I slammed my fist into him, sending him flying back. He fell onto his back, coughing up blood. He got back up onto his hooves and glared at me. "I don't know what you are, but you're going to pay for that."

I growled and readied my blade. I cloaked and, while he was confused, managed to get behind him and stab him. However, I found that my blade bounced off of his armour. I looked in confusion.

"The fuck?"

It grinned and before I could react, slammed the butt of its axe into me, sending me flying back. I landed with a thud, coughing slightly and grunting. I flipped back onto my feet, licking off the blood that was now on my bottom lip. "This one's going to be tougher than the others. Wait...what's that?"

I saw an opening on its neck. A part of its body what wasn't covered by armour. I grinned.

"Bingo."

I cloaked again, rushing into one of the alleyways close to us. I heard him chuckle and snarl. "Are you that much of a coward? I expected more from an unknown creature, but you're just as pathetic as those threstrals were!"

This guy was really starting to piss me off.

I jumped out of the alleyway, having disappeared fully from his sight. I rushed up to him while he was trying to find me and as I uncloaked, he snapped his head around, snarling at me and raising his axe. "Got you now you son of a..."

He didn't get to finish his sentence. I stood infront of him, my sword raised, my movements having ceased. He started to slowly gargle, then scream and then fall to the ground, lifeless. His neck was now slit open, a fountain of blood pouring from the massive wound. I sighed and sheathed my sword. I looked over to the still unconcious and seriously injured threstral that I had came to care for so much in such a short amount of time. I ran over to her and picked her up, wasting no time in rushing back to the castle.

A few hours had passed since Moonie had been seriously injured. I thankfully managed to get her to the princesses just in time. When I had gotten back to the castle with Moonie in my arms, Chrysalis had apparently been captured after I had knocked her ass out and she was currently in one of the holding cells underneath the castle. Celestia had apparently known where I had gone, her too hearing the scream. She knew how close me and Moonie had gotten, it seemed. Thankfully, her and her guards had handled the rest of the changelings in the castle. The remaining ones in the city had been routed and defeated. A lot of them were dead. The ones that were still alive had been placed in the holding cells, same as Chrysalis. Celestia and Luna planned to interrorgate her. When she woke up, that is. Luna seemed to be fine from her battle on the other side of the city too, it seemed. While I wasn't a massive fan of her, I didn't want her getting killed. If only for Celestia's sake.

Moonie was currently resting in bed. Celestia and Luna had used healing magic on her, causing her wounds to repair rapidly. Unfortunately, they couldn't replace the wing. She'd be stuck with one wing for the rest of her life. I sighed heavily.

"For fuck's sake. If only I hadn't let you go on your own, this might not have happened." I grunted and stood up, rubbing her mane softly. I walked out of the room, it being dark outside. I walked towards the entrance of the gardens. I walked out of the main doors and into the garden. I sat down on the bench that I usually sat down when I came here and looked up at the night sky. I then looked over to the streets outside. After Celestia and Luna had contained Chrysalis, the guards went around the city and made sure the civilians were safe. While some houses and stores were heavily damaged or straight up destroyed, they weren't that many civilian casualties, so that was at least some good news. The threstrals that I had seen dead in the alleyway were given a proper burial and a letter had been sent by Luna to the families.

"Goddamn changelings. They'll pay for this." I suddenly heard something behind me and then, a voice. "Hello, Daemon. May we sit with you?"

I sighed. I knew that voice. I shuffled over. "Sure, knock yourself out, Luna."

Even though me and the lunar princess were better with each other than when we first met, I still didn't fully trust her. Not as much as Celestia, anyway. She sat down and looked up at the sky. Well, her sky, I suppose. Princess of the night and all that. I heard her sigh sadly.

"I am sorry."

I raised an eyebrow at that. I turned to her.

"What for?"

She turned towards me, letting out yet another heavy sigh. "For how I have treated you since your arrival. You were an unknown creature to me and I do not trust easy. I did not want you bringing harm to my sister or my subjects. But, after seeing your acts of heroism with that girl all those weeks ago, how you defeated Chrysalis and how you managed to bring Moon Stalker to our aid...I thank you. And I mean that."

I looked at her in surprise and shock.

"Didn't expect you to appreciate me at all, but thank you. Honestly. What's happening with queen of the bug freaks?"

She chuckled at that insult, looking back up at the sky. "Chrysalis will be dealt with in time. We will question her when she awakes and see why she has done what she has done. Find out her motives. I can already guess why she has invaded again but we cannot be too sure. We do not need another higher power forcing her to do this."

I nodded. "Right. I just hope Moonie will be okay."

She smiled at me, putting a hoof on my shoulder. "You really care for her, don't you?"

I nodded again. "I do."

She sighed, standing up. She flexed her wings and stretched slightly. "Fear not, Daemon. She will be fine, I promise you. She just needs a few days of bed rest. Anyway, I am afraid that I must go. The dream world needs me. If you need anything, feel free to ask me or my sister. Farewell for now."

I waved. "Thank you. See ya."

She smiled at me, flying back into the castle. I looked down at the floor, putting my hand on my leg.

"What the actual fuck have I gotten myself into here..."