I rose up forcefully, slamming my head against Candid Diversion and biting my tongue as a result. Despite the pain that came from both of these, what drew my attention more than anything was feeling a small stream of warm blood running from my nose down my snout. I snorted and shook my head to clear my mind, but instantly came to regret that decision when the world got all wonky and blurry for a second.

“Did it work?” Someone to my right asked.

“Not yet!” Candid Diversion groaned while holding a hoof to his jaw where I had hit him.

When my vision steadied, the first thing my eyes landed on was the pega… luftirin lying to the left of me. It was the same one who’d clung onto me and caused us both to crash into the ground. I saw that she was breathing, but unconscious. ‘Serves her right’ was my first thought, but then again, I remembered she hadn’t had much of a choice.

“You need to try again!” The voice from before hecticly spat out, its owner slightly out of breath. “We can’t hold out here much longer!”

By the time the stallion finished speaking and my mind finally processed what he’d just said, the sound of the battle raging around us slipped back to the front of my mind. I tried to focus, steady myself, but despite how hard I tried, it was still like someone was sporadically switching several of my senses on and off. One moment I could hear everything going on in the battle around me and clearly perceive my surroundings, the next, everything became a blur of unrecognizable sounds and shapes.

“I tried!" Candid Diversion shouted, causing the other azure to lower his stance. “Despite her being battered, she is a formidable opponent in her mind! Her condition didn’t seem to have affected her azure core!”

“Then we need to mess her up even more, break her legs or something!”

“She’s practically a kid, Ascending!” Candid Diversion protested. “We can’t just…”

“She is one of your opponents! If the battle continues to rage on like this, broken legs will be among the minor injuries suffered today!”

“It still feels wrong…”

“She has a dragon fighting in her merriment! Candid! You can feel the injuries he’s caused. And if you haven’t noticed yet, those mercenaries just arrived! We need her merriment if we want any hope of dealing with them!”

“Mercenaries?” I wondered. Slowly, the world stopped turning, and either Roary or Calmly had found the right position for that inner switch of mine to stay on ‘on’. “You said that those creatures were your reinforcements!”

He snorted, his gaze flicking to me for a second. “You need to make a decision, Candid! She is getting back on her hooves! Quick! Or we will lose this battle!”

“Okay, okay!” Candid Diversion raised one hoof in a commanding gesture. “Break one of her legs! Only one! That should be enough to win the fight in her mind!”

“You heard him!” Ascending shouted, and several kirins around me stormed forward to attack me!

I, meanwhile, had no intention of complying with this sadistic plan! I tried to rush aside. Despite my head not liking it when I moved so fast, I jumped, bucked and distributed kicks and slashes with my claws. I even tried to fly up, but there were just too many of them. Only the fact that they couldn’t decide on which of my legs they were going to try and break seemed to protect me. Forced by their orders, they couldn’t risk accidentally injuring me more than they’d been instructed to, causing their attacks to be too timid to pose any real threat.

My fangs and claws also helped to prevent them from trying to get hold of me. They smacked at me with the blunt ends of their spears, branches and anything else they could find. It hurt a lot! However, my scales held, and I was even able to deal some damage back to some of them, doing a fair bit more to them than they had been doing to me!

“Fiery! Hold on!” Summer Moon suddenly shouted. With a mighty Roar, the volandium she was riding on burst into the lines of our enemies, breaking through them as though they were nothing more than foals.

“You wanna have something done right, you have to do it yourself!” Ascending Fall growled, grabbed a spear and counter charged Summer Moon.

The volandium roared again, tossed aside a kirin with a mighty hit of its head and rushed forward to sink its fangs into Ascending Fall. He, in return, faked a jump, only to fall down to his knees at the last possible second, dodging the snapping fangs of the Volandium, and impale its underbelly with his spear.

The roar of pain was deafening! However, the volandium wasn’t beaten yet! With a swing of its tail, it swept Ascending Fall off his hooves, and, while roaring in agony, and before Ascending Fall could recover, lept onto him and sunk its fangs into his side!

With my mouth agape, I watched in shock as all these events unfolded before me, as did everykirin around me. The volandium may not be strong or big enough to do as much damage as Dad, but still, despite his scales, Ascending Fall wouldn’t be able to stand for some time!

“Fiery! Get behind me!” Summer Moon tore me out of my shock. She had her spear ready in hoof and was using it to hold off the hostile kirins around us. Through the breach her volandium, at least the one she’d rode in on, had caused, several of my kirins/niriks rushed through.

Instantly, a vicious clash broke out.

Together with Summer Moon, I was more than capable of holding back my attackers. And with the ongoing stream of my kirins rushing to my aid, the tide quickly turned in my favor.

“Where is my dad?” I asked loudly. “I have a score to settle with some azure-kirin and could use his help!”

“Getting more-” Summer Moon blocked an attack and kicked a hostile kirin back into the crowd “-volandiums back in order! They accept him as their alpha or something!”

“And here I thought you had tamed that one yourself!”

“It seemed to like me at least!” She pointed with her snout towards Ascending Fall. “It very much dislikes him though!”

“Ponyfeathers!” I wiped my snout, ignoring the red stain it again left on my fur. “Can you get it back under control? Otherwise it will kill him!”

She threw an uncertain look at me then went to work. “I’ll see what I can do!”

It wasn’t like I had forgotten that he’d suggested breaking my legs, but that didn’t mean I wanted him dead! I knew who was going to be at the bottom of the hierarchy when this was over though…

I took a step back as a new bunch of my kirins stormed in, took their place, and pushed the enemy back so I could breath for a second.

“Fiery!” A hoof was placed firmly on my shoulder. I growled warningly, realized quickly though it was Rapt Glance. “Fiery,” he had lowered his stance but kept looking me straight in the eyes then over my snout and head, “look at me, please.” He brought his hooves below my cheeks and lifted my head slightly. Out of reflex I wanted to hit him with a claw. I could control myself, but the short, half suppressed flinch from him told me my intention had been obvious.

“You fell from quite high, I need to check you for injuries,” he quickly said, doing his best to acknowledge my higher rank while simultaneously using his makeshift authority as a doctor to get me to comply. His hooftips were already wandering over my upper gum line and down my throat soon after.

“I just got a bloody nose,” I grumbled dismissively while waving him off. “I am fine.” My gaze was already searching for Candid Diversion.

“Certainly…” he mumbled.

“I said I…” I hissed sharply and growled at him when his hoof found a really painful spot.

Fortunately for him, he lowered his stance to the ground, only keeping his hooves on my chest.

“It seems you have a cracked rib or two. You need to be patched up quickly!”

“I am fine!” I growled, l warm blue light now emitting from my forehead. “I have a score to settle and can’t waste time getting a plaster!”

“There is blood coming out of your nose, but you didn’t hit your nose, Fiery,” he replied. A quiet whimper was mixed into his voice. “The blood must be from some inner injury. We need to get you off the battlefield and care for your wounds quickly!”

Now that he had touched it and brought my attention to it, my chest did indeed hurt, particularly the spot he had so carelessly touched. It couldn’t be that bad though! It wasn’t really any worse than some of the new spots I’d gotten during the short brawl a moment ago.

I wiped over my nose again. The small but steady stream of blood remained.

I hesitated.

“Please, let yourself get patched up!”

“We seem to be fine,” Roary judged. “A little bump on the side of our head, minor injury to our lungs. Nothing that would stop us from chasing down Candid Diversion.”

I waited, but Calmly didn’t speak up.

“Calmly?”

"What?" Oh, yeah, we… we are fine, I guess.” She retorted.

“You okay?”

“Ye-yeah, just, well, you saw what happened.”

“Focus pony,” Roary demanded. “We have a…”

“What the heck?!” I yelled angrily when I was suddenly lifted off the ground before finding myself on Rapt Glance’s back. “What are you doing?”

“You trailed off in the middle of our talk,” He replied. “I have to get you out of here and take care of your injuries!”

“Put me down!” I ordered with the force of an azure in my voice. Instantly, Rapt Glance fell to his knees.

“I told you I am alright!” I scolded him as I hopped off of his back. “I was speaking with my advisors!” Once again I wiped away the blood streaming from my nose. “Arg, fine!” My gaze raced over the ongoing fight. “Okay, I will move to the second line for the time being! Roary said I have minor injuries to my lungs, see what you can do about that! And,” I pointed at the unconscious luftirin, “someone shall take care of her too!”

“As you wish,” Rapt Glance nodded, relieved. He gestured to some kirins nearby and then escorted me to the back rank. Once there, he went straight to work.

It hurt, and he started to sweat in fear due to my growling, but nevertheless, he proceeded slowly and carefully till he was satisfied with the result. In the time it took him to do this, what remained of my personal guards had formed up around me once more.

“This will do for now. Your advisor was right, it is nothing critical. You should avoid any close combat though. Please,” he added, moving his gaze to the ground under my stare. “Avoid any hits to your chest, your ribs are not broken but partially cracked. However, another hit may break them.”

“Thank you,” I pressed out, scratching a furrow in the ground.

“Chieftain!” One of the few swamp-villagers still in their saddle quickly approached me.

“What is it?” I asked, pushing Rapt Glance to the side.

The rider's gaze hung on my new bandages for a second before he spoke. “Chieftain, the second enemy army has arrived. They are holding position half a mile from the fight though. It seems they are unsure about what to do. They are better equipped than we are, but still, they seem hesitant to charge into such a large number of kirins. They are obviously not allied with the other azure-leader, otherwise they would be coming to his aid. We will win this fight eventually so long as they don’t interfere.”

I released a sound that was a mix between a sigh and a groan. “Yeah, I heard they are mercenaries, not some reinforcement army. Ascending Fall fooled us.”

“What are your orders regarding them?”

Mom’s words sprung back to my mind. ‘Maybe they just want us to leave their land?’

“Send them a messenger, see what they want.” I ordered. “Wait,” I added when he attempted to turn his volandium around. “Where is Calmatious Blossom?”

“Last time I saw her,was when she and your dad took care of the volandiums that were rampaging through the lines, chieftain.”

I gave him a nod and he rode off to carry out my orders.

“Bliz!” I yelled since I had sensed her approach.

She galloped over. “Yes?”

“Were you successful?”

“Their chase of you gave us the advantage we needed,” she said while nodding. “There is not much of his guard remaining on hoof, the same goes for his luftirins. A few of the faster ones that chased you managed to escape, but most of the others are down for the time being.”

I spotted a few cracked scales on her back and tilted my head to look at them.

“Ah, that is nothing,” she shook her tail, “one lucky hit by a club. What’s more important is that we got those last few teleporters. Pesty guys! They seemed very confused about what to do when you took flight. The command to attack you affected them too I suppose.”

“That is great!” I placed a claw on my forehead and winced for a moment when a sharp sting shot through my mind. “Uhm,” I grunted and carefully stroked the bump on my head. “Yeah, that works great with the sense of my merriment,” I said sarcastically.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just hit the ground a little bit harder than I normally do.”

She whimpered and got closer to lick over the side of my head.

“I said I am fine!” I hissed and pushed her aside. “Go, make yourself useful!” I waved her away with my wing. “No, wait, Summer Moon could use some help calming down a wounded volandium. Gather a few kirins from the swamp village and see what you can do...” I rethought my way of talking. “Go and take care of it!” I ordered.

She quickly galloped off to carry out my orders. I threw a look after her before considering what my next step of action should be. Before I could come to a conclusion though, Dad finally showed up.

“Took you long enough,” I scolded him when he landed. “I could have used your help with that other azure-kirin, you know?”

A slight growl was his reply, his wings rose and he showed me his fangs. That was before he threw a closer look at me and approached, sniffing intensely. Whatever his nose was telling him, it caused his wings to close again and him to rub his nose against me as soon as he was able to.

“Not you too! I am fine!” I tried to push his head aside but without success. “Yes, I got hurt a little bit, nothing serious though. Keep your focus on the enemy, Dad! We need to get this other azure and give him a good beating!”

He intensified his sniffing though, paying particular attention to the blood stains on my foreleg, the bandages, as well as my bump on the head.

“Go and find that azure, Dad!” I once more tried to push him away. “Find him, beat the feathers off of him, and bring me what's left!” I then pushed him with my wing. “Go!”

“What happened?”

“I told you, nothing, just,” I wiped over my nose, “a little crash landing.”

His eyes narrowed. “You!” He directed his gaze at Rapt Glance. “What happened to my daughter?”

“Another Luftirin clung to her, both of them crashed into the ground. Two, maybe three cracked ribs. Light internal bleeding which I was able to confirm wouldn’t be an issue for the time being. She also hit the side of her head in the impact. She should avoid any…”

“Shut up!” I growled, and Rapt Glance dropped to the ground cowered, as he should.

Dad gave me a longer look.

“What!” I shouted more than asked.

Without wasting any words, Dad pulled me closer with his wing and, despite my attempt at fending him off, picked me up.

“Let me down!” I demanded, my guards had already come closer and a few hisses and growls were thrown at my dad.

Instead of complying with my demand, he just snorted, grabbed Rapt Glance in his snout and flew off with both of us in tow.

“I thought you would leave me alone when I’m leading my merriment!” I cursed, using far more swear words than what I’m repeating here. I even kicked Dad once or twice, without any effect of course, and put my all into biting his arm as well. I got so far as to consider giving my guards the order to free me, but I thought better of it. The few luftirins following us were no match for him. While my gaze hung on the part of my guard who were able to follow us, I noticed the absence of Summer Moon. It took me a second to realize that I’d sent her off to fix the volandium situation.

It took only a few minutes for us to reach our destination.

“Dad! I am needed on the battlefield, not at our camp!” Below us, the carriages and the few kirins guarding them came into view. Along with the larger medical tents a bit further back. Without delay, Dad landed in the center and dropped Rapt Glance in order to roar out for Mom.

I struggled to get free now that we had landed, but Dad held me firm.

“What happened?” Mom’s worryful voice arose as soon as she came out of my family's carriage. “Did we win? Is the battle over?” She glanced over the few kirins present, looking for any indication that I had claimed some additional azures or if somekirin else was in command of them now.

“Fiery got hurt,” Dad explained. “She needs aid.”

“I told you I am fine! Let me go!”

“Fiery!” Mom rushed over, placing her hooves on my shoulders. As Dad had done before, her gaze, soon followed by her hooves, wandered over my head and snout.

I growled warningly and squirmed to avoid her touch.

“I see,” Mom said, more to my reaction to her than my little bump or the bandages. “Head injuries are a serious matter! Fertile Desert! Come here!”

Not only did she follow my Mom’s command, emerging from somewhere nearby. But so did everycreature else. My little brothers, my aunt, Illu, Allerian, basically everycreature who wasn’t staying in the medical tents or was involved in the battle. A battle that was raging on without my leadership! I needed to get back!

“How did you know?” Rapt Glance asked curious, daring to approach me, or better said, Dad again.

“My daughter is growling at me, which tells me more than enough, especially since my husband isn't taking issue with that in the slightest.” Mom replied, while stretching a hoof out for Fertile Deserts bag of herbs. Together, the two decided what would be best for them to apply. “If Fiery wasn’t injured he would immediately growl that out with her.”

“I am the leader here!” I clarified, starting to catch fire. “I am fine! And I growled because you are keeping me away from my merriment, which I remind you, is currently engaged in a huge battle!” I once more tried to kick Dad.

“Sure, sweety,” Mom confirmed. She nodded as Fertile Desert suggested putting some Lezykee on my head. She then threw an unsure glance at my guards who were about to land. Her and Dad’s gaze met for a second. “I am sure Bliz needs some help while we patch you up,” she proclaimed suddenly. “Fiery, you should order them to help Bliz, you know, we may take a tiny moment to patch you up.”

“There is no need to tell them that! I can lead them back into the fight myself!”

I was about to yell out to them to help free me when Dad put a claw over my snout and squeezed it shut. Now I fully burst into flames. How dare he!

“Rapt Glance!” Mom reacted quickly. “Go and tell them Fiery said they are to support Bliz while she gets treated. She will join them as soon as we’re done here.”

Unsure, his gaze went back and forth between me and Mom. I tried to pierce him with my gaze, nonverbally order him to not follow my mom’s orders and instead help free me. Unfortunately, this little traitor avoided my gaze and raced off to feed false orders to my guards!

“We can’t apply Lezykee while she is burning,” Fertile Desert pointed out. “It is not fireproof.”

“You think you could calm down enough so we could treat your head injury, sweety?” Mom asked.

I growled and whipped my tail at Dad.

“I thought so,” she sighed.

“What happened?” Now Kindling and Allerian asked in unison when they got close enough. Meanwhile, Illu asked directly if I was alright. Only Night snuck past Mom, sniffed me, and then began purring while rubbing his head once against my leg. My anger wasn’t directed at him though, so I stopped my attempts at kicking Dad so I wouldn’t accidentally hit Night. As soon as he was back behind Mom, however, I intensified my efforts.

“Is the battle won, or lost?” Allerian inquired. He was already peaking into the distance, seeing if he could make out any details.

“What happened to Fiery?” Illu asked louder while pushing Allerian aside before stopping next to Mom. It seemed he wanted to place a hoof on my shoulder, but thought better of it due to my fire. Then his gaze stopped on Dad’s claw around my snout. To my delight, a tiny growl snuck its way into his voice when he demanded to know, “And why are you pressing her snout shut?”

“Fiery got injured,” Dad explained, more to Kindling than anycreature else. “She isn’t thinking straight at the moment.” He turned his head to Illu. “As a result, I am keeping her snout shut so she won’t order anykirin here to do something they would regret. She is quite unhappy with getting treated, so she may order them to free her, which they can’t disobey.”

“They would fail at that though, and might get injured as a result,” Mom clarified, nodding towards Fertile Desert as an example.

“That is the problem with an azure leader,” Fertile Desert said. “We can’t disobey her, even if we know that what she is ordering is wrong, you know?” She tilted her head a bit to the left and right. “I mean, it is mostly the right thing, but sometimes, well…”

She looked down when I growled at her, scrabbling with her hooves in the ground.

“So what are we gonna do?” Illu asked. “How can we help her?”

“We need to calm her down,” Fertile Desert explained. “We can only treat her when she isn’t burning, so her nirik form is a problem.”

“Cuddling will help,” Nightflame proclaimed confidently. He approached me once more, purred, and rubbed his nose against my belly and below my wings. I winced once when he poked an injured rib, but I forgave him since he wasn’t challenging me or anything. All that being said, his attempts at bribing me into calming down didn’t work, but they didn’t make things worse.

“Cuddling will take quite a while,” Dad told Nightflame. “While it does calm ponies and kirins down, it takes forever if they are really angry.” He threw a glance at Mom. “We need something a little bit faster. The battle is still going on and it would indeed be good if Fiery could at least claim that other azure-kirin when the time arrives.”

“But how do we do that?” Mom replied with a hum of thought.

“I know!” Kindling piped up. He got a bit nervous when suddenly all attention was directed at him.

“Your sister loves you,” Dad said,” but cuddling will take too long.”

“And you are not fireproof,” Night added.

“No, not me!” Kindling shook his head. “Illu has to cuddle her!”

“How is that supposed to work?” Allerian wondered, throwing an unsure glance between the dragons and ponies. “I thought family was the most important thing to kirins and dragons. At least that's the impression I got after watching your family.”

“Yeah, duuuuh,” Kindling replied. “But since my sister is in dragon mode at the moment, only her bornlings or mate can help! It’s the same with Dad, no one can calm Dad down as good as I or Mom can! And since my sister hasn’t had any bornlings yet, Illu will have to suffice!” He came closer and pointed at me. “A dragon will never hurt their mate! Sure, Dad may grumble and roar and make a fuss, but Mom will always win at the end of the day!”

“That is true,” Mom agreed with a slight smile while Dad grumbled. “Only because he loves me so much though,” she added with a wink at Dad.

Kindling rushed behind Illu and pushed him forward. “You go and calm my sister down!”

Baffled and a bit unsure, Illu stepped forward. Obviously, me being on fire put him between a rock and a hard place here.

“I have a battle to lead!” I thought, “Not the time to cuddle!”

My thoughts must have been obvious since Illu, who had raised a hoof, pulled it back. “I am not quite sure here…”

“Use the fluff,” Kindling more ordered than suggested.

“Huh? I don’t have any.”

“Not on the chest,” Nightflame pointed out, directing his gaze towards Illu’s ears.

Cute, fluffy ears if you ask me.

“Oh, that,” Illu waved off. “That’s not something I could use to…”

Kindling just pointed at my eyes, which were following every movement, regardless of how small, of Illu’s ears.

Hey, you need to consider just how fluffy and cute they are! Not my fault they pulled my attention as soon as they were mentioned!

“Our sister is addicted to your earfluff, like Dad is to Mom’s chest fluff,” Night pointed out, the little traitor!

Illu flickered one ear.

“Focus, Fiery!” Roary demanded. “We have a battle to lead! We can cuddle later!”

“I know!” I agreed.

“Then why are you wiggling your tail?” Calmly asked, her tone containing a hint of approval though.

And indeed, wIthout intending to, my tail had begun to wiggle. I was also quick to realize that my struggling to escape from Dad’s grip now had more to do with my desire to lay a claw on those cute ears than to head back to the fray.

With new found confidence, Illu approached the arm Dad had swung around my chest and laid his hooves on them, bringing his nose, and ears, closer to me.

“You think you could calm down a bit,” he asked most affectionately.

Evil Batpony tricks! But I stayed strong! I may have been wiggling my tail, but I stayed nirik. You can be angry and in love at the same time!

The rustle of Fertile Desert in her bag pulled my attention away from Illu. She had been planning on using some herbs on me as soon as I’d fallen for Illu’s trap! I intensify my escape struggles once again. Kicking and whipping my tail. My growl also caused the present kirins to lower their heads a bit.

“Wow! That didn’t work like you thought!” Allerian commented. Already, his little book was back in claw and he was diligently writing.

“I could roar her down,” Schimmernde Morgenröte suddenly spoke up. I had nearly forgotten about her since she had, atypically for her, been keeping her snout shut.

“You wish you could,” Dad reminded her. I was, despite his grip, thankful he made that point clear!

“You are not helping here,” Mom added, waving to my aunt to emphasize that she should stay in the background. Then, she put a hoof to her chin, thinking about what to do.

“A shame you can’t fake cry like she can,” Allerian said casually. “I heard that worked quite well on her dad.” He looked up to said dragon. “No offense, Mr TBD!”

Dad just snorted, while Fertile Desert got this ‘idea’ look on her face.

I had a bad feeling about that, and I was proven right! She rummaged in her bag and pulled some strange looking plants out of it. They looked like a dried out, sand coloured bush with some tiny red buds on them.

“This will make any non kirin or dragon stallion cry like a fresh baby!” She proclaimed and offered the bush to Illu.

“I am not sure I want to…” he said while hesitantly extending a hoof to take the bush from her.

As if that would work! It worked when I did it because Dad is Dad!

“You do want to help my sister, don’t you?” Kindling asked.

“And nodragon would laugh at you,” Night added.

Illu’s gaze moved over to Allerian.

“What?” He wondered.

Illu pointed at his book.

“Well, you don’t want to alter facts here do you?” Allerian asked indignantly. “If you are gonna cry to help your marefriend, that’s fine. But don’t ask a bard to alter hi…”

Mom quickly grabbed the book from him and shut it forcefully. “You get this back when this is over,” she said.

“But…”

Dad growled warningly and Allerian tugged his tail.

“Now, Illu, if you would please,” Mom said. “I know it will work,” she added when Illus' doubtful gaze hung on the plant in his hoof. “You saw what happened when I tried to keep you out of our tent. A few teardrops and Big Softy here was butter in our daughter’s claws. Same will go for you, since I know if I would cry, Big Softy would ignore anything that wasn’t our children and come to cheer me up.

“Fiery isn’t a dragon though…” he weakly protested.

“Illu,” Fertile Desert started, “we need her to get back to fight that other azure, every moment we spend here is another fang punched out or scale cracked over there!” She pointed in the direction of said fight.

“Don’t forget the third army has shown up already,” Dad added.

“So the sooner we can care for Fiery and get her wounds treated, the sooner we can stop all of this!”

“Well, when you put it that way…” He looked at me again. “Okay, fine, do I just eat this stuff, or…?”

“Just bite down on one of the bud’s. But just a heads up, for you they are going to be spicy as hay!”

Slowly, Illu took a tiny bite. And when nothing immediately happened, he ate two of the bud’s.

“Doesn’t seem to be that bad, are you sure this works on batponie…” he suddenly inhaled deeply and started to pant. “Super hot!” He proclaimed and stuck his tongue out. His whole face turned red and a torrent of water began to pour from his eyes. “Really,” he gasped, “hot!”

“Quick, get him some water!” Kindling requested.

“Water will do nothing,” Fertile Desert explained. “We need milk or butter, anything fat based when he is done.”

When he is done! As if this little scheme would work on me! I am an azure-kirin, a leader, I will not get fooled from…

Before I realized it, I was whimpering loudly and struggling to get free from Dad’s grip. When he finally let me go, I rushed to Illu and rubbed my nose against him. Since I was no longer burning, I pulled him in for a tight hug and even licked over his cheek.

“I am fine,” he said, still panting. He burrowed one hoof in my mane and softly petted me. “Just some spicy stuff.”

I embraced him with my wings and made sure to comfort him. I had to hiss at Fertile Dessert though when she got too close for my taste!

“Here,” Mom said and offered me a pinch of some yellowish creamy thing she took out of Fertile Deserts hoof. It looked like mustard. “That will help Illu. Rub it on his tongue and he will be fine.”

I did as I was told and soon his panting became slower and he stopped crying. I had to make sure he was well cuddled and kept safe though!

While I was occupied with that, Mom dared to come closer and lay a hoof on my head. She didn’t get between me and Illu though, so I didn’t pay her much mind. I warningly hissed without looking at her though when she pulled my head back from Illu a bit to put something on the small bump I had on the side of my head.

Speaking of which, I had to hiss and growl a few times more when different creatures, except for my brothers, approached me, but everytime they did, Illu demanded my attention with a little whimper or his cute batpony ‘eeeing’. It was adorable. He sometimes focused on my parents though, which I disliked. Though, for some reason, he started to purr all of a sudden after exchanging a look with them. The adorability had been doubled! He was bad at it, but it didn’t matter, it was sweet, so I purred back. I didn’t even put Rapt Glance in his place when he came back and, with a lowered stance, approached us to apply more pastelike stuff to my head and even stung me with a… needle, I guess?

Roary pointed out that we were needed at the fight, but Calmly and I were steady on our opinion that our mate needed us more. Roary wasn’t one-hundred percent in agreement with this assessment, but kept his protests to a minimum. He agreed that our mate was most important after all.

“So, what happens now?” Kindling wondered.

“Depends on her,” Rapt Glance answered. “Normally, I would suggest one or two nights of good rest and an avoidance of any stressful activities.” He sighed. “But that’s off the table for the moment.”

“It’s not like we can just pull back from the fight and restart all over again in a day or two,” Fertile Desert agreed. “She has to claim that other azure before we can have a rest, maybe even beat that second army out there too.”

“Fiery isn’t in any condition to lead her merriment at the moment,” Mom said. Her luck I wasn’t actively listening to her nonsense. Otherwise I would have hissed that out with her!

“Is Bliz able to claim that other azure instead of Fiery?” Mom inquired.

Rapt Glance and Fertile Desert just shrugged. I mean, even I didn’t know. But I had the feeling it wouldn’t work that way. The honor of claiming another leader seemed to be my duty, not hers.

They still discussed that topic when something small approached us, floating low over the ground in our direction.

“Rythil is coming back,” Illu pointed out.

I pulled a snout at him spending any of his attention on such a trivial event instead of focusing on me, but, well, he may have a point in being careful of our surroundings.

“Brave noodle that he is,” I confirmed before snuggling Illu again. I even granted Rythil a nod when he landed next to us due to his earlier act of bravery.

“Fortuna be praised, you are safe,” he started, but got cut short by my warning hiss when he tried to drag my or Illu’s attention away from each other. He may be a brave noodle, but there were limits to what I would tolerate.

“Uhm…” he voiced, taking one of his tiny steps back out of confusion of why I was acting the way I was.

“She isn’t thinking straight at the moment,” Mom stated and pulled him away from us. She gestured something to him and he replied with an understanding ‘ohh’.

They murmured for a while while I played with my batfriend’s irresistible earfluff and tested the softness of his fur and competed with him in purring. I clearly won that one, but couldn’t ‘eeh’ like he could.

I was considering taking Illu to our carriage or maybe one of the few tents that were set up, you know, for ‘cuddling’ but for some strange reason, he showed resistance when I made attempts at pushing him in their general direction.

“Fiery,” he said in a cuddly yet slightly helpless tone.

I rubbed my cheek against his throat. “Yes?” I was still trying to push him in the right direction, this time with my weight.

“Hey, I thought you liked to be cuddled,” he said, trying to push my snout back a bit and lifting himself so I had a harder angle to push him at.

“Cuddling sounds wonderful,” I replied flirtatiously. “Cuddling sounds most wonderful,” I clarified, nibbling on his shoulder, growling lustfully.

He chuckled nervously. Lovely shy batpony he is! I told you how much I love him for that! At this point, my tail was wiggling most happily behind me. I had also increased my pushing, nearly tipping him over in the process.

“Uhm, a little help over here?” Illu requested, even more nervously.

I wondered what that was for, but of course, tried to help him by lifting my snout higher to get a better angle at pushing him.

That was when I heard Mom cursing under her breath, and a second later, my tail was pulled forcefully back. I hissed loudly, turned around, and struck through the air with a claw. A clear warning to my Mom to leave my tail alone! I also flared my wings when she let go, marking my territory! When she stepped back, I growled and turned back to Illu.

“Imagine someone pulling me away from you by force,” Dad said with a chuckle, rubbing his head against Mom while approaching Illu and me. “You should know better, Fluffy,” he added, placing a kiss on Mom’s head. “I will handle this.”

He was already making an attempt at acting on his words, but Illu stopped him with a hoof.

“I would prefer if she wouldn’t burst into flames while I am cuddling her,” he worriedly stated.

“It would also burn off the paste,” Fertile Desert added.

“I can either pick her up from you, risking you getting some sparks falling down on you, or,” Dad grinned, “you can discuss that with her, privately, in one of the tents.” He let his words linger in the air with an approving snort.

“Big Softy!” Mom sharply said.

“It’s nothing they wouldn’t do anyway,” Dad replied.

“Not when there is a battle raging on!”

“Uhm,” Rapt Glance cleared his throat. “Also, it would count as stressful activities, which she should avoid for the time being.”

Now Dad chuckled. “I think you are right, Fluffy.” He kissed her again. “Alright, Fiery, come on,” he stepped next to me and ignored my warning growl. “You need to win the battle first, then you can snuggle your batfriend.”

I think it should be obvious that I didn’t share his opinion.

“Remember the paste!” Fertile Desert shouted when Dad made an attempt to grab me.

He snorted. “You guys need to decide what you want.” He paused his attempt to grab me. “Fluffy, what do you think? Pick her up and burn the paste, or, let her vanish with Illu into one of the tents and allow her to skip the battle entirely?”

“She is not in any condition to lead the battle anyway,” Mom sighed. “And she can’t just, well, you know,” she pointed at one of the tents, “do that while her merriment is fighting and that other azure is roaming around.” She placed a hoof on her temples. “Alright, pick her up, cuddle it out with her and then we have to reapply adding the paste again.”

“Wait!” Kindling piped up before approaching me and Illu. When he got to us, he pulled one of Illu’s wings open and inspected the membrane. I pulled a snout and tried to push him back with a wing. Little brother or not, Illu and I were up to something and Kindling wasn’t part of the plan.

“Eh!” He complained and used his own wing to push mine out of his face. “Fiery!” He complained. “You allow your batfriend’s wing to look like this?” His tone was clearly accusatory. “Look how dirty they are! Shame on you for neglecting your batfriend this much!”

“What?” I yelled, moving closer to give Illu’s wings a better look myself.

“Hey, my wings are not…” Illu started, but was interrupted when Kindling kicked his leg. They exchanged a quick look. “I mean, uhm, I didn’t want to say anything,” he completed his sentence a little bit ashamed.

I whimpered. How dare I! Here I was going to claim another Azure-kirin and my batfriends wing were in a bad shape! I had to make up for that immediately!

“I am so sorry,” I whimpered. I gave Illu a kiss, licked over his cheek and then started to care for his wings. I took his wing-knuckle out of Kindlings hoof and brushed softly over his membrane with my feathers.

“And his coat too!” Kindling proclaimed, brushing over Illu’s side with a hoof. “All dusty!” He looked at me like Mom would if she was angry. He even stamped his forelegs into his sides while taking a seat.

“What shall your merriment think if they see Illu in this way, Sis! Neglecting your batfriend, what a shameful display!”

I lowered my head in shame. Roary and Calmly also urged me to take better care of my mate.

My cheeks were burning hot as I increased my efforts to care for Illu. I had to make sure he was best taken care of so that everyone could see what a good marefriend I was! Diligently, I went over his wing, and when I was going to start on his other one, I heard Mom say,” Big Softy.” When I threw a short look at Mom and Dad, I could see Mom leniently shaking her head as Dad, who had his head in her feathers, preened her. It was good to know at least Dad cared for his mate better than I did!

And so we stood there for a while, me caring for Illu and Dad for Mom. I didn’t know how much time passed, but it must have been some time since I was nearly done with Illu’s coat when Caustic Mercy showed up.

“I heard there is a problem with our chieftains mental health?” He inquired.

At first no one seemingly felt obligated to answer him, but then Rapt Glance spoke up and explained to him what happened.

Caustic Mercy threw a long look at me. Luckily, I was nearly done with caring for Illu so there was nothing I had to be ashamed of any longer!

“I see,” he said in his slow voice. “Since Lord Hades assigned me to her merriment, I think it is in his interest if I take care of this.” He pulled out his staff and approached me.

“You can help her?” Rapt Glance asked, doubtful. “This seems more like a medical issue than a theological one.”

“Indeed, it would fall, under normal circumstances, under the influence of Lady Psyche to care for the mind of creatures. However, since Lord Hades cares for the souls of the dead, he as well has some influence over the mind of mortals.” He stopped when I gave him a warning growl to not intervene in my caring for Illu. “That is, if it is in his interest to help.”

“Fortuna will not be pleased if you mess something up with her godchild,” Rythil warned, floating next to Caustic Mercy. “If you harm her, it could cause damage to the harmony in the pantheon of gods.”

“Lord Hades doesn’t care nor fear the reactions of other gods to his doings,” Caustic Mercy stated. “He caused me to be here, where I may be of use. And I will do the best I can to fulfill whatever seems to be his will.”

“You will not survive doing my daughter any harm,” Dad made clear. He had pulled his head out of Mom’s wing and was now standing between Caustic Mercy and me. “If you help her, fine.” He then lowered his head so it would be level with the priest. “If you do any harm to her, I will send you right back to your god.”

“If that is my fate for my lack of ability to keep the kirins of my village in awe of Lord Hades… so be it.” He walked around Dad and lowered his head before me. “Chieftain. It seems to be the will of Lord Hades that I am here at the right time to help you with your injury. I will try to cure you now.”

“So you can care better for Illu of course!” Kindling piped up. “You need to be in your best shape to properly care for him! You don’t want to neglect him out of carelessness again, do you, Sis?”

I stopped the growl that had started to form in my throat, lowered my tail again and exchanged a look with my little brother and my batfriend. “Uhm, of course not!” I held my head high and stepped over to Caustic Mercy. “I do everything for my mate! I am the best marefriend after all!”

“Of course you are, Sis!” Kindling confirmed with a smile.

For some reason, some of the present creatures giggled.

Caustic Mercy nodded again before starting some sort of prayer. I had heard him preach to my swamp-kirins before, so I was quite used to his strange choice of words and way of preaching. Rythil had a much more friendly and warm-hearted way of preaching if I was being honest…

Though, by the end of his preaching, my head momentarily felt kind of dizzy. And after that, it felt as though a veil was being lifted from my mind. I placed a claw on my head.

“Does anycreature else feel a bit dizzy?” I asked.

“I don’t,” Illu replied, rubbing his nose against mine. “Are you okay?”

“Hmm?” I wondered, and looked around into the curious faces of the assembled creatures. “Of course I am. Though,” I gave Illu a kiss, “Despite how tempting the idea is, could you keep your hooves to yourself for a moment while I go and claim that other azure? Afterwards, there is more than enough time for cuddling,” I added.

With a mix of laughter and shame, Illu pulled his hoof back from my flank where it had accidentally moved to. Silly him! Lovely silly him. I smiled widely. “I am looking forward to the celebration later.” I added another kiss on his nose. “So what are we waiting for? You wanted me to be patched up. Now I am! Let us get back to the battle!”

“Chieftain,” Caustic Mercy spoke up. “Be aware that the help of Lord Hades is limited time wise. Before the sun sets today, you should achieve your goal.”

“I will keep that in mind.”

Author's Note

Yay! It is finnaly here! Took a while, but, this time my editor was on vacation and I also had to wait a bit for the extra inchapter artwork, still worth it! I hope you enjoyed the silly events between Fiery and Illu as much as my helpers!

Also in other news, Schatten is currently working on an audiodrama for the first book!
Yep you read right, if nothing goes wrong , at some point we will have a audioversion of my first book from this series🐲

As you may have noticed found a new artist, Lightmare, via one of the MLP discord servers around the web.

I am looking forward to hear from you what you think of the chapter and the new art, till then, have a great day!🐉

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Edits: My friend Schattendrache
Pre- read : QueenChrysalisForever
Artist: Lightmare