Failure, Eternally Retold, Part Three: Morality

Fluttershy carried the sun stone in her wing. Not having anything to wrap it in to keep it safe, she had to carry it outright. She couldn't even place it in one of Kai's cloak pockets because he wasn't wearing it anymore. Not that she was in the mood to right now.

"I'm not angry," she said, turning to him. "I'm mostly just disappointed. I don't condone your actions. Why would you do such a thing?"

Kai shrugged. "I was scared. They offered to kill Nik and end this whole conflict. I didn't want you to be hurt."

Fluttershy was shocked. "You told them where we were!?"

"No!" Kai took a deep, trembling breath. "I did what I did to make sure that they couldn't follow me back to you. I absolutely feel awful because of my actions, but I also regret that they were necessary. If I could do it all over again with the knowledge I have now, I'd have flown faster and not stopped to drink from the stream. I would catch up with you sooner, and they wouldn't have found us. I don't want any more hurt, I just want to keep you safe."

There was a brief pause before Fluttershy placed her hoof on his shoulder. "Do you really mean that?"

Kai looked around. "If I were lying, everypony in here would have snapped at me."

"A lie is a black hole," scowled one of the ponies nearby, standing and walking toward them, "growing deeper and deeper, turning blacker and blacker, swallowing anypony who happens to stumble into it. Then when all are consumed by it; friends, loved ones, family all, do you know what happens!?" At this point, he was centimetres from Kai's face, glaring into his eyes.

"What?" squeaked Fluttershy, a bit scared of what he might do to Kai.

The pony turned to her. "It morphs into a great, black beast. It then turns on its creator, and devours him, as well." He turned and walked away. "Or her."

Kai took another deep breath. "We should be on our way. We need to go back to our friends so we can move on."

"Right, we need to move. We need to go to the hidden haven."

At the mention of the hidden haven, all eyes were on them, leering through their eyebrows. In mere seconds, they surrounded them, demanding answers over each other before being silenced by the unicorn that had led them up the spire in the first place. As he stepped forward, he wore the nastiest look on his face Fluttershy had ever seen. "What is all this nonsense about going to the hidden haven?"

Kai stood up a bit taller and placed himself between Fluttershy and the others. "It was a mistake for you to have heard that. We have no quarrel with you, and we would like that to stay as it is. You should let us pass, and be on with your day."

The tension in the room had grown so much that even the lightest breeze would immediately turn into bedlam. It took all of Fluttershy's willpower not to turn and run away.

"Why would anypony with good in their hearts ever want to travel to the hidden haven?" asked the unicorn, beginning to circle them. "Unless, of course, you are the sort of deceitful scum that feels joy in spreading evil throughout the land."

Kai matched his pace, shielding Fluttershy from the unicorn. "If I were a deceitful liar, as you believe me to be, you would have picked up on it right away. Isn't that something you and your ilk can do; detect lies?"

"That is most certainly true," he smiled, still scowling. "However, I cannot possibly know what little tricks you might use to fool us more noble and good ponies."

"I haven't told a single lie since I came in here."

"I believe you have."

"And what lie do you believe I've told?"

"You haven't told us why you are going to the hidden haven."

"Our business there is of no concern to you."

As the unicorn's hoof slapped across Kai's face, Fluttershy took a terrified step back, and was immediately grabbed by one of the acolytes. She shrieked in shock, and Kai caught it out of the corner of his eye. Before he could stop himself, he burst backward, driving his hoof into the face of the mare that had grabbed her. That action sent the whole room into chaos, with the sunburnt, off-white ponies of all varieties descending on them, with intent to capture.

Kai grabbed Fluttershy and pushed her toward the door. "Go, go!" he urged, his horn blasting out energy to clear a path for her. She nodded, running as fast as she could toward the door that would take her outside. She barely managed to dodge blasts of fire from the unicorns, bolting left and right when she could feel them coming. She would have closed her eyes if she didn't need to see where she was going.

She slid into the hallway, her hooves skidding as she turned and ran toward the door she came in from. She looked back to see Kai following behind her, merely tripping up the ponies chasing them, slamming them into the walls and kicking their hooves out from under them.

She turned forward just in time to see two armored ponies with spears advancing on her from the other end of the hallway. Her eyes went wide as a bolt of lightning arced from behind her, around her body, striking one of the armored ponies in the chest and knocking him off his hooves. Though she very likely saw it, she had no idea what happened to the other guard.

As soon as she was outside, the sun stone fell to her hoof as she took to the sky as swiftly as she could. She squeezed her eyes shut and just flew as fast as she could manage.

"I'm right behind you!" called Kai from somewhere behind her. "Just keep going!"

Kai was actually not very close behind her, staying back a bit to deflect any spells aimed at her. He'd made it out and into the air, but he'd taken the brunt of the damage, and was significantly slowed by the damages he'd sustained. As soon as he was certain that Fluttershy was clear, and he noted that she was flying in the right general direction, he was hit by a burst of flame from the sand. His vision blurred, his body went numb, and he collapsed into the hot sand, skidding to a stop.