Xavier shirked into the alleyway, darkness covering him as he watched the train station entrance area. The peppermint mare that had given him so much trouble before was dragging as much of the outdoor furniture from surrounding restaurants as she could to cover her storefront, having already closed the display windows. Suddenly, a large brick careened through a window to her left, startling both the mare and the human watching. Xavier looked up to see a turquoise and yellow Griffin, laughing with delight before she took off, with the bookstore manager magically carrying a trashcan of her own and giving chase.

“Looks like she had problems well before I showed up,” Xavier grunted and shook his head. He changed directions and looked down the other end of the street. A diamond dog smashing into the display at Ferdinand’s, grabbing what lingerie they could and fleeing. A bakery where the mares that worked it were throwing uncooked dough out the door to hit rioters. Two Pegasi were distracting a unicorn as a Dragon rolled her pretzel stall away. Then, deftly avoiding raw dough, Xavier saw Twilight weaving. She kept to the side. Soon she slowed down and stopped outside the bookstore, and looked around. The human hissed at the mare three times before grabbing a pebble and throwing it. Xavier winced as he realized his aim was off and squarely hit Twilight on the neck.

“What the-” the mare turned to Xavier’s direction and saw him. Pivoting on her hooves, she made a mad dash to him as he retreated deeper into the alleyway.

“Why did you hit me?” Twilight snorted.

“I was just trying to get your attention,” Xavier approached the exit to the alleyway and looked down the thoroughfare.

“You could have tried shouting,” Twilight said as she looked behind her. “I doubt they’re selling tickets…”

“Yeah, well, it’s not my fault that this place erupted into discord,” Xavier grunted. “Are there any train stations on the outskirts of the city?”

“Not that I know of, though we could try leaving through the west exit,” Twilight muttered.

“I have a feeling that it’s just going to get worse for us if we try to go through the city again.”

“Well, we could follow the rails,” Twilight nervously said as she looked up at the human. “If we follow the railroad northward, we should eventually hit a road that leads from here to Trotston.”

“Trotston?” Xavier glanced down at Twilight before returning his gaze to the rioting streets.

“It’s about 16 km west of the city. First stop if you were leaving here towards the kingdom’s interior,” Twilight gulped. “But since it’s part of the Manehatten Metropolitan border, when the city seceded, they seceded as well, so you should have free rein to move about. However, as we go further west…”

“I understand the dangers. Anything else?” Xavier remarked without looking down.

Twilight backed up for a bit and inspected the human her song bound to her. She could see he had a fresh cut on his cheek and was now wearing wireframe glasses. The maw of facial hair that wasn’t unlike an ill kept stallion had been sliced off, revealing skin and the facial structure that was hidden behind it. What had been a greasy, tangled mane was now cut nearly to the scalp, though with slightly uneven red patches. He suddenly shifted his head and eyes towards her and asked, “Well?”

Twilight blinked and then shook her head, “The only other thing is that if they catch me with my cutie mark, I doubt that will stop them from trying to extradite me.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got an entire array of colors in my backpack. Pentimento right?”

“Yeah,” Twilight poked her head out onto the street, trying to get a good look at what Xavier was seeing. “Wait, hang on, how did you ge-”

“There is a stationery shop near the entrance to the train station, I need to stop by there,” Xavier said as he started securing his bag’s straps.

“I doubt that we’ll be able to buy anything,” Twilight puffed out.

“Who said anything about buying?” Suddenly, Xavier started running, and Twilight took a step back before realizing what was going on. Quickly checking both ways, she galloped, quickly catching up to Xavier.

“You can’t just pillage what you want, these are pony’s livelihoods at stake!” Twilight tried to hiss, but it only came out as a loud exhalation.

“Oh yes, I can,” Xavier answered without missing a beat. “That’s the beauty about riots, everyone gets the five-finger discount.”

“Five-finger discount?” Twilight asked as the two proceeded deeper and deeper into the thoroughfare. Xavier nearly stumbled on protruding cobblestone before catching his balance and pushing forward. Soon the two found a small, narrow alley store, with a large sign saying stamps sold here. The interior was empty, and dark as Xavier tried to push the door open. Finding resistance, Xavier backed up for a moment, steadying himself.

“See, the doors locked,” Twilight sighed with relief. “Come on, let’s get out of here,” Twilight turned away before her ears pivoted back, the sound of breaking glass raising her withers. She twisted to see that the human had kicked the side window with his cloak covering his left foot, then bent forward as his bound arms snaked along the interior. Two clicks and the sound of sliding metal later, Xavier propped the door open and entered.

“Stop that! Listen to me!” But her commands fell on deaf ears as the human was already inside and examining vials of ink, checking the bottom of each of them before stopping, and undoing his bag. Twilight watched as he unzipped a pocket and slid an entire shelf full of vials into the side of his backpack before zipping it closed.

“Why do you need that much ink? What are you even doing?! We need to get out of here before it gets worse out-”

“Ooohh…” The human slid around the postcards and into the back and stared at a glass case full of parchment. “Don’t mind if I do,” Xavier said as he picked up the case and dropped it on the floor, shattering the glass around it and exposing the parchment to air.

Twilight’s pupils narrowed as she watched Xavier bent over and, with little care, roll as much parchment as he could. He made a giant, uneven scroll and stuffed it into his backpack, throwing out rolls of baby unicorn wrappings to make room.

“Want any for your saddlebag?” Xavier pointed at the remains of the stack.

Twilight took three steps back, watching with horror, and then shook her head, “Xavier, this isn’t right!”

“If it wasn’t us, it was going to be someone else,” Xavier answered as he hefted his backpack back on and tightened the straps. “That or it would be consumed by fire. Think of this less as theft and more like a salvage operation.”

“You don’t know that!” Twilight’s horn glowed for a second before a tiny black arc reminded her what was still there. “It could have been just fine being left alone!”

“Let’s check the register, I wasn’t able to get the canvas or food, but if where we’re going has healthy commerce, we can pick stuff up there,” Xavier glided past the unicorn and back behind the counter. Using his arms to pick up the register, the human froze, staring at where the register had sat atop of.

“There’s an indent on the counter… huh.”

Xavier tossed the register onto the floor, letting gravity work its magic. The register popped open, the sound of its internal spring dying as it revealed only a small amount of money. But Xavier was kneeling down behind the counter, sticking his arm in one of the cabinets, he shifted around until a click rang out throughout the shop. Then, standing back up, the human’s eyes widened as he held a scant few sheets of parchment in his hand.

“Phoenix Parchment…” he muttered. He placed it on the countertop and quickly unbound his hand. Twilight lifted her left leg at the sight of his bare hands, scarred with those thin lines. The lines almost glimmered as he laid his appendage atop of the parchment, slowly rubbing it from side to side with his eyes closed. Then, shaking his head, he found a sleeve and slipped the phoenix parchment in, carefully stowing it away in his backpack.

“Xavier,” Twilight’s voice broke. “Please stop.”

But the human paid no mind to Twilight as he bent over the busted register and picked the bits up, not even bothering to count as he stuffed it into his pockets.

Twilight took six steps back even further from the human as her eyes began to get wet, “This, you can’t,” she stuttered and stumbled over herself until finally, “Why?”

Xavier turned to look at the mare that was just staring at him, her cheeks trembling, barely holding back the ocean that lay beneath. Xavier stopped shoving bits into his pocket, looked into her eyes and simply said in a low voice, “Inter arma enim silent leges.”

“This isn’t a war! We’re not barbarians!”

“Speak for yourself,” Xavier shook his head at Twilight, and looked around the shop. Approaching the rack, ripping off a folded piece of paper, he took three steps as he approached Twilight, stopping in front of her, he knelt down to get on eye level with her. He unfolded the document, revealing a map of the northern portion of the continent, and said, “Just put the location of the Abbey on this map. Then you can go home. No one has to know what happened the last few days. If they push, just tell them it was a false positive.”

Twilight took a step back as she recoiled, the human got up and grabbed a cheap pencil from a counter and laid it on the map, retreating away. The mare looked down at the upside down world that lay before her, with familiar names such as Canterlot, Ponyville, and Manehattan. She looked up at the human, trying to gain any piece of information she could from his visage. But he remained as a stone, his arms were twin snakes, twisting around each other and unmoving.

“I took the oath…”

“This is who I am,” Xavier said. “I don’t waste opportunities like this, I can’t afford to.”

“But you have to be better than this!” Twilight yelled. “We resonate!”

“Why?” Xavier said, rebinding his hand. “Did you expect a fairy tale ending? Or are you worried about what your magic blackbox’s selection says about you?”

“I don’t steal! I don’t destroy other ponies’ livelihoods! I don’t treat a riot where everypony could get hurt as Nightmare Night, only instead of candy, it’s chunks of poni’s hard work and lives you are taking!” Twilight’s eyes widened as panic filled her face. She looked around the partially pillaged shop and started gasping for air.

“Just the ponies huh, fuck the other species, are you really so conceited that it’s only ponies that this riot will affect?” Xavier narrowed his eyes.

“Don’t attack me with an Ad Equusinem!” Twilight snapped, her staggered breathing ceasing.

“This isn’t a fucking debate!” screamed Xavier. “This isn’t an academic situation where you and your fellow unicorns in Canterlot’s ivory towers can postulate the ethics of one’s behavior in the middle of chaos, then chuckle about it as you retire for the evening to your 12-course dinner! This is reality, Twilight Sparkle! The game is bigger than one pony’s shop, or 100, or even 10,000! We are going to be diving straight into Terra, no, Equus Incognito! We need every advantage we can get! If you can’t handle that, you need to tell me where the Abbey is and leave. Now.”

“I, I, but I took an Oath!”

“Oaths are just words. And words are cheap.”

“Not to me,” Twilight looked at Xavier with fury, walking over and kicking the pencil away from the map.

“When all this is said and done, you do realize that you might have to do more than just vandalize a tourist trap, right?” Xavier said as he walked forward, bending over and folding up the map before stuffing it in another one of his vast array of pockets.

“And when this is all said and done, I’ll show you a better way,” Twilight verbally nipped Xavier as she walked past him and out the door.

Twilight sat outside the stationery shop. Her ears folded back as she listened to the sound of breaking wood and cracking glass. While her ears kept her charge within hearing distance, her eyes were scanning the scene. From the distance, she could see several plumes of smoke emanating from the city skyline as the sounds of metal being bent came from the other side. She watched as one mare rolled a giant casket of ale from the side of a pub, while a buffalo and diamond dog were at the street corner, frantically looking around. The buffalo took off one way, and the diamond dog another.

“Twilight Sparkle? And with an obsidian ring?”

Twilight’s ears snapped to her right as her head jerked, and a brown Earth Mare at least twice her size slowly approached.

Twilight got up and looked at the mare, “You must have me mistaken, I’m Dusk Nightlight. And this isn’t a restraint, it’s just a-”

“Noooo no no no, I saw you once,” the mare said, her eyes narrowing. “And I know what an obsidian ring is, despite your piss poor attempts at hiding it behind your bangs.”

Twilight’s front left leg lifted to the base of her skull on instinct, then her eyes widened as she looked back at the approaching mare.

“When I worked as a teamster in Canterlot, I saw you once. I remember those eyes, those violet eyes,” she said, slowly approaching.

“I’m s~sorry,” Twilight uttered. “You must have me mist-”

“There’s no mistake about it, Twilight,” the mare glowered. “I was helping bring corn into the royal kitchen, and you were down there, screaming at the chef for serving you a quesadilla for your lunch. ‘Why would you send this to me for lunch! I was having a meeting with the princess! Do you know how embarrassing this is!’. Yeah, I remember you,” the earth mare spat.

Twilight’s eyes widened.

“Well, well, well… Decided to join the festivities? That would make sense, a degenerate like you would be out here causing mayhem. Just like the terror you caused that kitchen,” the mare said. “Though if that’s what I think it is, you’re quite powerless,” the mare kept walking forward, lowering her head and snaking along the ground.

Twilight backed off, despite the earth pony having lowered her head, she still seemed to tower above the purple unicorn. A light brown coat topped with dark brown mane, she had a scar that crawled from the top left of her temple, across her snout and tapering off near the neck.

Don’t look at the store. She’ll know. I’ve got to lead her away, if she knows who’s in there, she’ll use him as leverage. As lead mare, I’ve got to protect him! Twilight turned and walked away from the store. The mare followed as she carefully turned the corner. Twilight backed up into an alleyway with the dead-end, not 7 meters from the entrance of the stationery store. The earth mare pursued slowly, her blue, steely gaze like some predator about to pounce as she turned, her bright blue eyes focused on the unicorn.

“I wonder what the reward is for catching banished ponies and returning them to kingdom authorities?” the mare said when Twilight suddenly stood upright and lowered her head, showing her horn front and center. “At least 100,000 bits I reckon. I’ll be able to live off that for life.”

“We’re not in kingdom territory…” Twilight growled out.

“I doubt the kingdom would believe you, now if–” the earth mare was interrupted by Twilight, stamping her front hose down and pivoting, her retracted rear legs suddenly face first in front of the stranger. The earth mare’s head shot up, then like a spring, Twilight let loose, slamming the mare in the chest.

The assailant flew back a few feet, her eyes wide with surprise and a quick smirk about her mouth. Shaking her head, she turned to her victim and said, “That’s a lot of strength from a unicorn so small. But I’ve taken worse hits from smaller.” the mare said as she stabilized herself and continued her slow approach.

Twilight clenched her jaw, she prepared again. She shot another buck, only this time, she missed. The enemy lowered their head beneath her kick, then slammed it against Twilight’s abdomen. Letting out a wheeze, Twilight tumbled over and hit a brick wall.

“Element of magic, let me give you a hint, you may have surprised me once, but you won’t be surprising me a second time,” the earth mare said as she started stomping Twilight with her front legs.

Twilight bucked against the ground, missing the earth mare’s first hoof, but not the second. It slammed into her saddlebag, right in over the rib cage, but Twilight twisted, forcing it to slide off and hit the ground. The purple unicorn rolled herself up only to rear up, flicking her front hooves at her foe.

The earth mare followed suit and reared as well. She towered above Twilight as she shot one of her front hooves out, trying to provide her ample space when the earth mare collapsed on her, dark brown mane flashing above. Her hoof glanced, but connected with Twilight’s snout, as her head twisted with the impact. Then the world became a blur, the force of the hit reverberated, echoing throughout Twilight’s body. Twilight’s front hooves were forced to the ground as the rest of her followed suit. The immense strength of the Brown Earth Mare’s hit punished the Purple Unicorn.

Finally catching her wits, Twilight instinctually turned to buck the earth mare again, only for her enemy to snap back. The enemy’s right hoof caught Twilight by the neck and forced her to the ground. She rolled over and over, her saddlebag saving her from the worst as her momentum finally gave out at the dead end of the alley.

“This is for Fluffy!” the earth mare screamed as her hoof slammed against Twilight’s saddlebag. “This is for Ivory, and Lillypad you coward! Where were you when we needed you?! And this is f-” the earth mare froze as she saw the image of a cartoon sun and moon on a long, thick wrapping fluttering in front of her. The cartoon image of a blue and white baby unicorn frolicking in the field between both the celestial bodies flashed as the cloth gently enveloped her neck when suddenly she cried out in pain as her rear collapsed.

Twilight wheezed as her head turned, her eyes widened as Xavier’s knee had smashed down on the earth mare’s rear spine. His soft claws, gripping the ends of the unraveled cloth he used to cover his arms. The pony’s neck was caught in a simple twist, and not a sound came from her as her mouth reached toward the sky, trying to gasp for any air she could.

“Two choices,” Xavier said in a quiet, light voice. His left eyelid slightly drooped. “Use that amazing strength of yours and slit your own neck open trying to escape. Or let the gentle darkness take hold, and I promise you’ll find yourself safe. Death or Dreams. Make your choice.”

The mare wiggled and shot upright for a moment before her tongue fell to the side. Xavier held the cloth chain steady as she danced about, trying to free herself, holding like a rock against a storm. She struggled, reaching for the sky as Xavier held fast. Then, her eyes slowly closed as, finally, she went limp. Xavier loosened his twist as he quickly grabbed her, letting the mare down gently as she let out a heave, signaling she could finally breathe again.

Twilight looked at the mare, then back up at Xavier as his stone face simply looked down at the incapacitated pony. As carefully as she could, Twilight picked herself up. She could feel the cut on her snout, the bruising of her shoulder and the rest of her body where the earth mare had stomped her. Walking carefully around the still breathing body, its simple brown mane covering its face. Stepping behind Xavier, the human slowly bent down and reached out with his gloved hand, touching the hostile mare’s slowly expanding and contracting rib cage in a haggard manner. Twilight turned around to have a look at her surroundings. In the distance, more and more denizens showed up, and began raiding various outlets. Blood flung from Twilight’s snout as she shook her head and circled back in front of Xavier.

“Three rainbows with smiley faces,” the human said in a hushed whisper.

Twilight saw the once stoic face slightly frowning, his left eyelid still slightly drooping, halfway closed as he stared at her assailant. Glancing down at what he was looking at, she could see he was talking about the mare’s brand.

Xavier rose for a second, only to shift his position to behind the center of the incapacitated pony, then knelt. Laying his left gloved hand on her neck, he began to sing:

🎵When life becomes but a nightmare,

close your eyes and look north.

Watch as the Aurora comes into view.

Fall into that shimmering dream, fall,

and let the gentle lights lead you to the promised way between.🎵

The mare’s haggard breathing soothed, slowing down. Then, her muscles relaxed, before she let out a loud snore…

“What the hell must’ve happened to her, to go from that to this,” Xavier drearily intoned. He stayed still, like a statue, looking down upon Twilight’s assailant.

“‘In times of discord, the laws fall silent’,” Twilight shot at Xavier.

Suddenly, the face of a gentle human trying to comfort her assailant shot up and vanished. Its green eyes staring at the purple mare across from him as red flashed across them. He slowly lifted himself off the ground, not taking his eyes off her as his legs expanded, and his soft claws curled in towards themselves as he towered Twilight like an awakened dragon. His eyes pierced through the lavender unicorn. Twilight glared back, red flashing across her violet eyes. His lip curled, then finally he let his fists relax.

“Yahoo,” he said as he broke his gaze and turned away from both mares, heading deeper towards the train station.

The pair walked in silence past the empty ticket booths as the sound of the riot came from all directions. The two approached the train tracks and saw that someone had gone to work on them. Each of the line’s rails had been twisted and bent out of shape, like metallic tree roots sticking out of the ground.

“This way,” Twilight said as she walked towards the tunnel, her ears pointed ahead.

Xavier followed her in silence, only taking a moment to adjust the straps on his backpack, and to fully tuck in his bindings. Both parties jumped to the ground and stayed on the far right of the rails, moving through the dark, foreboding archway. The two went in deeper, and deeper. The sounds of flapping wings zoomed above them as they glimpsed three Pegasi rushing past them, going to manage mischief somewhere else. Next they passed a Human and a Dragon digging alongside the tracks. They froze, staring at the two as they passed on by, watching with intensity as the duo disappeared into the tunnel. Further down, they came across a small herd of ponies. The stallion was wrapping a blue Earth Mare’s head in bandages as a Unicorn and Pegasus mare formed a perimeter around them, with three foals sandwiched between them and the wounded pony.

“Mom, maybe they can hel-” one of the colt’s tried to say before one of the two mares let out a “Shhh”, keeping her eyes on Twilight and Xavier.

Twilight froze, lifting her leg and turning her head towards the herd, “Did you need an-”

“Keep moving purple stuff,” the pegasus mare growled. “And take that flat-faced freak with you.”

Twilight let out an exhausted breath and walked past the herd, the human following close behind. Soon, a tiny light glowed. And as they walked, it grew bigger and bigger as the two finally exited the tunnel and into the wilderness. Veridian trees running alongside the railway’s path, their destination as stationary as the ground beneath them.

Twilight looked up and saw clear skies, not a hint of cloud or a wisp of water vapor to be seen. Looking back, she could see more pillars of smoke emanating from the city, while there were several dots in the distant skyline, zooming around one another. Finally catching the sun’s location, she determined that there were still hours of daylight left, but not enough to get to their destination.

She turned to look at her Eques, and saw that he was taking in the sights. Every few moments, his head would shift direction, not focusing on any one spot for too long. Twilight opened her sore snout to say something, before closing and turning away. Shining would know what to do… Twilight thought as she pushed forward.

The orange prelude of night covered the skies as Twilight laid, tucking her front legs inward and watching the human gather sticks and tinder. She watched him assemble the stack of wood into a conical shape before putting a tiny log underneath it. Kneeling down, he took a sturdy stick and placed some kindling in one of the naturally occurring deformities of a busted trunk, and using his limbs, rubbed his gloved hands together with the stick in the middle. Twilight raised an eye as the human kept his focus on the set-up in front of him. The quiet screech of wood rubbing against wood fell atop them for a time. He kept working at the wood, and she kept watching. Twilight was about to raise her voice when the first plume of smoke emerged. A gentle ember of light shone. Xavier put more kindling onto it, letting it glow brighter and brighter. Sliding the log beneath the cone of wood, Twilight realized that, without magic, or flint and shoe iron, the human managed to make a fire that sang with crackles and pops.

“Neat trick,” she said, watching the flames flicker and dance about.

Xavier said nothing as he collapsed his legs into a knot and sat, looking into the fire. However, the dancing flames did not reflect off his glasses. Instead his two green eyes gazed, and were lost to the blaze ahead.

A gentle breeze rolled through the campsite as Xavier said nothing. Not a twitch nor a gesture communicated. His head was tilted slightly, giving the impression that despite there being a body, one that expanded and contracted with each breath, no one was home.

The orange of the sky fell into darkness, when Xavier suddenly moved, uncrumpling himself, he reached out for his backpack and dragged it over to him. His long covered arms digging into the fat depths as he pulled a long black rod, no longer than his hand. Carefully pulling a piece of parchment from his backpack, he turned his backpack over, placed the parchment over its flat side, pressed the end of the pen into it with his fingers, and wrote. He handled the rod almost like Spike did when he first clumsily learned how to use his claws to write. Only the human seemed twice as fast as he suddenly finished, and the sound of a tiny pop crackled throughout the campsite again. He extended his index finger and reread his work. Suddenly, he turned it upside down and once again popped the pen on the parchment. What had been tight tiny strokes were now replaced with long flowing movements, over and over again he circled the page. Then he blew on the parchment, rolled it up and chucked it into the fire. Blazing hot embers rose up as it twisted into themselves three times before dispersing to the wind.

“That’s phoenix parchment, right…?” Twilight asked as she watched Xavier, beginning to put his equipment away. “Could you…”

Xavier’s head turned and looked at Twilight. She let out a snort as her ears folded back, “I know you’re not happy right now, but I would deeply appreciate it if you would write for me a letter.”

“This is from the haul from the stationery shop, you sure you want to dirty your hooves with that?”

Twilight turned away and looked into the forest, and snorted, “It’s not like we can go back and just return it now, right?”

Xavier blinked, then turned and pulled back out the long, narrow pen and re-equipped himself with it. Pulling another parchment, he once again took his position and nodded to Twilight, who exhaled deeply.

“Spike, take a note.”

The Eques froze, his gaze slowly lifted from the parchment he had prepared and up towards Twilight.

“Oops, sorry,” Twilight glanced away in embarrassment.

The human returned his gaze towards the parchment and Twilight dictated, until suddenly, the human spoke up.

“You’re almost out of room,” he grunted.

Twilight blinked for a moment after being pulled out of her dictating trance, “Right, just tell him I love him very much and will try to get back in contact with him as soon as possible.”

The human quickly scribbled the request and picked himself up, walked over to Twilight and showed her the parchment, “Review it.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t need you getting paranoid that I wrote something different,” Xavier narrowed his eyes.

Twilight blinked before she read it. His penmanship was excellent, each word having no trouble being read.

“Looks good,” Twilight said, turning away from the human. Xavier folded it 3 times, then tossed it into the orange inferno. Another plume of embers erupted, dazzling the night sky as he returned to the sitting position, putting his ill-gotten goods away and returning to watching the flame. More moments became more minutes as the screech of an owl echoed throughout the forest.

Twilight finally gave out a sigh and said, “I’ll take first watch.”

Xavier’s eyes shifted from the flame to the mare. Emerald eyes that drank in everything that came into view. The navy blue sky shimmered across the heat of the fire as the scent of burning wood and nettle enraptured their senses. She could feel herself being studied, from top to bottom, side to side. She frowned, looked away from the human and shifted, worried. A small voice in her whispered that he was trying to find some defect, or deficiency within her.

Then his legs unfolded and pushed into the grass surrounding the dry patch of dirt that the fire stood center of, the bottom of his strangely covered feet digging into the earth. Moving his backpack, he adjusted it and laid his head atop it. His eyes closed, and as he adjusted, his closed eyes were replaced with the reflection of fire dancing on his glasses.

Exhaling, Twilight looked up at the night sky and looked at what stars she could see. She saw the great constellation of Glad, passing judgment over Skinfaxi and Hrímfaxi while they tried to trap the seven colors of the rainbow. She saw Hengroen trying to hide, only for Llamrei to find him and propose to him the first marriage. Then she noticed something was off with the night sky. Twilight tilted her head and saw that the planets Xanthos and Phlogeus were absent. Twilight shook her head, then realized that she had been in the bright light of the city for so long, she had failed to keep track of the bodies of Luna’s night sky. Looking up again, she finally found one planet: Arion, directly overhead and in front of the star Sewell, both twinkling and bright, surrounded by the stars of the night sky.

A gentle breeze tussled Twilight’s bangs. She rolled over into the grass and grunted before another breeze rolled over her. Her right ear perked up at the sound of something nearby, something in melody. Slowly opening her eyes, the shade of the morning sun covered her as she carefully let her eyes adjust. Rolling right side up, she looked around and discovered that her eques was missing. Blinking once or twice, she jumped up and scanned the area before once again her ears alerted her to the music only a canter away.

Keeping her head low, she followed the music, quickly climbing up a nearby hill and reaching its precipice. And slightly below was her Eques, singing, his two limbs to his side as he faced a grove of trees and ahead: the blue morning sky.

“What are you,” Twilight said. The music suddenly ceased, the human’s head snapping to face her. “What are you doing?”

“Singing.”

“I know that, but why?” she asked as she lifted her front leg to wipe the solids from her eye.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Xavier said.

“Try me.”

The human turned, slowly this time. He glanced up at Twilight as she adjusted herself to the morning stiffness in her legs, “A long time ago, if you were a Pegasus or a Griffin, before taking a journey of any sort, one might sing to the wind for its blessing. Or at the very least, to ensure it didn’t decide to turn your trip into an odyssey.”

“And you’re expecting the wind to give us trouble?” Twilight raised an eye.

The human said nothing and simply narrowed his eyes at Twilight. He stood unmoving, even as the wind currents rushed past him, tussling the clothes he wore.

“Whatever…” Twilight said as she turned away and headed back towards camp.

Her eques lowered his gaze and returned to the horizon of trees ahead of him. Coughing twice, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The pine trees ahead of him all swayed in motion with the air currents passing through them. Exhaling, he breathed in and out. In. And out. Opening his eyes, he once again stretched out his arms as he began to sing.

Author's Note

Stratovarius - Hunting High And Low