Dreamwalker's Tale: Last (!) Adventure

Being a prisoner was not too bad, so far. I was decently sure that it would have been an entirely different story had Luna not been present, but with her initial demonstration of power, the jailor left us alone, the guards did not bother us either and we had peace and quiet in our little cell.

I woke up sometime in the evening, right on time for dinner. The outpost was not outfitted to hold prisoners, though. Or maybe they just did not want to share their precious supplies with us. Either way, they fed us with our own rations. Which meant more Allfood. And this time, Luna sadly could not just make a quick detour to the jungle to get something to spice things up.

Our little window allowed us to watch a small part of the night sky when Luna followed her duty and raised the moon. The jailor had become quite wary as soon as her horn sparked to life, since he had not noticed me as I removed the ring again. And his eyes grew to the size of dinner plates when he drew the right connections between the rising moon and Luna’s magic and that neat little symbol on her flank. While a part of me wanted to be smug about the fact that yes, just take a look, my companion is that powerful, she raises the freaking moon! Another part was just irked by the jailor staring at her flank, really.

Once the show was over, I placed the ring on her horn once again. She obviously did not like that. Neither did I like my ring, but they were admittedly easy enough to remove. I suspected that there were different kinds of these things. Some that would only be able to be removed via command words or something. But again: Why outfit some random little outpost in the middle of nowhere with tech like that?

After admiring the star-strutted sky for a while, snuggled against each other and in companionable silence, we retired for the night and once again found the dreamscape to be especially busy. The morning brought unwelcome sunlight directly to my face and a few minutes later our breakfast in the form of more Allfood, of course. And a guest.

The officer returned as we finished our last little morsels off. “You’re fed and awake, good,” he greeted us without much fanfare. “Step away from the bars, please.” He addressed Luna directly and after a short exchange of glances between us, we both shrugged and she complied. “Now you, step up to the cell door.”

However, I grew a little fidgety at that point. I had a bad feeling about that look in his eyes. “Why?” I heard Luna ask before I had a chance.

“I decided not to waste time until the general arrives,” the officer explained, “I don’t have high hopes of getting anything useful out of you, your highness, but I might as well interrogate him for a while.”

He spoke with such serenity that I was almost convinced that his concept of interrogation was a nice and quiet conversation over a glass of water. Maybe because of that, my eyes were drawn along the form of his body. His hands were wrapped in leather stripes. Ideal for punching without inflicting too much pain on yourself, I realized. And one of those zapping forks dangled on his belt, all too visible.

I felt her presence before my senses caught up. She stepped close to me again. No extended wing, no single glance in my direction. Just the act of stepping to my side was defiance enough. “No,” she simply stated.

The officer slightly tilted his head. “No?” he echoed. “You’re our prisoner. You don’t get a say in this.”

Even without looking up, I felt it. I knew what she was doing. That tingling sensation crawled up my spine, that faint buzzing lay in the air. She overcharged the ring again. However, she stopped barely before it exploded again. “No,” she simply reiterated.

The officer did not look too surprised. Or surprised at all. “No,” he echoed again as if he had to test the word, its taste and feel. “But you are our prisoner, are you not?” Luna did not answer this time. He simply nodded. “So that begs the question then. Are you our prisoner? Or are we yours?”

“Guess.” Luna’s reply lacked any urgency. She did not stress that single word and yet, her voice was as cold as ice and she spoke with the same certainty that a thrown stone would always fall to the ground. I had rarely heard this voice. And it never failed to give me goosebumps.

The officer still did not seem surprised whatsoever. He merely nodded instead and turned. He walked towards the door and only stopped when it was open already. He half-turned towards us again. “Your expected visitor will arrive tomorrow, your highness,” he informed us. There was restrained anger in his voice. Subtle, but noticeable. He spit his words in our direction like acrid bile, but at the same time remained quiet and civil. It was an impressive feat.

And then the door shut, with him gone. He did not slam it. He simply closed it, quietly, calmly, properly. And I could only imagine what bubbled right beneath the surface.

“She is closer than I thought,” Luna mused several minutes after the officer had left.

“Or maybe airships are faster than I thought,” I objected. She considered that and probably reached the same conclusion I did: Maybe it was a mixture of both or neither. It did not matter. Now we knew how long our stay would last. And it was not all that long. “I hope you are not too disappointed?” I asked as my eyes wandered around the barren, gray walls of the cell.

She followed my gaze and smiled despite her sigh. “It is admittedly not exactly what I had in mind. But I can work with this. We can adapt. And while my initial vision of this stretch had been significantly different, I am looking forward to this next part.”

“Meeting Tempest?” I asked.

She nodded with a distinct eagerness. I tried to be happy for her, tried to tell myself that I loved to see her excited, but her excitement had me worried on some level. And I could not tell with certainty why. Because after all, my sweet and tender Luna was not bloodthirsty... right?

Another day passed without any incidents. The officer did not return for another attempt. The jailor still remained wary of us, but dared not to even speak to us. We were stuck in our little cell and I did my best to keep Luna entertained. She was not exactly the most patient mare by nature and had always veered more on her pegasus nature than anything else. Being cooped up like this was not doing us any favors. So we played little games. I spy with my little eye was a good one. Whisper down the lane and the floor is lava were less successful. Truth or dare had been funny, but we quickly ran into issues, since she preferred to be dared and most of my ideas required more freedom of movement than this cell allowed us.

In between, we talked. We exchanged little anecdotes about observations we had made while on the train. We spitballed some theories about the nature of the ravine and why plants might refuse to grow there. I tried to keep in mind that the jailor constantly listened and probably took notes to report to his superior. Luna seemed less bothered by that, at least on a superficial level.

Night fell again and we settled on the bed for another round of whack-a-foe. I really wished I knew why the dreamscape was in such an uproar. Ever since we had started our little journey, things had been busy, busy, busy, and it was getting exhausting.

I was quite happy with me being the little spoon again and shifted ever so slightly closer to her. She sighed happily, gladly held me tighter and placed the ghost of a kiss on my horn. It tingled nonetheless and gave me a pleasant shudder. I closed my eyes and got ready to dreamwalk when we suddenly heard the door open. I cracked an eye open and peeked in the direction of the cell bars and my eyes shot open wide when I quickly realized that it was not the officer coming in again.

I scrambled to my legs, stumbled out of the bed and tried to stand firm in the middle of the room. It was both a mad dash and at the same time a hilariously futile attempt. Tempest Shadow, in all her glory, already stood there. She waited patiently

She was not quite what I had imagined. Wherever I could see her dark orchid coat, I could also see faint traces of scars betraying a life of violence and strife. Her rose-colored mane was shaped into a spiky mohawk. It made her look considerably taller and she was already quite tall. Taller than me anyway. Her opal eyes exuded indifference. The armor she wore was impressive, dark and gloomy and quite sturdy and her horseshoes looked wicked, with a bunch of little, spike-like protrusions. Getting kicked by those probably hurt a lot. Of course, the most notable feature was her horn. Or lack thereof. I had seen her memory, the moment she had lost it, which honestly helped me quite a lot not to stare. That would have been unbecoming.

But despite the colors and features matching perfectly, there seemed to be little that connected the playful young filly that ventured into the Everfree Forest with a couple of friends to the mare that stood in front of our cell. She was a fierce and cold warrior. Her analytical stare bore into my skull.

Luna slowly rose from the bed as well. She saw no reason for haste and it took a good couple of seconds until she stood by my side again.

I was not sure what to expect from Tempest. Certainly more than what I got. “Speak.”

Not an order. And certainly not an invitation or request. A prompt, at best. And Luna took her sweet time to answer, which made me believe that she simply did not intend to. “Uh… what?” I replied as I could no longer bear the oppressive silence.

Tempest's indifferent gaze shifted slightly as she focused her attention on me instead of Luna. “You invaded our territory and took over one of our outposts. I was informed that you wished to meet. Here I am. So stop wasting my time and speak.”

Although her voice was calm, there was a noticeable edge to it. As if she spoke with a foal, but insistently warned it at the same time that she explained something. However, I was more focused on her comment. We had invaded?

Well, technically, that’s true, I had to concede. And Luna did make clear that we were no prisoners, despite sticking to our cell. For just a second, I glanced up to her. I wished I could sigh freely. But I controlled myself. We had to be careful now. Careful what we said and how. Careful about what we did and what we let her see. Her indifferent demeanor made it difficult to get a proper read on her. “Well, let me start with this then,” I offered. “We are not your enemies.”

She kept a straight face. She did not even raise a single eyebrow. She simply looked over her shoulder instead, back to the door. Aside from which the officer stood waiting. Much to my surprise. I had not noticed him entering, or being there. Tempest had just such an overwhelming aura, her presence somehow filled the entire room, that it was surprisingly easy to overlook others.

“Doubtful,” she simply commented.

I sighed and with a shrug decided to ignore it. “We—“

“Who are you?” she interrupted. Her voice was still calm and evenly measured. And I ventured a guess that this might have been a conscious effort on her part to coax a reaction. It irritated me, sure. But I was not about to lose face just because she was impolite.

I offered a hopefully not too forced smile instead. “I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of Princess Luna. And I am Dreamwalker.”

Her attention shifted entirely to me again. “Rank and function.”

I furrowed my brow, but seeing as Luna did not indicate anything after several seconds, I answered as best as I could. “I’m technically a regular night guard,” I started.

“Technically?” she interrupted yet again.

I swear this will get aggravating quickly. “It’s complicated,” I replied with patience. “And I am not present as a soldier. I’m here because I’m a good smith.” I had hoped that mentioning this little fact would give her something to chew on. Something that might already clue her in as to what brought us here. After all, why bring a smith along when visiting the general of a hostile force? A general with a broken horn, no less? Luna had said that Tempest was a smart cookie. But I saw nothing of that brilliance as she seemed to disregard the information entirely. Maybe we had to get a little bit more direct. “Could we speak alone, maybe?” I asked her. After all, this conversation would probably be a bit more difficult with both the officer and the jailor present.

“Why?” she asked in turn.

“Afraid we might overpower you?” Luna spoke up for the first time. I was initially so glad that she finally decided to contribute to this conversation. So glad to hear her voice. But then her actual words registered in my head and I grimaced. What was she doing?!

If Tempest was offended, she did not show it. “Leave,” she simply instructed the other two guards, apparently firmly confident in her own abilities.

“But general—“ the jailor dared to speak up.

Her head snapped around to fix him in place with a withering glare. He shut up immediately and simply snuck out the door the officer already held open. The officer simply nodded in Tempest's direction before he closed the door behind himself. Her head turned back around and her face was once again a mask of indifference. And I slowly started to suspect that she was playing the same game Celestia played. Just that Celestia was a thousand times better at it and what Tempest wore beneath that mask was something entirely different. “Speak,” she again prompted. But this time, it did sound a little like a command.

“We hath heard thou art a valorous warrior,” Luna continued much to my dismay. Not only was she once again falling back into her old speech habits, which was already a clear sign of her mounting excitement. No, she deliberately poked Tempest, provoked her, tried to rile her up. And that was not how I had imagined this conversation.

We were not here to get her some action. But seeing how eagerly she prodded her potential opponent and tried to stir up some trouble, a few of her prior comments and behaviors made a lot more sense now. Had she been aiming for this the entire time and just left me in the dark about it? I had been under the assumption that we were here to convince Tempest, not to bludgeon her senseless and drag her helpless body off.

“Luna, no,” I quietly hissed in her direction.

Tempest furrowed her brow as she was obviously unaccustomed to Luna’s speech, but she quickly figured it out and I could already see fire rising in her eyes. A flame that struggled against the containment of her supposed disinterest. “And I heard that you are an insane monster, bent on destruction and imprisoned in the moon forever,” Tempest shot back.

This is going sideways fast, I noted with abject horror. What was I to do?

Luna merely shrugged with a wicked smile spreading across her lips. “I got better.”

Tempest subtly shifted her stance. Her hooves stood a little bit further apart to give her better footing, her muscles tensed a little, ready for a fight. “So did I,” she replied. And although she still contained it, she still controlled herself, I could hear that snarl just beneath the surface.

I stomped with a hoof onto the solid stone floor and thereby caught their attention at least for a few seconds. “A dick-measuring contest. Really? Are we really doing this right now?” I tried to chide them both. “We are here to help you!” I insisted towards Tempest.

Despite my efforts, she simply turned her attention back to Luna. “Your lap dog seems to disagree,” she noted with a faint, sharp smile.

I sighed. It was such a poor attempt. “Spare me the barbs. You can’t provoke me.” Because if push came to shove, I had an easy time to remind myself what was at stake. If we messed this up, war could come to Equestria. I had seen war. Maybe not in this life. Maybe my memories were fragmented. Maybe the distance between then and now was too large to allow me a realistic grasp on it, but even those jumbled pieces were enough to realize that it needed to be avoided at all costs.

“And what would you get from helping me?” she asked. There was no small amount of amusement in her voice now. Her mask was slipping. And I concluded that this was probably not a good sign. I had not dared to look up to Luna for a while now and I feared that she might have made faces or something like that. Anything to tip the scales in her favor.

“You leave this army,” I answered honestly. If she truly was as smart as Luna had given her credit for, then she could easily calculate the impact of this for herself. She had spent years commanding these soldiers. Enough that they had learned her language. She had made herself irreplaceable. It would cripple the Storm King’s army. If not outright throw it into chaos.

I could see the gears turning. But she just smiled in that condescending way that made me want to sigh. It would not be quite this easy then. “We should return to that ‘dick-measuring contest’ you mentioned,” Tempest remarked. “You seem to be more competent at that and at least it was entertaining.”

I wanted to scream in frustration. She was a general, was she not? Was she not supposed to care? To interrogate us, or something? To try to coax information from us? Surely this could not be her attempt at doing so, could it?

“Not as entertaining as that helpless flailing you call ‘fighting’ would be,” Luna chimed in. And while I was trying to be reasonable, she apparently decided to throw the entire damn barrel of oil into the fire. I clenched my teeth and decidedly stared a hole into the ground between my hooves, because right now, I was so close to losing my composure and lashing out.

If this was what an interrogation looked like, I had had a vastly distorted image of it until now.

I heard the telltale clinking as metal met metal and a creaking as the key turned and your cell door opened. “Step out, princess. I dare you.” Tempest's voice was as cold as ice. In no way inferior to Luna’s just a few minutes ago.

My head snapped up as I saw her legs move. “Luna?” I breathlessly asked.

She tilted her head to one side, then to the other, until a little pop could be heard. “I have been waiting for a good opportunity to let loose.”

“Is anypony even listening to me…?” I meekly asked, barely audible even to myself, while my legs were frozen in place. I panicked. Luna walked past me and I so desperately wanted to grab her. To hold her back. But I could not bring myself to move even a single muscle. She exited the cell and squared off against Tempest in the small hallway in front of it.

Don’t! But while I pleaded and begged and screamed in my head, not a single sound left my muzzle.

My head started to spin with all the possibilities. With the horror scenarios of what might follow now. And I realized too late that the tremble rising up from my hooves was another flash. Memories flooded my mind and quickly overwhelmed my sensory input. Nightmare Moon’s hooves came crashing down, splitting solid stone like it was nothing. A single, focused beam hit a pony in the chest. Silvery light enveloped the poor sod and left nothing behind but smoldering ashes. Eyes in the darkness. All-seeing. And bloody fangs tore flesh from bones.

This is not what losing control looks like, I tried to tell myself. She is gone. She was destroyed. Banished back home. Doesn’t matter. She will never, ever return!

Luna was not Nightmare Moon. Nightmare Moon was not Luna.

But Luna was immensely powerful in her own right. Nightmare Moon had merely adopted her host's powers. Maybe focused them, maybe twisted them, maybe enhanced them. But most of what she had been capable of… was already there.

I slowly managed to struggle free of the memories’ grasp. I raised my head and saw Luna’s horn glow. I closed my eyes just in time as a fine shower of shrapnel extended in all directions. The ring was broken more violently this time. Luna looked content when I reopened my eyes. Her next step was literally just that. A single step. She had exited the cell with her chains attached. We could have gotten rid of them at any point, but they had not been too much of a hindrance to really bother. Now they were. She simply dissolved. Luna switched her state of being. Her form lost its rigid shape and gained a little bit of translucence. A dark, wobbly mist, vaguely pony-shaped and eerily similar to the Tantabus. With nothing to hold onto, the chains simply fell to the ground and Luna rematerialized immediately after and grinned.

I half-expected some snappy remarks from Tempest. ‘Nice trick’, or maybe ‘That won’t save you’ or anything along those lines. But a quick glance in her direction told me that she was too focused on the approaching battle. She was not the type of fighter to quip and spout one-liners in the middle of an exchange of swings at each other. I saw cold calculations going on behind her eyes and the will to enforce brutal efficiency.

And I was afraid. I feared for Luna’s fate just as much as I feared for Tempest. This is all wrong.

The proper fight was kicked off when Tempest retrieved a small pebble of sorts from somewhere. It all happened very quickly. An attempt to end the fight before it had even started. She threw the small, black sphere up into the air, just high enough to swing around and give it a solid kick. It flew in Luna's direction, but passed through her quickly resumed mist-form without incident. It collided with the far wall of the prison and exploded in some sort of smoke cloud. An eerie green glow radiated from the cloud, but did not seem to do anything else.

While I slowly regained control over myself, I started to hear screams from outside. And those were certainly not the kind of screams soldiers made when they engaged the enemy. Those were the kind of screams somepony made when scared out of their mind, when frightened to the breaking point of their sanity. And I knew who was responsible.

I rushed to the cell bars. “Luna, I swear by sun and moon, if you cause any lasting damage whatsoever…!” I warned her. But I did not know how to end that sentence. Then what? If she did maim these guards, kill them, traumatize them… then what?

This is war, little one, a nasty voice in the back of my head sneered. Can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs. Don't be such a sissy.

I was a firm believer that one should not bark if one was not willing to bite. Never threaten something you are not willing to follow through with. Because if somepony would call that bluff… it usually meant loss of credibility. And credibility was very, very important.

She spared me the need to finish that sentence.

Luna assumed her mist-form once more and retreated into the cell. She quickly flew towards the window and remained there for a brief moment. Her cyan eyes, usually so full of warmth and mirth, were cold mirrors.

“Luna, please…!” I pleaded beseechingly.

“Stay inside,” she urged me. Her attention shifted to Tempest. She stared at her for a brief moment. Dared her. And then she vanished out the window.

I hastily stumbled after her. “Luna!” I yelled out the barred window, but she was gone. And through that small hole in the wall, I could catch glimpses of what was going on outside. The screams had not stopped. And what I saw only made my blood run cold. I quickly turned around. “Don’t—“ I started in an attempt to stop Tempest, but she too was already gone.

Desperation gripped my heart. These screams drilled into my head and threatened to tear my own sanity apart. Unbridled, primal fear. That was what it sounded like.

I took a deep breath and tried to steel myself. Maybe that was why she had brought me along on this mission. So somepony could reign her in. So somepony could make her stop if she dared to cross certain lines. She was a warrior at heart. Maybe she needed this. But I was not willing to let these guards bear the brunt of her frustrations. Sure, they were technically enemies. Sure, they were soldiers. That did not make this right though. This was not a battle.

And my assumption was firmly confirmed when I exited our prison and set hoof into the courtyard of the outpost. A hemisphere of pure and utter darkness had enveloped the entire structure. I saw shifting masses and forms within this lightless void. My mind trembled and avoided thinking about their exact shape or nature. I saw thick banks of mist roll on the floor, crawl up walls and cover the roofs. I saw guards being dragged off by unseen forces, dragged into the mist screaming and clawing at the ground.

This was not a battle. It’s a massacre.

The two of them fought in the midst of it all. Luna had conjured her battle armor and effortlessly spun her scythe at her side. Tempest charged her head-on and procured three more of these faintly green glowing spheres from seemingly nowhere and threw them at her foe.

Luna threw up a shield and one sphere bounced off to the side to hit something in the mist.

The scythe blocked the second one and shot it upwards, high into the void above, never to be seen again.

The third one would have hit had Luna not assumed her mist-shape again.

The projectiles could have hit. But they had mainly served as distractions. Tempest barreled into Luna with considerable speed, but quickly learned that no matter her training and experience on the battlefield, she was no match for the superior strength of an alicorn. Luna was the unmoving mountain before her. She rushed her head down to head-butt Tempest, but the general reacted quickly and charged what was left of her horn.

The energy swerved wildly and discharged into the general area with quite a dramatic effect. Tiny explosions of light and color greeted Luna’s assault and another, larger charge detonated right in between them, throwing both opponents a few steps apart. Before Luna came to her senses again, still blinking from the assault, Tempest grabbed a nearby pipe and yanked it out of its bracing. She quickly swept Luna’s legs, but before she brought the thing down on her skull, Luna was gone. Not turned to mist this time, but gone in a bright, cobalt blue flash.

She reappeared instantly just above Tempest and brought her scythe down. The blade made a nasty screeching sound as it scraped along Tempest's armor.

Tempest jumped to a safer distance, quickly turned around in the process and threw the pipe in Luna’s general direction as an additional distraction. Luna watched it fly by with mild amusement before she turned her attention back to Tempest again. She charged her horn and split. Once, twice, thrice. Eight Luna’s flapped their wings to stay aloft and formed a circle above Tempest. All armored. All with a scythe by their side which they slowly rotated in their levitation. Which one was real? Which one was not?

When the assault started, Tempest held her ground surprisingly well. She was more than just agile. And so fast that I had difficulties following what exactly was happening. It was all just a whirlwind of blades and limbs, of dark orchid and dark blue.

Luna shot several energy beams and Tempest threw more of these weird little spheres. I managed to catch a glimpse of what they were supposed to do this time. Because Luna once again deflected one of them with a swing of her scythe and it hit a guard that ran towards the exit of the outpost square in the back. I saw it explode into that green glowing smoke again and to my absolute horror… it petrified the guard. Within seconds.

She had been throwing these willy-nilly this entire time.

I suddenly did not quite care as much for Tempest's safety. But I did care a lot about Luna. If only one of them would hit her, even partially…

This is a bad idea and you know it, I berated myself. Yet I could not stop. Only a couple of weeks ago, I went to the Forbidden Jungle with Celestia. I could not get that out of my head as I charged forward. Daybreaker. The version of her I had dealt with in that mirror hallway had been the direct result of losing her beloved little sister a second time. Could one come back from being petrified? If so, how?

Tempest threw more spheres. Where did she even get these from? How many did she even have? Luna shielded one again, but the other… the other she attempted to deflect with a wide sweep of her wing. Did she not know what they did? Did she not see how they worked?

My blood froze as I saw the sphere explode, as I saw that eerie glow encase her wing, as I saw the continued petrification crawl up her primaries and secondaries, along her wing joint and into her shoulder. Stop, I begged the magic, but of course it did not. The effect extended further and further, slowly encasing a surprised looking Luna.

Surprised. Not terrified like I was right now. And Tempest swiftly turned on her hooves, her back legs tense like a coiled spring, ready to—

My eyes grew wide.

“No!” I yelled and threw myself bodily in the way.

Pch. Such a cliché.

I had not been part of any serious scuffle this entire cycle. A curiosity, really. I vaguely remembered being part of a brawl when I was a writer. Even my iteration as a smith had to take some hits. But ironically, in my time as a night guard I had not been part of any actual fights.

Well, as long as one did not count the dreamscape, that is. The continuous battles against dreamscape creatures aside, I had fought Applejack. Or a guardian of her subconscious, rather. And in her dream, she had quite literally beaten me to death. It felt real. And I had died. The only reason I was still alive was due to Celestia bringing me back.

I saw Tempest's hooves coming. Almost as if time trickled by so much slower for just this moment. I grabbed the arcane line connecting me to my armor and yanked. I knew full well that I would come out with broken bones if that kick actually connected. Maybe ruptured organs, internal bleeding, death. And I doubted that Luna had the ability to resurrect the recently fallen.

My armor settled on my body just in time. The very second it manifested, Tempest's hooves struck true. A vibration rang from the center of my chest throughout the armor and into my body. And time resumed its natural flow.

I was swiftly kicked out of my prior trajectory. Literally. And landed with a nauseating crunching sound in a heap on the floor. I tried to ignore the metallic taste of blood in my mouth as I dismissed my armor again. It would serve me no purpose any longer. I tried to get up, but my legs buckled. Everything was pain. Breathing as a chore. And Tempest… well, Tempest.

Tempest was quick. And despite the length of their battle, she did not seem exhausted at all. She slowly stalked towards me. And why would she make haste? Luna was petrified. Frozen solid in stone. My vision was blurry due to the tears, both from regret and pain. Mostly pain at this point, as the realization had not hit with the full force of consequences just yet.

I needed to stop her. I desperately needed to stop her. And I was no match for her.

She stopped right in front of me and slowly turned around again, not leaving me out of her sight for even a fraction of a second and she readied another kick. And I realized with horror: She aimed for Luna again. She wanted to finish the job. She would defeat one of the two powerful rulers of Equestria. She would enrage Celestia and provoke her into action and hope to work with any mistakes she might make due to her grief. It was tactical. It was calculated. It was efficient.

And she made me watch. And that... was not efficient at all. It was cruel.

“F-Fizzlepop… Berrytwist,” I managed to cough between painful breaths. And I wanted to sigh in relief as her eyes grew wide. I was willing to bet that she had not heard that name in many, many years. “We—… I can replace your horn,” I continued my own version of an assault on her. “He never will. I would.” Her brows narrowed in suspicion. Her eyes darted up to Luna again. “Please. Please don’t. I beg you, please don’t.” My voice trembled. It was hoarse and meek and desperate and I hated that.

Seconds stretched into small eternities. I hated every one of them. She considered her options. After several excruciatingly long moments, she once again shifted her posture. Gone was the battle-ready defense. And back was the confident aura of indifference. “I feel like we should resume our conversation,” she stated in bitter coldness. She was in control now. Luna was defeated. The outpost was back under her command.

And not once in all this time had I actually stopped and wondered why the hemispherical void remained. Why the mist still crawled all around us. Sure, the guards had stopped screaming. Probably because there were no guards left. But I only started to realize Luna’s ruse when I saw the mist rising behind Tempest and it reformed into my beloved Luna.

It was such a relief to see her that I choked and sobbed and started to weep. With half another choke and half a laugh, I tilted my head down and put my forehead against the cold stone floor. I heard her scythe idly tap against Tempest's armor. “It was a good fight. But yes, we should,” I heard her say. I could not say why exactly, but hearing her voice again, hearing that damn nonchalance in it... I wanted to wail so badly. I wanted to punch her. I wanted to hug her. All at the same time.

I remained on the floor instead and silently sobbed while the chaos in my mind raged on unbridled. While my sides hurt with every breath. While I tried to banish the thoughts of a burning world out of my mind.

I felt her sit down next to me and a moment later, she draped her wing over my withers. “I was about to commend you on your performance,” she whispered quietly. And I could hear the deep regret in her voice. “You played along so masterfully. But now I see that you took it more seriously than I did. I am sorry.”

Those last three words broke me. I lunged for her as best as I could, buried my muzzle in the crook of her neck, squeezed my eyes shut and just let go. I gave up control and all the anxiety of these last days, if not the last week, bubbled to the surface. The anxiety. The pressure. All those fears. The panic. Seeing her die, as far as I was concerned. The stress and exhaustion.

The prospect of unleashing it felt daunting. But with my levels at an all-time high, there was no consideration left. I had not recovered fully from that stupid jungle and all the turmoil I had encountered there. I had lost Sunny. I had remembered a world burning. I had almost died myself. And now this. More exhaustion. A chance encounter with my darker side. I could have hurt ponies on that train. My mind still gnawed on those barely reshackled memories of me slaughtering dozens upon dozens of changelings. And now she had died. She had died right before my eyes. Again. Had she not promised me? Had I not forbidden her from doing that ever again?

Each sob and shuddering breath was a testament to just how broken I was. My head felt light. Floaty. And every time I thought I was done, a new batch of burning hot tears streamed down my face and into her coat. You promised!, I wanted to yell at her. Even though she had not. How could she promise me to never die? And that thought alone conjured horrors new and old. With Luna dead, Daybreaker could rise. With Daybreaker rising, this world would burn. With this world burning, my friends would perish. Everything I loved and held dear, everypony I cared about, everything. Gone.

I had no idea how long it took. I cared little for what Tempest thought of me. Or even what Luna thought, at that point. I calmed down eventually. Not because I was not panicking anymore. Or because I was not afraid anymore. But there was only so much panicking one pony could do before running out of gas. I was tired. Emotionally exhausted. I had no tears left to shed, no matter how I felt. Her coat was dampened by them. I mumbled an unintelligible apology, but she did not mind.

For the first time in a while, I raised my head and looked around.

The mist was gone. So was the dome of moon- and starless night. I spotted several guards, all petrified. Every. Single. One. And with Luna's prior statement, it started to make sense. Maybe she had known what these spheres did even before I saw it for myself. Maybe she had just improvised, like she was prone to do. Either way, she had successfully lured Tempest into using them again and again and deflected them. She had kept the guards at bay with illusory eldritch monstrosities. And with a flick of magic here and there, she could control where they were. And with each deflected sphere, another one was permanently taken out of the picture.

Tempest must have realized this as well. She still stood there. She waited patiently. Still like a painting. For a quick second, I despised her arrogance so much. Even though I knew better. Arrogance was just undeserved confidence, but Tempest… I had seen her fight. Her confidence, as aggravating as it was, was solidly earned.

Maybe Tempest was in on all of this as well...? No conspiracy theories now, please. I disregarded the thought and shook my head to dislodge it. And I was grateful that this simple measure seemed to work for once.

Luna shifted her attention to her former foe. “We art—We are well aware that you blame my sister for your condition. However, I believe it is your own fault. It was you who ignored the warning signs in front of that cave and you decided to never even ask my sister for her help.”

Please don’t provoke her into a second round, I silently begged Luna as I insistently brushed my cheek against her neck. She sighed, nodded wordlessly and accepted my plea.

“But now that I’m a threat, you come running,” Tempest shot back. She was still calm, but that edge in her voice was already back. Maybe Luna's and her charms did not mix well.

“Of course. Wouldst thee not doth the same?” Luna simply replied with a shrug. Tempest conceded the point and acknowledged its validity with a curt nod.

“L-Language,” I meekly whispered.

Luna nuzzled me in reply and whispered a little thank you before she turned to Tempest once more. “I am not my sister. Keep that in mind.”

And again, Tempest merely nodded. “Noted.” And then she turned her attention to me. “What did you mean when you said ‘He never will’? You seemed too certain about that for it to be a mere assumption.”

Thinking straight was still a bit of a struggle. Stringing words together to form coherent sentences was a chore. It was no surprise then that Luna answered long before I could. “The Storm King is no more loyal to you than you are of use to him. Your request is the prize he now dangles in front of your muzzle like a carrot on a stick. And for many years, that has been enough to drive you forward. Of course, with us being ‘enemies’, you have no reason to believe us. Even though I suspect that you do know a thing or two about the quality of his promises. However, I also believe that you would not still serve under his rule so willingly if you had realized that you do not have any special standing in his inner circle. Luckily for us, you do not need to trust or believe a single word we say. As the ruler of the night, I have other ways to offer. Instead of letting us tell you, why not ask him yourself? Ask him in a state where he will be most vulnerable. A state in which him lying is least likely. I can allow you to enter his dream and interact with his subconscious.”

Tempest's whole expression was guarded. She was wary of anything we said and anything we offered. This ‘alternative’ Luna touted as well. But I also saw recognition. She had at least heard of dreamwalking before. “Either Luna or I can bring you into the dreamscape,” I pitched in. “Once there, we locate his dream and enter it. Depending on the strength of his willpower, we might face resistance or so-called guardians. They are basically manifestations of the subconscious defending itself against intrusions like these. If we manage to keep them off our backs, we can make contact with the dreamer itself. His subconscious constructs the reality of the dream, but it constantly tries to keep an internal logic. This logic might be twisted or different from our real world, but to the dream, it is sound. If we, as external factors, come in and ‘offer’ something that does not align with the dream yet, the subconscious tries to implement these details to fit the internal logic again. That basically means that… if he’s currently dreaming about swimming in his hoard of riches and you barge in asking about your promised prize, his subconscious will work with that. Maybe the dream will shift and you will have a conversation in his private quarters. Maybe he will continue to swim in gold or whatever. It doesn’t matter much, it’s just the scenery that will change. The topic you brought up, though, is harder to twist and therefore more likely to be addressed by his subconscious directly. And that’s where honesty comes in. In our dreams, we’re at our most honest. There are certain mental illnesses and whatnot, but those aside, most ponies tend to be honest at least with themselves. And since these dream-intrusions aren’t exactly ‘natural’, we are used to having that space to ourselves and ourselves only.”

Luna sighed. “There are some… details we would need to address, but yes, for the most part, that is just about it.”

Tempest remained silent for a while, her attention shifted between the both of us and her internal considerations. I was both glad for the breather as well as the fact that she did not question the existence of dreamwalking in the first place. There were still more than enough ponies who did not know about it and refused to believe it could be a real thing. I considered this as a blessing in disguise most of the time. Here, with her, it could have been quite a headache.

Then again, maybe she really was smart and the only reason she did not disbelieve this part was the fact that we knew her real name. How else could we have gathered that information?

“Tell me about those details,” Tempest demanded to know.

“First off, I have already made contact with the Storm King’s dream before. Once. In preparation for this excursion, to find out if offering this option was even viable. His willpower is exceptional. I expected as much from someone who managed to come as far as he did. That being said, I figured out how I can make it work. I will remain in the dreamscape and continuously assault his dream, thereby keeping his subconscious busy defending against me. It should keep both the number of guardians and their attentiveness low. I will not be able to keep this charade up forever. To waste less time and get more precise results, I would therefore advise to apply the following scenario: Equestria was defeated by yet another of your brilliant campaigns. All princesses lie in shackles and you come to present my consort, the last captive that could have threatened your rule over this land. Surely a glorious victory such as this finally merits a promised prize, no?”

Tempest's analytical mind seemed to make short work of most of the information we fed her. She sorted through everything in quick succession before she stumbled about a single word. “… consort?” she asked and furrowed her brow. She looked at Luna first and followed her nod in my direction. She stared at me in disbelief. “… him?”

The incredulity in her voice offended me quite a bit. Sure, I might not understand the How and Why myself all the time, but that did not give her any right. “Yes, me. Got a problem with that?” I snapped quietly. “I might not look like it, but I have my talents.”

“Like what?” she asked. And even though she seemed and sounded genuinely curious, it infuriated me only more. “Smithing? Because I saw you ‘negotiate’ and that did not impress me.”

I knew it was coming, but I could not stop it. “He is a very devoted lover,” Luna quickly replied with a barely stifled snicker.

“Luna. Not now,” I insisted. I really was not in the mood for that kind of joke right now. Luckily, she quickly caught on to that and after a quiet cough, nodded in affirmation. “It doesn’t matter why, does it?”

Tempest mulled it over for a moment before she shrugged. “I suppose not.” She looked around the outpost once more. With every guard petrified and us the only living things up here, it was quiet. Peaceful. The soft, silvery light of the moon high up above us made everything look both beautiful and a little bit haunted. The statues especially. And with the three walls around the outpost breaking the winds up here, it was not even that cold outside. “So how exactly does this work?” she spoke up again. “I assume there are no further details I should be aware of?”

“I will put all of us to sleep,” Luna replied.

There were a few unavoidable seconds of silence and Tempest tensed and relaxed a few times. The entire outpost was taken out. Her airship was gone after it had dropped her off. And Luna had managed to fool her while she also gave her a considerable hard time in combat. I did not really factor into any of that, but I was not required to. The point was: If we had wanted to kill her, maim her, petrify her, kidnap her… we probably could have done so. “Fine. Do it.”

“Can we, uh… maybe get a bed?” I asked as both Tempest and Luna got ready. “I’m sure two hardened warriors like you two will be fine, but I had cramps and stiff necks and back pains for the past few days from sleeping on the ground or in sleeping bags. If we don’t have to, I’d rather avoid adding to that.”

After a quick consideration, they agreed and we rose to our hooves. My legs still felt a little wobbly. I looked around for the Luna-statue for a moment before I realized that it probably had only been another illusion. We walked over to one of the other houses. A dormitory for the other guards, judging by the bunk beds.

Tempest simply laid down in one of them. The first one she reached, right on the lower bed. I looked over to Luna. “I don’t—… we don’t have to—… right?”

To my relief, she smiled and nodded and levitated me to the upper bed. These bunk beds were meant to be climbed with hands and were not exactly pony-friendly designs. Once up on top, I waited for Luna to fly up and settle at my side. And I quickly snuggled against her. “Is everypony ready?” Luna asked.

“Ready,” came from below.

“Mhm,” I answered quietly.

And Luna worked her magic.

The dreamscape had been busy all week. And yet as I entered it now, it felt like I came home. It was a comfort to be surrounded by stars and dreams. Even though I knew perfectly well that we were not necessarily safe here. But it was deep into the night and I knew that my friends were somewhere around here. Sure, they slept most likely. And they were not even in sight. But just knowing that they were there helped already.

Tempest arrived right after me. Luna had to be around here somewhere as well as the dreamscape was already redecorated in her usual style. Tempest took the time to appreciate the intricate, star-strutted design and coalesced it all into one word. “Impressive.”

I smiled thinly despite the fatigue I still felt. “That describes it pretty accurately, yes.” I slowly turned to take in the entire panorama, not worried about the floating dream spheres at all. That is, until I finished my entire circle and saw Tempest kicking one of the dreams, which obviously immediately popped. “Hey!” I snapped at her in quickly rising anger. “What is wrong with you?!”

“What? Did I just kill someone?” she asked in mild confusion.

“What? No! No, you didn’t. But it’s quite telling that that is the first conclusion you’re jumping to,” I berated her some more before I sighed and my shoulders slumped. “Ever heard of ‘being considerate’? Bursting dreams wakes the dreamer up.”

“They wake up,” she echoed.

“Yes.”

“That’s all?”

“Yes,” I grumbled dissatisfied with where this was going.

She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter then. They can just roll over and fall asleep again, right. They should probably work anyway.”

She was infuriating. “It’s the middle of the night,” I replied tersely. And she just shrugged it off. I tilted my head back, looked straight up and took a couple of breaths to calm down. In here, I could totally kick her flank, right? The dreamscape was all about willpow—…

Right. Maybe not.

I sighed. “Just… try to be less of a bitch, please?” I mumbled.

And immediately got her attention. “Wow. Did you just swear?”

I grimaced and considered apologizing for a brief moment, but I was pretty sure she found it hilarious and would not care either way. So I decided to ignore it instead. “We need to find Luna. Shouldn’t be hard. Just think about following me.” Maybe I would just lose her by accident. Oh no, what a shame. Whatever shall we do? But the reality was that we would simply wake up and she would be there and we would need to do this all over again. And I did not wish to make any trouble for Luna.

“You’re a bit of a stick-in-the-mud, aren’t you?” Tempest continued to be a nuisance. “So you’re not her consort because of your great humor, either.”

I shifted a little and tried to ignore that tingle running up my spine. “Can we maybe not? I don’t exactly feel comfortable discussing my relationship with you.”

“My guess is: She chose you, and you don’t get it either. That would explain a few things,” she continued unabashedly.

I wish I could just—

I stopped myself the very moment I heard her choking. I looked back only to see a half-manifested leg, the same color as her own coat, half-stuck in her throat. She was desperately trying to get it out since she apparently had not realized yet that breathing was superfluous as a being of pure thought. It merely took a second or two of focused concentration to dismantle the manifestation. “I’m so sorry about that,” I immediately apologized.

Tempest was more surprised than anything else. “What was that?”

—shove her stupid comments down her own throat.

I shook my head. “That’s… not important. Won’t happen again. We should move. There are hostile creatures in here and I’d rather not keep occupied with those.” We quickly found Luna. She had already summoned the Storm King’s dream sphere, and judging by the colorful mist that filled it, he was asleep and dreaming. “Sorry it took us so long.”

“Any incidents?” Luna asked. It was routine at this point. When we were dreamwalking together, we sometimes split up to take care of multiple nightmares in the same region simultaneously.

Tempest obviously did not know that. “I think he tried to kill me? But he sucks at that, too.”

Luna raised an eyebrow at me, but since I refused to answer the unspoken question, she decided to leave it be for now. “All the preparations are in place. Start whenever you are ready.”

I nodded and turned to Tempest. “Alright, listen up. You place one hoof against the bubble. Carefully. You do not wish to burst this bubble. It will offer some resistance. Push against it. Gently. You should eventually start to sink in. Be patient. When you have halfway decent grip, place your second hoof against it and repeat the process. His subconscious might try to trick us into bursting the dream. That’s sort of a ‘last ditch effort’-defense. Do not, under any circumstances, make any hasty movement or any violent thrust or any stronger push, okay?”

She rolled with her eyes. “You start to sound like a pencil pusher.” And her gaze drifted over to Luna. “It’s an interesting choice, to say the least.”

I really wanted to smack her head. I obviously refrained from doing so. Not least of all because I could not shake the notion that maybe, she still put up a façade and all this banter and being an annoyance was still just a play to get as much information out of us as possible. Even her playing along with our scheme could be a mere distraction to wait until her heavily armed airship returned.

And provoking me or Luna? It could serve to find out where our buttons were and how to push them. It could provide a strategic advantage in the next combat. She had already seen a good deal of Luna’s moves and tricks. She knew approximately how fast Luna was, how strong, what choice of weapon she preferred, what kind of armor she wore, how quickly she could summon either. If Tempest was on a reconnaissance mission here, she probably did great so far.

I stepped up to the dream and with a nod in Luna’s direction, both she and I placed a hoof against the sphere. Tempest followed suit shortly after. I saw Luna strain against the sphere and while I could not claim to understand how exactly she took most of the attention away from us, I could feel it work nonetheless. And yet despite her efforts, there was still a lot of resistance left.

Whoever the Storm King was. Whatever he was. His willpower truly was a marvel.

Of course, with enough care, caution and patience, that did not save him forever. We eventually made our way inside, albeit at a snail’s pace.

A biting cold gust of wind blew past me and messed up my mane. I shivered slightly and noticed the thin layer of rime on my coat. I could see the open sky through the massive pillars that carried the roof. We were so high up that I saw nothing of the lands below the cloud cover. Only specks of other mountain peaks rising through the blanket here and there.

My every hoofstep echoed in this grand hall. I gazed up at the ceiling where an incredible piece of artwork depicted the history of an empire from its conception to its astonishing rise to power in its region and finally to its imperialistic spread across borders like oceans and mountain ranges. Fleets of ships, at first. Airships, later on. Machinery of impressive size and complexity.

A slightly painful prod in my rear made me jump a little.

“Move,” Tempest demanded with her usual, uncaring expression. She had prodded me with one of their weird zappy forks, but without activating the electrical discharge. So maybe she was the ‘real’ Tempest and not just one of the Storm King’s subconscious manifestations.

This palace vaguely reminded me of Canterlot’s architecture. Not that I was granted enough time to study it further, as we had been thrown right into the throne room and Tempest was apparently quite eager to get this show going.

We walked along an ice blue carpet and stopped a few steps away from the first of several flat and wide stairs leading to his throne. A spiky thing fashioned partially from onyx or obsidian, I could not tell at this distance. What was it with villains and spikes, anyway? Or villains and black. Or red. Then again, blue seemed to be more of a theme here. Ice blue, specifically.

And sweet Celestia, was it cold. Windows would have been great. It did explain the fur on their soldiers, however. Apparently they hailed from mountain tops, maybe similar to yaks?

Tempest simply waited after we stopped. The Storm King sat on his throne, still not exactly the most impressive figure I had ever seen, and snacked on some grapes. He eventually shooed the servant off — just another guard who carried a silver platter instead of a shield — and looked down towards us. “Ah, Tempest, my dear. What is it you bring me there?”

Tempest gave me a good kick. One on the rear to make me stumble forward and one against my legs to forcefully make me kneel. “May I present to you, my king, the last fugitive. He appears to be Princess Luna’s consort. Due to his involvement with her, a few stragglers decided to follow his impressively incompetent lead. With him captured now, we should face no further resistance. Equestria is yours at last. With all princesses captured, their magic is in your hands.”

And true to his nature, the Storm King gave the exact kind of maniacally laughter one would expect. “Priceless! Oh that is priceless! What a wonderful day indeed. What is his name again?”

Tempest shrugged. “No clue. Didn’t bother asking.”

He laughed even harder. “Oh how I love it. You continue to impress me, my dear. Guards? Get rid of that pungent stench of weakness in my throne room before I rip his legs out and stain my carpet. And make sure our torture master catches his name.” A few guards came seemingly out of nowhere and flanked me on either side. They started to drag me away.

“What about the Staff of Sacanas?” I heard the Storm King ask in a more subdued voice.

I suddenly had an idea and started laughing from the top of my lungs. “You’ll never get the staff,” I shouted. He seemed to give some kind of sign to the guards as they dragged me a few feet backwards to face him once more.

“What did you do?” he asked and his face was veiled in barely restrained anger.

I grinned even wider. “Well. Considering your army’s equipment, I suppose you would know a good deal more about the kind of temperatures an industrial blast furnace can reach…”

His eyes grew wide. And so did Tempest's. My little swerve was utterly unnecessary for the story. All it contributed was to rile him up even further. And. And it let her know that I knew what he was talking about. And that maybe I was not lying about the fate of this artifact.

I just loved to see her dumbstruck. It was so satisfying to have her on this side for once. To see shock on her face.

A few seconds passed and the Storm King lost his internal battle. His mask shattered and he violently screamed in anger and frustration, punched the armrest of his throne, kicked at the stone beneath and yelled to the heavens. It was quite an impressive temper tantrum.

When he was finally done, he turned to the guards who still held me with a deathly cold in his eyes. “I don’t need his name anymore.” He nodded towards the side of his throne hall and the guards dragged me to the edge.

I looked down and saw… nothing much, really. Clouds. I suspected there was an entire mountain range just beneath it. I would smash against solid rock, all my bones crushed. Maybe I would just splat on the ground like a watermelon. Another red stain, until the next rain washed it all away. In one last, defiant act, I half-turned and grinned at him. “You won’t find so much as a morsel of magic left. We burned most of the magic items and spell books we had. And you. Get. Nothing.” And with that, I bit down on the vest of one of the guards and jumped, pulling him with me off the ledge.

I heard the guard scream in shock and panic as he fell with me. But more importantly, I heard the Storm King scream once more. It was delightful.

Of course I had no intention of actually dying. With a willpower as strong as his, I had to make minor adjustments only and I had to concentrate on them quite rigorously. So I closed my eyes and cut myself off from my sense of hearing. No blood rushing in my ears. No wind whistling by. I squeezed my eyes shut. I dismissed all feelings of coldness until my body was numb to any sensation. Until I was floating in a vacuum. And I made a sneaky little adjustment.

I piggybacked the second guard.

Instead of having ‘my own’ body, I transferred my consciousness into that of the other guard who still stood at the edge and looked down after his comrade. I did not assume direct control either. I just laid back and tapped into his senses. I just wanted to observe what came next.

Immediately after the spectacle, silence permeated the room for a good few minutes. Until the Storm King had calmed down. And Tempest dared to address him once more. “Despite this misfortune, we still managed another flawless victory,” she reiterated.

“We did,” he agreed reluctantly before he sighed and forced a smile. “We did, didn’t we?”

Without her expression ever changing, Tempest nodded. “Which leads me to my next question, if I may?”

He simply shrugged. “Be my guest.”

“About my horn,” she stated without even bothering to phrase it like a question at all.

And the Storm King immediately groaned. This was apparently a topic that — at least in his head — came up quite often. “Must we discuss this any further?” he moaned.

“We must,” Tempest insisted. “I have won countless victories in your name. Your army stands undefeated. And with this latest victory, you may very well have defeated gods.”

“Yes, yes,” he replied and waved his hand dismissively. “You do drone on about my great successes. I already told you that you did good, didn’t I?”

It was the first time that I got to see Tempest become ever so slightly irritated. “You promised,” she insisted.

“I promised you I’d do it sometime,” he replied with a snarl. “I never promised when that time would come.”

“I was a filly when you made that promise!” she raised her volume and stomped a single hoof for emphasis, but the Storm King, while still lazily lounging in his throne, took on a more sinister tone.

“Careful, filly. Ain’t my fault you were too young or too stupid to negotiate properly,” he replied. “There’s still a lot to do, Tempest Shadow. The dragonlands. The griffon empire. Or what’s left of that, anyway. Yakyakistan. The kirin.”

“Have I not done enough?” Tempest asked. “Have I not served you loyally? Do I not deserve a token of your gratitude?”

“A token of my—…” he parroted before he burst into uproarious laughter. “Bwhahahaha! Oh, that’s priceless! A token of my gratitude! Ahahahaha.” Eventually, he shook his head and wiped a tear from his cheek. “Listen, girl. I changed the deal. I can do that. Because I am the one making the deals. Oh come on, don’t look so shocked, filly. I change deals all the time. You know that. What makes you think you’re so special anyway, huh?” He lazily gestured with his hand, but ultimately let it fall down to draw idle circles on the ground next to his throne. “Whatever. It doesn’t matter. I’m still your only chance anyway. You will be a good girl and obey, sweetie. Don’t make me help you.”

Truth was: I did not like Tempest Shadow. I was not sure if I would like Fizzlepop Berrytwist, if she would ever reemerge from her horrible ordeal. But I had a great deal of dislike towards Tempest. She was confident to an extent that irritated me. She was smug. She was a lot better at controlling herself and constantly hid how she truly felt about any given situation. Maybe it was just a matter of incompatible chemistry. I did not care.

But despite this, I gained no joy from seeing her blanch. If she was still just playing along to gather information about Luna and me or to stall for time, she was doing an incredible job. Anything else meant that right now, she might have caught her first true glimpse of the Storm King. And it came packaged with some very uncomfortable truths and revelations.

I knew Tempest for a few minutes or so. An hour, maybe two at best. But I already expected her to revert to defiance. And I was not disappointed. “I won’t be much of a leader if you keep me chained to your side,” she spat. “Maybe I’ll just have to find some other way to do it myself.”

Her king was silent for a moment. Maybe he considered his options. Or maybe, he just tried to keep his amusement out of his expression. Because once those few seconds passed, he snickered quietly before he waved her goodbye. “Oh yes, sure, of course. You just go and have fun out there. After all, it’s not like this is the only life you’ve ever known, right? Well anyway, don’t let me stop you. I just hope you don’t need legs for your adventure.”

Tempest froze and looked down at her legs. They were there. Very much there. For now. “What?”

“Nice horseshoes,” the Storm King snickered. “Very fashionable design. Good weight to crush someone’s skull, right? The spikes were a nice addition. A little reservoir injects wounds with a numbing poison. I was so proud of you for that idea. It really is devious. Of course, if we’re building reservoirs anyway… ah, doesn’t matter, does it now? I just thought that it would be a shame if someone were to put explosives in there. You should be careful about that. Just a heads-up, of course.”

Numbing poison? Luna was an alicorn. She was quite resistant to most minor scratches anyway. The kind of injury that these horseshoes would cause and used to inject the poison. And she was immune to most poisons anyway. But Tempest had kicked me. I had been armored and she had kicked me in the chest. The very much armored chest.

I had not noticed anything, of course. But the thought was still unsettling.

And even more so the deviousness of his implications. This being a dream meant that it could be something his subconscious had made up on the spot. Could be. Then again, lying was a creative process. Creative processes usually took more time. And his answer, his entire reaction, had been seamless as far as I could tell.

Tempest fell silent. And took half a step back.

I did not know her well. But seeing her retreat felt significant. Even that half-step was still a sign of retreat. Her face displayed no shock, no horror, no fear. But I assumed she considered the same things I did. That she currently slept in a bunk bed and dreamwalked while she wore explosive devices on her hooves that the Storm King had fashioned to assure her continued loyalty.

Luna and I are lying just above her, I realized with a cold shudder.

“I devoted my life to your stupid warpath,” Tempest breathlessly mumbled.

“Ugh. Been there, done that. You know, I originally wanted to give you the week off. To celebrate a little. But your incompetence cost me the Staff of Sacanas. And a few spell books, apparently. So maybe get your ass loaded on the next airship north and see about those pesky yaks. I heard they love declaring war. It’s about time they actually got one.” He leaned down from his throne with a wicked smile on his face. “Shoo,” he said and gestured for her to leave.

Tempest was spared the humiliation of having to leave the throne room. I was not even sure if anything beyond this room even existed. The dreamer usually just created whatever he needed and for whatever reason, the Storm King seemed to be quite content to idly sit here and marvel at… the architecture? Or something? Maybe he just loved to watch the sun that neither rose nor sank.

It was not the dream that collapsed. But we were shunned out of it. We landed ungraciously on the dreamscape, muzzle first, and Luna strained in exhaustion for the few final seconds before she finally broke contact with the dream. And seconds later, the dreamscape itself fell apart as well as we woke up.

The very second I regained conscious thought and mental capabilities, I craned my neck to look behind me, directly into Luna's eyes. “Shield.” Without a question or a moment's hesitation, she complied, lit her horn and put a solid barrier of transparent cobalt blue magic around the two of us. “Tempest, don’t—“

I had scooched closer to the edge of the bed and looked over the side, but to my surprise, Tempest had not moved a single muscle. “—move.” All urgency vanished. She just laid there. Her eyes were open, so she was awake. I could see her barrel slowly and steadily rise and sink. “We’re coming down,” I announced. Though I had a suspicion she did not care either way.

I exchanged a look with Luna and we both climbed out of the upper bunk bed to eventually sit down in front of the lower one. Tempest still had not moved. “Alright, just stay… uhm… yeah, you’re doing great,” I mumbled as I grew increasingly insecure. So instead of dealing with her current state, I focused on her armor. Her horseshoes especially. My telekinesis was not as strong as Rarity’s. Not as dexterous as Luna's. But I knew what I was looking for and it was precise enough. I slowly lifted one of her horseshoes off of her hoof, brought the item closer to Luna's shield for inspection and after some very careful fiddling around, I managed to pry open a little hatch on the underside.

It was not just a fantasy.

Inside the teeny-tiny compartment was a single vial of something, connected to small metal tubes that probably led into the spikes protruding from the horseshoe. So that was most likely that ‘numbing poison’ he had mentioned. Although I was less certain that it was just a numbing poison. After all, Tempest was highly trained, very focused and extremely efficient. Why not load the vial up with a neurotoxin that kills within seconds?

The more important part was the surrounding area within the compartment. I thought it was just some sort of padding at first. Filler to ensure that, even under great stress, the horseshoe would not collapse in on itself. Because with the intricate design of it, that could have meant metal slivers ramming into Tempest's own hooves, which would then potentially expose her to the poison that leaked from a broken vial. It was an unnecessary risk and therefore a potential design flaw.

But no, I could actually identify this ‘filler’. And I sighed. Both in relief and in defeat. “It’s a compound,” I quietly announced. “Hard to craft. It’s partially metal, but a soft one. Less ‘smithing’ and more ‘alchemy’. It reacts to vibrations. I’m not sure if a single, regular hoofstep would already trigger it, but if you were to run… or worse, kick something. There’s enough in here to shred your entire leg to mush, yes. With all four charges going off, there might actually be even less left over to identify. However, that stuff should have gone off a long time ago. I saw you fight.” I furrowed my brow and carefully turned it to different angles. Until I spotted a little shimmer in the faint light Luna's shield provided. There was a rune engraved on the inside of the hatch. “Luna? Do you see this?”

I was less familiar with runic magic. Or enchantments. I knew that both areas could easily overlap, and I had no idea what I looked at. So I instructed her to fiddle around with the horseshoe until she saw it as well and after a minute or two, she shared her conclusion with us. “The rune keeps the explosive stable.”

I grimaced a little. Tempest was quick, agile, a fierce force of violence on the field — and a single lucky strike against her horseshoes, of all things, could disable the magic required to keep her from poofing into red mist. “But that doesn’t make sense, does it?” I argued and furrowed my brow once more. “If it’s meant as a security measure against betrayal… she can just not wear her horseshoes. She could have figured all of this out herself by simply opening the hatch and studying what’s inside. Wasn’t that hard to do.”

For the first time since we had woken up, Tempest shifted. She took her horseshoe from us, closed the hatch again and reattached it to her hoof before sitting up properly. “He knows me,” she simply explained. “He knows what I’m like. What I do and don’t do. How I think. Who I trust. I have an assistant. His name is Grubber. He maintains my gear, keeps it in pristine condition.”

“Including your horseshoes?” I quietly asked.

She closed her eyes for a moment and silently sighed. “Including my horseshoes,” she confirmed. “The Storm King chose him personally to be by my side at all times. I thought he was supposed to be some kind of assurance. I just misunderstood the kind of insurance.”

“I’m sorry,” I meekly offered. What else could I have said? This kind of manipulation was just despicable.

Tempest considered my words, but ultimately shrugged them off. “How do I know any of this is real?” she instead asked and looked at the pillow as if it could answer her. “This ‘dream’ I saw could have been a fabrication. An illusion spell. You are very astute and quite experienced with those after all, princess. Even your so-called discovery right now could be a fabrication. A lie to lure me into your net. I have no means to verify your claims. I can’t tell if this is explosive material or not, if this is a magical rune or not, if it does what you claim it does.”

While I wanted to groan, I controlled myself and simply refrained from expressing my renewed frustrations. Dealing with her was tiring. Aggravating. But at least I understood where she came from. This entire time, I tried to keep in mind that despite everything, she was the enemy. As long as we had yet to secure success, she remained an opponent. That we sat together and talked was very nice and all, but we were still enemies. She just did a better job at keeping it in mind.

I had to admit though: Her level of distrust was both understandable and an issue. Because I could see it already coming. Was there even a way we could convince her? Was there any option whatsoever to say or do anything to show her how genuine we were?

“It is not real. That is the point,” Luna replied as diplomatic as ever. “That being said, I wager you usually have a decent enough intuition. I understand that you may not wish to take any chances with this, considering what is at stake. There is the obvious alternative, of course. You could simply go back to your king and confront him for real. That comes with its own risks of course.”

“How do I know you’re not lying?” Tempest continued on her path of caution.

Luna merely shrugged. “You do not. However, I like to point out that we have been honest and upfront with you this entire time.”

That was not enough. I already knew it would not suffice. So I had to try to pitch in with my own effort. “I don’t claim to know you,” I addressed Tempest. “I have no idea who Fizzlepop Berrytwist really is. At this point, I’m not even sure if you know. But there’s a few things I believe in. You are a pony. That means, if you like it or not, there are certain similarities between you and me. And I don’t just mean the number of legs. You have been a warrior your entire life. You fought the battles of others. You shed blood and heard cries of aggression and pain. And you’ve reached the top. I have no idea how fast. How long you’ve been up there. But I imagine it’s lonely up there. Maybe my assumption is wrong. Maybe you’re perfectly fine with how things are. But honestly, I have a hard time imagining any deep, meaningful relationships in your life. That being said, you could come with us. And you could have a chance for a good, normal life amongst your kind.”

She looked offended. But I had a hunch that this was just a superficial reaction. Something she displayed, something she wanted us to see. Her entire demeanor was hard and aggressive, but I liked to believe that the Storm King’s betrayal had genuinely shocked her. And I believed that I had seen pain in her eyes. Even a few seconds prior, when she mentioned Grubber, there was a subtle sense of betrayal in her voice. Maybe she had seen him as a friend.

She just did not give off the impression that there was a normal, harmonious household waiting for her at the end of a stressful day. She was too driven, too single-mindedly focused on achieving her goal to not ignore anything good that might have crossed her path.

But loneliness had its ways. It wormed itself into every heart, no matter how fortified it might have been.

“And what kind of life would that be, hm?” Tempest asked with a slight edge in her voice. “The life of a branded traitor?”

Luna intervened and shook her head. “No. Do not assume too much — but do not assume too little either. We are not offering you a life in riches and splendor. You will gain no privileges from complying. You will be reintegrated into Equestrian society and you will have to work for your new life like everypony else does. However. Due to the southern border — northern for you, I suppose —, few ponies are aware that the Storm King even exists. Fewer still know of his rampage. And none, I presume, know of his second in command. Nopony knows the name Tempest Shadow. Although I would advise shedding that persona in case of your return. It would inevitably draw attention.”

Tempest's expression remained indifferent. Unchanging. Even though I felt like she grimaced internally. It could not be easy to imagine herself returning to being Fizzlepop after so many years. “And what would I even do with such a ‘new life’?” she asked.

I shot a quick glance to Luna and she nodded, letting me answer this one. “Well first of all, Equestria does have a military. And said military could probably benefit greatly from your experience. That being said, I… I imagine you could be sick of all the fighting? Tired of wearing armor for more hours per day than you sleep. And we obviously won’t force you into any position you don’t want. So if you like to take the chance to get away from military service, why not work towards owning your own farm? I suspect you know absolutely nothing about crops. You could learn. Maybe start as a farmhoof somewhere. Farming is not your style? No problem. Get an apprenticeship at a bakery. A few years down the line, maybe you own your own bakery. Still nothing? Don’t worry. Start writing. Maybe novels, or newspaper stuff. Or heck, why not go exploring and write about your exploits and adventures. Worked well enough for A. K. Yearling, didn’t it? And those are obviously just examples. It’s your life. Do what you want. Become what you wish to be. You don’t have to be the best. Nopony asks you to be the best farmer, or the best baker, or the best writer. Just do your thing and be happy. I don’t think you ever considered that a viable option, did you? To just work towards your own happiness?”

Not a muscle twitched. Not a single eyelash moved. But she did not answer my question. And it had been an honest question this time. I deemed it telling enough that she avoided answering. She remained silent instead. Mulled things over for a while. Luna dissolved the shield around us in the meantime. I was not exactly at ease to know that we were this close to explosives, but the additional barrier distancing us from Tempest was a bit of an issue conversation-wise.

A few minutes later, Tempest shook her head. “I’m not convinced. There’s too many unknown variables and no reason to believe a single word you say.”

Luna managed to get the first word out while I still struggled to decide on how I felt about that. Aside from frustration, obviously. “We have no further means to convince you. Given other circumstances, I would have taken the opportunity to negate your influence on the playing field.”

I sighed. And with a sadness I could not hope to hide, I looked up at Luna. Of course she looked at me. Of course she was. “Or in other words,” I quietly interrupted, “you would kill her if it weren’t for me.”

“I do not end life lightly,” Luna replied. While she clearly showed empathy, there was a certain resolve lacing her voice.

“That’s not a ‘no’, Lu.”

She hesitated for a second before she averted her eyes. “No. It is not.”

It felt like a boulder was rolled on top of my heart. I knew what was at stake. I knew what danger Equestria was in. What we potentially faced. And Tempest was a critical figure in all of this. She was the driving force behind so many successes of this seemingly unstoppable army. And yet everything within me, every single fiber, screamed in outrage at the mere thought of using that as an excuse to end her life.

“You would let me go?” Tempest asked with mild surprise. “Just like that?”

Come on, think, Dreamwalker. Think. How can we turn this around?

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Luna nod. Glumly, but she did.

Stupid horn, I cursed. And suddenly an idea sparked in my mind. My head snapped up and I fixed Tempest with a look. “Get something to write.” Both Luna and Tempest regarded me with mild confusion, but I saw no reason to explain just yet and only repeated my instruction.

Tempest looked around the room and since she found no writing materials, she sighed and climbed out of the bed. She had to leave the room to fetch something from somewhere else. And Luna obviously took the chance. “You have an idea?”

I grimaced a little, but smiled at the same time. “I would call it a ‘last ditch effort’, but yes.”

She trusted me enough to simply nod and wait to see what I had in mind. It took Tempest three or four minutes to finally return and when she did, she settled down on the bed with a clipboard, a single sheet of paper and a pen. I stared at the paper and slowly shook my head. “Uhm… sorry, but no. You will need a bunch more than that.” She looked at her empty page and back up to me. She wordlessly asked for an explanation, because she otherwise refused to get up again. “I intend to give you instructions on how to craft your horn replacement. I will try to phrase it in a way that even somepony without prior knowledge of smithing can follow the instructions. And believe me, there’s a lot, and I mean a lot, of numbers in there. Numbers you do not want to get wrong. So would you please get more pages than that?”

Both of them were surprised. For very different reasons, I suspected. Tempest even looked over to Luna to gauge her reaction to this. Tempest got up again and vanished once more. And I already knew that Luna had an opinion about my idea. “Do you really think that is wise?”

I smiled a little lopsided. I was not sure if she suspected trickery on my part and wanted to know if I thought that trying to trick Tempest was clever, or if she asked about giving out the real deal. “It’s a gamble,” I admitted. “I know that I might make things harder on ourselves in the future. And if that comes to pass… I will kick myself in the flank. She’s got a point, though. She has no reason to believe us. We could have come here with months and months, even years of meticulous preparations. We could have made up a neat story, cast a few enchantments, maybe even wrote up some new spells just for the occasion. It’s hard convincing someone to whom distrust is second nature. Believe me, I would know. I find myself doubting everypony I love often enough. You know that. So I say: Instead of dangling the carrot in front of the pig, we just feed the pig and hope that it likes us enough to follow us. After all, we might have more carrots back home, right?” I sighed. Said out loud, it sounded stupid. And horribly, horribly naïve. “Instead of bribing her, we would try to make her into a friend. That’s better long-term anyway, isn’t it?”

Luna smiled and leaned in to nuzzle me. “Twilight would be proud of you.”

It mattered little if I agreed with that notion or not. The mere thought of it conjured the image in my head. How Twilight smiled when she thought I did good. How her proud smile looked when it was meant for me. It involuntarily made me smile as well and warmed my heart a little. It took a moment to tear myself away from that image. “Maybe,” I curtly replied. “That’s not the point though. After everything she’s been through, I think she actually deserves this. It’s simply the right thing to do. And for that to be true, it doesn’t matter if I like her or not. Because frankly, I don’t.”

It was comedic timing then that Tempest returned at that exact moment. Comedic timing, yet nopony was laughing. I had no idea how much she had heard. And seeing as she decided not to comment on anything, I vowed to do the same. I instead waited until she had made herself comfortable again and with her pen at the ready, I started.

“First of all, you need to be precise. You follow these instructions to a T and I will guarantee you that it works. If you’re sloppy with writing down what I tell you, that’s a you-problem. If you mess up the temperatures or fix the wrong cast, if you’re impatient when cooling the materials down or heating up the forge, if at any point you deviate from my instructions, that’s a you-problem. Got that?” Tempest clearly was not used to ponies talking to her like that. She threw me a warning glare, but this time, I had no difficulties shrugging it off. Because now I was the one talking about stuff I knew and she was the clueless novice.

“Let’s start with the material list,” I opted. “You will need to make an excursion to the Forbidden Jungle. Within the jungle are temple ruins. I can mark one specific site on a map, if you have one. These ruins are overseen by guardians. And these guardians have access to two metals you will need. Moon-blessed silver and sun-blessed gold. Don’t think you can just exchange them with regular gold and silver and spare yourself the hassle of scouring the jungle. It won’t work. You need these two materials. Now, next up. I’m not going to list every single tool you need, just the—… nah, scratch that. If we do this, we are thorough with it.”

And thus, I slowly sank into my own version of Twilight’s usual lecture-mode. Luna relaxed and laid her head on my rump at some point and used part of my tail as a pillow-substitute. And Tempest scribbled. A list of tools. A list of specifications for the kind of furnace she required. What materials to use for a cast. I even digressed to make a subset of instructions on how to clean and maintain tools in preparation for a bigger project and how to craft a mold. The rest of the material list eventually followed. And then we got into the nitty-gritty. Number crunching could be so much fun. Melting temperatures of regular silver compared to the melting temperature of moon-blessed silver. Just in case the guardians tried to scam her. A few hints about what to look out for. Warnings about common mistakes when working with metals. When forging in general, really. What fuel to use. How the humidity of the surrounding area might affect the crafting process. Because really, trying to craft her prosthesis right in the jungle was a stupid idea.

I rarely stumbled. Rarely took a break. I took a sip from our water bottle a few times throughout the next two or three hours. Tempest had been kind enough to bring us our saddlebags when she went to get a new pen. She asked a few questions in those short breaks. Usually meant to further her understanding of the crafting process. Or to be more aware of potential dangers. But she never interrupted me when I talked.

I assumed that dawn had to be close when I finished. I was certainly tired enough to guess that the night had passed with little to no sleep. “Let me see,” I demanded and took her clipboard in my magic without waiting. I skipped over most of her notes, lines of text flew by. I mostly checked the numbers again. And then one more time for good measure before I hoofed the clipboard back to her. “Looks fine to me. As I said initially. You follow those sets of instructions precisely, and you get your horn.”

She finally put the pen aside. And rotated her hooves. Stretched her neck. A series of cracks and pops could be heard. Her gaze fell upon her stack of notes and lingered there for a good moment before she looked up again. “You really are a smith, aren’t you?”

I was not sure how to take that. A part was angry, downright offended. Another part was amused. The latter won out and I quietly chuckled. “What a bright spark.” I smiled and shook my head before I turned my attention to Luna. I slowly lifted her leg, and kissed her hoof. I cared little for what Tempest saw or thought at this point. Luna did not wake up, so I continued a little trail up her leg until it became difficult to reach higher, because of how she was lying with her head on my back. However, I noticed the corners of her lips twitch upwards and I grinned. “If you wanted me to continue, you should have chosen a different position,” I whispered.

“Hmmm… but you are so comfy,” Luna mumbled in reply and cracked an eye open.

I was immediately greeted by a mischievous twinkle and chuckled in reply. “Well, I can imagine something more comfortable than lying on the floor, but hey. You’re more obdurate than I am.” I nudged her with a flick of my magic.

She complied, sat up again and rubbed at her eyes before she reoriented herself. “Are you done now?”

I looked over to Tempest, who already seemed focused on internalizing my list of instructions. “We are, yes.” Tempest looked up and quickly confirmed my statement with a nod as she carefully tucked the notes away under her armor. I cringed a little upon seeing that. The paper could get wrinkles, which in turn could distort numbers or letters. But that was a her-problem, not a me-problem. I had done the best I could. “So what is your decision?” I dared to ask her.

Tempest looked at the spot on her armor where the notes had vanished towards. Her attention returned to us and she quietly sighed. “After the messenger reached us, I gave my airship clear instructions. They were to drop me off at the outpost and come by again at dawn. Either to pick me up or to scorch the entire mountain. I will leave you two here. You should keep out of sight. And I will get on board again. There is an assistant I need to have words with.” She sighed and shook her head. “I can’t come with you yet. But rest assured that I will not forget this. And that despite my reputation, I do have an understanding of what ‘honor’ means.”

My shoulders sagged in disappointment. I didn't even try to hide it. Luna dealt with her impulses a lot better. She remained steadfast, nodded and seemingly accepted Tempest's decision. “In that case, we wish thee save travels and hope to see thee again someday. Under better circumstances, preferably.”

Tempest allowed herself a thin smile while she got up. She stretched her legs again and climbed out of bed. We could already hear the rumbling buzzing of machinery drawing closer. Tempest exited the house and closed the door behind her and while Luna simply relocated to sit on the bed, I rushed over to the small window to take a look at the airship itself.

I only saw a small part of it as it rose above the mountaintop. It looked a little as if somepony had taken inspiration from a hot air balloon, but had decided to stuff the passenger basket right up into the balloon itself, and then stretch the entire thing sideways until it vaguely resembled an actual ship. And built it out of metal. It looked weird, really. “I know,” Luna replied to my comments without showing any actual interest.

I was less of a fan of the thick black smoke it spewed into the air behind itself. “That would be the air pollution caused by their fuel,” Luna explained. I had seen and heard about machinery in Equestria. Flim and Flam constantly invented new technology. Pinkie supposedly hat some sort of flying device with a rotor. But what ponykind crafted was usually still at least partially infused with magic. And seeing the smoke the airship pumped out, maybe that was a good thing.

A few minutes passed by with the airship simply hanging around. I believed I had heard some machinery. But Luna did not know what that had been either. Maybe a ramp being lowered? Something other than the constant, quite noisy buzzing of the machines keeping this thing afloat.

Then the airship started moving again. It turned. “They are leaving,” I announced and once again felt my shoulders sag a little. I had somehow hoped something would happen. Something else than just her leaving.

“Do you think it’s safe outside? I think I’d like to watch them leave.”

Luna giggled and got up and out of bed. “I swear to the heavens, sometimes you are just like a little colt at a fair!”

I grinned wide despite her mild chiding and even she smiled. I quickly trotted up to her side, lovingly nuzzled her shoulder and she extended her wing with a soft giggle and pulled me in closer. “It should be fine,” she concluded. “I can cast a quick invisibility spell for us, just to make sure.”

We exited the house and shortly after the courtyard as well. We walked towards the path that led down the mountain, but remained at the top near the edge. And there we sat as the new dawn rose and the airship slowly shrank further and further down, leaving behind its faint trail of black smoke.

“Do you actually think we’ll ever see her again?” I quietly asked after a few minutes. The airship was still visible, but tiny in the distance.

Luna sighed. “I am not sure. I like to think that she was honest with us. And that she will remember this day. However, as a ruler of Equestria, I cannot afford to take such risks. I will talk to my sister and we will adjust our preparations after our return home. Just in case Tempest decides to invade anyway, now with a functioning horn.”

Had I not been present, Luna would have dealt with this threat to Equestrian peace. Worse still. Had I not been present, Tempest would have still lacked any knowledge or ability to restore her magic. “I’m sorry.”

She shook her head and her primaries softly trailed along my back. “Do not apologize for trying to be good. ‘Tis a dark place from whence mine own decisions must come at times. I am not proud of it.”

With the airship only being a speck in the sky now, I was about to argue that point of hers, but decided against it. “I don’t think she unpetrified a single guard,” I instead noted while I looked around. “We could make camp outside the outpost, if you wanted? Maybe recover some of that time you initially hoped for?”

She sighed and was probably about to refuse when we suddenly saw the small speck grow in size. And a few seconds later, the soundwave of a massive explosion reached the mountaintop. We shared a look, our eyes wide, as we stared in disbelief at the airship. At this distance, it was hard to tell what exactly had happened. It looked like half of its side had been blown off. A tiny stream of fire and smoke emerged from the wreckage that was slowly going down. Above the sea, no less.

“They… they have lifeboats on those things, right?” I quietly asked. In my mind, I saw corpses line the hallways, half their faces ripped off their skulls due to the explosion. I saw screaming guards run along perforated corridors, still on fire. I saw the desperate jump from incredible heights, hoping the water might spare them from burning to death, only to realize on impact that from this height, water was as tough as concrete. I swallowed.

“I honestly do not know,” Luna answered.

We saw the burning wreckage make contact with the ocean’s surface. The fires were quelled immediately. And saltwater would meet fresh burns. I shuddered. “What in Celestia’s name happened…? Did… was that…” I looked up. I looked at Luna and for a few dangerous seconds, I considered if she had tampered with the explosives in Tempest's horseshoes. I felt so incredibly guilty just daring to think she would do something so heinous. And I averted my eyes in guilt and shame.

“Do not apologize,” she whispered and pulled me closer with her wing, “Even I considered if I had done it by accident.”

Neither of us rushed downhill. Neither of us made any move to reach the crash site. Because no matter how horrible this fate was, no matter the horrific fates my vivid imagination showed me: Deep down, I knew that we could not afford to be spotted here. To be involved.

“Look,” Luna prompted and raised a hoof. My eyes followed south where she pointed. And I noticed another speck. It was weirdly shaped and seemed to move fast as it quickly got bigger. It drew close enough that we could make out some sort of rigid wings within a minute. It was a glider of sorts. With a small rack underneath, sturdy enough to carry a single creature.

A single pony, in this case.

Using an updraft, Tempest landed a few feet away from us and folded the wings of the weird contraption on her back. It was strange to see her without her armor. She walked over to us and plopped her rump down like she belonged here.

While we speechlessly stared at her, she watched the last traces of the airship be swallowed by the ocean. “We had a little talk,” she offered quietly and her voice was as indifferent as always. “Decided to part ways. Wasn’t exactly what you’d call ‘amicably’. But things are in order. Now we can go.”