An armored stallion is cradling the mare in his forelegs and wings and his whole body shudders as he starts to sob. One of the thestrals closest to me turns around enraged and starts trying to push me away. “What is wrong with you?! You… you’re a monster!” I just continue to stare at the corpse in shock.

“I… I didn’t know this would happen…” This is far from the first creature I’ve killed, but those creatures were… evil. Those were on purpose and it was kill or be killed, but this was an accident.

Wisdom Saving Throw

11 + 6 = 17.

The haze in my mind clears up for a brief moment and I’m able to push down the shock and guilt for long enough to realize I can fix this. I still have time. “Luna, can you transmute bits into copper?”

“I… what? I can but is now really an appropriate time for this?”

I dig into my bit bag and pull out a handful of the gold coins, “Yes. I can save her, but I need two copper coins. I’ll need a diamond worth over 300 bits as well, but for now I need the copper. Please transmute these for me.”

The look of confusion is still present but Luna trusts me completely so she ignites her horn without any further questions. Once I have the copper pieces in my hand I quickly approach the grieving group of thestrals. I only have 30 more seconds at the most. Bats between me and the corpse hurl insults and curses at me as they try to keep me away, but I just keep mumbling the same phrase as I slide around and past them.

“It’s okay. I can fix this.”

The last obstacle is the wailing stallion that I’m starting to think must be her husband. Once I’m within reaching distance he clutches her tighter and screams out at me to stay away. “Haven’t you done enough?! What more do you want from us?”

I quietly mutter the same response I’ve been repeating like a mantra and I can feel all of the thestrals behind me release my cloak and slowly back away. They must have realized I’m truly trying to help, is what I think to myself, but really they were backing away because the husband had pulled a dagger from somewhere and was thrusting it towards me. My gaze was so transfixed on the corpse that I didn't even notice the dagger, and if it weren’t for Luna and Callisid screaming out my name I wouldn’t have realized something was happening.

I glance up and my eyes meet the tear filled glare from the husband as his dagger slides cleanly into my gut.

Critical Hit.

-38 HP: 44/82.

I can taste copper in my mouth and feel a trickle of warm liquid flow down my chin as I continue to stare at the stallion. “Please. Let me help her.”

The room falls into silence as the stallion pulls away from me in shock and confusion, leaving the dagger in me. I don’t wait for a response as I set one copper piece over both eyes of the mare. The Mizzium starts to hum once the Material components are set into place and I cast Gentle Repose on the dead thestral. Since Gentle Repose is a 2nd level spell and it’s impossible for me to fail the Arcana check the spell casts without even needing a roll.

The copper pieces fade away as a dim silver light envelopes the fresh corpse. Everyone around me is watching with bated breath as they wait for something to happen, but they don’t realize this spell was just a spell to buy me time. If Luna isn’t able to teleport in a diamond for the Revivify spell then Gentle Repose buys us 10 days. For 10 days this corpse won’t decay, it’s completely protected from the passage of time.

Something hard lands on my shoulder and I turn to see a somewhat large diamond being held in Luna’s telekinesis. Quickly grabbing the diamond I cast Guidance on myself to prepare for the Aracana check for my next spell. I just need to roll a 3 or higher and I pass the check, but just to be even more safe the Guidance will give me an extra 1d4 on top. The silent thestrals start to murmur in discontent as nothing happens to the corpse and I can tell their patience is already growing thin. I know revival is seen as impossible to ponies so I can understand their disbelief and apprehension.

Once Guidance is cast I gently pull the mare away from her husband and lay her down on her back. Next I place the diamond down on her chest, where her heart should be, and my hands start to glow with a blinding white light as the Mizzium hums to life once more.

Arcana Check (Mizzium DC: 16.)

2 + 13 = 15 + 1 (Guidance) = 16.

I’m glad I casted Guidance but it looks like I took longer than I thought to reach her corpse.

Amount of time since the time of death exceeds the maximum allowed for this spell. Revivify Failed.

The diamond was consumed anyways… “She’s been dead for too long. I have to use a more powerful spell. Luna I need another diamond, this one needs to be worth more than 500 bits.” Her horn lights up a few more times as if she’s casting Sending repeatedly, and I can only guess that she woke up Celestia to help us. Her horn lights up 1 final time a diamond nearly the size of my head appears in the air.

She floats the diamond over to me and one of the bats closest to me yells at me. “Why are you continuing this charade? You can’t revive the dead, nopony can!”

“This spell is going to take me an hour to cast so please give me some space and some time.” They give me a few steps of space but it’s not enough to make me comfortable about what I’m about to do. If I fail this Mizzium roll they’re all within range of some potentially deadly spells. “I need more space. There’s a chance this could go wrong and all of you are too close, we don’t need to risk anyone else dying tonight.”

That seems to do the trick as they walk to the other side of the room and stare at me intensely. I can’t say I’m of fan of 18-20 ponies glaring at me, but I don’t blame them. I place the diamond in the same spot as last time and after casting Guidance again the Mizzium starts to hum.

Arcana Check (Mizzium DC: 20.)

5 + 13 = 18.

I watch with bated breath as the triangle shaped d4 rolls around in my vision, please don’t be a 1 please don’t be a 1.

1. 18 + 2 = 20. Spell casting will now begin.

I sit down on my knees next to the corpse and put my hands together with 3 fingers raised on each hand creating a hand sign for vitality. Immediately a glowing green circle starts to form on the ground around the corpse. Eventually there’s going to be hundreds of glyphs inside this spell circle, but it takes an hour for them to form. I hear the ponies behind me start to murmur and ask questions when they see the glowing green light and I decide to give them some good news.

“The dangerous part is over, you all can come back now if you would like to. It’s just a matter of time at this point.” A few of the thestrals, including her husband, slowly saunter back over to where I’m sitting and the husband takes her forehoof and holds it against his head and he quietly mutters a prayer repeatedly. This continues for the full hour and finally the spell circle is complete. I release the hand sign and place my palm over the diamond as I start to speak the incantation for the spell and it sounds like I’m saying multiple words at the same time and my eyes begin to glow.

The next thing I know there’s a blinding white light and once it’s gone I quickly blink my eyes to readjust them to the dark room. I realize I’m somewhere completely different. Looking around I’m completely puzzled as I’m standing in what seems like a void with aurora like fog and white motes of light aimlessly floating around.

“You are overstepping your authority, bladesinger.” Turning around I find an alicorn that’s slightly bigger than Celestia but this one seems more… ethereal. A thought enters my mind that is not my own as an unfamiliar voice whispers recognition into my brain. This is Harmony.

“Where you're from this might be commonplace, but in this realm these souls are mine. It is completely out of your jurisdiction to disrupt the harmonic cycle of life and death.”

“I’m just trying to fix my own wrong doings. This mare doesn’t deserve to be punished for my mistake.”

“I’m aware. It’s only because this intention is pure that I have even decided to speak with you. All the souls under my purview are in a cycle of reincarnation, by reviving this thestral you’ve caused a zebra on the other side of the world to suffer a miscarriage.”

“But why? Only deaths from natural causes like illness and old age should be applicable. It wasn’t her time to go yet, and was only caused by my intervention.”

The ethereal alicorn starts to slowly circle around me. “Do you not believe in fate? If she was not meant to die in that moment then she simply would not have died. You are changing what has been written.”

“Then is it not fate that I revive her? If she was meant to die then my Raise Dead spell would not have been successfully casted.”

“It’s not so simple. You’re an outside variable entirely, you do not exist in my pages, by all rights you shouldn’t even be here. Your presence altered the purification of Nightmare Moon in such a way that if I had let you die under that pile of rubble my elements would not have recovered, and they would have been defeated. This forced my hand into saving you at the last second and awakening your true power for a brief moment. Although you have been an instrument of good since then I have only allowed you to continue your existence because so far you have not disrupted fate. The dragon you encountered before the summit was meant to be taught a lesson by Kindness but he was instead killed. This was indirectly your fault but one of my own avatar’s was the one to actually kill him, so I ignored that change. This thestral was not fated to die by your hand but she was fated to die today. Even in this way you did not alter fate, but with this revival you threaten to unravel the threads of this realm entirely.”

The Goddess comes to stop directly in front of me and pierces my soul with her gaze. “Knowing this, will you still revive her?”

“Of course.”

I watch as an extremely large tome is conjured into the space above us. The book cracks open and the pages flutter around as the book jumps to a specific page. Once the pages stop moving the entire book glows brightly and I watch as the unreadable text fades and shifts into a completely different set of hieroglyphs. Once the change is complete the alicorn flies up to the book and reads the pages before turning and glancing back down at me. “The consequences of your choice are not catastrophic this time. However, there has been a change. It’s a change you’ll have to live with. I urge you to never use this magic again, bladesinger.”

Everything fades away and I’m back in the thestral colony, hovering my hands over the thestral corpse. The diamond has disappeared and as the silver light enshrouded around the mare fades away a spark of life returns to her eyes as the dullness ceases to exist and she draws in a massive breath with a gasp.

A chorus of voices ring out with shouts of shock, but it’s all like static in my ears as the newly revived mare stares at me in terror. She’s completely frozen and her eyes widen even more as I reach my hand out towards her. She starts to scream bloody murder when my hand touches forehead but I just ignore it as I mutter out the incantation to cast Cure Wounds at 4th level.

8d8 + 1 = 38 Points of healing.

The terror fades from her eyes as the drying blood on her face is erased. I slowly rise to my feet and walk towards Luna. While I’m walking I hear the whispers of the thestrals around me and the shouts from the husband of the formerly deceased. “Wasn’t she dead? I thought healing didn’t work on those that had already passed?” - “Did he revive her?” - “It’s a miracle! You were dead Starshine! That knight… is he…” “Divine?” “A God?” “It must’ve been a Divine miracle!” “Even in the ancient texts our goddesses never had the power to revive..”

It’s hard to make out the individual thoughts while they all talk over each other, but that’s the most I can decipher from the noise. Between the guilt of killing that mare and the existential dread I received from my conversation with Harmony I’m completely overwhelmed and my emotions have gone numb. Luna’s looking at me with a mixture of fear and pity and it dawns on me I can use this to our advantage. Pivoting on my ankle and turning around to face the thestrals again I pull the dagger out of my guy and wince in pain before calmly speaking out to them.

-8 HP: 36/82.

“Do you fools now recognize the power you’ve tried to manipulate and take advantage of? I’m merely a paladin, a conduit for Her power and I was still able to perform this miracle. Will you repent and join me in servitude for Her in Canterlot?”

Performance Check

4 + 5 = 9.

The thestrals start to murmur and argue amongst themselves. It seems some of them have been convinced to cease their selfish shenanigans, but some, the Chancellor included, are stubbornly refusing to admit their wrong doings. I just sigh in disbelief, “So be it. Luna, can we go back now?”

“I’d prefer if we found a place to rest here for a few hours so you can properly recover, but I agree that this is a lost cause. Even if you had convinced them with your deception there I’m not sure I’d have even taken them.”

“That wasn’t deception. That Revival spell wasn’t from my spell book, it was from the divine link we have as your paladin. It was technically your power that brought her back from the abyss. I won’t say no to some sleep in a comfortable bed though, the bedroll was starting to hurt my back.”

-5 HP: 31/82.

Looking down at my gut in confusion I watch as blood spurts out of the stab wound and pours down my cloak. I hear Luna’s voice, “Are you not going to treat yourself? You can’t just let that continue to bleed, Ignis.”

“Yeah… it’s just weird because normally I don’t continue to lose health from my wounds…” Placing my palm on the wound I use all 10 points from my Lay on Hands pool and the wound finally closes. HP: 41/82.

Curious if this dagger has a special property that applies some type of bleeding debuff I wipe the blade clean and deposit it into my backpack. Once I’m finished with that I follow Luna out of the magical chamber. The thestrals are still arguing as we climb the stairs, seemingly oblivious to the fact that we’re leaving.

After wandering around the city for a few minutes we end up in a bit of an awkward encounter. “Dam, Dam, look! It’s the Mare of the Moon!”

Luna pauses and turns to face the squeaky adolescent voice so I stop as well and follow her gaze. It’s the first set of civilian thestrals we’ve seen since we got here and holy shit they are so adorable without armor on! The foal's parent points at Luna and replies to the child with an equal level of excitement. “That’s Princess Luna! She’s returned to rescue us! We’re just waiting on word from the council so we can start packing our things, and finally return to our homeland.”

This causes Luna and I to look at each other with a frown. After a second or two Luna decides to approach the two of them. “Good evening little one! Do you see that scary looking elf over there with the silver hair?” The foal nods, “That’s my knight, he knows all kinds of cool magic, have you ever seen magic before?” This time she shakes her head no. “You should go ask him to show you some, I promise he’s not actually scary.” The filly looks a bit apprehensive but once Luna makes eye contact with the mare and she realizes that the Princess wants to speak with her privately she encourages the child to run over to me.

“Miss Princess said you could show me cool magic!” Flashing a genuine smile for the first time in what feels like forever I sit down criss cross on the ground so I can be at eye level with the foal.

Making sure to keep most of my attention on Luna so I can hear their conversation I think of a few tricks I can show off. Since she’s looking into my eyes I’ll use Thaumaturgy to change their appearance. “Sure, I don’t mind showing you some cool magic. What’s your name?”

“Eclipse! It’s so cool how your eyes look like ours! Dam said in the anc-anshe.. Old books that the other ponies were scared of us cause of the slits in our eyes. I think that isn’t very nice of them. And-and yours are red which is so cool! I haven’t seen any red eyes before it’s so pretty…”

“Eclipse huh? Well my name is Ignis. What do you think the prettiest eye color would be?” She thinks about it while I listen to Luna explain the situation with the list of demands to the mother. To my surprise the mothers face is plastered with horror that only seems to grow as the list goes on.

“I think white or silver would be the prettiest for you, but then it wouldn’t stand out from the rest of your eye so… you’d have to make the other part of your eyes black! Can you change your eyes?!”

Imagining it in my head it’s not a bad look, but combined with my hair it’s almost a little too much white and silver. I snap my fingers and follow her request though, making my actual eyeball black and my iris’s silver, but letting them keep their dragon-like appearance. Before I open my eyes to reveal the change I listen to the mare rattle off apology after apology to Luna… did the civilians have no clue what the fuck was happening?

Opening my eyes the filly gasps and her own eyes expand like saucers. “That’s so cool! What else can you do?!”

Channeling the Mizzium I cast the cantrip Dancing Lights and 4 orbs of light appear over the palm of my hand. Holding out my index finger I make the lights orbit around the finger super fast and then I have them follow the tip of my finger as I wave it around in the air. The kid is just going woah every so often, and it’s adorable. Finally I hear the conversation between Luna and her mother winding down so I flick my finger and point towards her mom and have the 4 orbs fly through the air and start doing orbits around the mare. The filly yells in excitement as she chases after the orbs flying towards her mom, causing Luna to giggle while the mom still looks horrified about their conversation.

“So let me guess, they had no idea the council was making a grab for power and trying to manipulate the situation so they could retain control over them?”

Luna just sighs. “I’m afraid so. All of the civilians were told was that soon they’d be rescued and taken back to the homeland where food grows in abundance and nopony goes hungry.”

“How’d she react when you told her we weren’t rescuing them and their shitty council ruined it for everyone?” The alicorn doesn’t respond and her eyes shift to the side, attempting to avoid looking at me. “Luna, you told her right?”

“No. I’m not going to condemn this entire colony because of a few corrupt leaders, Ignis. She’s going to gather up all of the denizens to meet in the middle of town and we’re going to interrogate the Chancellor. I’ll have a scrying spell setup so the thestrals in town can hear and see our meeting and we’ll get a full confession from her.”

“Okay I don’t mind that, I think that’s a noble thing to do actually. However, what are we going to do about the Night Guard? The main reason for coming here was to bolster our non-existent guard, but if these guards are willing to blindly follow corrupt orders do we really want them?”

“Hmm, that is true. We can use the refugee changelings as our core force and open up recruitment for any of the civilian thestrals. That’d still leave us with over 100 guards, easily. From there we can open recruitment to all equestrian citizens. I also wouldn’t completely remove the guards here from the table, though. A majority of them are likely just indoctrinated and think they have no choice but to follow orders that seem amoral, and with some training we could easily teach them to not follow evil orders.”

“It’s your guard, so do what you wanna do. Personally I think indoctrination is too hard to undo and I’d never trust any of them. I’d only let them be janitors. It’s an important job but I think it’s the job they can do the least amount of damage with if they were to continue with their corrupt ways.”

“The thestrals won’t arrive in Canterlot until after the gala, so we can just iron out the details then. For now let’s just focus on exposing the council and the Chancellor.”

Callisid kept me updated on the movements of the Chancellor so we only gathered all of the civilians into one spot once the council went back into their meeting chamber. The guards did notice the public gathering but the ponies just made up some story about waiting around to meet the Princess and they bought it.

Luna set up the scrying receivers and then requested a private meeting with the Chancellor and as we went into the private meeting chamber the Chancellor ordered the two guards outside to not allow anypony to disturb us. Now I’m sitting here ready to cast Arcane Lock on the door at a moments notice and Luna has the room soundproofed. We’re taking both of these precautions because it won’t take long for the guards patrolling the city to notice what’s happening and the soundproofing will prevent them from alerting Umbra from the outside and my Arcane Lock will keep them from entering.

“So, Chancellor Umbra, we’ve settled our disputes and my knight has proved himself, so I have to ask if you’ve reconsidered how you want to approach this pact.” Luna is giving her one last chance, one last out.

“I have to admit I was underestimating the both of you, but the reason I was so quick to accept this meeting is because I’d like to say that we’re happy to re-enter the pact with you with no terms or demands.”

Luna smiles brightly, but it seems she didn’t quite catch the wording there. She’s still pretty new to modern English so I don’t blame her. “You’d like to say that, so why can’t you say that?” I ask before Luna gets too excited.

The alicorn looks at me in confusion as Umbra sighs. “It’s the council. I’m just a political figurehead; the council holds all the real power. They’re terrified of losing their power and control over this colony, and are willing to give up our only salvation and anger our Mistress for their own pettiness. They’re even prepared to mobilize the guards and institute martial law to keep everypony here if either of you tries to convince the civilians to leave.”

This causes me and Luna to look at each other with concern. We didn’t expect it to be this bad. “Why haven’t you spoken out to the public about this? Why do they have such an iron grasp on their power here?” Luna asks the Chancellor with sincere sympathy in her voice.

“The food shortage. The land to the east of the mountains is dangerous, but that ground is plenty fertile to farm and grow sustenance for the colony. They have manufactured this food shortage so that they can bribe the guards with extra food to uphold their commands. They silence anyone that tries to speak out with their ideas or campaign to take one of their seats from the council. Things have not been going well around here…”

Something doesn’t add up here. Thankfully Luna seems to notice as well and she asks a very valid question. “Why not bring this up during our dream meetings then? Dreams are my domain and we had complete privacy, there was no reason for you to withhold this information until now.”

The mare squeezes her eyes closed and I imagine she feels like her entire world is crashing down right now. “She didn’t bring it up because she was one of them. You’re not innocent in this matter either, are you Umbra? You only turned your back on them because you can sense that the power is going to shift to Luna no matter what you do, so in your last desperate act to maintain any semblance of power you’ve feigned innocence and ratted out your co-conspirators in hopes of gaining our trust.”

She buries her face in her forelegs and starts to mutter curses in frustration. Her reaction tells me all I needed to know. “Alright Luna did the Scrying spell catch all of that?”

“Indeed it did. I’d pay bits to see how the civilians gathered up in the middle of town are reacting to this news. I wouldn’t be surprised if the other members of the council also just listened to Chancellor Umbra stab them in the back.”

The thestral in question snaps her head forward and stares at us slack jawed in complete horror. “What?! No no no nonono this isn’t happening!”

She starts having a full on meltdown and Luna looks at her with pity as we both decide to just stand up and leave. There’s nothing more to be said here, and she’ll have to suffer the consequences of her own actions. Walking outside I watch with slight amusement as the thestrals are rioting and demanding answers from the council. “Can we go to bed now Luna?”

She gives a slight chuckle before answering me. “Yes Ignis, we can go to bed now. The dam of that filly you were entertaining said she had a spare bed we could use.”

“By the way, I know gems are way more common here than the land where I’m from, so why were those two diamonds so expensive?”

“They were mana diamonds. Some gems are formed near ley lines and have an abundance of dense mana inside of them, and unlike typical gems they gain the property of naturally replenishing their mana supply. Typically you have to supply the gems with your own mana. That 2nd diamond was actually around 2,000 bits, but Tia was tired and impatient so she just grabbed the first one she found in the enchantment vault.”

“I’ll be sure to send her my thanks later. So are we teleporting back tomorrow or are we going to hike back the same way we came?”

“Oh Harmony no, we are not going through that forsaken forest again, it’s worse than the Everfree. We’ll teleport back to Canterlot when we wake up, which with it being 4AM right now will probably be around noon or 11AM, and we’ll have 3 days of rest. The day after that is Force’s official Knighting ceremony. I informed Cadence we’d be back early, Friday at the latest, so she went ahead and scheduled the ceremony for Friday. Then we have 1 week of normalcy that leads straight into the Gala.”

“Cool, cool. One other thing...I don’t have the energy to talk about it right now so can you remind me tomorrow that I need to talk to you about something that happened when I revived that thestral?”

She looks worried, “That sounds rather ominous, are you sure it should wait until tomorrow?”

“Yeah it’s nothing dangerous, I think. I just had a conversation with Harmony, and she mentioned something that has had me a little distracted since. She said I’m not in her book of fate and I shouldn’t exist…”

“You…. had a conversation....with... Harmony? What?!”

Author's Note

Commenters predicted correctly how things would play out with the council, but then again I don't really think I left myself with too many options that would be believable.

We're also finally reaching the end of season 1, and I'm pretty excited for it. Similar to the NMM fight I've already imagined basically the entire climax of the gala in my head and I think it'll be really good.

Once we wrap up season 1 I'm going to take a few days off before we roll into Season 2. I'm not making the seasons separate stories so in reality the "season" ending doesn't really signify anything, but lately I've been losing track of my own foreshadowing seeds and I'm forgetting what dialogue has been had and which characters have had conversations about what AND all of the recent chapters are kinda blurring together which tells me that I need a break. Season 1 ending seems like a good opportunity for that so like I said it'll just be a few days, maybe a week at most and then we'll get right back into it. During the down time I plan on rereading the story and properly documenting the things I planted and hinted at so I can remember to actually use the information.

I'll also be doing a sweep through and fixing all the early errors where I forgot words in sentences or typed the wrong word but it was still a word so spellcheck didn't catch the error, you know all that good stuff. It still happens now, but it was alot worse in the earlier chapters and I'm sure I never fixed all of it so while I'm rereading to properly document my notes I'll be fixing all the oopsies along the way. That should only take a couple of days and then I can chill before starting Season 2.

By the way we really did almost fail that Arcana check for Raise Dead:

Thanks for reading! <3