Primeval Retribution

Chapter Three: A Child of Embers

A muffled ring resonated within the head of the young unicorn laying on the ground, his ears contoured against his head to try and soften the roar of the fires and the flapping of wings. His medium black mane blew around in his face and along the stone pavement, a small puff of soot and ash falling out of it every time the wind changed directions. His eyes partially closed, all the colt could see were numerous billows of smoke and the pyres that they rose from, along with the stallions and mares running, attempting to get away from the winged beasts soaring above. The clouded sky blended in with the dark shades of grey rolling from the burning buildings, a small rainfall sprinkling on the blazing royal city, though the soft droplets of water gave no aid to putting out the fires spread throughout the streets of an olden days Canterlot.

The colt laying on the ground gradually regained his senses and opened his eyes completely, but he almost shut them immediately at the sight of his hometown. The streets of Canterlot were lined with streaks of violent and wild flames, the ponies outside trying to seek shelter any where they could that wasn’t inhabited by the bright orange infernos. A blaring roar struck down from the sky over Canterlot, the colt slowly lifting himself onto his hooves looking up towards the orange tinted sky. Three massive, scaled, winged beasts hovered above the royal city in circles, their mouths smoldering with smoke blacker than their greedy hearts. Their wings sent waves of frantic air down onto the clamorous city below, spreading fires about the homes and buildings that somehow remained untouched from the onslaught so far. One after the other, the dragons swooped down just above the city’s elegant houses and flew parallel to the ground, releasing a storm of smoke and conflagration in a straight line before they bounded upwards and admired their work.

Still weak on his hooves, the colt in the middle of an intersection of roads looked over himself. His dark red coat seemed fine and his dark green eyes, though hazy, confirmed that he appeared to be healthy, though the colt’s right foreleg surged with intense pain every time he applied pressure to it. Tiny droplets of tears escaped from the colt’s eyes as he lifted his gaze to the streets around him, and the constant blaring of the three dragons’ roars only made the situation worse. Among the piles of burnt portions of homes and lone flames dancing on the street, numberless wounded and unconscious ponies crawled and laid out in the open, crying for help to the ponies still galloping frantically to find a place to hide. Parts of their coats were burnt and their faces were wet with rain and tears, a few of the ponies in a puddle of blood or another fluid of their body. The ponies that were still able and running around took no notice of the injured in their paths, the commotion driving themselves to ignore the pleas and try to find a haven from the dragon attack. Though, some of them weren’t as callous as the others.

“What are you doing out here!?” a voice yelled over the turmoil.

The colt, barely able to hear the phrase, turned toward the origin of voice. A grey, mare earth pony hurriedly made her way from one of the buildings lining the roads off of the crossroad, her bright blue eyes fixed on the colt in the middle of the intersection. Her short dark blue mane had been singed from fires earlier, a few tips of her hair blackened along with patches of her coat.

The mare came to a sliding halt beside the colt, almost instantly grabbing onto his left foreleg and coaxing him to come with her. “It’s not safe out here! Come with me!” the mare shouted, beginning to back up to the building she had been hiding in.

The colt stood where he was, exhaustedly looking around the intersection. “My parents,” he spoke quietly. “Where are my parents?”

“I don’t know,” the mare replied, her voice calmer, yet still hurried. “I’m sure they’re somewhere safe. How old are you? What’s your name, sweetie?”

“Ga... Gallantry. I’m three.”

“Okay. Now, come with me. We’ll look for your parents after this is all over, okay?”

Before the colt could say anything back, the mare quickly disappeared from his side. Without warning or notice, a pair of claws rushed down from above and wrenched the mare from the ground, the dragon holding onto her continuing to fly quite a way before it let go of its grasp on her. The distant scream of the mare was abruptly ended out of sight from the colt left alone in the intersection he awoke on, Gallantry moving his head away from the direction the mare had been carried off in as fast as he could. Trying his best not to let loose any more tears as he briefly stepped on his right foreleg, the colt slowly began to limp his way to the building the mare had come from, though something from the corner of his eye caught his attention further down the street.

Gallantry came to a still stop as his eyes rested upon two familiar looking ponies laying in the street. Their backs turned to him, the colt only stared at the two ponies, unsure of what he was seeing. A stallion and a mare, both on their sides, laid down, motionless, next to the line of buildings Gallantry had been walking towards. They both were surrounded by a mixture of blood and rain, the intensity of the red hue closer to the mare. The stallion’s coat was badly burned, some parts even completely singed off, and both of his hind legs were bent at awkward angles. The mare had no burns visible from her back, though six large cuts spread across her from hooves to neck.

Almost afraid to say anything for fear of his worries being true, the words that escaped from Gallantry’s mouth were barely audible, “M... mom? Dad?”

He wasn’t wrong. The mare’s pale blue coat and black mane, the stallion’s dark grey coat and dark brown mane, their cutie marks, though almost unrecognizable due to wounds, all of their characteristics matched the identities of Gallantry’s parents. Both of them motionless and side by side, Gallantry felt an overwhelming feeling of dread and loneliness wash over him, the colt almost dropping down onto the ground. The dark red colt slowly began to limp over to the two ponies, though at the same time he wanted to run in the other direction and deny that they were his parents, despite the similarities. The royal city continued to panic and burn, but Gallantry found himself in a path of silence as he walked towards his mother and father. He couldn’t help but let his tears fall with the light drops of rain alongside them as he neared the two ponies. Gallantry stood unmoving over the pale blue mare in front of him, staring down at her with cloudy and lachrymose eyes. The slashes along her body still ran with blood, soaking her coat and the ground beneath her. The mare’s purple eyes remained open, gazing down the street that she and the stallion laid on, a left over grief stricken tone in them.

His lips quivering, Gallantry stepped forward slightly, dragging his right front hoof across his mother’s hair. “...Mom?” he said, his voice wavering and his eyes emptying of tears. He pushed against his mother’s back, though she stayed as still as she had been. “Mom, I’m scared. Come back.” Gallantry lifted his forehooves up and planted them both on his mother’s back, pushing her gently. “Don’t leave me alone. Please, mom.”

Gallantry quickly shifted his eyes to the pony next to the mare as the dark grey stallion coughed faintly, a small chuckle escaping from his mouth afterwards. The dark grey stallion slowly opened his eyes to peer at the dark red colt leaning against his mother, the father’s dark green eyes lighting up as they met with Gallantry’s.

“Hey, champ,” Gallantry’s father spoke, his voice rough and quiet. “This wasn’t quite what I expected to happen on the way to the store.” He chuckled to himself lightly, but coughed roughly and let out a a quiet and coarse sigh. “Listen, son...”

As fast as he could, Gallantry limped his way around his mother to his father, a mix of tears of joy and sorrow in his eyes. “Dad!” He sat down in front of his father, looking over the severely burnt stallion on his side. “Don’t talk, dad. You don’t sound very good.”

“I’d imagine I don’t look very good either,” Gallantry’s father spoke, looking up at his son. “Gallantry, I want you to know that...” He took a moment to cough again. “... that... that I’m not going to make it out of this. I don’t have much more time.”

The dark red colt leaned forward and planted his hooves on his father’s stomach, though instantly took them off as the dark grey stallion winced in pain. “Dad, don’t leave me here. I don’t want to be alone!”

Gallantry’s father smirked slightly and weakly placed on of his hooves on top of his son’s. “Gal, I know you’re strong. Your mom knows you’re strong, too.” He lowered his eyes partially. “I’m sure if she was with us right now she would say the same.” He returned his eyes back to Gallantry as the colt began to sob. “I know it’s hard, and I know that you don’t want us to go. I’m sorry, Gal. I’m so sorry.”

The colt slipped one of his hooves out from his father’s hoof and wiped his eyes. “It’s not your fault, dad. I just... I wanted to make you proud. I could’ve. I know I could’ve.”

The dark grey stallion coughed again before smiling. “Everypony in the world knows you can, Gallantry. Besides... I’m already proud of my little stallion. Nothing could ever change that... Gal. Nothing.”

Gallantry sniffled and moved his mane out of his face, locking eyes with his father. “...I’ll miss you, dad.”

The colt’s father gave one last grin as his eyes began to close. “Your mom and I will miss you, too. We’ll always be thinking... of you...”

The dark red colt tilted his head forward and let his mane hang in front of his face as his tears fell harder, the droplets of water running down his mane and diving to the ground below. He slowly edged downwards and rested his horn against his father’s side, letting his forehead rub against the stallion with every sob. The colt felt as if he could feel every drop of rain that fell from the sky on him, each and every single one of them poking and sliding down, rubbing his back gently. The silence that had taken over his parents proved to be too much for the dark red colt sitting in sorrow, and his tears only flowed harder and harder the more time he spent beside the mare and stallion he loved. Gallantry lifted his forelegs forward and laid his upper body atop his father, pulling the stallion in closer to him as hard as he could. Every breath inward and every exhale outward softly pushed against Gallantry’s father, though there were no longer any ponies around to comfort the dark red colt. Gallantry was alone.

The young unicorn lifted his head up slowly as he heard the flapping of wings above him, the tears in his eyes ceasing for a spilt second as fear took over. Gallantry looked up towards the sky, but found himself staring off down the street he laid in the middle of as one of the three dragons tormenting Canterlot landed harshly on the same street. Ash and flames roused from the ground with the alight of the dragon, its tail swiping across numerous housetops and sending the roofs off into the sky. The enormous scaled beast had its piercing yellow eyes set on the dark red colt further down the road, silently watching Gallantry stare back at it. Pony and dragon, Gallantry and the winged serpent glared into each others eyes, terror clashing with hidden amusement.

The dragon gradually took steps forward to the young unicorn, the ground shaking with every thundering step. Gallantry only watched as the winged monster advanced unhurriedly towards him, holding on to his father as hard as he could. His grip on the stallion under him tightened with every stride of the dragon’s arms and legs, Gallantry’s tears beginning to edge back into his eyes as the dragon drew ever closer. The colt’s legs begged for him to leave, to get up and run as fast as he could towards shelter, but the unicorn’s body stayed put, waiting for the dragon to come close. A sense of peace through the trembling of Gallantry’s body made its way into the young unicorn’s mind, and as the dragon came within a block’s distance of him, Gallantry’s tears had been wiped away.

The dragon came to a stop another step’s length away from the dark red colt laying in the middle of the street, staring down at the unicorn with resolute eyes. Gallantry laid still where he was next to his parents, meeting the dragon’s gaze with his own sorrowful and tear stricken face. The royal city seemed to have been silenced for the moment, the screams of the ponies and the raging of the fires toned down to nothing. The rainfall had picked up slightly over Canterlot, the sound of the drops of water against the burning houses and the now desolate streets suddenly audible. Wings spread out to their full length and its head stretched out over Gallantry and his parents, the dragon continued to observe the dark red colt with curiosity, tilting its head to the side partially. Gallantry and the dragon both continued to stare at each other, gazing, watching the other’s eyes stay steady and still. Something within the dragon’s eyes wasn’t quite natural, however, as a dim glow within them began to pulse.

A beam of magic abruptly interrupted Gallantry and the dragon’s silence. A few scales on the dragon’s stomach blackened and burned as a lance of golden magic rammed into the winged giant, the dragon quickly tilting its head upwards to observe what had attacked it. Gallantry, too, turned his head around to the opposite direction of the dragon, his blurry vision just barely able to see what had come between him and the scaled fire breather.

A group of more than forty royal guards quickly ran down the street across from the intersection, each of them with spears at their sides and their horns ready to fire. Their golden armor was burnt and beaten inwards, but the damages didn’t stop the guards of Canterlot to protect their city. As they got close enough, the royal guards began to unleash magic bullets from their horns, a multitude of colors spreading into the air above Canterlot as the assault of magic headed straight for the landed dragon. A loud howl erupted from the winged beast’s mouth along with a billow of smoke, the dragon turning sideways and putting one of its wings out in front of it to block the barrage of magic bullets. Wing already searing with the pain of constant magic ramming into it, the dragon whipped around and spread its wings out to their full length after roaring in anger. Gallantry watched the large scaled fiend slowly advance upwards into the sky, its right wing blackened in various spots throughout the surface. The royal guards in the street continued past Gallantry as they chased after the dragon on ground, continuing to fire at the dragon as much as they could. The dark red colt left sitting in the middle of the street, alone, only stared after the royal guards as they ran further down the street chasing after the dragon, and slowly, Gallantry’s tears began to fall once more.

One of the royal guards pursuing the dragon slid to a quick stop as a sob rushed past his ears, his fellow royal guards paying no attention to the cry and continuing with their pursuit. The lone royal guard looked after the other stallions in his division for a brief moment as they didn’t even think about stopping, but with the other two dragons still harrowing Canterlot, it was probably for the best. The royal guard turned his head to the intersection he had come across, surprised to find the dark red colt still sitting in the middle of the street. If not before, it was clear now to the royal guard that the sob he had heard came from the young unicorn sitting beside two, either deceased or unconscious, ponies.

Sighing slightly to himself, the royal guard stood his spear straight up in the air with a levitation spell and walked slowly towards Gallantry. The armored stallion slid his eyes to the sky above Canterlot as one of the other dragons within the city flew up into the air. A fury of magic bullets flew around the dragon with a number of the bullets hitting the beast, patches of its scales blackened with the singe of magic. The deployment of the royal guards to defend against an attack on the royal city or other parts of Equestria was quite rare, and the sudden strike of three powerful, relentless dragons wasn’t quite the expected event on the eve of Nightmare Night. The royal guard walking towards Gallantry returned his eyes back to the street as the dragon in the air flew above the clouds and out of sight, a distant and quiet roar of cheering erupting from further off into Canterlot. The celebration was a small raise of hope to restore Canterlot before Nightmare Night, but even the holiday so popular with the fillies and colts didn’t appear like it would do much to cheer the young unicorn sitting in the road.

The lone royal guard came to a silent stop beside Gallantry, though the dark red colt paid no attention to him. He scanned his eyes over the two ponies laying on their sides in front of the young unicorn, obvious that they were at rest from the sight of their conditions. Taking off his helmet and setting it on the ground beside him along with his spear, the royal guard knelt down to Gallantry’s level, a few tears and heavy breaths still escaping from the colt.

“There isn’t much you can do to bring them back,” the royal guard said softly, trying his best to sound comforting while speaking the truth. “Parents or siblings, they’re gone. I’m sorry.”

Gallantry only sniffled.

The royal guard glanced off down the street as a slender figure turned the corner of the intersection down the road. He looked back at Gallantry. “Listen, the third dragon is still around Canterlot. It isn’t safe to be out here right now. Come with me, I’ll get you to somewhere safe until the dragon is gone.”

The colt quickly wiped his nose. “I’m not leaving my mom and dad alone,” he said, his voice wavering.

Taking another glance back the intersection as the figure grew closer, the guard placed one of his hooves on Gallantry’s back. “They’re with each other; they aren’t alone. It’s hard to lose ponies you love, but there are some thing that-”

Gallantry growled and turned around, shoving his hooves against the royal guard’s leg. “I’m not leaving them alone!” he yelled. Tears coming back, Gallantry fell forward and wrapped himself around his father again, burying his face into the stallion’s side.

Persuasion from himself out of the question, the royal guard stood up straight and quickly placed his helmet atop his head, bringing his spear to his side and saluting. “Princess Celestia, ma’am,” he addressed the slender alicorn as she came close.

The ruler of Equestria gave the royal guard a nod as she stopped a few steps away from Gallantry, the royal guard standing back on all four of his hooves. “Join back with the other royal guards for now,” the princess spoke in a soft and gentle voice. “They’ll need all the help they can get with the last dragon.”

Giving another salute, the guard nodded his head quickly. “By your order, princess.” Within a second, the royal guard had already turned around and was heading towards the direction the rest of the royal guards had gone. His hoofsteps soon grew out of earshot and the sight of his golden armor was no more, his mind set on chasing after the remaining beast within Canterlot’s walls.

Princess Celestia turned her head down to the dark red colt at her side. Gallantry continued to sob into his father’s stomach, tears beginning to soak the stallion’s coat more than the heavy rain was. Celestia took no note of the rainfall and had walked alongside her subjects in the attempt to drive back the dragons, despite the warnings of her royal guards that the rain and the fires would surely affect her appearance. No doubt, the raid had taken its tole on the entire city, but the princess of the sun had bigger worries than about how she looked. Her subjects and their home were under attack, still even at the moment she stood, and nothing would stop her from helping them, even if it meant her life was at risk. However, the work of protecting those who cannot protect themselves had to come to a stop at some point, and with the dark red colt sitting in the middle of the street, helpless and alone, Celestia knew he was willing to go with his parents.

The rainfall already weighing down her solely pink, flowing mane, the princess knelt down beside Gallantry. She looked over the two ponies and grimaced slightly, but kept her composure and set her mind on getting the colt into shelter. “I’m truly sorry for what has happened,” she spoke softly. “but there is little that can be done now. They have passed on to a place where they can be at rest. I’m sure they would still want to be with you.”

Gallantry stayed silent, apart from his sobs. He felt his grip on his father let go slightly, but the latch remained tight. “Why did they have to go?” he asked, his voice muffled against his father. “Why did they leave?”

The princess of the sun extended one of her wings outward and rested it on the colt’s back. “Some things cannot be prevented, and some things cannot be taken from their paths. Time takes it effect on everything, but some are affected earlier than others. They have passed on, but they know they cannot be harmed any longer. And now, they only wait.”

The grip Gallantry had on the stallion in front of him had weakened quite much, and the colt found himself lifted off of his father partially. “W- wait? For what?” he, almost involuntarily, asked.

Celestia smiled and leaned down to Gallantry, nudging the side of her head against him. “That is for you to decide.”

The calming voice, the words that came from the princess’s mouth, the natural comfort that Celestia gave with her presence, something had taken Gallantry into a sort of a trance. His tears had become only a barely noticeable trickle on his face, and as he felt a pair of hooves rotate him onto his back and lift him off the ground, Gallantry’s tears came to a halt. The dark red colt stared up at the alicorn carrying him as they both hovered in the air, paying barely any attention to his surroundings. Celestia’s soft purple eyes and her elegant pink hair to her gentle and warming voice, the ruler of Equestria had the ability to console even the most distressed of her subjects. The rain had disappeared from both Celestia and Gallantry as they both floated above the ground into one of the few standing houses. Despite being one of the last shelters in Canterlot that was stable, the home was empty of any other ponies, leaving the dark red colt and the princess of the sun alone.

The muffled rainfall on the ceiling of the sturdy house was the only sound that came between Celestia and Gallantry. The princess held the colt in her forelegs tightly against her, staring down into his dark green eyes as he stared back. Words weren’t needed any longer from the princess, Gallantry finding comfort just being in the same room as the ruler of Equestria. The young unicorn, as he gazed up into Celestia’s eyes, felt himself grow tired and his eyelids fall heavy. The princess’s flowing mane brushed up against the side of his face every now and then, stroking his cheek with a warm and gentle touch. The rain against the roof of the house slowly became a lullaby of calming voices singing Gallantry asleep with words of comfort and euphoria. The colt’s vision became a blur as his eyelids gradually covered his eyes, the princess continuing to hold him and rock him side to side delicately. Gallantry steadily drifted off into slumber and rested his head against Princess Celestia, a subtle smile on his face.

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The stone walls of the rectangular chamber radiated with vials of a glowing blue substance, illuminating the room with a faint radiance of magic. The glass tubes were held in place from a pair of sticks and a bronze latch dug into the smooth stone of the room, most of the light near the floor of the chamber. The ceiling of the room barely received any of the light from the vials, darkness beyond the dim blue luminescence. However, tiny and thin dark green patterns flowed around in curves and floral patterns along the ceiling of the room, creating different kinds of species of flowers and other plants. They coursed with no particular order, seeming to drift below the roof of the chamber as they pleased and form certain patterns wherever they felt it was right. The patterns curved around each other and weaved up and under one another, dancing carefully, yet carelessly as they turned in directions that not even their conductor could predict.

Calamity stared up at the patterns originating from his horn, which glowed with a dim aura the same hue as its creations. His dark green and bright red eyes followed the tips of the paths that stood out the most, watching with curiosity what the deeper part of his mind was able to let out. His dark red coat was still wet from bathing earlier and his mane parted and filed in through the hammock that he laid in, dripping onto the floor and making small puddles. The waterfalls from within the main lobby of Liberus were out of earshot from the distance of the cave system’s member quarters, so the dripping of Calamity’s mane wasn’t quite the sound that usually ran through the winding tunnels this far into the caves. The subtle brushing of the patterns against each other along the ceiling of Calamity’s room were barely audible even to the dark red unicorn, the worry of waking up his fellow ponies this late at night out of his consideration. Of course, there were always sounds that interrupted the peace and stillness of the members quarters, such as a dry sniffle or the shuffling of a mare or stallion in their bed or hammock. Some of the members of the organization even took late night walks through the tunnels and sometimes outside of the caves, which was tolerable, and occasionally appreciated, as long as they didn’t cause any major disturbances.

The unicorn laying in his hammock sighed to himself quietly. Rest was out of the question for Calamity with the complications of starting up The Shards of Havoc after over two thousand years of sleep, and the role of activating The Shards himself only put his mind on edge even further. The revival of such a power would mean the danger of reviving its creator along with it, though the possibility of such an outcome was very low. The Band of Parity had gone through many activations of The Shards, and each time there were no complications. Calamity hadn’t been a part of The Band then, but the teachings that the higher ranking members gave told all about the organization’s history and how they came to be what they are. Through rejoice and agony and through triumph and defeat, The Band of Parity would never give up their purpose to maintain order in Equestria. Their secrecy was of utmost importance, for if the knowledge of what The Band was and what they did got out into the general public, there would be consequences beyond repair. Not only would the awareness of The Shards of Havoc become a hazard for all of Equestria, but The Band of Parity wouldn’t be tolerated in their own entirety. The ponies of Equestria would see them as an enemy, a menace, but they wouldn’t know about their purpose, and if they did, they would only reject it. The princesses of Equestria had been some of the finest leaders in the land, and even The Band of Parity knew that, but only so many mistakes can be made before something has to end.

Calamity shifted his eyes to his room from the temporarily decorated ceiling. The member’s quarters of Liberus didn’t exactly provide the biggest chambers for resting and storing things, but the dark red unicorn didn’t need much space for his role within The Band of Parity. The only decorations or furnishings within Calamity’s quarters, aside from his bed, were a bookshelf half filled with books, most of them written by The Band itself, and a desk with a few drawers in it. Simplicity, though it was generally mocked throughout the members of the organization in any form, was Calamity’s number-one need and want. The difficulties of maintaining files upon files of overall studies for the members, herbal recipes for the select few herbalists, flight techniques for the pegasi, spells for the unicorns, hoof-to-hoof combat for the earth ponies and pegasi, weapon tutorials and tips for basically everyone, and the fundamentals, along with the complications, of dark magic seemed too overwhelming and exhausting for Calamity. Organization was also one of his necessities, though the lack of materials that he needed any longer didn’t require organizing, considering they were non-existent. After being within The Band of Parity for so long, some of the older members of the organization just learned to go with things as they came along.

The dark red unicorn let another quiet sigh out of his mouth as he sat up in his hammock. The dim green glow around his horn disappeared and the patterns floating below the ceiling went with it, Calamity’s room simply glowing blue with the lights lined along the lower parts of the walls. The unicorn lifted a hoof up to his head and waved it around in his hair, shaking out the remaining water that was still clinging to his mane. His mouth stretched open wide as he yawned for a brief second, taking a moment to let his mind clear of anything that he had been worrying about, though it wasn’t as easy as he thought it was going to be. His hoof still up by his head, Calamity knocked on the side of his face with the base of his hoof, cursing to himself quietly and shaking his head. The torture of being denied sleep when he needed it the most had always been one of the unicorn’s deepest hatreds, and the situations only put him into more of an irritated mood than he usually was. Though, that wasn’t saying much. A plentiful number of things put Calamity into a red haze, but his usual stoicism always gave the impression that he was just fine.

Squinting his eyes against the vials of glowing liquid, which seemed a lot brighter at the source of the light, Calamity rolled off of his hammock and stabled himself onto his hooves. The floor of the unicorn’s room was slightly cold, and somewhat wet from the stallion dripping after taking a bath earlier, but the sudden chill pressing against Calamity’s hooves woke him up only barely. His eyes tired and his head light, the dark red unicorn hazily shuffled his way over to the desk on the other side of his room. Quickly before he flopped over onto the floor, he lifted up his front hooves and planted them on top of his desk, almost ready to fall forward and plaster his face onto the desktop. Calamity opened his eyes wider in an effort to actually see what he was doing, and at the sight of his damp hooves making prints onto some of the parchment on the desk, he figured that he should probably, if he wasn’t going to be able to sleep, wake himself up.

Calamity peered off over his shoulder to the end of his hammock, scanning his eyes over the bookshelf housing the few books that he liked. The dark red unicorn, still in his state of insomnia, shuffled his way back to his hammock, lightly grabbing onto the soft rope mesh to be sure that he didn’t lose his balance. He glanced over the titles of the books standing up against each other on the lower levels of the bookshelf, determining which of them would be the easiest to pick up in a levitation spell. His eyes locked on a particularly thin work of literature, and even the title of the book told him that it was the one he was looking for. “Blunt Weapons” the book’s title displayed through the dark green aura surrounding it, the hard cover holding together the collection of paper making Calamity smile, yet he thought to himself that maybe his idea wasn’t quite the best solution to his incurable sleepiness in his current state of mind. Nevertheless, Calamity proceeded to push the book further away from himself, take a deep breath inward, prepare his face by closing his eyes tightly and scrunching his lips together, and slam the cover of the book as hard as he could across the side of his face.

The loud crack of the book against Calamity’s skull echoed off into the caves outside of his room, a few replays of the loud pop reminding the now in pain Calamity that maybe he shouldn’t listen to himself when he was tired. The book dropped to the floor as the dark red unicorn focused more on rubbing the side of his face intently, though his plan had worked; he felt more awake than he had a few seconds earlier. Of course, he was also worried that he may have fractured his skull. Calamity, still holding onto the entire right side of his face, sat down gently, making sure not to injure himself more than he needed to. The spike of pain, and frankly the realization about how stupid he can get when he doesn’t know what was doing, had awoken Calamity to the point where he could actually use his senses instead of going off the little voice in his head. He prodded at the inside of his right cheek with his tongue, the keen taste of blood brushing against his taste buds. Calamity groaned and, after the pain spread across the entire right side of his face subsided, quietly laughed to himself.

“I wouldn’t suggest that you’re trying out some late night weapon techniques, are you?” the gentle, sweet voice of a mare spoke.

Calamity jumped in his coat at the sudden question. He slowly turned his head to the doorway of his room, though he quickly let out a sigh of relief as to who was staring at him with curiosity and confusion.

A somewhat tired-eyed zebra stood in the entrance to Calamity’s chamber, staring at the dark red unicorn on the ground with an eyebrow raised. Her sharp angled muzzle displayed a smirk on her face at the sight of Calamity looking up at her with a drop of blood seeping out of the corner of his mouth, squinting her bright red eyes and a puff of laughter escaping through her nose. The triplets of silver bangles around her forelegs reflected the dim blue light of the vials illuminating the room, while the duos of silver bands around her hind legs gleamed with the light of the torches flickering in the tunnels outside of Calamity’s quarters. Hair long black and white tail waved back and forth just barely in the gentle wind blowing lightly through the caves, the sound of wind whistling by something now apparent in the dark red unicorn’s ears, and Calamity wondered how long it had been there before he noticed it. The mare’s white and black striped, medium length mane parted in the middle of her forehead, the tips of her hair skewing slightly from their straight paths off into minor hooks. Her curvaceous stature stood slightly under the average mare’s height, though the few hairs sticking up in arcs from the top of her head gave a subtle illusion of her standing just as tall as her fellow members within the organization.

Calamity chuckled to himself and hung his head forward, giving the book he had smacked himself with a smile. “How did you know it was me?” he asked.

“I can tell when you’re up to something,” the mare said, stepping further into the chamber. “Besides, I thought I would check up on you.” She sat down on the hammock on the other side of the room, letting her tail brush against the stone wall behind her as she swung back and forth. “I heard about what The Six asked of you.”

His head starting to feel better, Calamity managed to bring himself to his hooves and pick the book he used to wake himself up with a levitation spell. “Really?” He slid the book back into its place in the bookshelf at the end of the hammock. “Who’d you hear that from? I didn’t tell anyone about it.”

The mare halted her movement on the hammock and opened her mouth for a moment before she said anything. “I heard it from Weaver!” she quickly said, her mouth a guilty smile. “You know her and her need to know everything... and tell everything.”

Flattening his brow and straightening his mouth, the dark red unicorn turned his head to the zebra and stared at her for a moment, the smile on the mare’s face disappearing as she shied her head away from Calamity’s stare. “You know, I think you would’ve gotten better at lying over the years that we’ve know each other, Arcane.”

The mare sighed. “I suppose there wouldn’t be a point in trying to prove myself?”

“No, considering that I was with Weaver the entire day,” Calamity noted as he walked over to his desk. “She was teaching me how to stitch the cloth on my royal guard armor again. The Six suggested that I get some new armor as well for my task, so there wasn’t really a point.” He glared at the zebra out of the corners of his eyes. “Though, I think you already knew that.”

Arcane nodded and shrugged. “I was waiting for you by the tunnel to the members quarters when you got back, but the look on your face told me that something wasn’t right, so I just stayed back and followed behind you when you went to The Six.” She looked up at Calamity, who was focused on a scroll spread across his desk. “I heard everything. Do they really want you to awaken The Shards?”

“They see it as my responsibility to see the task through, considering that I was their little eye on the inside,” Calamity confirmed. He closed his eyes and wiped one of his hooves down his face, resting it above his mouth. “I don’t understand why. There are other, more fit-for-the-job members in the organization, so why pick me?”

“Maybe they trust you more,” Arcane suggested. “After all, you haven’t let them down in giving them information about the princesses all this time. Everything that the two have done that has seemed like a hazard to their subjects has been delivered in witness-words right from you.”

“I know, but it just doesn’t make sense.” Calamity opened his eyes and rolled up the scrolls on his desk, opening one of the drawers on the front of the dark wooden desk and sliding them into the cabinet. “There are plenty of other members in The Band that know dark magic a lot better than I do. It’s not that I don’t know how to unlock The Shards from their resting places, it’s that I don’t want to.”

“Why not?”

“Have you seen the locations of The Shards?” Calamity asked, turning around to face Arcane. “Shade Chasm, Echo Ruins, Burning Caverns, Black Falls, and Frozen Labyrinth. All of them are just... eerie. The Shard here isn’t too bad, but still. They’re all spread across the borders of Equestria, too. It just seems like so much work for one stallion.”

Arcane cleared her throat. “Well, you know, you don’t have to do it alone. You can take someone else with you.”

“You know how I work with others, don’t you?”

The mare smirked. “I suppose that The Band can go with one or two more of its members without concussions.”

The dark red unicorn let a corner of his mouth upwards as well. “Remind Marker next time you see him that I still haven’t forgiven him about impaling my leg last week when he was practicing in the combat area with me.”

“I’ll make sure to let him know.” Arcane eyed one of the vials of the glowing blue substance lining the bottom of the walls. “I see that you’re actually using something that I made for you for once.”

Calamity rolled his eyes slightly and walked over to his bookshelf. “I’m a unicorn, Arcane. I don’t have a use for knives and combat potions. Dark magic is potent enough on its own.” He looked at the zebra out of the corners of his eyes and nodded with a smile. “Though I do appreciate the incenses that you gave me two days ago.”

Arcane grinned. “I knew you would like them.”

“You’ve gotta teach me how to make them one of these days,” Calamity said, scanning his eyes across the books on his bookshelf as he looked for a particular tome. “I can’t wait for your slow-working flank all the time.”

“I’ll have you know that I am one of the oldest, and therefore one of the more experienced herbalists within The Band, so you can just shut it,” Arcane snapped back, clawing a hoof at Calamity.

“Quality doesn’t entail rapidity, you know,” the unicorn hummed.

“Calamity, I will-!” Arcane began to yell, turning sideways and glaring at the dark red unicorn, but she quickly calmed herself down as she realized her voice would probably wake up the entire member’s quarters. “I can assure you that your leg gets injured again next time you step hoof into that combat area, and I’ll make sure to dispose of all my healing potions before you even get to me.”

The unicorn smiled smugly and turned his head to the mare on his hammock, levitating the book he had been searching for down from the top shelf of the bookcase. “There are other herbalists in Liberus. You know that, right?”

“Yes, there may be, but do they have that special touch that I put into my potions?” Arcane asked, furrowing her brow and grinning.

Calamity took a deep breath inwards and shook his head. “No, I suppose they don’t. I guess I can lay off of the insults for tonight. Still, you better teach me how to make those incense some time soon.” He walked over to his desk and set down the book in his magic, immediately flipping through the pages.

“Well, I might have to reconsider with your attitude tonight being so rude,” Arcane pouted jokingly. She turned her head to the side and closed her eyes, though she kept one open partially to keep an eye on the unicorn at his desk.

Sighing into the book in front of him, Calamity gradually turned around and gave Arcane a pleading stare, though the mare had closed her eyes completely at the sight of the unicorn rotating to look at her. “Please?” Calamity asked.

Arcane peaked her eyes open and curved her mouth upwards at the sight of Calamity’s tilted eyes. She hopped off of the hammock she had been sitting on and walked over to Calamity, abruptly giving him a shove. “Only for you, Calamity.”

The dark red unicorn smiled. “Thank you.”

The mare nodded. She walked to Calamity’s side and took a peak the book spread open on the desk ahead of her as the unicorn turned around. “What’s this?” she asked.

The book lightened with a dark green aura and the pages collected together, bringing the cover of the tome into sight. “The Shards of Havoc,” Calamity read the title aloud. He flipped the book open to the page he had been on and pointed a hoof to the sections he was reading. “The locations of The Shards, specifically. I thought I’d get a little familiar with the sites before I went in and activated the shards they’re holding.”

Arcane angled her brow inwards and shifted her attention to Calamity. “Wait. You’re not actually doing this alone, are you?”

“You should know by now that I can’t stand having to tend for others while I’m focused on something, particularly while I’m in combat,” Calamity assumed. “I can handle maybe one other pony with me, but I’m not taking any more than that. It just feels like it would be more of a burden than an aid to take someone along.”

The mare slapped her hoof down on the book as Calamity began to close it. “What? Look at these places!” Arcane said, pointing to one of the pictures in the book. A large ravine was carved out of the side of a mountain in a particular image, and another photo showed that it seemed to be bottomless. “These aren’t exactly the kind of locations to go sight seeing, I hope you realize. They’re dangerous!”

“The only things that make them dangerous are the dark magic seals and traps that The Band has put on them to protect The Shards of Havoc, should anyone decide to go on a  little treasure hunt,” Calamity rebutted, lifting the book out from under Arcane’s hoof and slapping it shut. “They aren’t even a threat to us, since I can just unlock the spells and get rid of them all together. Other than that, there isn’t much to be afraid of in them.”

“Really?” Arcane yanked the book out of Calamity’s hoof and put it on the desk again, opening the book and perusing through the pages to find the section the unicorn had been in before. She stopped at the page and pointed to one of the subsections. “Shade Chasm. You did read through it thoroughly, right? It’s practically become infested quarry eels! How are those not a threat?”

Calamity sighed and picked up the book in a levitation spell, moving higher up into the air so Arcane couldn’t reach it. “Listen. I’m not going to argue about this right now. I work better alone, and that’s that. I would’ve expected you, as the mare that watched over me since I joined The Band, to encourage me to challenge my dark magic abilities rather than tell me that they aren’t enough to protect myself.”

Arcane opened and shut her mouth a few times, though she only let out puffs of frustration. Her body deflated and she hung her head to the side, leaning up against the desk and drawing a circle on the floor with a limp hoof. “I don’t know,” she finally spoke, her eyes focused on surface of the desk. “I just- I don’t want you to get hurt.”

The dark red unicorn smiled and slipped a hoof under Arcane’s. “That’s what you’re here for. Right?”

The mare looked up at Calamity as she felt his hoof brush against hers. She stared into the dark green and bright red eyes peering into her own for a moment, the brief silence that had taken over to the two bringing them to a standstill. Their breathing seemed to be synced together, their chests inflating and falling back down in rhythm and harmony.

Quickly adverting her eyes away from Calamity, Arcane slid her hoof out from the unicorn’s and stood up straight, crossing her forelegs. “Uh... ye- yes. Yes, that’s what I’m here for,” she gently spoke, attempting to force her words to come out in order.

Calamity let a smile onto his face as he saw the mare’s mouth lift as well. He cleared his throat and let the book still levitating in the air back down to the desk, motioning his head to the tome. “I should probably get back to studying the locations of The Shards. It was nice talking with you tonight.”

Regaining her composure and feeling the warmth gathered in her face settle down, Arcane looked back up at Calamity and nodded. “Yeah. I’m glad I stopped by. I’ll see you tomorrow then?”

The unicorn bowed his head. “Sounds great.”

“Okay. I’ll just... uh, head back to my room. See you tomorrow.”

Turned towards his desk already, Calamity peered at the zebra out of the corners of his eyes. “Rest well, Arcane.”

The dark red unicorn set his gaze on the book on the desk in front of him as the mare in his peripheral vision went out of sight. Her hoofsteps seemed slightly slow, and at points almost sounded as if they had stopped, though they continued along their way. Calamity, his attention barely on the book despite looking at it, bit his lip for a second as he heard one of Arcane’s hoofsteps echo into the tunnels outside. His stomach lurched at his thoughts, but he followed them nonetheless.

Calamity pushed himself away from the desk and quickly called after the mare, “Arcane?”

As if she had been anticipating Calamity’s voice, Arcane turned around and raised her eyes, peaking her head back into the room. “Yes?”

The dark red unicorn stood quiet for a moment, staring at the two bright red eyes staring back at him. He felt his neck quiver as the thought of speaking entered his mind, but he swallowed the words and gave a smile to the mare. “Goodnight.”

Arcane lowered her brow and returned the smile, waving a hoof to the stallion watching her slowly walk out of his room. “Goodnight, Calamity.”

The black and white striped mare gone and left by himself, Calamity finally felt like he could breathe. A long, though quiet, sigh escaped through his mouth and he turned back around to face his desk. He lifted his front hooves onto the wooden tabletop and let his shoulders raise above his back, closing his eyes and smiling at the feeling of the tension within his legs and spine release. Talking to Arcane had gotten most, if not all, of the worries he had about The Shards of Havoc for a little while, which he desperately needed. Even if the conversation ended up back on the awakenings of The Shards again, seeing a friendly face was something that Calamity had been anticipating ever since he got back from Canterlot. His and Arcane’s playful bantering, even though the members of The Band of Parity would’ve expect Calamity to have put the zebra into the medical area because of it, lifted the dark red unicorn’s spirits every time he came across the opportunity to talk with her. It was something in the mare’s voice that sent a warmth into Calamity’s heart that he never felt when he was with any another pony, and even as the dark red unicorn walked over to his hammock and laid down, slowly drifting off into a newfound sleep, he could still feel his heart glow.