Omega

Omega

Chapter 11: Dreams of Nightmares Past

“You, behind the wreck!” the bear called. “Get out here!”

Did that bear just talk? I was so shocked that I almost forgot to get back to my hooves.

“Now!” he roared.

My heart skipped a beat, and I almost fell down again. I shook my head, desperately trying to dislodge some idea from my subconscious.

Bluff.

Yes, I could bluff him. He’d probably never seen a unicorn before. What would he do when faced with one?

“I won’t ask you again! Come out, coward!”

I took a deep breath, steeling myself for what was to come. Confidence. Confidence is the key to bluffing. I had to look confident. I had to look tough. Pulling my bandanna up and standing tall, I stepped out into the open.

“Yes?” I asked. I leaned against the chariot nonchalantly, praying that my poor terrified heart wouldn’t betray me.

The bear narrowed his eyes. “What are you doing here, unicorn?”

Well, there goes that plan. It took all my will to keep myself from falling over. As such, there wasn’t any leftover to maintain the cocky facade I’d put up.

“I c-could ask- I could ask y-you the same thing, b-bear.” I mentally kicked myself. Stuttering idiot. Get a grip!

The bear sat back and released a mighty, heart-stopping laugh. “Are you really trying to be threatening, pony?”

Okay, this isn’t working. I levitated my swords out of their sheaths, hoping some magic would scare him off. I was having trouble keeping my bladder under control. Hopefully both it and my magical focus would last long enough to keep my bluff going.

“Oh, put those toys away.” He waved me aside with a paw. “I’m not here to fight ponies. It’s beneath me.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” I challenged. How dare he condescend!

“It means that I could crush you in an instant. There would be no honor in it.”

I hesitated. He was probably right, but I didn’t want to look like I was taking orders from him. I had to at least make it look like we were negotiating something.

“How do I know you won’t kill me?” I asked.

“Other than the fact that you’re still alive?” He sighed. “Very well. I give you my word, as one amongst the Fallen.”

Okay. I figured that had to mean something, from the way he said it. It sounded like this bear put great emphasis on honor. Satisfied, I sheathed my swords.

“There’s a good little pony,” he said. “Now, what are you doing out here? This is hardly a safe place for you.”

“I’m, uh...” Tell him the truth? Risky. From what I knew, the Outer World wasn’t the sort of place where telling strangers about your business worked out well, and this bear could kill me in an instant. At the same time, he hardly sounded like he was looking out to get me. But then they  almost never do, do they? I weighed my choices.

“I’m trying to find a city.” I couldn’t come up with an adequate lie anyways. Maybe he could help me out.

The bear cocked a brow. “And what city might you be searching for?”

“I’m not exactly sure,” I said. “The only name my map offers is ‘New’, but there’s nothing after that. Are there any cities around here with a ‘New’ in their names?”

He smiled, and I shifted uncomfortably. His fangs were really bothering me. “Yes, actually. I was just heading there now.” He glanced over to the wolves lying dead in the mist. “Though, I was forced to stop and deal with some unwelcome tails.”

I pulled my bandanna down. It was hard enough to breathe around here as it was, with all the thick air, and I was starting to suffocate a little under the material. “Where is it? My map said it was on the mouth of this river.”

He pointed his nose into the mist, in a direction that was distinctly not towards the mouth of the river, or even the river at all. “It’s north, a day or two’s walk. Your map is outdated.”

“What?” That didn’t make any sense. “Did the city, just, move?”

“No, pony. The city was burnt down.”

Oh. An awkward silence established itself over us as I looked around. In retrospect, it did seem pretty obvious. The dead land. The figures in the mist. The broken chariot. The noticeable lack of a city. Once again, I was reminded of the fact that I was no longer in Equestria. Over there, back across the Great Sea and on the inside of the Cloudwall, war was a word of history books and fiction. It was arrows and numbers on the surface of a board game. It was something of an age long past, before the Princesses had lead ponykind to peace and prosperity.

Out here, it was a broken chariot at your hooves, lifeless land for miles around, and a city completely wiped off the map. Suddenly, war became much, much more real.

“What happened?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Ask a historian. All I know is that there was a great battle here some time ago. The mist is even older. Some magic from centuries back that preserves the dead and stops things from growing.”

I found myself shrinking back towards the upturned chariot. This place was starting to scare me in ways much worse than simply ‘creepy’.

The bear pushed himself back to his paws heavily, sniffing the air. “Since we’re both going the same place, and you seem to lack a reliable map... Would you like to travel with me, pony?”

Thank Luna. Despite myself, I had been hoping he would let me join him. This fog was bad enough on its own; the history lesson didn’t do anything for the ambience. The bear turned to a nondescript direction and started walking with that slow, ponderous gait that bears have.

I had to trot to catch up with him. “So what’s your name?” I asked.

“They call me Exe.” He didn’t even spare me the courtesy of a sideways glance. I waited expectantly for him to ask what my name was, but it never came. I looked away awkwardly. Apparently bears aren’t big on names.

Another question came to my mind. I opened my mouth, but hesitated. I couldn’t really think of a polite way to ask it, and I didn’t want to offend this bear. Especially since he could stand on two legs and wield an axe. Luckily, he broached the subject for me.

“I suppose you’re wondering how I can talk?”

“Uhm- Well, no- Yes. I’ve never met a talking bear before,” I admitted. “How did you know I was thinking that?”

“Every Equestrian I’ve ever met gives me that same look. Apparently the bears in Equestria are just animals. In the Outer World, we’re above that.”

I nodded. So bears out here are sentient. Interesting. “What other races are there?”

“Goyles, griffons, zebra, recusants…” He growled. “Wolves.”

I had more questions, but he didn’t seem to want to talk anymore. I decided to focus on the path ahead of us instead.

The shapes in the fog were growing thicker. As we put distance between ourselves and the river, they almost became a solid wall of shadow, encircling us like a crowd of spectators as we walked. Strangely, we never seemed to actually reach them. Every time I thought one of them was getting close, it would just… dissipate. Occasionally, we passed some dilapidated war machine or an uprooted tree, but I never saw them in the mist as we approached. It was like the shadows were in another world. Some parallel universe. It was an eerie experience, and I perceived the mist to be pushing in on me. I felt as if I wasn’t supposed to be here. As if it didn’t want me to be here.

I felt something. An almost imperceptible tug on the tip of my horn. Then again, a second time. It pulled at me softly, yet consistently. Something was… calling to me. I turned my head, curious.

To my left, there was a break in the shadows. In the mist, surrounded by the mysterious remnants of a battle past, a single, perfectly round, pony-sized sphere rose from the ground. Suddenly, Exe’s voice rang through the silence.

“Pony!” he called. I jumped, startled, and looked back. I was surprised to find that I had started walking away from him, towards the shape. The tug on my horn grew stronger. I have to see what that shape is.

“There’s something over here,” I explained. “I’m going to see what it is.”

He narrowed his eyes and looked into the mist ahead of me. “There’s nothing there. Just the mist and its shadows.”

I looked back. The orb was closer. “Just give me a few minutes.”

I blinked, and suddenly I was standing right in front of the enigmatic orb, now half-buried in the ground. I ran a hoof over it. The surface was incredibly smooth. Some kind of… stone? I heard a noise behind me and started, glancing back. There was a bear there, with something in its paws. What is a bear doing following me?

“Are you done yet? You’ve been staring at nothing for an hour,” it said. It was chewing on something red.

I shook my head. Right. Exe. The tug on my horn was irresistible. It seemed to pull on the strings of my very soul. It cried out for me with the voice of great loss and sorrow. It needed me. I needed it. More than anything, I needed it.

I stepped closer and softly put my muzzle up to the cool stone, comforting it with my presence. I’m here, now. I felt my horn tingling. Suddenly, a spark of magic shot out of it, connecting with my horn and flowing into me with a stab of pain.

“Aagh!” I shrunk back, and the orb was gone. In its place was the form of a pony, carved from the same familiar mist that covered everything here. It was a pegasus. It was kneeling, head down, cradling something in its forehooves with its wings spread wide.

With a gust of wind, the mist blew away, and the spell was broken.

Exe was standing in front of me. “We’re leaving. Now.”

He bent down and grabbed my bandanna, dragging me behind him as he marched us away. I looked back to where the obelisk had been, mouth agape. Wait... obelisk? Where had that word come from? I got my hooves under me and pulled, breaking free from his grasp.

“Wait! What was that?” I asked.

The bear shot me a harsh glare. “I don’t know. I don’t care. Probably the curse on these mists. Now come on. The sun will be setting soon, and we must prepare a fire if we’re to spend the night here.”

Sitting in the lounge, looking out a window at the Outer World landscape as the gentle noise of the Omega’s engines played in the background, Phoenix Down let out a tired little sigh. She was beginning to regret leaving Harmony City.

No, she already did regret it.

She closed her eyes, lost in memory. The dull ache of another day’s dawn. The breathless reprieve at the sun’s setting. The terror of the first explosions. Her frenzied gallop to the foundry where Dissero worked. Relief that swelled within her when she realized he was alive. A cautious walk back to their rooms and her fear as Dissero broke into a violent rampage. The shock of his old friends showing up with an airship and a plan of escape. Her uncertainty when Dissero called her to join. The excitement of the chase and the heart-stopping terror of the Breaks.

That endless happiness that had overcome her when she saw the sky after a lifetime in the shadows.

The anxious search for land. Wondering at discovering a new world, at the idea of finally being free, long after even her dreams had given up on it.

And then the shock of watching, eyes wide, as Dissero fell off the ship.

She opened her eyes, feeling the tears starting to well up again, and fought to keep them inside. I won’t cry anymore. The others already thought she was weak and useless. She was always at the back, quivering in paralyzed horror as they did the real work. She would show them. I can be strong too. She would cry no more.

She raised a hoof and put it to the glass of the window. Was she really free, after all? For fear of her life, she couldn’t leave this ship or its crew any more than she could’ve left Harmony City. What had changed? Now she was in constant danger, lost in all the worst ways, and what had she gotten from it? A change of scenery, from the dark alleys of Harmony to the tight quarters of the Omega.

She didn’t even know these ponies. Sure, she had spoken with them some before, but it was always in passing, on the side. They were just acquaintances. Dissero was the only one she felt like she had actually known, and now he was dead.

No more tears.

She turned away from the window and looked back to the medkit at her hooves. She mustered up the energy to check its contents, organizing it, memorizing it. Bandages, dressings, disinfectant, airway adjunct, tweezers, butterfly strips... weird healing potion thing. She pulled the little vial out and held it before her eyes, swirling the dim red liquid about curiously. They didn’t have such a thing as a healing potion back in Equestria, and she still held some doubts about how helpful this drink could be for healing anything.

With a familiar dull thud and a gentle shake, the airship came to a stop. They had landed. The sound of hooves approached as the rest of the crew assembled in the lounge. With another sigh, she packed her medkit, slid it onto her back, tightened the straps, and turned to join the others.

“Okay, we’re just doing a simple find and retrieve job this time,” Ember said. “Think of it as a break. Some kind of parcel, lost in an airship crash. Shouldn’t be too hard, but everypony be ready for trouble anyways.”

Sounds of acknowledgement filled the room, followed by the sounds of last-minute preparations. Silver buckling his lightning gun to his chest, Storm checking her scope, Cleaver sliding his hammer’s hilt into his belt, Ember flicking her lighter experimentally.

Phoenix Down, flipping the soft leather cap of her medkit and trying to work up the courage to ask for a gun of her own.

“May I also have a rune gun?” she asked politely.

Ember cocked an eye at her. “You sure about that? So far you’ve never managed to shoot one towards the bad guys.”

Silver stepped forwards. “Hey, go ahead and give her the gun. She wants to help, and she needs to learn to fight anyways.”

Nix let out a sigh of relief as Ember shrugged and levitated a gun to her. She gave Silver a little smile, and he nodded in return.

“Is that all then?” Ember asked. “Let’s go.”

The five ponies trotted out of the lounge, down the central stairwell, and out the hatch in single file, emerging at the bottom of a hill. Cresting the top, they were treated to the remains of a crashed airship, lying in an open plain.

It looked like it had been smaller than the Omega, just a simple courier ship. It had largely shattered on impact, with the main body sliding forwards nose-down and various bits and pieces falling off as it went.

Without a word, Stormslider began to set up her rifle as the others approached the wreck. She would cover them if something went wrong. Entering the main body, the four Equestrians searched the site for the lost delivery they’d come for, overturning rubble and half-burnt furniture. It didn’t take them long.

“Found it!” Nix said. She held the little package up proudly. Not so useless after all!

Suddenly, a piece of wall near the front of the crashed ship was ripped away. All four ponies froze, eyes locked on the unwelcome intruders that stepped through. Nix’s knees began to shake.

A wolf and a bear, each festooned with sharp objects and armor, stood confidently at the helm of the wreck. The wolf was wearing multiple layers of hard leather pads, covering almost every part of his body. Steel claws protruded from his gloves, glinting in what light shone through the shattered ship’s chassis. The bear was completely consumed by his own armor, made of precisely worked steel plating with the scars of many past battles. A varied array of sword sheaths lined his back, each one holding a quality instrument of death. Blood-red glyphs were painted on to their armor, with matching tattoos engraved onto what parts of their bodies were visible. Their muscles looked unnaturally large, even under their heavy armor, and their eyes were actually glowing red.

A tense few moments passed. Nix took a nervous gulp. She looked to Ember expectantly.

“Who are you?” Ember asked, spreading her hooves aggressively. Silver and Cleaver followed suit, one sliding his goggles down while the other adjusted his posture to better reach his hammer.

The two warriors looked at each other. They looked at Ember. They looked at Nix. They focused in on the little box in her hooves, and their eyes narrowed.

“Give us the artifact!” the wolf commanded. Nix jumped in fear and lost her grip on the package. It clattered to the floor some distance behind her.

Cleaver stepped forward. “The object is ours. We were here first.”

They seemed somewhat taken aback at his denial, and exchanged glances. They looked back to the four ponies and seemed to simultaneously come to the same conclusion. They each took deep breaths.

All at once, the scene burst into violence.

The bear charged for Ember. She leapt back, drawing a stream of fire from her lighter and throwing up a line of flames before her. Silver stepped up to take her place, and when the bear burst through the blaze, he was met with the shock of lightning and roll of thunder. Amazingly, he kept on charging. Silver stumbled aside, just barely avoiding the attacker with a flap of his good wing. With only one target left, the bear angled himself for Cleaver.

With a mighty swing of his hammer and a loud clang!, Cleaver smacked him right on his steel-plated forehead. The bear flinched back, but didn’t collapse lifeless to the ground as expected. Instead, he rose up on his powerful hind legs, letting loose a fierce roar, and drew two long swords with his front paws. Cleaver, Silver, and Ember simply stared in amazement, broken out of their shock only be the bear’s renewed, two-legged attack.

Meanwhile, the wolf headed straight for Nix. Her eyes widened, and she leapt to the side, scrambling over a charred couch to avoid the deadly armored canine. It skidded past her, steel claws carving deep gouges into the wreck.

“Fall back! Get outside!” Ember called. Silver pulled Cleaver back from where he wrestled with the towering bear, and by the shine of Ember’s horn a wall of fire erupted all the way across the airship’s interior. Nix rushed to her hooves, picking the parcel up from where it had conveniently landed, and ran for the open air. She heard the thunder of the lightning gun behind her, but didn’t dare look back. She was too busy running for her life.

Stumbling to a stop in the grass outside, she looked back to see the terrifying image of the wolf sprinting straight for her, claws ready and eyes glaring with fury. She squeaked, dropping the rune gun in fear and falling to the ground. She closed her eyes, ready for the final blow.

It never came.

Opening her eyes, she saw the wolf picking itself up off the ground, a still glowing rune slug half-drilled into its unarmored head. The wolf howled in fury, glaring past Nix to where Storm was perched. In response to his challenge, another bullet soared right into the first one, pushing it even further in. They both detonated inside his brain. Amazingly, his skull managed to hold itself together, but it wasn’t enough to save his life. Blood and brain alike seeped out of his fractured skull, and he toppled over.

He let out a vengeful little snarl and reached out a paw to drag himself forwards, and then he died.

“Phoenix!”

Nix shook her head, rising out of her stunned reverie and up to her hooves. Silver was calling out to her from where he stood next to Cleaver, who was lying in a patch of blood stained grass, screaming... why was he screaming?

“Phoenix Down!”

She gasped and sprinted for his side, dropping her medkit next to him. There was an angry gash running across his chest, and he was starting to bleed out. His eye’s locked to hers.

“I was too slow,” he hissed, tense with pain. “Veles calls to me.”

“Hush! You’ll be okay!” Nix pushed down on the wound with a hoof. He cried out at the touch.

As she pulled dressings and gauze from her pack, Silver, Ember, and Storm fought to hold off the massive bear. His armor was ablaze from Ember’s inferno, and the thunder from Silver’s lightning gun became a constant roar as he fired shot after shot. Lightning crackled over his steel armor and still he stepped forwards, roaring a mix of pain and anger. Bullets from Stormslider’s gun veered by periodically, ricocheting off the bear’s curved helmet.

Cleaver was starting to fade away. He was losing too much blood. Nix pulled out an epipen and jabbed it into his coat. His vision cleared, and he blinked in confusion.

“Hold this in!” she commanded. His heavy hooves tightened around the syringe, holding it in place. She pulled out another dressing and slapped it on, but there wasn’t enough time! He would bleed out before she could cover the long cut, and she couldn’t put a tourniquet on his chest! What do I do? What do I do!? She wasn’t used to gashes! She was good with bullet wounds!

Desperate, she pulled the so-called healing potion from her medkit. How do I use this thing? She searched for instructions, but they were nowhere to be found. No time! She emptied the vial right onto Cleaver’s chest, trying to get it into the wound itself.

And the bleeding began to slow.

Nix hesitated, appalled at how well that worked. No time for that! She shook her head and returned to treating the big white stallion, covering the wound with dressings and securing it with several layers of gauze.

She let out a relieved sigh. She had saved him. He was unconscious, having blacked out from the bleeding, but she knew he would live. That red potion was miraculous, to speed up clotting like that so quickly. She would have to get more for her kit.

Her ears twitched. She hadn’t noticed it become quiet again. She looked over to the others. The bear was lying dead in the grass, still smoking, with little zaps of leftover electricity arcing across his armor. Blood pooled underneath his head, smoke wafting out of a wide bullet hole in his helmet. Ember, Storm, and Silver were standing around her and Cleaver, looking down expectantly.

“He’ll be okay,” Nix said. She let out a nervous little laugh. Silver joined in, followed by Ember. Stormslider allowed a grin to show on her face. Nix smiled. She had earned their respect, and saved a life. They weren’t just protecting her because she was weak anymore. Now, they did it because she was useful. She was part of the team. One of them.

With his usual poetic elegance, Silver managed to sum up the team's thoughts. “Well, that was somewhat harder than expected, wasn’t it?”

Wind. Wind and mist is everywhere. Everywhere is wind. There is nothing but wind. I am wind. I am everything yet nothing.

Reality begins to piece itself together. The wind slows to a mist and begins to thicken, to coalesce, as if piling up on top of itself. It forms shapes and brings out detail.

I suddenly find myself inside a small stone hovel. The roof is a simple construction of thatch, the floor only packed dirt. A dozen earth ponies of every age huddle together on one side of the room, eyeing the only door fearfully. I follow their gaze. Something is on the other side of the door.

The edges of reality seem… blurred. It is as if it will all fall to pieces, burst back into the storm of wind and mist at the slightest push.

The door slams open, and the earth ponies scream in fear. A single pegasus runs through, clothed in the uniform of a Royal Guard, and shuts the door behind him.

“Quiet!” he hisses. The screams fade away as the ponies calm themselves. A couple of foals cry softly in a corner.

“Be silent, and they may yet pass us over. I shall protect you.” The pegasus turns to face the door, kneeling. He pulls a hoof-sized pendant from his armor and caresses it somberly before placing it on the ground before him.

The room is quiet once more, and I take the opportunity to look out the hole in the hovel wall that serves as a window.

Smoke, fire, and screams.

For the first time I become aware of the sound of war just outside. Metal strikes metal. The dying call for aid and the living call for battle. The smell of burnt flesh reaches my nose and the smoke stings my eyes.

Heavy steps come to a stop outside the door. I hear a harsh command, spoken in some foreign language. The foals try to stifle their tears. An old mare begins to whisper a prayer.

The door is ripped off its hinges, revealing four angry gargoyles. Each one wears bloodstained armor and a wicked grin. They carry jagged weapons dripping blood, and equine heads roll from a sack dropped in the dirt behind them.

A few tense moments pass. A filly squeals and pushes herself back into her mother.

“Gather close!” the pegasus says, glaring at the intruders.

With a vicious warcry, the beasts charge forth. The pegasus cries out and stomps hard upon the pendant. A flash of light erupts from his breast, and when I look back, the ponies are surrounded by a perfectly round glass dome.

The gargoyles grunt in annoyance. One smashes his hammer down upon the glass, to no avail. With a visible shockwave, the dome absorbs the blow. The pegasus kneels within, cradling his glowing pendant as he whispers quietly.

“I am the servant of the Empire, the wings that shelter it from the storm, the blade that strikes down those who would harm it, the wind that carries its wishes to the edge of the world, the light that shines its emblem through the darkest nights…”

The gargoyles hiss in fury, beating upon the glass relentlessly. From outside a cry of fear rings out.

“The fort is lost! Flee! Abandon your post, lest you lose your lives! The fort is lost!”

Out the window, I see more armor-clad pegasi flying away, a flock of griffons giving swift chase. The chanting pegasus’ ears twitch, but he does not falter.

With a mighty blow from the largest gargoyle, a crack appears in the glass. The pegasus grunts, flinching, and raises his voice.

“Through the blackest hour and deepest storm I shall fight to defend the honor of the Empire. Against the mightiest demons of hell, I shall hold my line!”

The dome heals itself, but three more cracks have already formed. As each seals itself closed, five more are made. The pegasus is panting hard now, his eyes shut tight. With his wings, he draws two swords and places them at his sides. A colt looks up to his mother and cries.

“Make them go away, Mommy! Make them go away!” He speaks with the demanding tone of a foal who still thinks his mother can do anything.

The mother pulls her foal closer, weeping. “It’s okay, my child. Oh, I love you so much!”

The pegasus shivers. His ear twitches, and suddenly he is looking right at me. He knows it is hopeless. He had known since the instant he rushed in here and closed the door behind him.

“Though the others may have fled, let it be known that Thunder Shield held his line. Do not falter at your own, wielder.” His soft whisper rings clear in my mind, though the earth ponies show no sign of hearing it. I open my mouth to reply. To offer aid.

The glass shatters.

The earth ponies shriek in fear as the gargoyles rush in, bloodthirsty eyes shining with sadistic glee.

Thunder Shield rises to his hooves, grabbing the swords with his wings as he rushes forwards to meet them. One of them deflects his first blow, and he barely manages to block their counter before leaping back with a flap of his wings. The walls of the hovel box him in.

He slides under a hammer swing and comes up behind the gargoyles, shoving a sword into one’s back. The gargoyle collapses, and Thunder is forced to leave one sword behind as the others push the attack. He puts his back to the wall, his last remaining sword held out before him.

He’s breathing hard now, his eyes daring the gargoyles to come closer. One of them slashes down at him with a sword, and as he raises his sword to block the other rushes forward, running him through with cold steel.

Blood stains the wall of the hovel as the servant of the Empire falls to his knees, his eyes fixed to the ground with despair. He topples over, and with one last gasp, the life leaves his body.

The gargoyles turn to grin at the earth ponies, fresh blood dripping down their faces.

All at once, the world shatters, and I am the wind once more.

Ω         Ω         Ω

I rose from my bedroll so fast that it hurt my neck. I found myself searching frantically for my swords, thinking to help the defenseless ponies, but there was nothing I could do. It was too late for them.

I heard Exe drawing his axe, and turned to see him scanning the horizon. “What is it?” he asked.

I ran a hoof through my mane, embarrassed. Only foals are afraid of dreams. “Nothing,” I said. “Sorry.”

He grunted and put his axe away. “Well, since you insist on waking up early, we might as well get going.”

The mist was reaching the color that meant the sun was rising. I looked back, to where the obelisk had been. Somehow, without any frame of reference or landmarks to guide me, I knew exactly where it was. That place… that had been where Thunder Shield died. I felt it in my bones.

Luckily for me, bears ate more than just meat, so I was able to eat some bread from his pack. He, on the other hand, satisfied himself with large chunks of meat. I wondered what animal it came from. Despite over a month with the carnivorous recusants, I still felt awkward and nervous when others ate meat around me.

We packed our bags and doused the fire, making sure to save any wood that hadn’t been burnt overnight. There weren’t many trees in the mists, and we mostly used what firewood Exe had brought with him for the journey.

After a quick check of my saddlebags and one last glance to the site of the noble pegasus’ death, I followed Exe into the mist.