Once her deal with Iron Rook had been made, Spitfire took off and flew as fast as she could back to Canterlot. Once Iron said he was willing to help her she didn’t show a single ounce of care how Iron was going to prevent Rainbow Dash from interfering with her love life. Instead, all of her attention was focused on her special somepony, and now she had him all to herself.

It was dark once she arrived in the sleepy capital. She flew by the courier’s apartment once and saw that all the lights were already out. Landing at the front door, she produced a spare key to the apartment that she had stolen from Rainbow, quietly unlocking the door and letting herself in. Once inside, she quietly walked to one of the bedroom doors and slipped inside. She smiled as she saw the dark shape of the bed, but more importantly she saw somepony fast asleep in it. She silently made her way to the foot of the bed and slipped under the sheets, making her way up the stallion’s legs and eventually to his crotch. The stallion seemed restless in his sleep, so Spitfire began gently stroking his inner thighs and crotch with her hoof.

“Shh, shh. It’s okay, I’m here.” she said softly, concentrating more on the pony’s cock as it began to grow. “Just relax, I’m going to make you forget all about her.”

Seeing the sleeping stallion was halfway erect, she began licking the shaft up and down its entire length with her tongue, savoring the taste of his meat stick. Her gentle licking soon caused the cock to become rock hard, and she even swore that she could feel his cock throbbing against her tongue.

“Mmm, looks like somepony wasn’t satisfied with Rainbow Dash.” she happily whispered. “I’ll show you that I’m the only pony you’ll ever need.”

Starting at the base of his dick, Spitfire slowly dragged her tongue up his shaft all the way to the tip before stretching her mouth over his flared head. With a deep breath, Spitfire then slowly started to swallow inch after inch of the stallion’s member, not wanting to stop until she got it all down her throat. The urge to gag and spit out the large cock hit her multiple times, but each time she managed to quell the feeling and kept forcing herself to swallow more until she achieved her goal. As her muzzle connected with the stallion’s lower abdomen she heard him groan in pleasure as he felt his member being wrapped in her warm flesh, causing Spitfire’s heart to flutter in excitement. Now knowing that she was doing well, Spitfire began bobbing her head up and down, sucking his cock with everything she had.

“Wha… what the…?” she heard her lover murmur, most likely coming out of his sleep. Suddenly, the cock in her mouth began to twitch and erupted without warning, sending several massive shots of cum down her throat with no warning. Spitfire’s eyes went wide with surprise but she kept the cock in her mouth, wanting to show she was the best mare for him by swallowing every drop. Her determination allowed her to succeed, and with a soft ‘pop’ the stallion’s cock finally left her mouth.

Remaining hidden by the sheets, Spitfire turned around so her ass was now being rubbed by the stallion’s still hard cock. “Mmm, that feels good.” Spitfire cooed. “Your cum on my ass felt like heaven before, but I bet that it would feel even better to cum inside my ass.”

Spitfire moved her ass up and down until she felt his cock pressing against her tight rear hole. She took another deep breath, somewhat scared by the thought of something so big penetrating her ass. After the timberwolf rape she swore she would never allow any stallion to use her ass again, but she was okay with her special somepony using her body any way he wished. She tried to relax her ass as she began to lean backwards, praying that it wouldn’t be too painful this time. The thin coating of saliva and sperm on the stallion’s cock allowed the head of his dick to slip into her ass with ease, but Spitfire still froze as the pain of her anal opening being stretched to its limit hit her. She had to bite her lip to stop from crying out in pain, and for a split second she thought of taking his cock out of her ass. A flashback of seeing Rainbow Dash fucking her lover shattered any further ideas of stopping, though, and with a grimace Spitfire began to lower herself, only getting another inch into her before she had to stop again. She gasped and let out a quick sob as she began to reach her limit of how much pain she could handle. It wasn’t until it was too late did Spitfire notice that the sheet over her head was being lifted off. She let out a small ‘eep!’ as the weight of the sheets were lifted off of her, but a bigger shock was only mere seconds away.

“S-S-S-Spitfire?” a familiar voice said in shock.

Spitfire’s eyes went wide in surprise. She knew the voice very well, but it was not the voice she was expecting. Her legs gave out from the sudden surprise, and with a loud cry Spitfire took the entire length of the pony’s cock into her ass. The pain that shot through her body was almost enough to make her begin to cry, but she managed to hold back her tears for now.

Soarin couldn’t help but moan in pleasure as Spitfire’s ass involuntarily accepted his entire length. He had never put his cock into another pony’s ass, but as he felt just how tight Spitfire’s was he wished he had tried it sooner with some of the many mares who adored him. He unconsciously bucked his hips upward, wanting to feel more pleasure.

Spitfire’s mind raced faster than a hurricane, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. “Soarin! What are- mmph! What are you doing in here?” she winced, trying not to move too much to stop the pain in her rectum.

“This… this is my room here.” he said somewhat confused. “You came in… you were the one who came in here when I was asleep.”

Spitfire gasped as she realized her mistake. In her rush to force herself upon her target, she had gone to the bedroom on the right instead of the one on the left. Thoughts of her intended target finding out about this mistake and shunning her forever began to cloud her mind, and soon she lost control of herself and began openly weeping.

Soarin heard her crying, but before he could ask what was wrong she spoke. “It’s not fair… it’s not fair! Now he’ll never want me. He’ll find out about this and never talk to me again! Why can’t I have somepony who loves me? It’s not fair. Nopony loves me. I’ll be alone forever.”

Soarin reached out and gently touched her between her wings. “Spitfire, you’re not alone. There are plenty of ponies who like you.” he said, trying to calm her.

She shook her head. “Yeah right. Like who?” she said.

Soarin gulped, somewhat scared to say the words in his head. “Well… me.” he finally said.

It took Spitfire a few moments to understand what Soarin was telling her. “W-what? What?” she asked, somewhat confused.

Soarin decided to come clean and confess what he had been hiding for years. “I like you. I really like you. I actually, well, I love you. You’re the reason I joined the Wonderbolts all those years ago. Remember the speed test? I barely managed to finish before time ran out and the instructors told me to just quit. But you told me that I shouldn’t give up. You believed in me and you wanted to graduate the academy with me. That’s the only reason I stayed, to be with you.”

“R-really?” Spitfire stuttered. “No, you would have passed it anyways. Besides, you can have any mare you want. You have plenty of fan-mares who would love to sleep with you.”

“Well, that may be true, but you’re the one who has my cock in her...” Soarin reminded her. Spitfire’s face burned up in embarrassment as she had completely forgotten about his cock inside of her ass. She was thankful that he couldn’t see her red face wince as she slowly lifted herself off of his dick, and she finally released herself from being impaled on his shaft.

“S-sorry, I’ll let you get back to sleep.” Spitfire said, slowly getting up to leave. She gasped in surprise as she found herself being pulled backwards, falling softly onto the bad and wrapped in Soarin’s hooves.

“What the… what are you doing?” Spitfire said in confusion.

Soarin hugged her gently. “Don’t you get it, Spits? You don’t have to go. I told you I love you.”

Some doubt still lingered in her heart. “Then why did you just walk out on me yesterday?” she asked, remembering his cold attitude to her.

Soarin looked down, somewhat ashamed by his actions. “It’s just that… well, you’ve seemed to change so much lately. It wasn’t that I wasn’t happy to see you, I just hate seeing you caring only about revenge. Look, I know that something bad happened to you on that mission Luna sent you on, but you don’t need to suffer through whatever is going on alone. I’ll always be there for you. That’s why I risked leaving Cloudsdale that night, so I could be with you.”

Spitfire couldn’t believe how blind she had been to her best friend’s feelings. She had felt a strong attraction to him but ever since her torture the only thing that she allowed her mind to think about was revenge. But now, being held by another pony… she was taking a liking this feeling. She allowed her body to finally relax in Soarin’s hooves, allowing herself to finally drop her guard in weeks.

“This feels nice.” Spitfire said softly, nuzzling her head against Soarin’s chest.

Soarin agreed in his head, loving the feeling of his long time crush cuddling against his chest. Figuring that he had already pushed his luck once, he tried his luck again and gently kissed Spitfire on her forehead. The mare giggled from the small gesture, tilting her head up and letting her lips meet his. The two kissed each other passionately, both of them feeling a wave of relief wash over them.

“Do you want to stay with me tonight?” Soarin asked.

Spitfire nodded, physically exhausted from her long flight and mentally exhausted from her emotional rollercoaster. She shared one last kiss with Soarin before falling asleep next to him, finally no longer feeling alone in the world.

Though her powers had been severely limited by her sister, Princess Luna still retained the power to oversee any pony’s dreams. Before she had taken much pleasure in visiting as many pony’s dreams as possible each night to see what each of them secretly longed for or truly felt, but ever since her talk with Celestia’s courier she felt like she had no motivation. Guilt wracked her mind almost every minute, and all she did now was just ensure nopony was having any nightmares.

Sighing heavily, Luna entered her meditative trance and entered the dream world. Thousands of dreams appeared before her and she began scanning through them all. They were all the same as usual; some ponies dreaming of fame and riches, others dreaming of fantasies and hopes. One dream caught her attention, and upon closer inspection she realized it wasn’t just some nightmare some small filly was having. It was the worst kind of dream a pony could have; a dream where they relived a traumatic experience over and over with no hopes of escape.

Luna dug deeper and gasped as she realized that the dream belonged to Rainbow Dash. She couldn’t believe it. ‘I thought these dreams stopped ages ago!’ she thought to herself. Watching the dream, Luna saw Rainbow helplessly lying on the floor, reaching out into the darkness and crying for somepony to stop. An evil laugh seemed to come from every direction, followed by a sickening snapping sound. Rainbow Dash then collapsed in tears, sobbing a name that Luna couldn’t quite make out.

Snapping out of her trance, Luna sat shocked, breathing heavily as her mind raced. She glanced at the clock on her wall and saw that her sister would definitely be asleep by now. Luna stood up and closed her eyes briefly. Even though she was now forbidden from leaving the castle, the princess of the night knew that this dream that something terrible had just happened in Ponyville and it needed to be addressed now.

“Forgive me, sister.” Luna whispered, her horn glowing. With a quick flash of light she disappeared from her room, leaving Canterlot without any other pony knowing.

She reappeared miles and miles away inside a certain pony’s house. Though not in the same room, the sound of somepony crying could be faintly heard. Luna made her way to the room where the noise was coming from, and as she silently pushed the bedroom door open a grisly sight greeted her eyes.

Just a few feet away from her the lifeless body of a tortoise lay on the floor, his neck twisted at an unnatural angle. The bed was an absolute mess as all the sheets were crumpled up and stained with some sort of fluid. Just beyond the bed and curled up by the wall was Rainbow Dash, and even though she was asleep she still wept for her recently deceased friend.

As Luna’s attention returned to the tortoise in front of her, her mind momentarily replaced the pet’s body with a small griffon. Luna’s eyes went wide with surprise from the mirage and the full force of the courier’s words sunk in deeper.

“So this is the price the innocent pay.” she muttered softly, completely disgusted with her controversial order. She reached out with a hoof and gently touched Tank’s body and was shocked that it was still warm, though barely. Realizing that the murder of Dash’s pet occurred much more recently than she expected, she froze and listened for any hint that the murderer was still in the house, but only the sound of Dash’s periodic crying was heard. She returned her attention to the body and thought of a certain forbidden spell she was never, ever to use. She knew the heavy price she would have to pay to use it, not to mention the banishment her elder sister would likely impose upon her, but Luna soon made up her mind.

“I have to do this.” she said to herself. “I have to make this right.”

Concentrating on the spell, her horn glowed as a dim gold aura surrounded Tank’s corpse. As Luna concentrated harder, the glow increased.

Even though she had just started the spell Luna felt exhausted. Unlike regular spells where the magic used could be replaced, this spell permanently decreased the user’s magical capacity. It had been one of the reasons Celestia was able to defeat Nightmare Moon; Luna had used the spell once long ago, leaving her sister slightly stronger. Now, with Luna’s magical abilities limited by Celestia, Luna began to worry that she may not survive once the spell was complete. ‘Maybe Equestria will be better off without me.’ she thought.

With one last push, a gold shockwave rocked the house, finally waking Rainbow Dash. The shockwave left the house, and even though it was not visible to earth ponies or pegasi, every creature within a few hundred miles capable of using magic felt the unnatural phenomenon blasting through the air. Most unicorns woke up and wondered what had just happened before going to sleep. Even Twilight had no idea what had caused such an event to occur. But two creatures who felt the effects knew exactly what had happened.

Discord’s eyes snapped open as he felt the magical pulse. “Well, this should be interesting to hear about in the morning.” he simply said before going back to sleep.

Celestia did not have such a casual response. Her eyes flew wide in horror as she realized what spell caused the ripple effect. She got up and sprinted to her sister’s room, absolutely baffling her guards outside her bedroom door. She ignored her sister’s guards and burst into the vacant room, cursing that she hadn’t placed a spell to limit Luna’s ability to leave the castle. She closed her eyes and sensed how weak the feeling of the pulse had been and determined that Luna was no longer in Canterlot. Taking a wild guess, Celestia teleported herself to where trouble was most likely occurring; Ponyville.

Appearing in Twilight’s library, Celestia was not surprised to see Twilight already awake. “Princess Celestia! I was just about to wake Spike up to send you a letter. Something strange just happened.”

“Yes, I know, I felt it all the way in Canterlot.” Celestia said, cutting her off. “There isn’t much time. Do you know of anything strange going on in Ponyville? Has there been anything unusual going on?”

Twilight tried thinking of what could have caused the magic ripple but couldn’t think of anything. “I’m sorry, princess, but I just don’t know what could have caused it.” she said.

“Where is the griffon, Iron Rook?” Celestia asked.

“He’s still asleep. As soon as I felt the anomaly I checked on him. He was sound asleep in his room. Same with Spike, it didn’t wake him either.” Twilight said, not knowing that only magic users felt the disturbance.

Celestia nodded, relieved that her trust in the griffon refugee had not been broken. She asked Twilight to check up on Fleur and Rarity, who had also most likely been awakened by the pulse, while she herself went to go check up on Rainbow Dash first.

At first nothing seemed out of the ordinary at Rainbow’s cloud home, but Celestia could detect the microscopic magical pulses still emitting from somewhere inside the house. Letting out a rare swear, Celestia rushed inside, calling out for Rainbow Dash but receiving no answer. She made her way carefully through the house until a bumping noise caught her attention. Celestia froze as the noise slowly came closer and closer, and soon whatever was making the noise was just around the corner from the sun princess. Preparing herself for whatever was making the noise, Celestia rounded the corner and let out a yelp of surprise.

On the floor was her sister, unconscious and breathing very lightly. Struggling to pull the unconscious alicorn to Celestia was a familiar green tortoise, his body dimly glowing gold but still looking extremely tired. It didn’t take long for Celestia to piece together the evidence laid out before her. Celestia’s horn glowed briefly as she finished Luna’s attempt at the forbidden spell she used to bring Tank back, the glow around Tank finally being absorbed into his body. The tortoise looked as good as new, all his energy returning, though his slow speed remained the same.

With the tortoise better, Celestia looked over her sister, shocked by just how little magic Luna had left inside of her body. “Stupid sister, you knew you didn’t have enough magic to complete such a spell. Why would you still do this?” Celestia asked as she transferred some of her magic to Luna. The princess of the night began to breathe easier, allowing Celestia to sigh with relief.

“H-hello? Who’s there?” a timid voice rang out. Celestia saw Rainbow Dash slowly poke her head out of her bedroom, absolutely frightened by the noises that woke her up.

“Rainbow, it’s Princess Celestia. Don’t worry, you’re safe.” Celestia called out. At first Rainbow slowly came out like a scared puppy, but as soon as she saw her pet back on his feet she froze momentarily in disbelief.

“T-T-Tank?” she gasped. Her faithful pet seemed to smile at the sight of his pal, and with almost enough speed to create a sonic rainboom indoors Rainbow rushed over to hug the friend she almost lost.

“Tank! Oh my gosh, how did you… how did this… Tank!” she cried out, hugging the tortoise tightly against her. Soon tears began falling down her face once more as it dawned on her how close she was to losing her beloved pet forever, and by some sliver of luck she managed to find a second chance.

Celestia placed a hoof on Dash’s shoulder in comfort. “Rainbow Dash, I have to get Luna back to Canterlot. But before I go, how did this all happen?” she asked, concerned that something worse may happen.

Rainbow froze again, absolutely petrified that Iron Rook would find out that she told Princess Celestia what he had done. However, she was brought out of her trance by a small nudge. Looking down, Tank nudged her chin again, looking up at her and nodding, almost as if he could read her mind.

“Are you sure?” she whispered to him. Tank nodded again, and with a deep sigh Rainbow Dash hugged him once more before turning to Celestia and telling her everything that she remembered about the past few hours.

Celestia was shocked by the story she heard. There was no questioning Dash’s story, though. Iron Rook was a spy. After Rainbow Dash was done, she thanked the rainbow pony for her time and sent her to bed, promising that she would make sure Iron Rook was arrested by morning. Celestia conjured up a scroll and quill, scribbling a quick message and sending it off to the closest barracks before teleporting herself and her sister back to Canterlot.

Within a mere half an hour a dozen royal guards descended upon Ponyville. Their orders were simple; arrest the griffon refugee Iron Rook and hold him until Princess Twilight Sparkle could inform Celestia. He would then be brought back to Canterlot and face the court, most likely to be found guilty and sentenced to serve out a lengthy prison sentence. The guards all split up, the majority of them heading for Twilight’s library as the fugitive was seen there last. Though they tried to remain quiet as they entered the library, their bulky armor awakened Iron Rook from his sleep. He saw the two guards patrolling the perimeter of the library and heard more climbing the stairs. Correctly guessing that his cover was blown, Iron smashed through the nearest window and took to the skies. The two guards outside were unicorns and were unable to fly after the griffon, instead forced to try to track him while running. The pegasus guards had to run back out of the house before they could give chase, but the lead Iron had was definitely in the griffons favor.

Looking back at the pursuing pegasi, Iron laughed to himself that he could probably outrun them, but he had no idea if reinforcements may intercept him later on. He decided that the best course of action would be to hide in the forest south of Ponyville and wait until they had to give up searching for him, and with a graceful dive he penetrated the treetops and disappeared into the black woods.

The pegasus guards chased after him, but as expected they soon lost his trail. Undeterred, they began a search pattern to try to flush out the griffon, sending one guard to bring more backup to aid in the search. Even with every single guard in Equestria searching the woods, the chances of finding Iron were slim.

Somehow, luck seemed to turn over to the guards’ favor as one of them spotted the griffon hiding in a tree. “You! Stop where you are! Don’t move!” he shouted, but of course the griffon took off. The pegasus gave chase despite not being able to call for backup.

Glancing back at his pursuer, Iron saw he only had one guard chasing him and decided to set up an ambush. Ducking into a dense cluster of bushes, Iron hid himself and waited to turn the tables in his favor. He didn’t have to wait long as the guard slowed down, trying to figure out where the griffon could have gone. With a ferocious roar, Iron jumped out of his hiding spot and tackled the guard out of the sky. Both creatures went tumbling to the ground, biting, clawing, and punching at each other. The guard has his helmet knocked off his head, but managed to catch Iron off guard with a quick headbutt. Iron staggered back in a daze, allowing the guard to follow up his attack with another tackle. He managed to pin Iron underneath his body, and for a moment he thought that he managed to single-hoofedly capture the fugitive.

“Hey, can you guys hear me? I got him! I got th- agghh!” he called out, making the mistake of turning his head to call out into the woods. Iron saw the brief opening and savagely lashed out, hitting the guard in the throat. With another quick shove, the guard pony fell off of Iron, clutching his throat and fighting for air. Iron stood triumphantly over the pegasus, extending his claws and raising them to strike.

“Idiot, you almost had me. But now you’re going to die.” Iron said grimly, ready to slash the pony’s throat. The guard glared back at Iron, not intimidated by the griffon’s threats.

Iron’s blood boiled as the pegasus refused to cower and beg for his life. Lashing out, he tore at the guard’s face, tearing the left side of his face with his claws. “Fine, if you won’t beg, I’ll kill you slowly! You’ll wish I was merciful and killed you instantly in no time.” he yelled.

Iron raised his claw once again, but right before he could strike again another creature burst out from the brush. Iron yelped out in surprise as he was tackled off of the guard and once again went tumbling to the ground, but this time he was on the defensive. As soon as he could he separated himself from his attacker, and with a shocked expression he saw who had attacked him.

“You?!” Iron exclaimed in surprise.

“Yes, me.” Thunderbird said, staring his former friend down. Without warning, Thunderbird rushed in again, giving no quarter as he attacked the friend who betrayed him.

Iron was caught off guard by the still-injured griffon’s ferocity. At the very least he expected Thunderbird to ask why he had betrayed him. Thunderbird didn’t care about that, though. No matter what Iron’s excuse was, betraying a friend by trying to kill him was unforgivable.

Despite Thunderbird’s existing injuries he managed to gain a quick advantage, beating Iron Rook back with attack after vicious attack. Iron began to lose confidence in himself as he found himself on the defensive. The sudden sound of more guards moving towards the sound of the fighting added to Iron’s urgency to escape, but every time he tried to turn to run Thunderbird managed to catch him and drag him back into the fight.

With no other option, Iron reached down and grabbed a clump of earth, flinging it into Thunderbird’s eyes. The cheap trick bought the time Iron was looking for, and with a quick glance back at his former friend trying to clear his vision Iron took off into the woods.

And ran right into a squad of guards.

Both Iron and the guards were stunned by the sudden encounter, but Iron managed to react first. He swung his claws wildly, catching one of the guards in the head but was saved by his helmet. The guard cried out in surprise, though, and his fellow guards thought he had been mortally wounded. Acting quickly, the unicorn guards in the squad levitated their spears with their magic and propelled them towards the fleeing griffon.

Iron’s eyes went wide as two of the spears found their target. One of them had penetrated his thigh, but he wouldn’t have to worry about being unable to walk normally as the second spear was sticking out of his chest and had pierced his heart. A gurgle escaped his beak as he toppled over and fell, dead before he hit the ground.

As some of the guards confirmed the griffon was dead, the others saw Thunderbird through the brush and swarmed him. Thunderbird threw up his claws in surrender and offered no resistance as they pony guards shackled him to limit his movement. He tried telling his captors he meant no harm but they refused to listen to him. One of the guards flew off ahead of the rest of the group to inform the princesses that there was another griffon working with the first spy, who was now dead and left to rot on the forest floor. The others escorted the bound griffon out of the forest and to the closest barracks where he would be held until one of the princesses sentenced the prisoner of war.

It didn’t take long for the news of Iron’s betrayal and ulterior motives to spread like a wildfire. By morning, every single pony in Ponyville had heard that Rainbow Dash had been attacked, her pet tortoise almost killed, and another griffon hiding in the Everfree Forest had been captured. Everypony was shocked by Iron’s actions as they truly thought that he had freed Fleur out of the kindness in his heart, but now that they knew that he did it to just gain their trust almost every single pony lost any hope that a griffon could want to help them. Every single pony in the small town demanded that the captured griffon be executed immediately to prevent another attack.

Well, almost everypony.

Fleur had heard that a griffon had been captured in the forest, and like all the other residents of Ponyville she went outside to see what was going on. She almost fainted as she saw a familiar brown and black griffon being escorted through the town towards the guards barracks. Fresh bruises and cuts covered his body, and while most of the injuries were from his fight with Iron, some were caused by the occasional cheap-shot the guards took at him before they left the forest. Fleur called out Thunderbird’s name, but the jeers and shouts from the other ponies drowned her voice out, and any attempt to break through the crowd of ponies and guards proved even more useless. With no other way to gain the griffon’s attention, Fleur rushed off for the library, praying that Twilight was home.

By midday, news of what had happened in Ponyville had reached other cities, including Canterlot. Both Spitfire and Celestia’s courier heard the news from the mailpony, and with a quick glance at each other both of them rushed over to the castle to speak with the princesses.

Celestia confirmed most of the rumors before telling both pegasi what else had happened; how Iron Rook had broken into Rainbow Dash’s house and raped her before killing her pet before Luna snuck out of Canterlot and almost killed herself to bring Tank back.

The courier was in absolute shock, but Spitfire was absolutely devastated. She was enraged at herself for even considering making a deal with Iron, and even though Iron still would have had his way with Dash that night Spitfire placed all the blame on herself. Excusing themselves, both of them rushed back to their home to let Soarin know they were leaving immediately for Ponyville. Once he heard what happened, Soarin prepared to leave too, and within mere minutes all three pegasi were flying as fast as they could for Ponyville.

Fleur caught Twilight just as she was about to leave her library to decide the captive griffon’s fate. With no time to lose Fleur told Twilight that the griffon the guards had was the griffon responsible for ensuring her survival while she was captive as well as the griffon who had come up with the original escape plans. Twilight reminded her that her savior was dead, but Fleur swore that it was him, countering Twilight’s statement that Iron could have lied about Thunderbird’s death, too. With some reluctance still in her mind, Twilight agreed to speak to Thunderbird before she handed down her judgment. Fleur begged Twilight to allow her to see the griffon also, but Twilight had to deny her second request as allowing any visitors right now was strictly forbidden.

Despite not being able to talk to or see her long lost friend, Fleur still accompanied Twilight to the barracks. Once again, Twilight had to restate that Fleur couldn’t be present when she spoke to the griffon before she entered the holding cell where Thunderbird was being held. Fleur wanted to barge in regardless of Twilight’s warnings but two burly guards blocked her way. With a heavy sigh, Fleur sat down on a chair to await Twilight’s decision.

Author's Note

So what do you guys think? Did Luna redeem herself?

Also, yes, Iron is dead. Yes, I do realize I robbed Thunderbird the opportunity for revenge, but hey, that's war...

Now his life is in Twilight's hooves. You think she'll believe him, or will she adopt a no-tolerance policy like Luna used to?