To leave a friend behind.
Can break even the strongest of stallions.
To leave a friend that you will not be able to meet again.
Can kill you.
But to have a friend that choose to stay behind by himself.
Choose to stay behind to give you the chance to run.
That is to leave behind a friend you can trust.
*^*
“Catch him! Do not let him escape!” Lightheart commanded behind me.
I smiled, I had not wounded him badly atleast.
“But how many have we killed?”
“I have not killed anypony of the innocent here!”
“But we ran did we not?”
“I did not kill them!”
“Our actions killed them.” the voice said with a laugh.
“The guard was the one that killed them, if anypony was killed!”
“The guards followed their orders. We are the ones to blame.”
I ignored the voice. Nopony got killed! And it was the guards who had killed anypony if there had been any causalities.
The voice laughed again.
“At least we gave them a show.”
My hooves drummed against the cobblestone, bringing me closer to the castle with every step. Celestia’s eye had embraced the horizon, set for sleep.
The rage came suddenly.
It devoured my very being.
It raged through my veins, burning them to ash.
What is happening to me?
“Oh, we gave ourselves some energy so that we can be sure to escape.”
“But you are only a voice inside my head!”
That cold laugh again.
“Are we?”
I had arrived at the castle. The guards had started to catch up.
“Catch him! Corner him!” I heard a guard yell behind me.
I turned, started to run along the wall of the castle. A bolt shattered against the stone behind me, sending sharp splinters into my hind leg.
I ignored the pain as I ran. So close to the city, so close to a place where I could make them loose me.
“Then what?”
“Then I will meet up with Corelight.”
“And we are sure that he will not stab us in the back? We are sure that he will not betray us?”
“He is a friend in a friendless city. I think we... I can trust him.”
“And if he betrays us? His father was corrupted, he said so himself. Are you sure that he is not?”
“I trust him.”
“We do not.”
*^*
The guards were close behind as I entered the city beyond the walls. It had worked.
It had actually worked!
“They are still behind us.” the voice pointed out.
“That doesn’t matter. They will not be able to catch me in here, not when they are just running behind me like this.”
I laughed, the thrill of the hunt making the adrenaline and the rage in my veins pump faster.
“And I have something that they do not have.”
“What do we have that they do not have?”
“The protection of Luna, the embrace of Luna!”
*^*
It had not taken me long to shake of the last guards, they had not been prepared to hunt me in the city. I slowed down to a steady trot, tried to calm my body down. I looked around to see where I was, I had not paid any mind to where I had turned to loose my followers.
I found myself in front of The Black Stable.
Or, at least, the smoking ruins of The Black Stable. It felt as if a bucket of cold water had been emptied over me. The Black Stable... Burned to the ground.
What had happened to Honey? My daughter! My filly!
“She is dead.”
“How can you be so sure about that? What makes you think she is dead?”
“Four days have passed. Four days since we saw her. Who would take care of her during those days?”
“Carrotrose would take care of her!”
“Would we take care of a foal whos father is to blame for us loosing our income?”
“I can not blame the foal! I could only blame the pony who had made me lose my income!”
The voice disappeared again. Had I actually talked it down?
But it had made me start to think. Where had Carrotrose gone when they had come here to get my daughter? Where had she gone when they burned down The Black Stable?
And would she ever want to see me again?
I looked up at the Luna hour sky. Was my daughter looking up at the same sky, wondering where I was? I snickered for myself. I surely hope she is not, she should be asleep hours ago! The sky greeted me with the twinkling lights of Luna’s mane around her ever watching eye. The sky was cloudless, Luna’s grace embraced me, danced around me.
A cold Luna hour wind brought the scent of the flood to me. I walked over to the water as it made its way alongside the street. It was this water mass that kept the dark side of Trotholm from the rest of the city.
The clear water reflected Luna’s grace, mirroring her eye and mane. It was a beautiful sight.
Then it got to me. I knew exactly where I would be able to find Carrotrose.
“Are we sure she will be there?”
“I am certain.”
“Will she let us in?”
“I hope so.”
“And if she does not?”
“Then I will have to find another place to stay until this is all over.”
“And the guard? How do we do with him? Do we trust him with the location?”
“I do not know yet. I have to think about it.”
What would I do with Corelight? I looked at the sky again. It was still some time before I was to meet him in the castle gardens. I could not put Carrotrose or Honey in danger.
Honey... I know that she is where Carrotrose is!
So I could not tell him where I would stay. It was not as much that I did not trust him as it was that I would not risk the life of the ones around me.
I started to slowly trot towards the castle again. It had been nearly an hour since I had made my escape, the inhabitants of Trotholm was probably going back home right now.
I had to make sure that nopony saw me. It would be a really bad idea to be seen already, the guards would keep an eye on everything that happened in the city. But one question remained.
How was I to leave the city when I had talked to Corelight?
The city entrances would be heavy guarded, they would not let me pass just like that. In worst case would the guards standing at the gates recognize me.
“We should have made our way to the gates directly instead of going back to the nest.”
“I can not leave Corelight thinking that I am dead.”
“He would get the words about our escape sooner or later.”
“I’m not that sure, I can nearly enough promise that they will tell the inhabitants of the city that I was ‘killed during capture’.”
“But why do we care about him anyway? Why do we put ourselves in danger just to tell him that we live?”
“I owe him that much.”
Luna’s eye watched me, her grace embraced me, as I slowly trotted towards the castle again, making sure that nopony saw me.
Like a shadow of the city itself.