-A Parting Glance-
"Where is that book?" Cadence muttered to herself as she looked up and down each tall bookshelf. She huffed angrily, teleporting from the grand library appendix and back. Finally, the section she sought appeared, but the book slot was empty.
The spaciousness of the library echoed back her frustrated groans and growls. She looked all around the bookshelf with a hope that it had been misplaced.
"AH!" Cadance roared.
"Shh!" Raven hushed before throwing a book directly at Cadance's head. The impact caused her to tumble and take three shelves of books down with her.
"...Ow."
"Well, that's what you get for yelling in a library." Raven levitated overhead and melted all the books with a wave of her black claw. Each of the books became grey and melted, globes of sludge moved up the bookshelves and once again became literature. "And I don't much care that you're the daughter of Shattered Skies, you will respect the rules of this library."
Cadance scramble to her hooves to look at the Spirit of Knowledge, a tall, black griffon with a Raven's head in place of that of an Eagle.
"I'm-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"I see you've taken after your father in the apology department." Raven turned, the clacking of her claws echoed in the quiet library as she left an awe struck Cadance across a marble floor.
With eagerness, Cadance followed the librarian as she walked away. Every now and again, she would look back in annoyance and huff before teleporting to another part of the library. After three times, Cadance found her and mustered up the courage to speak to her.
"Um, excuse me, Lady Raven?"
"What is it, child?" Raven aggressively shoved another book in its place by claw, a pass time she enjoyed. "I am very busy."
"I was wondering if I could ask you some questions?" Cadance asked.
"No, you must look for yourself, the appendix is by the grand library entrance." Raven jabbed her claw in the air past Cadance. "Sought knowledge is earned, not given."
Cadance winced. "That's the thing, Lady Raven, the information I seek is not in your library."
"What you mean to say is, not in Farhaven's library. My library has a copy every novelization and scripture ever created. If what you seek is not here, then it is either of no consequence, or it is simply because you do not deserve to know."
Raven's words cut like alcohol covered razors, but the curiosity ate at her still, not knowing something for a Spirit of Knowledge was like holding one's breath underwater, sooner or later, you relent.
"Fine." Raven slumped slightly at Cadance's pleading look. "What do you seek?"
"I want to know about the Great Spirit war and my father before-"
"Absolutely not." Raven teleported to the end of the long hall, where her office was and entered swiftly.
"What?" Cadance asked before flying to Raven's office. She knocked a few times and heard bickering on the other side of the large doors. "Lady Raven, please, I have to know and you're the only one that may know the entire story."
The talking became hushed and the door opened slowly. The large yellow eye of Raven came from the darkness and looked directly at Cadance.
"Please tell me, no one will." Cadance's plea was sincere. "My father won't find out."
"No." Raven closed her eye and pushed the door open to let her in. "That's because he already knows."
"So you'll tell me?" Cadance entered the large, stone rotunda that was Raven's study, two levels of tomes and artifacts lined the walls, all supported by black stained pillars. A large fig tree stood in the room off center, its sap rolling down the pillars from the branches that spanned the rotunda. Cadance looked around in awe and observed that on the walls above each bookshelf, a different scene was shown with either a Spirit fighting or a shining figure from many species she either didn't recognize or were straight from myth. A statue of a long necked owl was hanging from the roof with a sash in its claws that read, 'One makes you make a living while the other helps you make a life.'
"What does that mean?" Cadance asked.
"That is for you to discover, daughter of Shattered Skies." Raven lifted her claw as she summoned a large, circular table from a tar like sap the oozed from the rotunda's pillars.
"I see you've finally wrapped up your duties, Lady Raven." The gruff, old voice of Grogar said as he entered the room from a corridor behind Raven.
"I do not have time to entertain a child like you, Grogar. Away with you." Raven said, cracking her claws in annoyance as she sat. She summoned a few books, but noticed he was still in the corner smiling. "Listen... I know it's hard for you to understand what I'm saying, on account of half your brain being dead, but if you don't leave, I will literally hang you by your larynx and use you as pinata."
"Oh, so violent." Grogar shook in delight. "You would do that in front of your Lord's child?"
"He is my Lord and I respect him, but using him to protect yourself would only make things worse for you."
"Don't I know it." Grogar smiled as he sat, despite the glare Raven was giving him.
Raven smirked all of a sudden. "Fine, but Lord Skies is getting a comprehensive list of everything were going to go over, if you don't want to be on the list, then you should leave now."
The game of intellectual chicken didn't work. "That's fine with me, I'm sure he'll want Lady Anara to have a comprehensive eye witness account of her father and what he's really like."
"Yeah, because you would know anything about anything." Raven growled. "Despite that, you will leave this room and allow me to begin teaching Lord Skies' child about some of his history."
"Oh? So cold." Grogar mused. "You won't teach her all of history? Just about her father?"
"She will learn history soon enough, Lord Skies wishes to have additional students for me to teach before that happens." Raven's black feathers flashed a grayish shade of brown and her eyes glowed white. "Now, leave."
Grogar's smile dropped. "By your command, Spirit of Knowledge."
The rotunda's doors slammed shut, leaving Cadance and Raven to sit by idly until three knocks came.
"Grogar! I swear if you continue with your pestilence, I will end you!" Raven's barking fell as Honey Bee walked through the door smiling. "Lady Crystal, I apologize, I did not realize you would arrive so early."
"Mom?"
"Hello, you two." Honey smiled.
"What are you doing here?"
"Raven sent me a note saying you've finally asked her about your father." Honey summoned the note with her magic. "Your father asked Raven to contact me should you do so."
Cadance growled. "Why is this a secret! I just want to know about you and dad, every time someone speaks about either of you it's a tone of unrelenting respect or fear." She sat and drooped as her mother walked over to her, still smiling. "I just want to know my parents better."
Honey wrapped Cadance in a hug. "We know, sweetie, that's why your father asked me to be here. It is also partially why Raven is here. Together, we can answer your questions."
"But it should be you and dad." Cadance said.
Honey nodded. "There are some questions only your father can answer, reserved for when he relents and sits down with you to answer them. I know he has been struggling with it from my talks with him, I thought you should know right away, but he wants to be patient."
"I prefer the word secretive." Raven chimmed in. "That was my one condition for accepting his job offer; no lying or avoiding the truth."
"And that is what he agreed to, but you have to see the reason in keeping some things close to the chest?" Honey glanced to Raven who rolled her eyes before looking back to her daughter. "Your father. He is very worried you won't understand why he had to do certain things. He came to me and nearly pleaded with me to set this up with Raven, so that I can explain things on a more personal level, more so than Raven ever could."
"Knowledge versus wisdom." Raven said. "I'm not so good with explaining one's mindset, just the facts given."
Cadance took a deep breath, now realizing that her father may have a more complicated past than she anticipated.
"You can ask anything, hunny." Honey rubbed Cadance's side before gesturing to a table seat.
After the cloud of confusion caused by the sudden allowance of information lifted from her mind, Cadance bite her lip. "I suppose we should start with the beginning since you and dad have been around for a very long time. But I want to know about the war. I heard about what started the Spirit war when dad spoke with Twilight and Sunset Shimmer, but what happened in the war for everyone to treat dad the way they do?"
"And what way is that?" Honey asked.
Cadance rubbed her temples trying to put her thoughts into words. "I've been told by other Spirits that he is a hero and a lord, but I have no idea what they mean and other beings like Grogar make subtle allusions that dad is someone to fear. But to me, he is just lovable, caring, and a complete goofball. I don't see the stallion from either case, I've sat in on his court rulings and while refined, I have sat though hundreds of courts and still don't see the crown people place on him."
"And you want to know if your father is secretly a tyrant?" Honey asked, trying to understand.
"No." Cadance shook her head. "I know he isn't either of those, I can feel it in the way he cares for things. I just want to understand who he is."
Raven sighed and put her claw on Honey's shoulder before looking over her head and into Cadance's eyes. The sincerity showed through as Raven looked on in silence.
"You don't need to understand who your father is now, you need to understand what he has endured to reach this point."
Cadance gave a solemn nod.
"All you have to do now, is ask." Honey put her hooves on the table while Raven placed extra seals throughout the room to insure their privacy.
"Has dad done evil things?" Cadance asked, closing her eyes shut tightly.
"Yes." Honey said, her voice placid. "We all have at one time or another, but he has only ever committed evil because he believed it was the better path."
"How can evil be a better path?"
Honey shook her head. "You have known a short twenty-five years of blissful peace, Sweetie. The majority of this planet's history has been that of turmoil and of strife, both in planet conditions and with the creatures that live on this planet."
"What evil has he done?" Cadance pressed.
"We have all committed a great many evils over the past forty thousand years, Cadance." Honey said.
"But he is the one that is showered with honorifics like that of the soul stealer." Cadance said. "Even foals in the Crystal Empire still check under their beds for him. It took me a few months after hearing about it that I did research to discover that it was a legend about the forest Spirit that steals the souls of those that wont be missed, like those of bad disobedient children and wanderers." Cadance said, pointing to a fairytale book about Spirits that Raven was gesturing to to illustrate Cadance's point. "The nanny that Celestia hired when I was a foal read me these stories. I know the concept of soul stealing is bogus, but has he contributed to this legend?"
Honey cupped her hooves. "Your father has earned that honorific a great many times over. The souls that he has trapped would fill Canterlot and its mountain."
Cadance's heart sank. "What?"
"I am sure you've seen your father's black, barbed vine, correct?"
"The one that he made to punish bad creatures?"
"The same." Honey said. "Most of the Spirits from the Parthenon had something that acted as their own tool for passing down judgement, usually of a capital nature."
"I don't get it, dad said it locks them into a tree and saps their life-"
"Their soul." Honey interjected. "Many of the Spirits found his method a little harsh, even the Maker appeared and spoke with him about it. He would imprison them and trap their soul. The body would decompose, but the soul would remain until it was consumed by the tree. Then, a small tree Spirit would emerge from the tree and help lost beings through his forest. Something helpful taken from something hurtful."
Cadance's heart pounded in her chest at the news. "Dad would do that?"
"We all would." Raven said. "Your father trusts no one, when the pantheon first caught wind of his actions, they challenged him, believing that only the maker should be able to manipulate souls."
Raven waved a smokey claw, showing Skies standing above a few other Spirits, apparently scolding them as they all stood in a grove of dead trees. As the fog dissipated, Raven sighed. "Your father also has the horrible habit of being stubborn when he thinks he is right."
"I second that." Honey chuckled. "He is very smart, but locking horns with him was always a messy business."
Cadance placed her hoof on her forehead, her feelings in a torrent of uncertainty.
"Lady Anara, you asked how evil can be a better path." Raven said. "I want you to remember this question after I tell you about the great war. Because that war would have been lost without a little evil."
With a hard swallow, Cadance nodded. "I'm ready."
Somewhere between Canterlot and Baltimare
"Are you okay, Princess Celestia?"
With a firm blink, Celestia shook herself from her day dream. "Sombra, I told you to call me Sunny, ponies can't know I'm their diarch." She moved her hoof up and tilted the wheel of the ship a quarter turn before checking the large compass that hung next to her. "I need to stop spacing out."
"You call that spacing out?"
"What?"
"T-Sunny, you sit there looking as if you're staring at ghosts." Sombra deadpanned. "We need to be honest with each other."
Sunny nodded and stood in silence for a long moment. She winced when Sombra gestured with his hoof for her to start. "I've been having nightmares and I can't stop thinking about it."
"What are they about?"
Sunny sighed and grabbed a rope to fasten the wheel so it wouldn't move so she could walk around the small ship she bought days before from a traveler. "I don't know." She strode down the stairs that lead to the main deck of the schooner. "I asked Luna to help me, but the only thing she tells me is that they aren't dreams and that she can't help."
Sombra, now usually one to tread carefully, decided to pry. "What happens in them?"
"There are other Alicorns in my dreams. They're there and then the dream shimmers, living life one moment and dying the next. Every night I sleep, I see a little more, as if it's leading to something."
"Are they getting worse?"
"The past two days, they've gotten marginally worse." Sunny rubbed her face.
"Maybe we should postpone the journey?" Sombra asked. "If you're bothered this much with a practice run, then we may be in real trouble on the actual thing."
"No." Sunny demanded. "I have to do this, I have to know the truth."
"About what?"
"Nevermind." Sunny huffy and turned. "You wouldn't understand." She reared back when Sombra teleported in front of her.
"Understand what? Wanting to know where you come from?" Sombra asked. "Have you forgotten about my wanting to know where I come from?"
"I know." Sunny's tone fell into solemn understanding of his umbrum heritage.
"I was feared by the other ponies and one day, I ran into a snow storm and a voice claiming to be my mother drew me in. I wanted to know who I was so badly and for the pain I always felt from the crystal heart to stop that I willingly gave myself to it." Sombra's voice became monotonous. "And the rest, you know about. The enslaving, the betrayal of the Spirit that tried to help me, and my causing the monster you face today."
"Sombra, Shattered Skies turning evil was not your fault."
"It is, if I hadn't of destroyed his wife and child, he would probably still be on your side." Sombra sat against the railing of the ship. "I cast a spell on his daughter as he watched through a crystal projection and she turned to dust in my hooves, then I forced his wife to fight with a magic inhibitor against opponents three times her size for my amusement. Then tossed her bloodied body in a cave on the outskirts for her to freeze to death, leaving him to find."
Sunny shook her head. "That was the Umbrum, Sombra, they manipulated you into doing it."
"That doesn't excuse me." Sombra sighed. "He may trap my soul until the end of time, but if I can find a way to help him in some way before the end, then I'm okay with that."
"I don't think Radiant Hope would agree with your willingness to sacrifice yourself."
Sombra dug his hoof into the tan adventure shirt he had worn for his journey and pulled out a picture of him and Hope. "I don't tell her these things, she still thinks that we can talk to Skies civilly to reach an understanding."
"I should tell you this, Sombra." Sunny sighed, noticing his quiet suffering. "Keep it to yourself, but you did not kill Shattered Skies' daughter."
Sombra shook his head and held up a hoof. "Yes, I did. She disintegrated in front of my own eyes."
Sunny shook her head. "No. A little over twenty years ago, I traced Skies' magic to the border of a forest and found a small fawn. She was small and healthy, after much hesitation, I adopted her and she became my niece."
"No." Sombra's eyes shrank to pin pricks at the news, only one pony held that title. "Princess Cadance is really that fawn?"
"Yes. I've kept that news from her for a great many years, but I see now that I have done to her what her father once did to me." Sunny sat next to Sombra and looked to the night sky. "I have watched her grow into a beautiful mare and even get married for true love instead of politics. At times she was just like her father, bull headed and over analytical, but over time I grew the same respect for her that I denied showing to Skies."
"Do you fear that she will find out and reunite with her father?"
"No." Sunny shook her head. "She lives with one of the finest Captains in my guard. Skyfall is something else, I trust him to protect her against that happening."
"Do you trust him that much?"
"I do. We write to each other on occasion and he does not hold back where others would, he calls me out on what I say, forcing me to explain myself. I respect him." Sunny stood and moved to the wheel once more after a stiff wind came up to push the ship a little off course. "As you know, I am much older than I appear to be. I have known countless beings through my time and very few of them carry themselves like heroes, though many try."
"You think he is a hero? Like the Power Ponies?"
"No, comic book heroes are... fickle. And the Power Ponies are... something else." Sunny said. "Heroes, real heroes, do what must be done for the greater good. They don't traipse around town squares in capes having bouquets thrown at them."
"It seems like you know much about heroes."
Sunny smiled. "I have buried many of them and once, long ago, I was one as well."
"You were a hero?" Sombra asked.
"Yes." Sunny's smile faded.
Sombra's eyes lite up as his smile grew. "Can you tell me?"
"You enjoy hero stories?"
"I enjoy good stories." Sombra shuffled his hooves nervously. "I collected stories as a foal and since my freedom was returned to me, I stop into every comic book shop we pass. One day, I want to write down the stories I come across so that time won't forget them." Sombra held up both hooves at the same level. "Stories and tales from both sides, not just the side that wins."
"That's ambitious of you, Sombra." Sunny said. "I must admit, I did not see that being a desire of yours."
"I'm not so good with writing, but I work at it so that I'll get better. Hope even agreed to be my editor."
"I'm not good at writing, either." Sunny whispered loud enough for Sombra to hear. "Skies always harped on me to practice, but like many other things, I never listened."
"It sounds like you were close, once."
"We were closer." Sunny admitted. "He and a few other Spirits took it upon themselves to try and teach me and Luna. Shattered Skies was around more than the others and tried to mentor us the best he could, but my pride got in the way of me learning from him. One day, long after the war ended, I ran away."
"Why?" Somra asked. "Was it something he did?"
"Kind of." Sunny said. "I pressed Skies for more information on what Alicorns were and I stormed away from him in anger. Then, a Spirit I called my mentor came by and asked me not to press the issue. Regrettably, that was that last time I saw Flotsam."
"Flotsam?"
"He is the Guardian Spirit of the Ocean and my mentor." Sunny looked to the horizon, as it was now made up of a distant ocean that shimmered in the moonlight. "Luna always did well at learning and following lectures, but I've never been good with schooling." Sunny started to laugh as he memories bubbled to the surface. "Luna and I were always around Spirits, but Flotsam was always proud of me, he tried to make things relatable. Once, when I stomped away from Skies as he tried to lecture me about something I did, Flotsam found me and forced me to listen to him."
"What did he say?"
"He said that he and Skies knew that not all creatures learn the same and that he was open to taking on an apprentice; something I jumped at." Sunny put her hoof on her chest as more and more memories raced through her mind. "Years later, my pride swelled once again and I ran away."
"Where did you go?" Sombra asked.
"I drifted from town to town, then an old cloaked stallion found me and told me about an old castle, deep within a forest." Sunny tapped her chin. "It sounds more like a lure than anything else now that I think about it, but at the time, I just wanted some coin for food."
"What was it? The castle, I mean." Sombra asked.
"It was a guild." Sunny said bluntly. "Hidden in the forest, nestled under a cliff. If you weren't a member, it would look like a natural rock formation, so you had to become one before entering."
"What was it a guild of?"
"It was a heroes guild." Sunny smiled. "Wherever trouble appeared, they would send someone to answer the call, all while remaining silent about it. No gloating, just working for the greater good. It's something I wish I never left."
Sombra slipped away below the cramped deck and returned moments later, careful enough to not knock over anything in the small space. "So, will you tell me about your time as a hero?"
Sunny saw the small pad in his hooves, with him ready to write. "It's not something I talk about, Sombra."
"Why?"
Sunny's breath caught in her throat. "The guild was stomped out years ago. I received an urgent request for help, but after that every letter went unreturned. I sent a detachment of rangers, but they too disappeared."
"Did you ever find out what happened?"
"I went there, but I could never find the guild hall, I just accepted that it was gone and that I would never see it again. I was told by a passerby that four creatures stalked into the forest days after the letter was sent." Sunny sighed. "It was during the years of Nightmare Moon's rebellion and I couldn't answer the call fast enough."
"What were they like?"
Sunny relented. "You won't give up until I tell you, huh?"
"Not likely." Sombra winked.
The sun started to rise over the horizon, independent of Celestia's magic. She covered her eyes and watched it light up the land. "I'll tell you, but first, why leave Radiant Hope in Canterlot? This is only a test flight."
Sombra shook his head. "She said she wanted to stay there. Sunset Shimmer met with her a few days ago and asked her to come to Ponyville. I haven't spent more than a few hours away from her since my return, but she insisted on me coming."
"She knows who I am?"
"She's a smart mare." Sombra remarked.
With a firm rub of her face, Sunny inhaled deeply. "I spoke before about learning from skies and my former mentor, Flotsam. They were grooming us to live as they had, for Equus, but I didn't want that, I wanted freedom."
Sombra sat down with his knees to his chest as he started to write.
"After the collapse of the Old World, it was clear that the great Spirit war had a more taxing effect, a post war depression. The remaining population of each nation fell into isolation. Soon, each nation became distant with each other and that distance bred suspicion, with bloodshed following soon after. Soon ponies and other beings were doing unspeakable things for fresh water, food or even to keep their population at a size to sustain a military. Mercenaries, however, thrived and lived quite happily, selling their sword to the vast paranoid sea of vindictive races. Equus was brought further to its knees, each race edging ever closer to extinction."
Sunny jerked the wheel of the ship to the side to fix their course as another stray bout of wind pushed against them.
"I loathe to admit it, but even as the world sat in such a state of decay, I only cared about what I wanted."
"You didn't want to fix the world?" Sombra asked.
"No. I was very head strong as a young mare." Sunny closed her eyes, angry with her younger self. "I thought, 'Why help a world that can't help itself?' I hated that me and Luna didn't know where we came from. I hated that I wasn't smart. I hated that we had Spirits that tried to steer us toward a path we didn't choose."
"My pride demanded that I strike out on my own and I did." Sunny huffed. "And I did not like what I found."
"What did you find?"
"Nothing." Sunny said. "No pony cared about anything. I journeyed all around, but my first stop was in a small fishing city named the Narrows. A mother and her foal were propped up against a wall and had frozen to death. I was shocked and tried to find help, but the town crier came by to tell me that she had been there for three days. Nopony even cared enough to help her and her foal, even in death."
Sunny gripped the wheel a little harder as her anger flared. "The Narrows burned down later that year and was deserted until colonists came in and renamed it Manehatten."
Sombra looked on at Sunny's cold expression.
"Every place I visited had a sad story like that. Soon, I grew tired of it and found a small, quiet village called Bower where I lived for eighteen years."
"You lived in a village?"
"Yes?"
"What did you do?" Sombra asked, gesturing to Sunny with him quill. "Not to offend, but I can't see you doing much besides eating burgers and giving decrees."
Sunny stuck her nose in the air and huffed. "I'll have you know I became the town blacksmith."
"You, the town blacksmith?" Sombra started to laugh.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing, I just can't see it."
Sunny rolled her eyes. "I did have a life before being a Princess."
"If given the chance, would you return to being a hero?" Sombra's question hung in the air.
Sunny looked at her hoof and curled it to her chest. She could not deny herself, the thought made her happy. The large guild hall, eating and drinking with her companions. Complaining to the guild master about having to journey into swamp covered areas. Preparing herself for quests. And even the guild's greedy peddling merchant trying to overcharge for his wares. She missed it all.
"I think that smile tells me enough." Sombra said.
"I can't." Sunny said. "I'm running a nation and one of the biggest villains in history is on our doorstep. I just can't."
"Have you tried talking to him?"
Sunny sighed. "Not really. Luna and Twilight asked me that and the night before last, I told Luna I would try."
"Then why do this?" Sombra gestured to the schooner's deck. "You said you wanted to discover what these memories were, but ending a potential war seems a little more important."
Sunny remained silent, she felt her stomach drop when thinking about how mad her sister was going to be at her.
"Well?"
"I don't have an answer." Sunny's voice creaked, barely above a whisper. "I just want to know what these memories are. I feel if I don't try now, I'll never know."
Sombra wrote into his pad some more and hummed.
"What are you doing?"
"Starting a chronicle of this." Sombra exclaimed, changing the uncomfortable subject. "You're probably filled with stories. Maybe telling me some of them will help you remember?"
Sunny chuckled. "You're going to bug me until I tell you, huh?"
"Eh, you're not wrong."
Canterlot Castle
"So, Fury, let me get this straight. She left, under the cover of darkness, and you have no idea where she went?"
"That sums it up." Fury stretched out on the large couch he sat on. "Faithful, you know she does this. She disappears for a few days and then she comes back. She did it during the locust out break. Did it when Manehatten burned, twice. When her sister returned. And every time something occurs that required her to act before getting that special task force together."
"I think as Captain of the Royal Guard, you would be a little more concerned." Faithful mumbled, brushing her mane aggressively.
"If she dies, so what?" Fury dismissed Faithful's concern. "We can just replace her with a proxy."
"Yeah, because that wouldn't lead to a war."
"I welcome another war. I'm tired of this sitting around." Fury growled. "How arrogant these ponies are, their status in the world has gone to their head. They all need to be reminded how unkind the world is. They hold war games, forgetting the actual gravity of the subject means."
"Is that why you stay in Ponyville all the time?" A voice echoed into the room.
"River, where have you been? And you found our little necromancer." Fury sat up to see his sister and Graves entering the room. "And yes, I enjoy being in the center of an active military zone."
"I would hardly call it a military zone." Faithful said.
"I think he just has a hard on for that new Captain." River Bend gestured with her hoof in a pumping, lewd manner. "Might want to leave his wife next to get caught up in the heat lust. You should consider her feelings, you beast."
Fury rolled his eyes. "That moaning mass of flesh?"
"Ouch." Faithful giggled.
"I only married her to keep up appearances." Fury waved his hoof in the air. "Aside from satisfying my lust when I demand it and taking care of that creature she birthed, I don't care."
"Is that why you moved them to Ponyville?" Graves asked.
"Yeah, that way when it all comes crashing down, I can be rid of them both." Fury's tone lost its joy. "She knows too much about us to take the risk of letting her live."
"Just as long as I get the bodies, I don't care." Graves said darkly as he moved to the corner. He ignored his siblings disgusted looks as he sat to write notes into a scroll.
"What would our poor big brother say to us, now?" Faithful laughed.
"Probably that he is disappointed in us or something morally righteous." River chuckled. "We'll find out soon enough."
Fury's face twisted into rage as he stood. "The sooner we finish this, the better. I've been waiting thirteen thousand years to stomp him out, when all this is done, we can finally have peace."
"Are you going to talk to our little buddy from Farhaven?" Faithful asked.
"They just arrived." Fury said and glared back. "Want me to say hi for you, Faithful?"
Faithful rose to her hooves and shook her hips as she passed. "I think I'll say hi, personally."
The instant Faithful left, River gagged. Between the three remaining Spirits, their own insatiable desires were polarized as in they wanted one thing, but Faithful's desires ran rampant.
"Pathetic." Grave grumbled.
"That's my line." Fury said curly.
"I know we joke all the time about how all her lovers are going to be shocked about her real form, but if that gets her to stop banging everything with a pulse, then maybe we should." River's jest wasn't enjoyed by her brothers. "Where're you going?"
"To see my wife." Fury said as he disappeared in a poof of thick smoke.
"Well at least you're here." River looked to her younger brother and groaned when she saw him leaving as well. "You too?"
"I have more experiments to run."
"On all the undead you've been gathering."
Graves stopped in his tracks. "You've been watching?"
"Of course."
Grave smiled wider than his mouth wanted to allow, causing his mouth to strain. "Do you want to see?"