“The Oathbreaker's awake!” Twilight Sparkle said over the din of Cold Reason's wailing and the aftershocks of the earlier earthquake. “Everypony, we have to get to the Cursed Valley!”
Her gaze fell to Discord, who was being helped back to his hooves by Fluttershy. “Yes yes, I understand, no sweat for the Spirit of Chaos,” he said, dusting off his fur. “Though if I'm to be your chauffeur I'd prefer to take all of you at once,” he added, with a look back at the youngest Princess.
“Huh?” Twilight said, looking around to see who was missing.
It was her brother who realized first. “Wait, where did Princess Celestia and Princess Luna go?” he asked. His words seemed to catch the ears of most of the others, as they too began to look around the room for the missing rulers.
“I think I have an idea...” Cadance told him, the two sharing a look.
Discord crossed his arms and huffed. “Isn't it just like them to be late to the party they asked us to attend?”
“Hey now, I'm sure they got their reasons,” Applejack told him. “Though truth be told I ain't sure which I don't like more-” she crossed her forelegs and stared off at nothing- “lettin' the Oathbreaker do whatever while we wait, or goin' off to fight her without two Princesses.”
“...good point,” Discord conceded.
“Well, we can't go anywhere while Cold Reason is like this!” came the voice of Fluttershy over the continued wails of the pony whose body had flickered like a candle on the wind at the start of the commotion. “She's inconsolable!” As if to demonstrate, Fluttershy put a hoof around the sobbing pony's withers and patted her gently. “There there, don't you worry about a thing. We'll make it all better for you.” She paused to let Cold respond, but she only kept on wailing and crying. Fluttershy gave her friends a helpless look.
“Don't even bother trying to console her,” Starlight said, glaring as she walked up to Cold. “It's obvious more than ever that she's not what she seems. Real ponies don't fade in and out like that. She's some kind of spirit, just like I thought!”
“Oh, here we go again...” Spike muttered, rolling his eyes.
“Yes,” Starlight replied, looking daggers at him. “Here we go again. Will somepony please believe me now?”
The other ponies shared a few awkward looks. “Well...I guess we gotta,” Applejack said first, though the words seemed to shame her. “Unless there's some other explanation for what we just saw.”
“W-well,” Fluttershy spoke up, still at Cold's side, “just because she's a spirit doesn't mean we should just ignore her when she's suffering.”
“Even if she's evil?” Starlight asked, raising a brow.
“Hey now, let's not get ahead of ourselves,” Applejack said, inserting herself between Starlight and Fluttershy. “We may know less than we thought about her, but that don't mean Cold Reason's evil or nothin'.”
Cold wailed louder, causing the ponies nearest to her to flinch.
“I don't know...” Rainbow said, hovering over the long dining table. “The timing of all this seems pretty weird to me. Why's she crying anyway? I'd understand if she was on-edge cause of the Oathbreaker and all, but this is a little much. Especially since up until a little while ago she didn't even have emotions!”
“Ooh! Ooh!” Pinkie spoke up, jumping up and down and flailing her limbs to get the others' attention. “What if she's crying because she's finally realized how sad the Oathbreaker's story is,” her lip trembled and her eyes got teary, “and a lifetime of her own sad memories welled up inside her-” she mimed gathering something up close to her chest- “and burst like a big balloon!” Her eyes wide, she flung her forelegs outward as though something had exploded. The others simply stared at her.
Rarity cleared her throat. “Well. Regardless of the reason behind Miss Reason's sudden display of emotion, which I knew she was capable of from the start,” she said as an aside as she looked down at her hoof, “the fact remains that she is obviously in great distress right now. I say if we have help to give, we ought to give it.” She ended with a decisive nod.
“Hey, I'm not saying you don't have a point,” Rainbow told her, “but I don't want any of us getting hurt because we trusted something we shouldn't have.”
“Exactly,” Starlight said. “We can't take the chance that she's secretly some kind of monster who wants to hurt everypony! We need to find out what she is, and then decide what to do with her.”
“Well how exactly do you propose we do that, huh?” Rarity asked testily, moving past Applejack and getting in Starlight's muzzle. “She's obviously not in any state to answer any questions!”
“We'll just ask the Princesses!” Starlight replied with a self-assured smile, Applejack watching the budding argument warily while Fluttershy shrunk back and continued to whisper comforts to Cold Reason.
“The two who know aren't here!” Rarity countered.
A few feet away, the three royals watched the others in awkward silence. “Does it get like this often with you guys?” Shining leaned down and whispered into his sister's ear.
Twilight sighed. “Pretty much...” She trotted towards her friends, and in as loud and clear a voice as she could muster over Cold's unending crying she said “Girls, stop!”
This was enough to cut the argument short, but were yet more words that failed to get through to Cold. Twilight winced at a particularly loud wail, but continued on nonetheless. “Listen. I understand your concerns, believe me,” she began, looking most prominently at Starlight and Rainbow Dash. “But I think we need to keep giving Cold Reason the benefit of the doubt. I want answers as much as anypony, but we won't get them by arguing about her in front of her.”
“It does seem to have only made things worse,” Fluttershy admitted as she rubbed Cold's back, causing Rainbow, Rarity, and Starlight to look down or away in shame.
“Exactly,” Twilight said. “Now I don't think we have much time to spare, but calming down Cold Reason is a good use of it.”
“Fine, fine...” Starlight said, glowering as she trotted away from the others and over toward where Discord was happily munching on what was probably popcorn, despite its odd color.
“Thank you,” Twilight nodded. She herself approached Cold, whose crying has lessened slightly though seemingly more out of fatigue than anything else. “Can you hear me, Cold Reason?” Twilight asked, and the mare in question hiccuped. The Princess took that as a yes, and continued. “I get that whatever you're going through right now is pretty difficult for you. But just remember that we're here for you. And it might be tough, but please, try to calm down a little so we know you're still okay. We're really worried about you, Cold Reason!”
That seemed to finally get a response from Cold, who took a shuddering breath and opened her tear-filled eyes. For a single moment it looked like she was about to say something, and the ponies around her all fell quiet and attentive, but then she clenched her eyes shut as though she'd gotten a sudden and painful headache, and began to cry again.
Fluttershy uttered a disappointed groan, and resumed her comforting gestures. The others merely sagged a little and looked at one another.
The sound of hoofsteps got their attention again, and they turned to see the two elder Princesses returning to the room. “We apologize for disappearing as we did,” Celestia said. “My sister and I had one final thing to do before we leave.”
No reply came soon, the ponies too awestruck by the armor the sisters had donned – gleaming and majestic, made from a gold-colored metal that seemed far too mystical and sturdy to be gold itself. Each well-crafted piece was adorned with elaborate filigree, gold for Celestia and silver for Luna, their cutie marks serving as both inspiration and element.
“But now is the time for haste!” Luna declared, raising a silver-tipped hoof at Discord. “To the Cursed Valley!”
“Finally...” Discord grumbled, snapping his fingers and zipping open a hole in the air. “Now boarding, to the biggest dump in Equestria!” he called out, now wearing a train conductor's uniform. “All tickets should be presumed one-way,” he finished with a sardonic smile.
Celestia and Luna flew through the portal without a word, Cadance and Shining Armor following right after them. Twilight looked from them to Cold, then to her friends. “Looks like we gotta go, girls,” she said, starting a race towards the portal with her friends following shortly after.
“W...wait...”
That single word, weak though it was, was enough to get the eight to stop and look back. Cold Reason was looking at them, her breath unsteady as she reached a hoof out to them. “P-please...take me...with you...” she panted, reaching out a hoof to them and falling forward off her chair.
With a gasp, Fluttershy flew over and caught her on her back. “Oh my! You really aren't well!” she said.
“I...I must,” she stopped without warning, and forcefully choked back a sob. “Go...”
“Yeah, no,” Starlight answered harshly. “Not unless you tell us why anyway.” Twilight gave her a quick but stern look that made her flinch, but the Princess said nothing.
“I...must go...,” Cold repeated, and with a heave she slid herself off Fluttershy's back. “It is...important,” she said, taking a few stumbling steps forward before forcing back another sob and collapsing.
Applejack and Pinkie caught her this time, sliding up on either side of her to keep her upright. “I don't know,” Applejack said with a worried frown. “You don't seem to be in the best condition for goin' to the store much less much less to some cursed valley.”
“Yeah!” Pinkie chimed in. “It's gonna be super dangerous over there!”
“We couldn't bear to see you get hurt!” Fluttershy added.
With a grunt, Cold forced her way past them all. “No. I must go to the Valley,” she told them, her eyes locked onto the portal Discord had opened and furrowed into an intense look that gave pause to those in front of her.
They all looked to Twilight. She let out a small sigh. “Fine. If you're this insistent then I don't think we can stop you.”
“Seriously?” Starlight asked in disbelief.
“Seriously,” Twilight told her with a nod.
“But...but...what if she's an evil spirit?” she asked, looking at the others for assistance.
“What if she's not?” Fluttershy answered first, darting over to give Cold a shoulder to lean on when she stumbled again. “Sorry, Starlight, but I just can't bring myself to doubt her right now.”
Starlight's jaw dropped, and moments later Applejack took up Cold's other side again. “And it ain't like we're all for this or nothin',” she said. “It's just that we can see plain as day how important this is to her. So no matter what the truth of her is, we're still gonna do our best to keep her safe and that's a promise.”
Cold flinched and stumbled then, but Fluttershy and Applejack quickly caught her and got her back on her feet. “And honestly, just because you might not like what you get in return doesn't mean you shouldn't give at all,” Rarity added, following Twilight and Spike up to the portal. They crossed through, and before she did as well she flicked her mane and told Starlight “Why, if we cared about that then we wouldn't have made so many friends!”
“Plus,” Pinkie added as she hopped up to the portal and Starlight, “we can't leave her out now when she was the one who told us about all this in the first place! She'll feel so left out when we all come back here to throw our victory celebration!”
Starlight gave her an odd look as she passed through the portal, then watched Fluttershy and Applejack help Cold up to it as well. She sent one last pleading look at Rainbow Dash, but the pegasus just shrugged. “Hey, if they're willing to trust her then so am I. I'm more than willing to take a little risk to stand by my friends.” She flew through the portal shortly after, followed by Cold and her two helpers.
For a few seconds, Starlight was alone with only Discord and silence. “Sorry, looks like you've been outvoted,” Discord told her in an almost taunting manner. “Better hurry up if you want to come with!” he added, playfully waving at the portal he'd created.
Starlight grumbled as she walked through it. Once she was gone, Discord stepped inside as well. He zipped it up to the point where his paw was stuck in what was left, then zipped it up past that too. His disembodied paw disappeared with a poof before it could fall an inch.
“Well,” Rarity said, her voice as flat as the rocky ledge they'd all come out on. “This place could certain do with a little, ah, makeover.”
“I'll say,” Rainbow said.
True to their plan, the group had arrived at the Cursed Valley, former home of the alicorn they were to stop. Or rather, they had arrived at a large ledge on one of the mountains that completely surrounded the valley, offering a panoramic view of the landscape. It was desolate in every sense of the word, a lonely little scar in the earth populated only by a carpet of thick, lifeless brambles and the occasional snag. The light was dim, but through a careful gaze a few pieces of stone could just be made out through or atop the larger mounds of thorns. Too far from the mountainsides and unlike the piles of talus that dotted the valley's rim regardless, those stones were the only hints that something more had stood here ages ago.
But even with the sense of gloom that permeated everything the air still felt impossibly heavy. The rumble of thunder drew the group's eyes upward, to the sky blackened by thick and ominous clouds. They didn't look natural, but neither did they look pony-made. A fell wind blew across the group, and all but the three oldest shivered where they stood.
“There.” That single word carried the weight of ages, piercing the minds of the others and directing them – first towards Celestia, and then to where she, Luna, Discord, and Cold were all looking.
There, just a step or lean to the right to see down to the left end of the valley, floating – not flying – in a beam of light that looked to have erupted from the very earth, was...
But the light suddenly swallowed it and flared outward, forcing all but Celestia and Cold to shield their eyes from the all-consuming brightness. A mighty and terrible wail shook the earth and air alike, and after an instant that felt like ages the light receded. Not dissipating, like light should, but rather flowing inward toward its source like water towards a drain. It left only a feeling of dread and despair behind, clinging to the group like a film.
Hesitantly, the ponies lifted their heads towards the source of the light, paying no heed to Cold when her flickering form collapsed to the ground and resumed sobbing. Their attention was instead fixated entirely on another pony, curled into a fetal position with her great wings wrapped around her, who had rapidly grown to fill the space the light had left behind.
She was...large, far larger than any normal pony any of them had ever seen before, larger even than Lord Tirek when he had dueled Twilight. In fact, the massive shining alicorn reminded Twilight quite strongly of the spell that she, Sunset Shimmer, and their human friends had cast to defeat the sirens in the human world the previous fall. But that alicorn, nothing more than a magical manifestation of their seven-strong friendship, had been beautiful and awe-inspiring – skin like the night sky yet brighter; a flowing rainbow mane; a strong and confident demeanor.
This one radiated power, dreadful and lonely. Her body was the brownest of browns, the essence of fertile soil given form and light, broken only by the occasional vein of a magma-like searing orange-white that passed across her skin. Her mane and tail, the color of summer leaves and pine needles and young vines all growing together, thrashed wildly like the tentacles of some great kraken. And while her eyes, when she finally opened them, were glowing just as the spell's had...the light was harsh and unforgiving, and tears streamed down from them only to evaporate the moment they left her cheeks.
In one swift and fluid motion she spread her wings and unfurled herself, arching her back and looking skyward. She opened her mouth, and a bellowing wail seemed to come from all around them.
“Is...that...?” Twilight asked, hesitantly stepping toward her mentor as her friends huddled together and her family sought each other's comfort.
“Yes,” Princess Luna replied, not taking her eyes of the massive alicorn for a moment. “That is the Oathbreaker's new form.”
“You all know what you must do,” Princess Celestia added, also staring solemnly at their new foe. “Stay safe, everypony.” Without another word, the Sisters took to the air with their horns alight with magic.
Discord cracked his knuckles, and did a few quick stretches. “Well then, time to see how much has changed these past few millennia,” he said, his visage darkly serious. He, too, flew off at the Oathbreaker without another word.
As though reacting to some sudden unseen signal the Oathbreaker beat her wings and looped over backwards, entering a spiraling nosedive towards the valley below. The Sisters flew to intercept her and unleashed a salvo of magical blasts, but though each one hit its mark none seemed to effect the Oathbreaker. She continued her dive unabated, forcing the Sisters to break in unison and circle around on opposite sides as she flew between them – and crashed into the ground, kicking up a cloud of debris that briefly hid her from sight.
Cadance and Shining shared a look, unspoken words passing between them before the latter took a running jump off the cliff with the former flying overhead as he slid down the mountainside. “W-wait for me!” Starlight called out frantically once she noticed, scrambling to chase after them.
“This is it, girls,” Twilight told her friends as they and Spike watched the Sisters alight with gold and silver flame in the distance. “Be ready.” Nothing more than a murmur of assent came from them, struck by silence as they watched the battle unfold. Only the continued cries and haggard breathing from Cold Reason drew their attention away, and their collective worry grew.
But still they watched as the Sisters dove in unison, spiraling around one another in a dance that left a beautiful double helix of magical aura in their wake. Every move was elegant and without hesitation, as though the two were not separate beings but simply different parts of the same whole – a whole that was charging forward on the attack and glowing with a light that began to hurt to look at.
“No...” Cold said in a voice not quite her own, one dripping with despair. “NononononoNONO!” Her voice rose into a scream, and just as the Sisters reached the edge of the dust cloud a pair of massive hooves lashed out faster than any onlooker could see and struck them. To the gasps of their followers the two were sent flying out of sight, and the debris quickly – and unnaturally – dispersed to reveal the Oathbreaker bucking wildly on the valley floor. “Stopstopstopstop go away dead goaway GOAWAY!” Cold stammered, hooves over her eyes as she rolled back and forth on the ledge. “DeaddeaddeadDEAD!”
But before the element-bearers could do so much as ask her what was wrong, a sound like a crowing rooster rang through the air. A brief moment of confusion followed before they caught sight of a cloud of flying chickens swarming towards the Oathbreaker. Floating atop a mound of ancient stone a little ways away was Discord, moving his arms as though he were conducting an orchestra, causing more and more furious and monstrous fowl to coalesce from the dust that had been scattered.
The flock descended with great quickness upon the Oathbreaker, but many lost their false lives immediately when they were caught by her kicking hooves or thrashing mane. Those that survived got close enough to peck and scratch at her head and body, but she gave no sign of noticing – she kept up her wild bucking unabated, even as wisps of magic bled from her small and shallow wounds. But just twisting and turning in her ceaseless rampage was enough to destroy several more chickens by the second, and it soon became obvious that whatever wounds they had dealt her were rapidly closing.
“Hmmph,” Discord snorted from his perch, easily ducking as one of his chickens was kicked over his head. “You haven't lost your touch at all due to old age, have you? No matter.” He turned on the spot and disappeared, only to reappear mere feet from his foe. “Perhaps you should...cool down a little,” he said just as she turned her head past him, catching him with one of the tendril-locks of her mane. It smashed through him as though he were ice, and in fact his body broke apart into just that – and the pieces that had been caught in the hair suddenly expanded to encase it.
As the ice rapidly grew along the Oathbreaker's mane, Discord picked up the head of his shattered ice statue replica. “Runaway magic or not, I daresay that that should slow you down for quite some while. Just another one of my genius ideas.” He giggled to himself, not watching as the ice grew and grew around the Oathbreaker's head, down her neck, and across her body. He snapped his fingers, and teleported away.
Elsewhere, the trio of Cadance, Shining, and Starlight watched the battle unfold. “Wow,” Starlight said, breathless as the Oathbreaker's movements slowed as the ice encased her.
“I guess Discord gave us our chance, didn't he?” Cadance asked her husband, who was surveying the trampled and icy battlefield with narrow eyes.
“Yes yes, I am magnificent aren't I?” came the voice of the being in question, the three ponies looking up and back to see him standing behind them. “You can sing my praises later,” he said, preening himself in a hand mirror. “I expect no less than twenty verses, by the way,” he added as an aside.
“This isn't over yet,” Shining warned, and they all looked back toward the Oathbreaker to see the ice finish encasing her...and then explode, the alicorn spiraling upward from where it had been. “Shields! Now!” Shining commanded, the horns of him, Cadance, and Starlight glowing with magic as chunks of ice flew across the valley towards them. The protective bubbles encased them just in time, the ice bouncing harmlessly off the three ponies while Discord simply dodged the few that came his way.
“That was close!” Starlight said, releasing her spell and looking with shock at the ice that had crashed behind her.
“So is that!” Cadance exclaimed, tackling her to the ground as an large, erratic bolt of yellow magic sailed over their heads. It continued on until it hit the side of the valley, exploding on impact and causing a small rockslide. And, as they looked up at the sound of several more explosions, it wasn't the only one. The Oathbreaker had started flying through the valley, zigging and zagging with no clear pattern, thrashing and bucking in mid-air one second and in the next launching a flurry of magic bolts at no obvious target. Several time she suddenly dropped and scraped against the thorny brambles that coated the valley floor, only to shoot back up into the air moments later.
“She's fast,” Starlight said, nearly breathless once again as she watched the Oathbreaker dart back and forth quicker than she could keep up with.
“We're gonna have to get our shields up soon, who knows how much longer she'll stay in the valley,” Shining said, regrouping with Cadance and Starlight.
Cadance nodded at him, then looked back around her. “Discord!” she shouted.
“Yes yes, I can hear you,” Discord replied, his voice brimming with irritation as he leaned down from behind her and looked her in the eye. He snorted, then looked back at the Oathbreaker. “That monster never was one to do what she was supposed to,” he muttered as he rolled up the fur on his arms like they were sleeves. “But I'm not the Spirit of Chaos for nothing!” he declared, rising up into the air. Scrunching his face up with concentration, Discord waved his hands in front of him.
A wave of something rippled out in front of him, making the air shimmer and the ground twist and contort. The land left in its wake began to change – small things at first, but growing as the wave did. The dead and black brambles burst into bloom, sprouting rainbow-colored leaves and flowers with animal faces. Some branches turned into living ropes, or garden hoses, or licorice, or simply grew together into massive spidery forms. One dead tree uprooted itself, put on a top hat, and began tap dancing; another turned into a very large wedding cake with vanilla frosting and tiny figures of a frog and a rabbit on top. A rain of flour and marbles like hailstones manifested out of thin air and fell upward into clouds of soap bubbles, and a disjointed checkerboard pattern took over the ground. Even the sky itself took on a pale pink color, and the clouds above the wave of chaos broke ranks and started floating around shooting lightning at random. The expanding chaos-space collided with a rock slide, and the boulders began to tumble and teleport at random around the affected area.
“Let's see how you handle this!” Discord said, a dark smile forming on his face as he watched his power extend towards the path the Oathbreaker was currently on.
She seemed to collide with the edge of it, pushing against it as though it were some advancing wall of cellophane. And to Discord's growing horror, she bellowed and thrust her glowing horn into it.
A great rip shook the air and nothing else, and the Oathbreaker shot into the chaos. With a sound like scissors cutting through paper she tore through it, leaving normalcy in her wake and dispelling any of the chaos-magic constructs that tried to block her path.
“Oh dear,” Discord squeaked, raising his arms in fear as the Oathbreaker flew straight at him, her glowing eyes still streaming with tears.
Then, abruptly, she turned sharply to her left and crashed into the mountainside.
As rocks fell down on top of her, Discord cautiously lowered his guard and blinked. “Well that's odd,” he said, rubbing his chin and looking around. “I didn't do that, and neither did anyone else.” He teleported closer to the pile of rubble, but had to quickly dodge out of the way as the Oathbreaker exploded back out of it. She streaked across to the other side of the valley, tearing up brambles and stone in her wake, only to just crash into the opposite wall. “Hmm...I wonder...”
The Oathbreaker reappeared again and resumed her lightning-fast crash course around the valley. After a moment Discord snapped his fingers and smiled, then produced a comically large megaphone from thin air. “EXCUSE ME! OATHBREAKER! OVER HERE, YOU BIG MENACE!” he called out to her as she passed him again, even teleporting a few times to stay close to her. When she gave no response, he flattened the megaphone outward into a ringed target and slapped it on his back. “BIG EVIL DRACONEQUUS, JUST STANDING HERE READY TO BE JUSTLY PUNISHED!” he called out at the same volume as the megaphone. He even slapped his back a few times when she flew by, but once more she paid him no attention. She simply continued throwing herself around the valley, thrashing the air and firing off bolts of magic at random.
“My word,” Discord said, tossing the target away as his eyes widened in realization. “You haven't even noticed me, have you? I mean, you really haven't noticed me!” He stared in shock for a few moments, even letting out a little huff of air. “I don't know whether to be amused or offended! I mean, me! Not being noticed by you! It just isn't right!”
He teleported closer to her, and immediately began flying alongside her head. He pulled out a drinking straw of all things from his fur, and blew a spitball at her eye, but once again it didn't provoke any sort of reaction.
Discord stopped in mid-air, letting the Oathbreaker fly past him into a particularly large mound of brambles. “Now what in Equestria is going on in that dusty old head of yours?”
“Nonono badbad stop my fault myFAULT!” Cold moaned, still rolling around the ledge and sobbing, smacking or kicking away anypony who tried to offer her a helping hoof.
“Hnnn...what are they doing?” Twilight whispered, biting her lip as she looked from the mysterious mare to the battlefield. “Somepony please tell me Discord didn't just stop fighting.”
“Uhh, I think it's worse than that,” Rainbow commented, just before a resounding crack swept across the valley as the Oathbreaker hit Discord with a headbutt powerful enough to send him crashing to the bramble-covered ground. Fluttershy gasped.
“This can't be happening, this can't be happening!” Twilight repeated, holding the sides of her head. “Where are Princess Celestia and Princess Luna? Has anypony seen them at all?”
“Not since they got smacked away by the Oathbreaker's kick, no,” Spike answered, his voice filled with worry.
Twilight began to murmur anxiously, dancing on her hooves and looking around for any sign of her elders.
“Goawaygoaway didn't didn't mean didn't sorry go away!” Cold continued to babble, the Oathbreaker resuming her wild bucking through the valley trampling bramble and stone alike. With a horrible bellowing whinny she suddenly stopped and lifted her head, her horn glowing with magic. Lightning started to strike from the gathered storm clouds, and the Oathbreaker took flight once more. Each time the ground was struck she raced towards it, turning the moment she saw lightning strike elsewhere. She continued this apparent chase until she herself was finally struck, and in that second Cold's stream of words stopped flowing.
But that moment soon passed, Cold wailing in despair as the Oathbreaker resumed her wild mid-air bucking with lightning still striking the valley around her.
“I think we're gonna hafta make our move,” Applejack told Twilight and the others, shoring herself up and taking a step to the edge of the ledge they'd been waiting on. Twilight bit her lip, then began to move as well, but before any of the six could leave their relative safety a beam of light pierced the clouds and fell upon the Oathbreaker who ceased her thrashing and looked up.
The clouds above parted as though blown by a fierce wind, but only just enough to show the full moon in all its glory shining down upon them all. And there, two shadows floating in front of it, each bathed in an ethereal glow that seemed beyond their usual magic, were Princess Luna and Princess Celestia.
A moment later the Oathbreaker whinnied and turned away, throwing herself once more into the rocky mountainsides. The Sisters merely shared a brief look filled with remorse, and dove. They did not go through the moves of their elaborate mid-air dance as they had before; their simply wasn't time with the speed they were flying. They circled around on opposite sides of the Oathbreaker, the berserk alicorn still apparently uncaring, and slammed into her wings, singing or freezing the feathers and pinning them to her sides. She let out a shriek of pain that shook the earth and dropped from the sky, Celestia and Luna sticking alongside her by force of their magic alone. She hit the ground with a tremendous thud and lay motionless afterward, and a strange calm descended upon the valley.
“My fault...” Cold Reason mumbled from the overlook. “Myfault...faul...fau...faaAUIIIEEE!”
But it was not to last – the Oathbreaker let out another earsplitting whinny, her entire body crackling with magic as she stood back up. And in one swift, fluid motion her wings opened and her magic pulsed, tossing the Princesses from her body.
“GO AWAY!” Cold Reason screamed, and the Oathbreaker threw back her head and launched a salvo of yellow magical bolts into the air. They rained down upon the entire valley and vaporized every rock or bramble they hit, forcing those who'd come to stand against her to either seek safety behind a magical shield or try their best to dodge. Still dazed from the retaliatory strike, Celestia and Luna both suffered hit after hit from the spell before they could shield themselves.
But, as countless bolts arced back towards their creator, it was the Oathbreaker herself who took the brunt of the attack. Once more she let out a bellowing whinny as she took the blows, not so much as flinching under them. The scene was enough to make those who'd been waiting on the sidelines look away, in turn causing the element bearers to notice that Cold's state had turned to a low and unmoving whimper as her body flickered in and out at a rapid pace.
Twilight stared at her for the longest, looked at the Oathbreaker, then looked back again. Her eyes suddenly widened in realization. “Girls!” she cried, unwittingly giving her friends a start. “I...I think...” she said hesitantly, creeping up to Cold Reason, “I think Cold has some kind of...of bond with the Oathbreaker!”
“Well duh,” Rainbow said with a mildly exasperated look. “She's like some kind of spirit of somepony the Oathbreaker killed or something, remember?” At that moment Cold let out a wailing cry, startling the others again.
“No no no, not that kind of bond,” Twilight said with a shake of her head. “I mean she and the Oathbreaker seem to have some kind of...magical connection. I don't know how strong it is, and I certainly don't know what it means, but how she's been acting since the Oathbreaker woke up and started getting attacked can't be a coincidence.”
“She has been getting kinda worse...” Fluttershy said as Cold's crying and thrashing and flickering continued. “Oh, I wish I knew how to help her, she looks like she's in so much pain right now.”
An air of sadness fell over the ponies and Spike. “Well...” the latter spoke up, “if this is all cause of the Oathbreaker...”
“...then maybe kicking her butt will make it stop?” Rainbow finished.
Twilight looked silently at Cold for a moment, then sighed. “It's our only option right now. Maybe if I had a little more time to research their connection I could figure out something else, but we don't.”
“Heh. Guess we just gotta keep on doin' what we planned,” Applejack said, a small smile forming on her muzzle. “Fine by me.”
The others voiced their agreement, and turned their attention back to the valley in hopes that they'd receive some kind of signal for them to finally act.
“I do not think this is working, sister,” Luna said as she and Celestia got back on their hooves, a little worse for wear after taking part of the Oathbreaker's barrage but still in one piece.
“Agreed,” Celestia said, watching as their foe resumed her aimless and self-destructive rampage through the valley. “She's stronger than we predicted, and even in this berserk state she's a natural fighter.”
Luna nodded. “I am astounded that she has thwarted the three of us without even realizing it. I can only imagine what manner of terrible visions must have consumed her mind.”
“Oh, so you two have noticed that?” came the voice of Discord, who manifested in the open air above the two with a few bandages on his head and arms. “I was worried for a minute there that you hadn't.”
“Yes, we had feared that her mind would be overwhelmed like this,” Celestia answered.
“No doubt thanks to your little private chat with Cold Reason,” said Discord, crossing his arms and giving them a stern frown. “You know, I would have preferred to know that she wasn't going to recognize me before I marched off into battle all gung-ho.”
“We apologize,” Celestia told him after sharing a brief look with Luna. “We didn't realize it would be to this extent.”
Discord just snorted. “Save it, sister. There's nothing you can do about it now, so you'll just have to repay me for it later.”
“If we all make it out of this safely,” Luna pointed out.
Discord snorted again. “Please, Luna. That monster of an Oathbreaker might be nigh-invulnerable thanks to all the magic she's putting out right now, but we all know that can't last forever. We just need to get her to burn more of it off instead of just letting her fly around and bury herself in rocks all night.”
As if on cue the Oathbreaker flew past them at top speed, slamming into another mountain with enough force to send parts of it flying. Discord quickly pulled out and opened up a large black umbrella, shielding himself and the Sisters from the brief rain of stone.
“But in order to get her to use more of her magic, we need to have her attention for more than mere moments,” Luna said as Discord folded his umbrella back up and bit off the tip as though it were made of chocolate. “We have not been able to achieve that thus far.”
“Well then, good thing I know just the trick to make sure the Oathbreaker notices us,” Discord replied with a smug smile.
“Hmm...,” Celestia murmured as she rubbed her chin in thought. “If she does, there's a chance she'll recognize us and Luna and I will be able to help her through her grief.”
“However, if she does not we risk unleashing her full might upon us,” Luna countered. “If she is focused on combating the three of us, I fear we will not be able to stand against her for long.”
“Yes, I know,” Celestia said with a solemn look. “But this may be the only way we can end this before her tormented mind decides to leave the valley.” Luna gave her a silent nod.
“Then if we're all decided,” said Discord, snapping his fingers.
When the light faded to a few overhead stagelights, the roar of a crowd rose up. The Oathbreaker, as massive and magical as ever, looked around with something like confusion at the world around her. She now stood in the corner of a giant wrestling ring, bright light above and a crowd of cheering shadows rising up around the outside.
“Iiiiin this corner,” came the voice of Discord, who appeared in the center of the ring wearing the black-and-white striped shirt of a referee and holding onto a microphone that dangled down from nowhere, “weighing in at far more than our scales can measure, the Miracle Maker! The Hero Relentless! The Terror of Monsters! The Fallen Guardian of the Cursed Valley! Theeeeeeee OATHBREAKER!”
In that moment, the searing light faded from the Oathbreaker's eyes revealing the ones beneath: unfocused and bloodshot, with irises a little darker than turquoise. She slowly swung her head left and right, her mouth opening and closing as though trying and failing to speak. And after a few seconds...
“W...wha...” she said with the strained and weak remnants of what had surely once been a strong and boisterous voice.
“Aaaaaand in this corner,” Discord continued without acknowledgment, “at a combined weight of more than you'd expect, the Sisters of Sun and Moon! The Eternal Warmth and the Boundless Dream! The Rulers of Equestria themselves, Priiiiincesses Celestia and Luna!”
Another light appeared at his gesture to the opposite corner, and the Sisters flew regally into the ring. The illusory crowd went wild when they touched down, but they ignored the din and stepped forward. “O great elder!” Luna began in something approaching the Royal Canterlot Voice. “Do you not recognize us? Although many ages have passed since we last met, surely time cannot have taken us from your memory.”
“It is time for you to stop this,” Celestia added, stepping forward as well. “We know you wish no harm upon this world. Please, let us help you through your troubles as you once helped us. Do not throw your life away again!”
The Oathbreaker looked from them, to Discord, to the crowd, and back around again and again. A weary confusion dominated her expression at first until, slowly, comprehension seemed to dawn on her and she clenched her eyes shut in pain. “You......are......”
“That's Discord's magic,” Starlight said, staring in awe at the massive cloud of multicolored chaos that had enveloped a good chunk of the battlefield. “He's warping reality around them!”
“Well whatever's going on in there, here's hoping it lasts,” Cadance said. The three were standing many yards away from the altered-reality sphere, having shielded themselves fairly easily against the Oathbreaker's earlier barrage but failing to keep up with her rapid movements through the valley.
Shining nodded. “Agreed. I think now's gonna be our best chance to raise the shield. We gotta build it quickly.”
The mares nodded, and turquoise, rose, and cornflower-blue auras enveloped each pony in turn before they teleported away. They reappeared a mere ten yards from the boundary of the chaos-sphere, and for a few seconds they looked up at it as though entranced by its swirling colors and lights.
But then Shining and Cadance shared a looked, the Princess' horn glowing first as she closed her eyes and touched it to her husband's. Shining closed his eyes as well and charged up his own magic, and once their auras had blended together and enveloped them both they opened their eyes towards the sphere, and a thick hexagonal plate of rose-streaked-with-blue magic popped into existence a few feet from its surface. It was tiny in comparison, but it rapidly began to multiply with more and more plates tessellating outwards to form an ever-growing shell around Discord's realm.
“C'mon...c'mon...,” Starlight murmured as she watched the shield spell grow, anxiety growing in her features. “Keep her busy, it's almost done...”
“Ooooooh,” Pinkie said in awe as she and her friends watched the shield from around the ball of chaos that had appeared in the valley. “So. Pretty. Must. Keep. Staring!”
She walked out to the edge of the ledge as if on a trance, but before she could step off it entirely Applejack grabbed her by the tail and pulled her back. “C'mon, Pinkie, take this seriously!” she chided.
“Yeah, it's almost time for us to-” Twilight began before a sudden grunt cut her off.
“Hey, she stopped!” said Spike, motioning for the others to look at Cold Reason, who he was watching over.
Cold grunted again as she forced herself onto her hooves. “Pl-please...hurry...” she looked back and told them with bleary eyes and a panting voice still not entirely her own. “Won't be...distracted...for long...”
Twilight looked into her teary, pleading eyes for just a moment, then nodded. “Let's do this, girls,” she told her friends, look around at each of them in turn. The six mares turned inward to form a circle, briefly sharing looks of reassurance, of encouragement, of confidence before closing their eyes and bowing their heads. “Just like we practiced,” Twilight said as a familiar glow began to envelop each of the six. “Remember why we're here, and by the light of our friendship anything is possible!”
The magical light grew and grew, manes and tails lifting into the air from the sheer force of it as Spike and Cold watched on in silent awe. It built and built and soon the light flared as though about to burst...
...and then the swirling chaos-realm exploded, startling the six out of their spell. Out of the corner of their eyes they saw Celestia, Luna, and Discord slam against the walls of the nearly-complete shield spell, the alicorns' armor shattered and the draconequus tied into a knot. All three slid and tumbled uncontrollably down the shield-plates, unconscious. And hovering in the middle, just as imposing as she'd ever been and without a single injury or scratch to be seen, was the Oathbreaker.
She reared back and let out a bellowing cry, not out of victory or despair but simply out of some raw and primal sense of existence that shook the air, the earth, and all who had the misfortune of hearing it. And as she did so, Cold let out a scream of her own...
“No...” Twilight said, the word barely even a whisper, her eyes too wide with shock to see anything but the result of the battle. Beside her Fluttershy gasped and put her hooves to her mouth, and the others simply gaped.
“Oh no!” Cadance cried out, disrupting her concentration enough for her magical aura to flicker in and out.
Shining grunted. “Stay focused,” he told her, straining his concentration as the shield-plates continued to spread to form the bottom of the egg the Oathbreaker was inside. “We still have to...finish...”
“R-right,” Cadance said quickly, closing her eyes and gritting her teeth as she redoubled her own effort. “Starlight, you're up!” she told the third member of their team, snapping the younger mare out of her shock.
“Got it!” Starlight replied with rising franticness. “I'll get them out of there and put up the inner shield!” She galloped forward, her horn glowing turquoise, until she was close enough to see the three fallen elders falling closer and closer to the quickly-diminishing gap at the bottom of the shield. With a grunt of concentration she formed a magical bubble around the closest one – Luna – and swung it around to catch Celestia and, just barely, Discord. “Grrr....” she growled, taking a step back and lowering her head. This caused the bubble to move down into the gap, but as it did the shield-plates slid into place and stopped it. Starlight glared at the stuck bubble with aggravation, then jerked her head to the left a few times until her magic was able to yank the bubble through. The shield-plates closed the hole in an instant, and the spell was complete.
And, moments later, so was the Oathbreaker's bellow. Her wings spread and her eyes aglow with harsh light once more she circled in place a few times before dashing forward horn-first into the shield. It held, but Shining and Cadance both grit their teeth in pain and large cracks spread out from the small hole that had been punctured by the giant's horn.
Starlight set the three she'd saved down on the scarred ground beside her, looked up to see the Oathbreaker preparing to charge again, and gasped. Her horn flared with magic once again, and in seconds a gigantic magical bubble appeared within the shield-egg. There was a gap between the two of about two yards, and the magical membrane was a hundredth as thick as the shield-plates at best, but Starlight still looked at it as though it was exactly what she wanted.
The cracks left by the first charge had begun to repair themselves thanks to the magic of the shield, but they did so at a rate so slow as to seem pointless considering the Oathbreaker had lined herself up to charge the same spot again. Once more she dashed forward, but this time she was caught by Starlight's bubble. It only took her a second to break through it, but when she finally impacted the original shield spell the damage to it was less severe. The plates continued their slow but steady self-repair, and the bubble healed itself in mere moments,
The Oathbreaker charged again only to get the same result, then backed into the center of her prison and whinnied in frustration. Her magical aura flared to life, and she flew forward fast as lightning and rammed into the shields once more. But instead of simply rebounding back into the center she struck the outer shield at an angle and ricocheted off it, leading her to slam into a another spot and ricochet off that in turn. She kept on going, bouncing from wall to wall faster and fast until the yellow trail of her aura seemed to almost fill the entire space. Nearly all the shield-plates were cracked now, and even the interior bubble was struggling to keep up its repair as the Oathbreaker broke through it again and again.
“Oh my,” Rarity said as she and the others watched the repeated and escalating escape attempts. “This isn't good.”
“We gotta get going, and fast!” Rainbow added.
“R-right,” Twilight said, finally wrenching her gaze away from the valley and turning back inward to the circle of her friends. “Breathe, Twilight, just breathe...” she told herself, taking several deep breaths in quick succession. “This is exactly the time for us to come together and act. We can do this!”
Their confidence swelling, their magic did as well, and soon the six were floating an inch off the ground. And then the lights rose up and spiraled together into a single column, the element-bearers disappearing within. The column curved around and shot towards the Oathbreaker's crumbling prison, stopping just outside it. The six colors of light coalesced into a single ball of rainbow magic, and the element-bearers reappearing inside it in the same forms they'd taken when they last called upon the power – manes and tails and wings grown out wild, streaks of vibrant new colors running throughout, and marks much likes their Cutie Marks stamped all over their body.
It was as though the sun had risen right there in the gloomy, storm-ridden valley, and both friend and foe alike could only stop and stare at the six in their rainbow-radiant magnificence.
The Oathbreaker did not move, even as the shield dissolved around her.
“Oathbreaker!” Twilight called out, her voice carrying loud and clear. “Your rampage ends here! Whatever pain you've suffered in the past, we will not allow you take it out on an innocent world. Together,” she and her friends smiled confidently, “we will free you from the magic that has overwhelmed you using the strongest magic of all: Friendship!”
Purple. Pink. Blue. Yellow. Orange. White. One by one, strands of magic shot out of the the radiant sphere and arced towards the Oathbreaker, shattering the last remnants of the shield spell in order to wrap around her. She looked at them with confusion at first, as though they were but strange insects buzzing around her, but when all six came together to form a single rainbow she clenched her eyes shut and curled up in pain.
The rainbow formed a ring that continually circled around her, and for several seconds it simply hung there with the Oathbreaker looking pained but nothing more. Just as the six began to look at each other in confusion, tears started to stream from her eyes again. Her mouth trembled, and first she chewed her lip before opening and closing her mouth in another attempt at speech. “F......”
“Friends......”
“I......”
“I'm so......”
“SORRYYYYYYYYYYYY!”
She threw her head back in sorrow, the rainbow surrounding her ceasing its movement for a brief movement before bursting outward as a shockwave with its former colors turned to gray.
For too long the six element-bearers simply watched as it sped towards them with mouths agape, their minds still struggling to process what had happened. Even the two most directly in the path of the wave made no attempt to move away...
“LOOK OUT!”
Yet friendship is a powerful magic indeed, and while Fluttershy and Applejack found themselves frozen in place two others did not. Pinkie Pie and Rarity rammed the two out of harm's way, but paid the price in their stead and their four friends were forced to watch in horror as the six's own rebounded magic slammed into them. The wave carried Pinkie and Rarity all the way back to the mountainside, slamming them into solid stone with enough force to knock them out of their rainbow forms, and their consciousness.
“WHY YOU!” Rainbow screamed, swelling with rage and speeding off like a bullet towards the Oathbreaker. She gave no reply or reaction, however, only holding her head in her hooves and blindly thrashing the air with her wings and mane.
Applejack shook the shock out of her own head, looking from where Rarity and Pinkie had crashed back to their foe as well. “YOU AREN'T GETTIN' AWAY WITH THAT!” she shouted, shooting forward just moments after Rainbow Dash.
“No wait!”
“You mustn't!”
Both Twilight and Fluttershy's cries fell on ears deafened by righteous anger, and despair fell upon the two as they watched blue and orange streak towards what they felt was certain doom.
Their magic allowed them to ride the turbulent air currents around the Oathbreaker – churned into a frenzy by the beating of her mighty wings – with ease, but that was the only break Rainbow and Applejack got. Although they were able to get close to her, her quick and unpredictable movements made it impossible for them to zero in on any one spot to strike at with the full force of their speed. Several times they slammed into or skid against her shoulders or chest to no effect, and their anger and frustration only grew.
“Alright, let's try hitting her where it really hurts,” Rainbow told Applejack as the two regrouped, pointing up at the Oathbreaker's eyes. Too angry to care about the danger, Applejack nodded her assent and the two took off again.
They never made it to her face, as a sudden turn of her head allowed the tendril-like locks of her mane to curl around the two mares and yank them from the sky. They shouted and struggled to free themselves as they were whipped around, but it all came to an end when they were swung into each other head-first.
“NO!” Twilight and Fluttershy cried out as they watched Rainbow Dash and Applejack fall from the sky, rainbow power fleeing from them. They swooped down as fast as they could and managed to catch their friends before they hit the ground, but set them down upon it when they saw that both had been knocked out.
“Fluttershy, get them to safety as fast as you can,” Twilight said, turning a glare up at the Oathbreaker.
“But-”
“Please, Fluttershy. I'll distract her.”
Fluttershy barely had the time to whimper before Twilight flew off horn ablazing, but nonetheless she grabbed hold of her fallen friends as best she could and started to slowly fly them off towards the ledge they'd all arrived on.
Twilight, meanwhile, fired off a beam of magenta magic that hit the Oathbreaker just below the eye. It left a small mark behind that was gone in seconds, but Twilight just banked to the side and circled around for another long-range attack. Most of the volleys struck bare skin or thrashing hair and were ignored, but one struck the Oathbreaker right in the eye – causing her to flinch and shut the eye in pain. She turned her gaze to Twilight, tracking the Princess as she flew around.
The Oathbreaker quickly charged her horn up with magic and with an angry whinny let it loose in the form of a salvo of yellow beams that curved around to shoot at Twilight from a multitude of angles. Twilight caught sight of them, gasped, and teleported away, but the beams simply swerved away from where she had been. When she reappeared on the other side of the Oathbreaker they immediately homed in on her again, and distracted as she was she was only able to dodge two by chance before the third struck her from behind and knocked her from the sky.
“TWILIGHT!” Fluttershy and Spike cried as they saw yet another friend drop. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were back at the relative safety of the ledge they'd arrived on, but Rarity and Pinkie and now Twilight were still out in the valley presumably unconscious, Cold was down on the ground with her head in her hooves and hyperventilating, and the others were nowhere in sight.
“This isn't good, this isn't good!” Spike whimpered, dancing anxiously from foot to foot and wringing his claws. He frantically looked around for something, but instead saw Fluttershy biting her trembling lip and looking out at the Oathbreaker. “Wait, Fluttershy, you can't be-”
Fluttershy silenced him with a brief but sad look, then flew over nearer to the Oathbreaker. The giant had been looking around at the ruined valley with glowing tear-filled eyes ever since striking down Twilight, and did not seem to notice Fluttershy's arrival.
She closed her eyes and took a deep and calming breath, then flew into the Oathbreaker's line-of-sight and began to Stare. “HEY! HOW DARE YOU!” she began to yell, her target just continuing to look around the valley. “YOU HAVE A LOT TO ANSWER FOR, YOU KNOW THAT?” The Oathbreaker finally looked her way, but nothing more.
“YEAH, I'M TALKING TO YOU! WE HAVE BEEN TRYING AND TRYING TO HELP YOU OUT OF YOUR MAGICAL OVERLOAD SO WE CAN HELP YOU DEAL WITH YOUR GUILT, BUT ALL YOU'VE BEEN DOING IS MAKING THINGS HARDER FOR EVERYPONY! INCLUDING YOURSELF! I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING HERE, BUT IF THERE'S REALLY A PART OF YOU THAT WANTS TO MAKE THINGS RIGHT THEN YOU NEED TO STOP.”
And for a few moments, the world was silent but for the howl of the wind and the rumble of the remaining stormclouds as Fluttershy and the Oathbreaker locked eyes.
Then, with a deafening scream of anguish, the Oathbreaker reared back then swung her head down at Fluttershy and butted her out of the sky.
Her rainbow power dispersed as she fell unconscious like her friends before her, but before she hit the ground she was caught by Princess Cadance just as she herself had saved Rainbow Dash earlier. The last conscious Princess sped away from the Oathbreaker – who had once more started to buck and thrash wildly in the air – as fast as her wings could carry her, only stopping to rest once she'd gotten Fluttershy back to the starting ledge.
She was greeted by a solemn look from her husband, who along with Starlight had gathered up all the other fallen fighters and laid them out on the ground to rest. “That's everypony...” Cadance said as she set Fluttershy down alongside Applejack.
“What...what are we supposed to do now?” Starlight asked. “We obviously can't beat her ourselves.”
Shining shared a look with Cadance before answering. “We're going to have to retreat. Gather up whatever forces we can, and try to keep the Oathbreaker away from any populated areas. Spike!”
“I'm on it, I'm on it!” Spike said, hastily writing out a letter. “I can't believe I'm actually writing the letter Princess Celestia asked me to write.”
“Well,” Cadance gave him a small smile, “you are our most reliable messenger. Who else would Aunt Celestia count on to let the rest of the Equestrian government know about what's happened?”
Spike puffed up a little with pride, smiling and rubbing his nose. “True. I am reliable, after all.” He gave his letter a quick and silent read-through, then rolled it up and sent it away in a burst of dragonfire.
A sudden grunt got their attention. “Twily!” Shining cried, quickly moving to his sister's side as she tried to get back on her hooves. “Take it easy, little sis,” he said as he steadied her. “You took a big hit back there.”
Twilight looked around at the others, then winced in pain and put a hoof to her head. “Hnngh...I just...don't understand. Nothing we did seemed to have any effect on her! Even Friendship! It just doesn't make any sense!”
“Well, she was pretty strong to begin with,” Cadance said. “And with a massive magical overload on top of that...it's no wonder she's pretty much invincible.”
“But there has to be something we can do!” Twilight countered, desperation in her eyes. “Something we missed, some way we can make her understand that what she's doing is wrong!”
“She can not understand...”
The clear, monotoned voice of Cold Reason caught the others off-guard, and they turned their heads as one to see the mare struggling to her hooves as well. Starlight quickly gave her a shoulder to lean on, and she looked up at them with a gaze that was tired beyond words.
“Your plan to redeem her...has failed,” Cold said through heavy breaths. She paused to cringe in pain before continuing. “As I knew it would.”
“But...but...even if she's been overwhelmed by what happened to her and the valley, and by all the magic in her,” Twilight argued, “even if she's spent millennia blaming herself for it...there still has to be some small part of her that still knows that what she's doing is wrong, right? There has to be some, I don't know, conscience or voice of reason left inside her for us to work with, right?”
Cold weakly shook her head. “There is not, Princess Twilight Sparkle. The Oathbreaker no longer has the ability to reason.”
Twilight gave her a look sheer disbelief. “But...no, no,” she shook her head, “I don't believe you. How could you possibly know that?”
Cold blinked, paused, blinked again.
“Because I am her ability to reason.”