Alicornae: The Legend of Starlit Sky
Interlude - Parabellum
* * *
A thwack of metal against wood echoed across the empty plain behind Starlit's home, followed by a grunt of exertion as a sword wound its way through the air in a field of teal magic. With a flash of silver another thwack echoed across the field, and the magic dissipated.
Starlit sat onto the rough grass, sweat pouring off of her forehead and heavy breaths escaping her burning lungs. Her head throbbed with pain, her hind legs and haunches were sore and burning, and the tree in front of her had enough fresh cuts and impacts across its surface that she was impressed it still stood at all.
Starlit cast her eyes back towards the house, where she could see Warden and Sun pulling up a few of the turnips. Or, at least, Sun was making an attempt; without his magic he had to rely on his own willowy frame, and it was obvious that Warden's basket was fuller than his.
A rustle in the grass behind her set Starlit's fur bristling, and she swiftly took her sword up in her magic as she spun around.
"It's okay Mommy, it's me," Eclipse said, her posture defensive. Starlit's breathing slowed has her daughter took a step back, and Starlit quickly stuck the blade into the dirt.
"I'm sorry honey," Starlit hastily apologized, "you just startled me."
"I was just walking, how could that be startling?"
"I heard you coming in the grass and… well, I've had to be a lot more careful than I was before I left."
Starlit's stepped towards Eclipse before sitting down in the dry grass. Starlit could still feel her heart in her throat from the moment of shock.
"Are you gonna be okay?" Eclipse asked as she sat across from Starlit. "Daddy says that you have to go away again, that you still have a job to finish."
"Pestering your father for answers, I see," Starlit said with a weary smile. "He was always the one to break at your incessant question asking."
"Is he right?"
Starlit took a breath, trying to will her heart to slow down as she gathered her thoughts. She'd been doing her best to keep busy, find any reason to be where her daughter wasn't, but there was no avoiding this conversation now. It was just herself, her daughter, and a mangled old tree.
"He is," Starlit answered.
As soon as she had let the words leave her mouth she could see the direction the conversation was going to take. Eclipse's lip began to quiver, and her little chest started to rise and fall quickly.
"But why? You just came home, and you were gone for so long! It's not fair!"
Tears welled up in Eclipse's teal eyes, eyes so much like Starlit's own, and they soon spilled down her daughter's cheeks as she wept. Starlit quickly took her filly up in a tight embrace, doing her best to hold everything together for the Eclipse's sake.
"I know it's not fair Eclipse, I know," Starlit consoled. "I wish I could stay here, let everything go back to the way it used to be."
Eclipse slowly looked up to her mother, her tears running grey rivulets in her white fur, her eyes pleading a silent "why".
"You're young, honey, but I think that you can hear this," Starlit began. "I owe you that much, at least."
Starlit looked out to the middle-distance, letting the words collect in her head even as she silently hoped they wouldn't come to her. If she could have some excuse, any excuse to avoid this conversation she wanted to seize it. Her mind, however, had other plans.
"It's because my job isn't done yet," Starlit said, the words tripping off her tongue as she tried to bite them back.
"How come?" Eclipse pleaded. "You've already done so much, how come there's more? Why can't another pony do this, any other pony!?"
Fresh tears started falling from Eclipse's eyes as she buried her face in her mother's chest, and Starlit ran a hoof through her daughter's hair as she tried to come up with something to say.
"It's just not fair," Eclipse moaned, her voice muffled by her mother's fur. "It's not fair."
"It isn't fair, Eclipse, it really isn't," Starlit replied, resting her cheek on Eclipse's head, "but I'm trying to make things more fair. This world is broken, and it's unfair, and it hurts so many other ponies like you and me in ways we may never know."
Starlit lifted her head and put a hoof under Eclipse's chin, raising her head until they could stare into each other's eyes.
"But there are moments that make the unfairness worth it," Starlit continued. "Moments that remind us why we fight, and struggle, and scrape for every inch of ground we can get. Moments that come along maybe once in a life that let's a pony change the world."
"And that's why you have to leave? To find a moment to change the world?" Eclipse asked.
"Always one thought ahead of me," Starlit affirmed, wiping the tears from her daughter's cheeks. "This moment has been given to me to change things; change them for you, for us, and maybe, if I'm lucky and skilled enough, to change this whole rotten world and make it more fair for everypony."
Eclipse sniffed hard, wiping her nose and rubbing her eyes as she turned down to look at the ground. She didn't say anything, just rubbed a hoof in the rough grass. Starlit laid down, getting on eye level with her.
"White Eclipse, you are the best thing that has ever come into my life," Starlit said as Eclipse met her gaze. "You are the reason I get up in the morning, you are my last thought before I go to sleep at night, and you are the pony that gives me the strength to do what I am doing. Because I know that no matter what gets thrown at me, no matter what hardships I face, I will get through them because you are waiting for me at the end of it all. I love you, and that love will see me through to the end of this."
Gently Starlit laid her forehead against Eclipse's, their horns scraping past each other as they shared a moment of tenderness. Starlit could feel a growing warmth in her horn as a soft, soothing pulse of magic bled from her horn and into Eclipse, a bond of love and magic that only a mother and child could share.
"You matter more to me than anything else in the world," Starlit said, a few tears sliding down her cheeks, "and I promise you that I will come back to you."
A pair of hooves wrapped tight around Starlit's neck, nearly knocking her over, and she returned her daughter's hug with equal fervor.
The pair stayed out in the field for a long while, doing what parents and children do; playing, talking, sharing space, and teaching each other. Eclipse watched with awe as Starlit practiced with her sword that floated with perfect precision, held aloft by her mother's magic; Starlit laughed uproariously as she chased her daughter up and down the hill that sloped toward the back garden in a merciless game of tag; they both pointed out shapes in the stars as the sun fell low on the horizon before Warden called them in for dinner. Eclipse scampered down to the house, leaving Starlit standing by the withered old tree at the top of the hill.
She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath in as she saved this moment in her mind. So many moments had cluttered her brain over the last month, but this one was the first that she wanted to make sure had a spot in her memory.
This moment, one that she had initially been dreading, would be her strength to go forward.
* * *
Sun turned and tossed on the bedroll that he had laid out in front of the fireplace. His arrangements were comfortable enough, and the security of a roof over his head and a giant dragon outside would've normally lulled him to sleep by now, but tonight he couldn't quiet his raging thoughts. Cracking his eyes open, Sun got up, rubbing an eye as he stood fully upright and walked out to the porch.
A few nighttime insects buzzed through the air as he sat at the porch's edge, staring out towards the forest a few miles off and the sleeping form of Spike a few yards off. His chest rose with great shuddering inhalations, before falling with a low rumble as he exhaled and disrupted the dirt in front of his nose. Sun couldn't understand why a being of such power and grandeur needed to do something as mundane as sleep, but it was at least comforting to know that Spike wasn't completely inscrutable.
Sun stepped off the porch and walked toward Spike, feeling his inhalations and exhalations vibrate the ground as he approached, and was caught off guard when the dragon's eye flew open with a slick grinding sound. Sun felt his heart leap up into his throat as the great green iris and the glittering black pupil stared at him, stretching and focusing to fully take in Sun's utter insignificance.
"YOU OUGHT TO BE RESTING, SETTING SUN," Spike said, his voice reverberating inside of Sun's head like a stone thrown down a gorge. "YOU NEED YOUR STRENGTH FOR TOMORROW."
"Like I could get to sleep anyway, given tomorrow's activities," Sun replied, sitting down as he tried to recompose himself.
"YOUR MIND IS DISQUIETED. I CAN SEE THIS IN YOU. DO YOU WISH TO SPEAK OF YOUR TROUBLES?"
"I don't know if I should," Sun replied, feeling the muscles in his neck tense up. "I know what I have to do, I just don't know if I have the strength to do it."
"VAGUE MUSINGS ABOUT THE HARDSHIPS AHEAD DO NOT ENGENDER CONFIDENCE OR SURETY." Spike intoned, his eyelid dropping slightly.
"Was that sarcasm?" Sun asked incredulously. "You know how to be sarcastic?"
"I AM FAMILIAR WITH THE VEILED INSINCERITY PONIES REFER TO AS SARCASM, BUT IN THIS INSTANCE I AM NOT EMPLOYING IT. I WONDER WHY YOU TORMENT YOURSELF WORRYING ABOUT WHAT MAY BE WHEN ALL IT DOES IS DISQUIET YOUR MIND AND DRAWS YOUR THOUGHTS AWAY FROM WHAT YOU KNOW MUST BE DONE."
"It's what I've always done, I suppose," Sun answered. "I think about things when problems present themselves and try to work out all the avenues it could take and every way it could go wrong."
"AND THIS BRINGS YOU SURETY? THESE NIGHTTIME PONDERINGS ON MYRIAD TROUBLES AND TRIBULATIONS BRING YOU SOLACE AND PEACE?" Spike asked back.
"No, but if I have a general idea of how something might happen then it'll prepare for what does happen," Sun answered as he could feel heat grow in his ears. He felt like he was being talked down to.
Slowly Spike raised his head, nearly clipping Sun's chin with one of the scales on his snout, before turning to fully face Sun. Sun backed up instinctively as Spike readjusted himself, putting a few more feet between them.
"ALLOW THIS WISDOM TO BE IMPARTED, FROM THE PERMANENT TO THE IMPERMANENT," Spike intoned, more force being put into his mental words than before. "THE LONGER ONE SPENDS THINKING, THE LESS TIME ONE SPENDS DOING. YOUR TREPIDATIOUS AND CAUTIOUS NATURE IS FULLY JUSTIFIED, BUT FOR THE PATHS AHEAD THAT I CAN SEE YOU MUST THROW YOUR CAUTION TO THE WAYSIDE AND ACCEPT WHAT COMES AS IT DOES."
"Then what do you see, huh?" Sun shot back. "What is going to happen to me that you can foretell that I just need to accept sight unseen? How can you sit there, so majestic and powerful and dispassionate because you know you cannot possibly be harmed by anything, and tell a terrified, weak, impotent pony that he has to just buck up, keep a stiff upper lip, and walk to his doom without trying to even think of ways to preserve his brief, fragile existence!? Who are you, the mighty dragon, to tell me, the feeble pony, to just accept the inevitable!?"
Sun's face flushed hot as every worry, every anxiety, every bit of his anger at the situation he found himself trapped in, came spewing forth from his mouth. His indignation drove him to his hooves, put him inches away from the dragon in front of him until his forehead was pressed against Spike's snout. His shouting echoed across the emptiness surrounding Starlit's home, a repetition in the world around him that he had been hearing in his head for days now.
Spike's head shot forward faster than Sun thought a being of such size could move, his snout shoving Sun backward and forcing him tumble over into the dirt. Sun could feel the hot blasts of breath from the great dragon's nose, could smell the scent of brimstone and smoke on every exhalation as Spike turned one eye to face him. Sun could see his own face reflected in the bright green iris, and for the first time he could see defiance in his own eyes.
"DO NOT TAKE ME SIMPLY FOR SOME BEAST OF BURDEN OR IMPLACABLE FORCE OF NATURE THAT WILL TAKE YOUR DISINGENUOUS ASSERTIONS LAYING DOWN!" Spike retorted, the words booming into Sun's mind like thunder. "I AM NOT TRYING TO PUT YOU IN YOUR PLACE OR MAKE YOU ACCEPT DEATH LIKE A RABBIT IN A SNARE! YOU HAVE THE POWER TO MAKE THIS SITUATION YOUR OWN! YOU HAVE THE FORCE OF WILL TO BEND THESE PROBLEMS TO YOUR OWN ENDS! YOU WILL OVERCOME, THIS I FORESEE, AND IN THIS YOU WILL BECOME GREATER THAN YOU COULD POSSIBLY IMAGINE, IF YOU WOULD ONLY ALLOW YOURSELF BE A CONQUERER OF ADVERSITIES RATHER THAN A SUPPLICANT TO THEM!"
"Then show me, dammit!" Sun yelled back. "Quit telling me I'll be great and give me some hard, solid evidence, because this last month has only taught me that I am growing weaker and more dependent on things beyond my control to keep me going!"
"IF YOU INSIST," Spike replied, before his massive, cat-slit pupil expanded to fully encompass the whole of his eye.
Inside the vast darkness of Spike's eye a myriad of twinkling lights and shooting lines traced innumerable shapes, and though individually they made no sense as they joined and disappeared and twisted together they would form into ideas, figures, and pathways. Sun laid on the ground, transfixed by the inside of the dragon's eye, as events began to take shape inside of him.
He could smell stagnant water, like the caverns underneath the Searing Plains. The buzzing of insects, like the bees in Applejack's orchard magnified and amplified, hummed around him, switching angles and directions with intense rapidity. A comforting hoof laid across his side, spreading a feeling of healing that brought back memories of his first death and rebirth. A voice, familiar and yet strange, echoed words in his mind that he could not begin to make sense of but that he knew were offering him a bargain. And finally, a feeling of power, of strength, and of surety.
The lights and lines inside of Spike's eye slowly ebbed into nothingness, leaving only a few errant sparks as Sun shook his head and tried to collate everything he had just experienced.
"COUNT YOURSELF FORTUNATE, SETTING SUN," Spike said, settling his head back on top of his folded up paws. "WERE YOU OF A WEAKER CONSTITUTION, THIS EXPERIENCE WOULD'VE RENDERED YOU A BABBLING SIMPLETON, OR WORSE REDUCED YOUR MIND TO A THIN PASTE INSIDE OF YOUR SKULL."
"What… what was that?" Sun asked, his eyes still focused out to the middle distance where Spike's eye had been.
"IT WAS A PATH, ONE OF MANY THAT WILL BE BEFORE YOU IN THE DAYS TO COME. AS I TOLD STARLIT SKY, SO WILL I TELL YOU; TIME IS LIKE A RIVER, FLOWING OVER, AROUND, AND THROUGH ANY NUMBER OF PATHS. I CAN ONLY SEE THAT EVENTS THAT MAY UNFOLD, BUT IN IMPARTING THIS INFORMATION TO YOU I HAVE ALTERED THE COURSE OF THE RIVER IN YOUR FAVOR. YOUR FATE IS NOW YOURS TO GRASP AS YOU EXPERIENCE THE SIGNS THAT HAVE BEEN SHOWN TO YOU."
Sun felt Spike's voice cut short in his mind, and he turned to face the dragon and saw that his eye was wide, the pupil practically a vertical line, and his breathing grew short and quick as he raised his head up to the air. The frills on the sides of his head twitched and moved with jerking flexions.
"AH, AND SO MY PATH HAS BEEN SET," Spike stated, his eyes still set to the far horizon. "I HAVE BETRAYED THE TRUST OF MY KIN, AND I MUST FACE THEIR JUDGEMENT FOR WHAT I HAVE DONE FOR YOU. I AM CALLED TO HOME."
"What? What do you mean betrayed?" Sun asked, a fluttering of the heart rising in his chest.
"MY GIFT OF FORESIGHT HAS BEEN MISUSED. TOO MANY TIMES I HAVE ALTERED THE FLOW OF TIME BY GIVING YOU AND STARLIT SKY PORTENTS OF THINGS TO COME, AND THIS DIRECT GIFT OF FOREKNOWLEDGE WAS THE FINAL SIN. THIS, I SEE NOW, IS WHY I CANNOT ACCOMPANY STARLIT FURTHER THAN THE OUTER EDGES OF CANTERLOT."
A feeling like lead dropped into Sun's stomach, his voice stuck in his throat, as he struggled to understand what he had just done to Starlit. Through his own selfishness, he denied Starlit a powerful ally and had potentially doomed her to die in Canterlot, all because he couldn't handle not knowing how to proceed.
"DO NOT BLAME YOURSELF FOR THIS, SETTING SUN," Spike said, cutting Sun off before he could even begin to form an apology in his mind. "IT WAS ALWAYS SUPPOSED TO BE THIS WAY. IN EVERY PATH I HAVE SEEN AHEAD FOR STARLIT SKY, SHE TRAVELS THE NEXUS OF HER DESTINY ALONE, UNAIDED, AND SURE IN HER STRIDE. YOUR DESIRE FOR KNOWLEDGE, AN ADMIRABLE TRAIT, WAS MERELY THE CATALYST FOR THIS INEVITABLE TURN IN THE PATH."
Slowly Spike turned his head to face Sun, staring down at him. Maybe it was the lighting from the half moon in the sky or the angle at which he was looking up, but Sun could swear that Spike had a smile on his face.
"I… I'm so sorry, Spike," Sun said. "If I had known—"
"YOU NEED NOT APOLOGIZE, SETTING SUN," Spike interjected softly, raising a paw to wave the apology off. "I HAVE SPENT TOO LONG IN THE LANDS OF PONIES AS IT IS; IT IS IMPROPER FOR A DRAGON TO CONSORT WITH SUCH IMPERMANENT AND IMPUDENT CREATURES, AND IT HAS CHANGED ME IN MANY WAYS THAT ARE UNBECOMING OF WHAT I AM."
"If it's any consolation, then maybe we've changed you for the better over all these years," Sun countered, feeling a catch in his throat as he spoke. "Hopefully the other dragons will find something to learn from you, as you found things to learn from us."
A single, large tear rolled out of Spike's massive left eye, leaving a glittering streak across the scales of his cheek and jowls before falling to the ground and leaving a small puddle in its wake.
"PERHAPS THEY WILL, SETTING SUN. ONLY TIME WILL TRULY TELL."
Slowly Spike lowered his head back down, nestling his face into the crook of his arms as his neck snaked around, curling up into a mound the size of a small hill and draping his wings over his sleeping form to cover up his head. Understanding the accord they had reached, Sun made his way back inside, careful to come back in quietly lest he wake anypony up.
As he laid down on his bedroll, Sun recounted the signs he had been given; the stagnant waters, the buzzing, the comforting hoof, the familiar and unfamiliar voice, and finally the sense of surety.
As all of these things rolled over in his mind, he fell to sleep in a matter of minutes.
* * *
A small break in the overcast skies gave the morning a breath of warmth and light that Starlit hadn't experienced on her farm since she had come home. She would've considered it a sign of good fortune, if she were a superstitious enough mare, but it was still a good start to what was sure to be a very bad next few days.
With a final tightening of the straps to her armor and adjustment of her pack, Starlit opened the door to the front garden. Everypony else was already gathered around the teleportation pad. Sun was already sitting inside the circle of sigils, eyeing up each individual one with that inquisitive eye of his, while Spike took a moment to gaze up at the sky and let the warmth of the sun caress his face.
White Eclipse scurried over to her mother, a bright smile on her face and a small book in her teeth, followed by Stalwart Warden, whose expression was far more grim.
"Are you ready? Did you remember to bring enough food?" Eclipse asked as she set the book onto the ground.
"Enough to last me at least two weeks, three if I stretch it out," Starlit answered, tussling Eclipse's hair with her hoof. "With any luck I'll only need half of it, but it never hurts to over prepare."
"You also have the first aid kit I picked up from the guardhouse in town?" Warden asked. "Captain Featherweight docked me three days wages for that, but it was worth every bit."
"I did, it was the last thing I put away before I got kitted up. Thank you for that, by the way."
Eclipse quickly picked her book back up and nudged her head against Starlit's chest. Starlit took the book up in her magic, looking over the very familiar cover.
"It's the Legend Of The Princesses!" Eclipse explained. "You can have it, in case you get bored or need something to help you get to sleep."
"Sweetie, this is your favorite book, are you sure I should take it?" Starlit asked. "It might get dirty, or I might lose it during a fight."
"Don't worry, I already know it back to front anyway," Eclipse countered.
"Then why did you try to make me recite it from memory for you for a month?" Warden asked, genuine betrayal heavy in his voice.
"I like to see you think really hard, you get lines on your forehead when you do," Eclipse answered with a giggle. She quickly scampered back inside before her father could give her a slap upside the head, and Starlit let out a barely stifled giggle as well.
"She gets that from you, you know," Warden chided.
"And I know you love that about us both," Starlit replied, giving her husband a peck on the cheek.
The couple stood facing each other for a moment, and Starlit could tell that neither one of them wanted this to end just yet.
"Oh, I just remembered," Warden said as he reached into a small satchel around his neck, "I wanted you to have this as well."
Starlit took the item from his teeth with her magic; it was a small silver shield, roughly hammered into shape and etched with the image of a mace in the center. Around the mace, with newer etchings than the mace, she could also see what was unmistakably the script of her own cutie mark, along with the small flame in the center engulfing the mace. On the back was a small pin, designed to hold it closed when attached to clothing.
"Warden, is this your guard badge?" Starlit asked.
"Yeah, I took it to Tinker Trot in town to get the new etchings done around the mace," Warden explained. "Daft old codger was kind enough to do it for free when I told him it was a gift for you. 'That's just the most precious thing, truly it is' he said."
"But don't you need this? What about your job?"
"What about my job?" Warden repeated. "Honey, I up and disappeared for a month with nary a word or so much as a how-do-you-do, did you really think they were going to believe that I was trapped in a magical bubble surrounding my house for all that time? I got the sack, and Featherweight told me to never come back."
"Oh, honey, I'm so sorry," Starlit apologized, adding this to the list of grievances she would bring up to Twilight when they finally met in person. "But, if you got fired, then how did you get the first aid kit?"
"I stole it from the guardhouse on my way out," Warden answered, his tone so even and matter-of-fact that Starlit couldn't help but let out a belt of laughter.
"Well, it must really be the end of the world if the most boring, rules-following stallion I've ever met would be willing to steal to help his wife on her perilous journey."
"I'd do anything for you, you know that," Warden replied, kissing Starlit on the forehead. "Just come home safe and we'll call it square."
"I will, I promise," Starlit replied, before embracing and passionately kissing Warden back. The heat of his breath, the smell of his mane, and the beat of his heart were sweeter than anything in the world, and as she drew back she pinned his old badge to the front of her armor, where the straps for the shoulder plates crossed across her chest.
"I'd say it completes the look," Warden said as he tapped the badge with his hoof. "Now, if the lady will excuse me, I have to make sure our daughter isn't about to burn the house down."
"We both know that she's smart enough to not do that," Starlit countered.
"I know, but you'll never leave if I don't leave first, and you have a world to save," Warden replied as he started to walk back to the house.
Starlit stared back at her retreating husband, until the door shut behind him and finally separated them. With a low breath, Starlit turned to face Spike and Sun, both looking in her direction.
"Enjoying the drama that is my life?" Starlit asked as she approached them.
"THAT WOULD BE SARCASM, CORRECT?" Spike asked to Sun, audibly so that both of the ponies could hear.
"That it would, big guy, that it would," Sun answered before turning towards Starlit. "Sorry, but you have to admit it was kind of touching in a bittersweet way."
"You have the soul of a storyteller, Sun," Starlit replied. "Maybe when we're done with this you could write a book about it all."
"I'd like that, I think," Sun replied back. "If I'm feeling generous you'll get co-author credits on it."
"Sun, I could care less if you change my name in it so that ponies don't batter down my door in my twilight years looking for the heroine of Equestria. All I want is for ponies to know that it was a pony that saved their world. Not a princess, not a dragon, but a pony who was in the right place at the right time to do the right thing."
"I think that's what I going to miss most about you; your level of self-effacement and willingness to not trumpet your own accomplishments like your some gift to pony-kind just by merit of your existence," Sun said, tracing the lines of the teleportation circle with his magic and preparing the sigils. "If Twilight and her ilk had been a little more like you then maybe we wouldn't be in this mess to begin with."
"Maybe so, but this isn't goodbye, Sun. We'll meet again when this is all done, I know we will."
"I hope so," Sun said as the final sigil locked in. "For Equestria's sake, I hope we do."
"Are you alright?" Starlit asked, placing a hoof in Sun's shoulder. "You sound distracted."
"I'm alright," Sun answered, giving Starlit a smile. "I think, for the first time since we've met, I know what I'm doing with myself. I just hope that it's the right thing."
"It will be," Starlit replied, hugging Sun close. "It will be, because you are a good stallion that will make the right choice."
"I hope so," Sun said back as he pushed Starlit out of the teleportation pad.
With a flash of silvery light, the teleporter activated and Sun disappeared, leaving only a few quickly fading sparkles of magic in his wake.
"Will he be alright, Spike?" Starlit asked, still facing the teleportation pad.
"HE IS SURE OF HIMSELF AND HIS PURPOSE," Spike answered, his head lowering down to her level. "HE WILL BE AS ALRIGHT AS ANY PONY CAN BE IN HIS CIRCUMSTANCE."
The two of them sat together for a brief moment, just enough for Starlit to internalize what this all meant; this was it. As soon as she climbed up onto Spike's back her fate was set. She would be going to Canterlot, and she would either die there or save Equestria.
Starlit held her head up high, rose to her hooves, and turned to walk to Spike's already outstretched wing.
"It's time, Spike."
"YOU WALK WITH CONFIDENCE INTO THE LION'S DEN, STARLIT SKY," Spike stated. "MAY YOU STRIDE WITH PURPOSE AND STRENGTH, AND MAY THE FIRE INSIDE OF YOU BURN BRIGHTER THAN THAT WHICH WILL SURROUND YOU."
Quickly Starlit settled onto Spike's back, using her magic to anchor in place, and with that familiar lurching sensation, the pair of them ascended into the sky.
* * *