//------------------------------//
// Chapter 18: The Plan 
// Story: Blood Moon 
// by The_Darker_Fonts 
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In an instant, the bliss and joy of finally, finally having the pain and terror of not knowing, of hiding such a large secret from Joint, evaporated at the sight of the growling lycan that blocked the stairwell.  Thoughts furiously dashed through Hemorrhage’s head as he reactively disintegrated his physical form, taking to the shadows and forcing his black mass of mist towards the beast.  However, before anything could be done, Khan reared back, cocking his head in confusion as he went to his hind legs.  As a precaution, he rematerialized in front of Joint and Amethyst, his horn glowing ever so slightly as he prepared a stun.
The lycan disregarded him almost as soon as the mordigan attempted to block him, simply raising a paw and calmly pushing Hemorrhage aside.  Considering the lycan’s passive movement, he didn’t attempt to block his moves a second time, opting to allow the lycan his curiosity.  The large beast bent head down slowly, nose scrunching as it began to take in a terrified Joint’s scent.  The filly in her hooves was quite less terrified, the snuffling child reaching a small pink hoof towards Khan.  
Khan jerked back at the movement of the foal, surprised by the small pony’s eagerness to touch him.  The lycan bent over again, sniffing around at the outstretched hoof, taking his time to catch every scent the child may have carried.  Amethyst, wiggled her hoof, but the small pony’s strength was little, and she retracted her hoof before the lycan had finished his scental test.  Khan leaned in towards the foal, completely disregarding the mare that held it, sniffing softly at the little one.  This time, when Amethyst raised her miniscule hoof, it was able to latch onto the tip of his nose, instantly causing the lycan to begin panting happily.  Khan gave the little filly’s hoof a small lick, stooping his head into the cradle of Joint’s hooves.  
The two adults shared a look over the lycan’s enormous head, both equally confused and touched by the display of affection the two younger creatures were sharing.  Silently, Joint mouthed, a question that Hemorrhage didn’t quite pick up.  However, considering the relative calm that had settled over the four of them, Hemorrhage decided it was safe enough to begin talking once again.
“Joint, this is Khan,” Hemorrhage introduced, speaking softly just in case.  At hearing his name, the lycan looked up and over at the mordigan, who gave Khan a smile.  “Khan, I see you’ve met our new friends Joint and Amethyst!”
The lycan tilted his head to the side slightly, but otherwise disregarded the stallion as he turned and began sniffing at the mare now.  Joint leaned back ever so slightly, but she didn’t seem to be scared of Khan, simply wary of his large frame and overeager movements.  
“I guess I didn’t have time or thought to tell you about Khan,” Hemorrhage supposed, standing and weaving his way around the lycan’s limbs to stand beside her.  “He’s the most recent member of our coven, and the second visitor we received tonight, right after you and Amethyst.  Well, he’s the only guest we brought here ourselves, I suppose.  We found traces of him out in the hills and forests, but it wasn’t until tonight that we were able to track him down and secure him.  He’s dangerous, but not particularly to anybody in this castle.  His hate is for normal ponies, seeing as they are the root of his pain, as it seems.”
“What does that mean,” Joint asked.  “Is that a natural thing for a vampyre to do, to hate regular ponies?”
“No,” Hemorrhage replied, raising a hoof to the lycan’s broad shoulder.  He rubbed the fur gently, slightly pushing Khan back as the curious young nocturnal became invasive with his movements.  “As you may have surmised by the relative canine form of this one, he isn’t a normal nocturnal, or even just a normal lycan.  He’s very different from the other lycan that lives with us, Leper.  Leper was around us when he transitioned, so we were able to help him recover from the transformation.  We believe that this poor lycan was once a normal colt who was attacked by another lycan from a different coven.”
“Oh, sweet Celestia,” Joint muttered, looking shocked.  She too raised a hoof, rubbing Khan’s head with it.  The lycan initially flinched away from the touch of the mare, but when she attempted to pet him again, he consented to the movement, leaning in.  He stopped sniffing, instead enjoying the plentiful attention he was receiving, panting happily.  “How do you know this?”
“Well, about three or so years ago, Leper was out hunting for something from the forest,” Hemorrhage explained, clarifying the prey.  “It was mid-spring, when snow hadn’t quite melted this low, so he had to journey northward, and he ended up in the Bullarus swamps.  He happened to catch the scent of another lycan, and then blood.  He came across a dreadful scene, in which a filly was mauled and devoured by the offending lycan.  Leper said that a young colt appeared, answering the poor filly’ screams, and he too was attacked, though Leper was able to see that the colt survived, though horribly wounded.  The lycan, however, caught scent of him, and began to search him out, so he too retreated.”
“Why didn’t he intervene,” Joint asked, looking pale from the gruesome story.  Her hoof had fallen still, resting on the scruffy fur of Khan, who innocently sat and waited for the attention to resume.  
“It’s common knowledge that lycans are the most powerful of the nocturnals, with mordigans such as I second,” he told her.  “Leper was a younger lycan back then as well, smaller than this obviously bigger and older lycan.  Intervening in the path of a blood-driven lycan is the same as challenging him for his food.  All nocturnals -but especially lycans- are enhanced by the smell and taste of blood, so attempting to fight the other lycan would have been foolish, a death wish, even.  Leper simply witnessed it, to report it to me.  There wasn’t anything we could do, however, but let nature run its visceral course.  When we attempted to search out for the colt, there was no sign of him, and we supposed he had either been consumed as well, or he had survived and been recovered by somepony else.  We didn’t suspect that he was around this area until we noticed some prey was missing in our estimations, as well as suspicious appearances of extra tracks. But then we made a horrible discovery tonight…”
Hemorrhage paused, licking his lips, glancing at Khan uneasily.  The lycan seemed harmless to a point, yet he had found the carnage he could cause, and he had seen and felt the strength and bold determination the lycan had.  Joint, however, had only ever seen this keen, curious side of the nocturnal, a colt stuck in a lycan’s body.  He didn’t want to ruin the image of Khan, but at the same time, he knew that the longer the secret was kept from Joint, the more bitter the sting would be for her when she learned that the lycan pup that was sniffing her child and panting happily had destroyed an entire village in the course of a single night.
Taking a deep breath, he begrudgingly recounted, “There is a village not too far from here, less than two miles outside the boundaries of the forest, among the hills.  It’s a fairly new installation, with only some hundred or so residents that live there.  It was the only residence besides this castle within ten miles around, and the only one under my jurisdiction.  However, we noticed that there had been no activity from them in the forest or village.  We at first thought that it was simply the harsh winter keeping them from visiting or moving around outside the warmth of their village.  After almost a week without contact, however, we were concerned that they may have been snowed into their village or something of that sort, a minor, easy to fix issue.
“Leper and I went to see if we might be able to assist in their troubles, but, upon arrival, we didn’t find a living soul.  No, instead we found the bones and broken tools of the villagers, their bones picked clean and broken.  The skeletons were destroyed more than the usual of hunting, and Leper and I knew in an instant that this was the doing of a nocturnal.  In total, we found that some sixty three dead ponies, all adults.  The young of the village were missing, and we haven’t had time to find them, as with the acquisition of the lycan himself and your arrival.  There’s still so much to do…” 
“Khan did all of that,” Joint questioned hushly, clear disbelief overshadowing her horror.  Her hoof retraced from the lycan, who looked disappointed by the mare’s sudden discomfort.  “How would you know?”
“Leper was able to pick up his scent from every skeleton and most of the village in general, and we were able to track him to his own cavern, where he was living with a pack of wolves,” Hemorrhage hollowly replied.  “The wolves themselves were all dead, young and old, all starved to death through the winter.  Two had actually died in the engagement, which we know because we found their half-buried corpses nearby.  The best guess we have to why there was such an engagement is that the newcomers had impeded the packs’ hunting ground, which led them to hunt the ponies.  Regardless, there wasn’t enough food for the large pack, and so all but Khan died.
“He didn’t escape the engagement unscathed though, and when we found him and took him back here, Leper discovered a nasty wound on his side.  Apparently one of the ponies that had fought him managed to get a metal spoke through his side, which had remained there all winter.  It was thoroughly infected when Ailade went to clean it, with rotten flesh and maggots crawling through it.”  Hemorrhage shuddered, remembering the wound.  “It was terrible.  Anyway, when Ailade had fixed him up, he became very defensive of her, as well as showing great interest in Nightseer, the vampyre mother you have yet to meet.  It seems that the pack mentality has left him thinking that birthing mares and, well, um, breeding stallions, are the core component in every society.  Most likely, he thinks that you too are in charge here.”
“That’s…” Joint began, though words were lost on her.  Instead, she simply raised her hoof and began to pet Khan once again, lifting the disappointed lycan’s spirits.  Letting out her breath, she finally said, “I think I equally am more afraid of him and care for him more.”
“Yes, that sentiment we share,” Hemorrhage replied.  He pulled his hoof away from Khan, instead moving it to rest on Joint’s shoulder, bringing her attention to him.  “I try not to trust him completely, but his naivety and sheer innocence in nature always crumbles the memories of the carnage he can wreak…”
“Perhaps it’s better to see him as a puppy and a wolf, treat him as a colt and not a stallion,” Joint suggested.  
“Yet one day he will grow up, beyond that of simply being without knowledge,” Hemorrhage remorsed.  “One day, as with all living nocturnals, he will find his other half, and move on, perhaps starting a pack of his own.  It is our job to simply educate him to the best of our ability, to give him the physical, mental, and moral tools to continue life without ruining others’.”
“You said ‘ours’,” she pointed out, turning to face him.  
“Ah, that was presumptuous of me,” he remarked.  “I was supposing that you would stay with us, though the choice is obviously yours.  We may be nocturnals, but we are perfectly able to control ourselves and provide for normal ponies regardless of our diet.” 
“Well, of course I’ll stay with you,” Joint replied shyly, for once glancing away, a slight blush across her face.  “I’m not sure where else I would go anyways, but regardless, I like it much better with you.  You’ll never be as monstrous as Sombra, and you’ve proven you do have a fair few good traits, moral and physical…” 
It was Hemorrhage’s turn to blush, the mare’s praise causing him too to glance down at the floor.  “Well, that is certainly most gracious of you to say.”
“You deserve to hear it though,” Joint retorted, bringing a hoof up to his cheek, gently raising his chin.  She leaned in over Amethyst and gave the stallion a soft kiss on the lips, the loving touch sending a jolt of fire through his body.  
Upon witnessing the act of love, Khan panted, leaning in and giving the two heavy licks on the cheeks, his large, dry tongue ruffling the fur of their face.  They both laughed lightly at the lycan’s actions, sitting up and each giving their own payment back to Khan.  He accepted heartily, bowing his head to allow the two to pat the top of it.  In an instant, however, the moment was interrupted as Amethyst hiccuped into a soft spurt of snuffles.  Joint’s attention immediately went to her child, Khan and Hemorrhage both looking down at the struggling filly who writhed in her mother’s hold.
“Ah, she’s, uh, hungry,” Joint awkwardly explained as Khan tried to lean in and sniff the lying foal.  
Hemorrhage felt his eyes widen, quickly moving to push away the lycan as he stood, stammering, “O-Oh, of course, we’ll both, um, head towards the uh… the foyer outside the kitchen.  The sun should be up right now, most likely, and breakfast with it.  Hust, um, join us whenever you can…”
“Yes, it won’t take long,” Joint said, standing as well, and turning towards the stairs.  She lingered for a second a sHemorrhage retreated, pushing the lycan with him, the nocturnal still halfheartedly attempting the point of the baby’s distress.  Uncertainly, the mare asked, “May I, um, use your room?”
“Go right ahead,” Hemorrhage invited quickly, watching as Joint nodded and retreated up the stairs to the top of the tower.  With a sigh, he turned to Khan and inquired, “Why do you have to make so many different things so complicated?”
The lycan simply quirked his head to the side innocently, turning tail and swaggering his way to a wooden door that led to the hall.  Shaking his head ever so slightly, Hemorrhage used his magic to open the door for the lycan, allowing him to trod through and swiftly down the hall.  Khan waited impatiently at the next wooden door that led to the said foyer, circling in front of it as Hemorrhage slowly walked to it.
Upon letting the lycan and himself into the broader room, he was met with a startled yelp, Ailade barely clearing the doorway as Khan barreled through.  The reckless lycan was startled by the sudden appearance of the mare, jerking around and bolting upright, sitting down as he pointedly bowed his head to his caretaker.  
Ailade clutched a hoof to her chest, shaking her head as she exclaimed, “Blood of the innocents, child, you scared me!”  Khan gave a low whine, obviously upset at himself as he shamefully ploded to the mare, head hung low as he bumped it slightly against her in apology.  Smiling slightly, she raised her hoof and patted the lycan on the head, comforting, “It’s alright now, you just gave me a scare.  We need to house train you so some day you don’t accidentally crush one of us smaller nocturnals.”  
The words calmed the lycan, who sat up and smiled broadly to her, causing the others to smile at him in turn.  “Now,” Ailade began, turning to Hemorrhage.  “I hope you got a good amount of sleep last night, yes?”
“Well, I’m not sure how much he did,” Hemorrhage said, glancing at Khan as he sat.  With a tired smile, he admitted, “I didn’t get any at all. I-”
“No excuses, master,” Ailade interrupted furiously.  “You still need your sleep regardless of your age!  Come, I’ll guide you to your bedroom.”  
“The tower allows sunlight in,” Hemorrhage reminded her, remaining seated.  He dropped the smile, pushing away his cheerfulness aside as the solemnity of Argon’s news was recollected.  “Argon’s return last night was far from the last major event to occur last night.  He had a great deal of news to bring, and we have much to discuss over breakfast.”
“But on a more personal note,” Ailade presumed, encouraging Hemorrhage to continue.
“On a more personal, but general note, Joint knows who we are,” he stated.  Ailade frowned at the news, quickly looking around as if searching for the mare.
“Does that mean she ran,” Ailade tentatively asked, concern lacing her brow.
“No, no,” he quickly assured her.  “In fact, she’s currently somewhere behind me, either in my room or somewhere along the way down here.”
“Oh, okay,” she replied, looking relieved.  Realization struck both of them at what he had said, Ailade’s eyes widening as she exclaimed, “You didn’t, did you!?”
“Of course not,” he shouted over her panic, pressing a hoof to his head in shame as a blush dashed across his cheeks.  “We certainly have not consummated our relationship in that way.  She’s simply giving Amethyst suck right now, and the observatory was the closest room to give her privacy!  Anyways, on that particularly personal note, she knows now that we are nocturnals and for some reason trusts us still.”
“She’s a smart mare, and a mare that loves you,” Ailade pointed out, a knowing smile crossing her face.  “Besides, there is no way we are as lecherous or evil as Sombra, so she has gone from a barn to a stable.”
“Yes, I suppose that’s fair,” Hemorrhage allowed, standing up.  “Come, I’m fairly hungry, and I’m sure Khan is as well.  We’ve all had a long night regardless of out sleep conditions, and there is much that needs to be done today, and there are only so many hours to work with.”
“Why do you feel the need to talk so cryptically when you’re stressed,” Ailade asked, a keen smile crossing her face as she also stood, following him to the doorway.  
“I always talk like this,” Hemorrhage began, before realizing he had fallen into the proverbial trap.  With a slight eye roll as his friend smiled brightly, he pushed the doors open, Khan entering before either of them.  “You know, one of these days, you’ll be just like me, a much older, wiser nocturnal having to deal with the shenanigans of a younger, naive werewolf.  Perhaps if you start acting more respectfully around me, Luna will avert you from that fate.”
“But master, I do respect you,” Ailade accentuated.  “I simply wish to allow you to reminisce in your younger years through me, since you’re so old and crippled with years.”
“You simply saying that made my back creak,” Hemorrhage teased, stooping his neck down.  “Oof, my poor neck has grown so tired of carrying around my head for so many years.  I might simply let it fall to the ground someday.”  The comment was complimented with a slight pop from his neck at the motion, catching them both by surprise.  Khan spun around, head cocked sideways in confusion at what could have caused the noise.  The stallion lifted his hoof and rubbed his now relieved neck, stating, “Perhaps I am crippled with age.”
The both of them chuckled heartily, approaching the wooden table that centered the room.  Khan had moved on from the strange noises, scratching at a stone cabinet that stored some salted meat leftover from past hunts.  Hemorrhage opened the cabinet, trusting that Khan’s pack mentality would cause him to leave food for the others.  The large lycan stuck his snout partway inside and bit down on the largest slab of meat, instantly backing away in shock, his tongue hanging from his mouth.  This caused a new bout of laughter from the older two, who had grown used to some of their meals being salted.  Khan turned and whined shrilly at them, complaining about their mockery of him.
“Aw, don’t you worry, it’s simply for the flavor and preservation of the meat,” Ailade assured him, explaining the cause of the unusual flavor.  Khan slowly turned back to the meat and carefully bit down into it, pulling it from the cabinet, taking it as he moved aside to allow the others their own meal.  Ailade pulled out a smaller, hoof sized patty of meat, which she took a bite of while she grabbed a much larger strip for Hemorrhage.  He raised an eyebrow at the motion, but took the meat anyways, taking a bite from it.  This meat was much more recent, so even though it had been salted, there was still enough natural moisture to form a delicious juice as he chewed it.  Somehow Khan had already finished his portion and he moved to grab another, but Hemorrhage blocked him.
Swallowing his bite, he told the lycan, “We do things differently in a coven than in a pack.  For starters, Leper is responsible for these kills, and as such, he’s supposed to have the largest portion of the meal.  We can go hunting sometime tonight anyways, and you can eat your fill then.  Spring is here, so there will be a good amount of replaceable food for the next few weeks.  We can hunt almost without consequence, but you’ll need to go with either Leper or Argon to learn the territory and how to hunt respectfully.”
“Hunt respectfully,” Joint suddenly asked, appearing in the doorway of the dining hall.  Hemorrhage spun around, hiding his meal behind his back, and practically slamming the cabinet shut with his magic.  The mare pursed her lips slightly, raising a brow at his obvious and failed attempt to hide his meal.  “Oh come on, what else would you be eating?”
“That’s… that’s fair, I suppose,” Hemorrhage muttered, flustered.  “I simply didn’t want you to have to see us eating.”
“Hunting respectfully is a code we nocturnals have,” Ailade interrupted, answering Joint’s question and saving Hemorrhage from embarrassed silence.  “We must survive by killing and eating other living beings, everything from a small rabbit to a grown stallion, but that doesn’t mean we devolve into deranged and bloodthirsty murderers.  We have a code of conduct to maintain our respectability and appreciation for life, as all creatures should.  It mostly involves not gorging ourselves on the lives of others, especially defenseless creatures that have no hope of fighting back or escaping us.  It’s much harder to control yourself, especially when you’re hungry or craving blood.  It’s worth mentioning, since we don’t want you to get the wrong ideas or have to wonder, that pony blood is the tastiest, and their meat is especially pleasing.”  Ailade shook her head sadly, muttering, “I am ashamed to say that we all know the flavor of ponies.”
“It’s fine, I know what our blood tastes like too,” Joint said darkly.  “Besides, as long as you aren’t hurting anyone on our side of the border that doesn’t deserve it, I don’t care, truly.  It was a shock to learn that not only are vampyres and werewolves real, but that they were a part of this society so blatantly.  Now, however, it makes a whole bunch more sense why such devilish creatures like the bastard exist.  No offense to you and your coven, of course, but I’ll assume the vast majority of nocturnals aren’t like you.”
“You’d be right in that regard,” a familiar voice replied to the comment, joining the conversation.  The four turned to Argon, who stood in the doorway, his family standing with him as they joined for breakfast.  Leper stood silently behind them, his keen young eyes darting around all of the present members, his eyes slightly narrowing at the close proximity of Hemorrhage and Joint.  The youth had been taken under the wing of Nightseer primarily in the past few years and had obviously learned much from her and her mate.  Argon gave Joint a guarded glance, but otherwise approached them without regard for the strange pairing of outsiders and coven members.  
“We have quite the crowd now,” Nightseer observed, carrying her own little foal in with her.  She gave Ailade a friendly smile, sitting down at the table in the room as Argon went to the cupboard, opening it and blatantly displaying the dark red slab of dried meat.  Khan took the opportunity to reach into the box and steal another slab of meat.
“Ahp,” Hemorrhage shouted at the lycan, snatching the food from his jaws with his magic.  The disappointed nocturnal whined slightly, but otherwise accepted that he wouldn’t be receiving any more free food.  Looking at the slightly drooled on meat, the mordigan offered, “Here, you can have this Leper.”
 The lycan gave the meat an uncertain glance, watching a glob of saliva drip off of it.  “I’ll pass,” he declined, sitting down across from Nightseer.  “I’m going hunting tonight anyways, since it seems we’ll need a much larger food supply, and I’m getting tired of salty food.”  The lycan realized the context of what he’d said with a glance at Joint, who had simply watched the proceedings in silence.  He smiled sheepishly at her, explaining, “Sorry, not used to having innocent blood in the room.”
“It’s fine,” Joint replied coolly.  “I’ll just have to try to look intimidating while chewing on my greens.”  
The joke landed with Hemorrhage, who chuckled softly, a visual image of Joint chewing on grass while scowling at them popping through his head, biting into his own meal and finishing it off.  Khan stood up suddenly, tail brushing across Hemorrhage’s back as he carelessly walked towards the young family, almost as if to beg for some of their food.  
“For those who didn’t happen to hear or know, the lycan’s name is now Khan,” Hemorrhage informed.  The lycan dismissed hearing his own name, opting to sit next to Argon, looming over the stallion and staring angrily as the werewolf simply smiled up at him, taking a large bite of his meat.  “Ailade and I came up with it privately.  And speaking of new names, Nightseer, Leper, neither of you had the opportunity to meet Joint and her daughter, Amethyst.”
“Hello, friends,” the mare introduced herself with a friendly head nod.  
“Yes, she’ll be staying with us for some time, and speaking of which, it's almost time to leave,” Hemorrhage stated.  Even though there were no windows in the room to protect Nightseer from the light, he had learned over the years where the sun was by feeling.  “I haven’t told any of you yet, but Argon came back early this morning bearing news that has driven me to determine something.”
“You’re speaking cryptic words again, master,” Ailade said hushly, concern crossing her face.  
“For good cause,” Argon stated darkly, most likely having guessed Hemorrhage’s intentions.  “Go on.”
“For too long, we nocturnals have remained hidden from our world, the world of normality and light, which has driven us to dark and maddening habits.  We have instilled ourselves with bloodlust, and for the most part, our only reaction with normal ponies is to feast on them.  Our coven has pledged against it, but dozens of other nocturnals have continued to simply leech off of the world.  There are seven of us here and two newborns.  Six of us have feasted on pony at some point in our lives, and all of us have killed them, outcasting ourselves from society.  However, I know now, from years of experience and a few hours of learning that there are always two sides to a moon.  The side that remains in the dark, the unknown, terrifying, cold face, and the face that gleams down in the night.  We need to become like that  gleaming face, a face that scared ponies look up to at night for comfort in the darkness.”
“And how do you propose we do that,” Ailade questioned, her eyes narrowed in concentration.  
“To put it quite simply, we are going to war with the Crystal Empire,” Hemorrhage declared, a firm crease forming in his brow.  “The Bastard King is a mordigan such as myself, and I refuse to see another moon pass before I take some action against him,  one of my own kind!  He continues the war that has killed thousands.  No doubt some of his victims have been consumed, and I’m sure to guess that a few of his magistrates are nocturnals as well.”
“So we’re attacking a much larger coven that is controlling a whole nation as well,” Leper surmised.  The young lycan seemed to be holding back a laugh.  “I have to question how you plan to do that?  We hardly have the strength to keep peace with the other coven.”
“That’s just it, though,” Hemorrhage pointed out.  “We didn’t have the strength to face off with them, so we made a pact.  That pact also states that we will protect ourselves from other, larger attacking pacts.  Well, the Crystal Empire might not be its own coven, but it is ruled by a member of one, and since it has attacked not only soldiers, but citizens, an invasion would target us as well.  Thus, we would be dragged into the defense of each other regardless!”
“Wait, but that’s if they invade, which they wouldn’t, and not so far this way,” Leper noted.  “Besides, thay have yet to go so far as to eliminate civilian centers, or target defensive villages.”
“Yes, but that was the old Empire,” Argon interrupted, standing up.  He loomed over the table with an angry look on his face.  “In the short time that I was within the Crystal Empire, there were a great many things that I heard about and witnessed that made me wish to kill every one of them there.  However, on the same night that Joint escaped from the palace, I overheard several of the generals talking in the early morning.  They were attempting to be secretive, hiding in the back end of the palace, and so I was inclined to listen.  That very night, Sombra had executed his queen, which may be the only good thing he’s done in his reign.  His advisor, a strange pony that hardly speaks to anyone but the bastard, had made a suggestion to winning the war.  He declared that the heart of the nation of Equestria wasn’t the army, but the citizens within, so, if he wished to strike a deadly blow, he would have to hit Equestria in its heart.”
“The farming lands of the Opotimare Valley,” Joint breathed, a haunted look crossing her face.  “There’s thousands of ponies their, and almost no soldiers.”  She looked up at Hemorrhage, a determined glean in her narrowed eyes.  “We have to warn the Princesses!”
“That’s the plan,” he assured her.  Turning to the coven, he pronounced, “We have much that needs to be done today.  Argon and I will be heading to Canterlot to warn the Princesses of what we’ve learned, everything of it, and offer ourselves up as soldiers.  I also have plans to recruit our familiar coven so they don’t feel forced into the conflict, since I’m sure Halven will have the wits to deduce they will face conflict either way.  It should only take Argon and I a day to get to the castle, though it requires us to not be in our pony forms to travel so quickly.  In the meantime, I need Ailade and Nightseer to prepare a gift to bring to the other coven, as well as help Joint in whatever way she and her child needs.  Leper, you’ll have to take Khan under your wing.  You’ve grown out of being new to the nocturnal lifestyle, and now it’s time for you to pass on the knowledge of how a lycan lives to another.”
“I’ll do my best,” Leper swore solemnly, his face serious.  
“We leave in half an hour,” Hemorrhage announced to the entire coven, before standing and walking to the werewolf.  As soon as he had stood, the room erupted with movement, and even Khan seemed to have an air of importance to his movements as they prepared for the busy day.  
As Ailade passed by him, she muttered, “You should’ve gotten some sleep.”
Hemorrhage didn’t have time to respond to the mare before she was gone, so he instead turned fully to Argon, who was hugging his wife and daughter.  A twinge of guilt struck him like lightning as he realized that the stallion probably hadn’t even seen his young daughter since his return until now.  With a sorry frown, he apologized to the couple, saying, “I’m sorry I have to steal you from each other yet again, Argon.  As soon as this is all over, I’ll make sure to take the brunt of outside actions needed.”
“It’s okay, Hemorrhage,” Nightseer calmly assured him, resting a hoof on her husband’s shoulder.  “We have eternity to make it up.  Besides, these ponies need to be protected, so it’s good to know that there’s no better stallion to help you with the task than Argon.”
“Yes, there truly isn’t,” Hemorrhage agreed with a slight smile.  “I’ll go now.  I need to at least prepare parchment and ink for when we arrive, and I have my own good-byes to say.”
A knowing smile crossed Nightseer’s face, an encouraging nod admitting his leave.  He turned and walked hastily towards the exit, knowing Joint was right behind him.  
“So after everything, you’re just going to leave me here behind with the other mares,” Joint asked bitterly.  With a glare, she wrapped around in front of him and stopped, halting his movement in the hallway.
“Trust me, it has nothing to do with wanting to protect you or keep you somewhere safer,” he replied.  “It’s simply that, in this sort of event where haste is a necessity, Argon and I would be the quickest traveling off-road.”
“I was a ranger in the Equestrian army,” she reflected defensively.  “I can move almost thirty five miles an hour!”
“Yes, I have no doubt you are fast, but Argon and I can reach Canterlot in perhaps two hours with non-stop running,” he explained.  The statement was clearly a surprise to Joint, her eyes widening at the almost impossible speed.  With a slight sigh, he dispersed himself into inky mist for a brief second before rematerializing, this time with much more body mass and wings.  “I can fly quickly, and if there is any sort of obstacle on the ground, I could pick up Argon for a brief bit.  Besides, you have Amethyst to tend to as well.”
With a defeated sigh, Joint seemed to realize he had a point, shaking her head slightly.  “Fine, but when you come back, you’re taking me with you to join the army.”
“You wouldn’t have it any other way,” he replied with a teasing smile.  
“That’s right,” Joint agreed, smiling similarly.  They leaned in and kissed briefly, before the necessity of time pulled them apart.  The rush of the kiss carried him up the stairs of his tower and through the quick process of packing parchment and ink into a small fabric sack.  Before he knew it, he was back down by the doors of the castle, the doors swinging open.  
Looking back to the members of his coven that were staying, he felt a brief, almost indescribable, twinge of comfort at the sight of Nightseer and Joint standing side-by-side, their respective daughters in hoof.  These were the ponies he’d grown to love, one like a daughter, the other much more personally, and each had their own child, a new member of the coven that would be raised in the world that survived whatever was about to come next.  
Turning to Argon, who was staring back at Nightseer, he raised a hoof and laid it on his shoulder.  The stallion looked over to him, and with a determined nod, they went, one flying, the other running, to protect the world that they needed to survive.