//------------------------------//
// Fading Embers, Burning Sparks 
// Story: The Immortal Dream 
// by Czar_Yoshi 
//------------------------------//

The cheerful populace and sunny skies of Ponyville were not enough to get Papyrus's words out of Corsica's head, even as they left Twilight's castle behind and tried to catch up with the others.

According to him, there was some sort of bond between special talents and souls. That sounded feasible enough. For most ponies, at least ones who developed special talents rather than being born with them, the talent was closely tied to their identity, to who they were as a person.

Also according to him, there were ways to pull out special talents from ponies and move them around. That sounded outlandish, except it was also part of the reason she came to Equestria in the first place: rumors that Starlight could do just that. Corsica wasn't any closer to making a decision on the subject than she had been the last time she set hoof in Fort Starlight, but it was still an option. An ultimate, no-take-backs answer to how to live with a talent like hers: just don't live with it. Throw it away.

But would doing so cost her a part of her soul?

Corsica wasn't sure. This talent hadn't appeared on her flank in anything resembling a normal manner. It was also a talent that had existed on other ponies before she was even born, so the odds of it being attached to her in the usual way were incredibly low. But she also never felt like her mind was invaded by alien thoughts, so it probably didn't have another soul attached already. Supernatural weariness aside, the one time she could think of where her mind hadn't been her own was during her possession by Ludwig. And if that was what sharing a body with someone else felt like, she was beyond certain she wasn't doing it now.

...There had also been the time she was unconscious from talent overuse, and Coda tried to help by polluting her head with flattery and lust. But that definitely didn't count.

The rules and mechanics Papyrus described had to apply to her somehow. Her situation was too abnormal for these other edge cases not to be relevant. Was it possible that someone had used moon glass on her while she was comatose, recovering from the avalanche? Moon glass that contained a special talent with no soul attached?

Back in Icereach, during the Aldebaran incident, Elise had made her touch an empty piece of moon glass, she remembered. Ostensibly because any changeling would have known what it was and not touched it, but it had done nothing to her. Maybe empty moon glass could only steal loosely-attached special talents from batponies, and not from other ponies, even if they had loose bonds? It made sense, if blank ponies could pull special talents out from the glass...

But all this wrapped around to the one question Corsica was both morbidly curious about and really didn't like pondering: Papyrus said his reincarnation revolved around a blank mare receiving his special talent, soul still attached, and then getting pregnant and having it move into the new foal.

So what would happen if she got pregnant?

Would she lose her talent, and her foal be born with it instead? Would nothing happen? Would her foal be born with the talent and no soul at all, or would it reveal that she had been sharing with someone all along, and somehow never noticed? Or would the foal get the talent and a new soul, tightly-bound, even though her talent had apparently moved throughout history on its own up until now?

Corsica couldn't think of a situation where it would be useful to know the answer to a question like that. And she had no intention of ever finding out, talent or no. But even though it was just a thought exercise, it proved impossible to evict from her brain.

She did get a chuckle out of watching the other ponies out on the street, civilians chatting or shopping or walking between destinations. None of them, she could say with absolute certainty, were thinking about anything remotely as bizarre as she was. It was almost a good enough feeling to balance out the weirdness of thinking about this in the first place.

Just in case, she glanced over at her companions, trying to read their minds instead. Seigetsu was characteristically stoic and at attention, as if she was trying to memorize everything that passed her gaze. Papyrus was clearly scheming; even though she had called him out on it back in the castle, she didn't buy for one minute that he actually had nothing to do. In between goals, sure, but the thing about ponies who weren't her was that when they had nothing to do, boredom prompted them to change that. She doubted even accomplishing his life's goal could keep him down for long.

And then there was Faye.

Faye was deep in thought. Faye was bad at hiding when she was deep in thought, a trait she shared with Halcyon. Unlike with Halcyon, if Corsica asked, there was at least a twenty percent chance Faye would tell her part of what was on her mind. Optimistic guess.

Halcyon herself, Seigetsu was still keeping hostage in order to keep Faye in line. Part of Corsica resented that. Another part of her remembered it was she herself who turned Halcyon over to buy Faye's freedom, back in the Crystal Empire. She also remembered how that whole mess had been Halcyon's fault in the first place... and, before that, Halcyon incessantly ghosting her, leaving her in the dark and punting Faye up front to do the talking when she was completely cornered.

It had been long enough for Corsica to let herself start to forget how annoying that was. Only barely long enough - not even two days - but long enough, all the same, perhaps because today was shaping up to be a good day where brooding, existential dread and unwelcome blasts from the past visited the ponies around her instead of Corsica herself. She stole a glance at Faye's bracelet, a sure sign that a trade hadn't been completed while she wasn't looking, and sidled closer.

Maybe, since it was a good day, it was time to have a little fun.

"This is supposed to be your job, you know," she muttered under her breath, low enough that only Faye could hear.

"Eh?" Faye perked up, her ears trying and failing to point forward.

"Broaching conversation when one of us is brooding?" Corsica poked her. "I didn't expect you to let your other half stay on sabbatical so long. That's usually her thing."

Faye looked down. "Actually, I was just thinking about how to get her back."

"How?" Corsica blinked, realizing that this might actually be a time Faye was willing to talk. "What more is there to do than ask Seigetsu?"

"Not like that..." Faye shushed her, motioning to Papyrus, who was clearly in his own world, and Seigetsu, who clearly wasn't. "It's more like, how do I catch her up with all the things that have happened over the last two days?"

Corsica thought back to the crystal city, Convergence and the sealed door. "Yeah, that might take some doing. You can't just, like, share all your memories with her, though?"

Faye kept her eyes awkwardly on the ground. "...I could," she admitted. "But Halcyon really wasn't doing alright. Barely an hour or two before she was taken, she froze up all on her own, and I got kicked back into control. And some of the things we saw down there, I think would push her in the wrong direction. I do want her back, really. I don't want to be the one up front all the time. But the way we were when we left off, she wasn't tenable. And our mission is so far from finished, we can't just break down. So what do I do with her?"

Corsica wracked her brain for the empathy to imagine herself in Faye's situation, and came up wanting. "No clue," she admitted. "You could stick her up front, and I could... like..."

"You remember how she was treating you," Faye pointed out. "It was driving a wedge between you two. She wasn't letting you in when you wanted it, and was then freaking out about alienating you. You should be someone who could help, but I don't know if there's a way for you to get through to her."

"If I ever thought you were faking this before..." Corsica rolled her eyes. "You know how many teenage mares in the world would do something stupid, ignore their friends, and then see nothing awkward whatsoever about asking that very same friend for tactical advice on how to fix things without actually apologizing or trying to fix them?"

Faye's ears pressed back in embarrassment. "You were the one who asked me. And anyway, nineteen barely counts." She tilted her head. "Are you even still nineteen? Did I miss your birthday?"

Corsica shrugged. "Think I've still got a week or two before the big double-decade mark. But if you think it'll make me act like any more of an adult..." She trailed off, getting an idea. "Hey, here's a plan. Let's call my birthday a deadline. You get Halcyon back by then, get it through her head that she was being a dummy and can talk to me about whatever's on her mind, and then we both write this episode off as us being dumb kids and call it water under the bridge. Sound fair?"

"That's not how it works," Faye muttered sheepishly. "I can't make promises for her. Even though we share a body, and were the same person at one point, we aren't anymore. And I think there was a lot more wrong with her than just her relationship with you. Do you have any idea how many times she's been betrayed recently? Or how many things she's had to leave behind that are central to her identity?"

At that, Corsica hesitated. "Well, if she wants me to, she's welcome to tell me. And so are you, by the way. I know I'm humoring you with this split personality thing, and I know I believe it just from how I see you act, but on some level you're still the same person."

Faye glanced at Papyrus. "I swear, I spend so much time bracing myself for him to say something dumb, I can already hear a two-for-the-price-of-one joke in response to that."

Corsica blinked, frowned... and decided that merited revenge. "Speaking of Papyrus. You know how he was talking about extra special talents giving you multiple people stuck in one body, right?"

Faye nodded.

"And the way he was reincarnated," Corsica went on. "Anyway, you think if you got Halcyon back, and then got pregnant, she could literally become your-"

Faye's eyes went wide as she caught onto Corsica's train of thought. "Don't finish that-" she started, then sighed. "Well, now that's going to be stuck in my head. For your information, I'd rather fight Chrysalis with a stick. Why were you even thinking about something like that? And what compelled you to share it with me?"

Corsica had been holding her breath, and finally let it out with a grin. "Daughter?"

Faye gave her a rude look.

Corsica giggled. "First off, you were the one who brought him up. Second, I was already pondering that earlier, so now you know my pain. And third, it's a good distraction from whatever else you were stuck on, right?"

"You have an interesting definition of good," Faye mourned. "But it sure is a distraction, alright. Who even figured something like this out?"

"Starlight," Papyrus called from up front. "That mare's mind works in strange ways."

Corsica glared at him. "Were you eavesdropping on us?"

Papyrus looked back over his shoulder and shrugged. "Only as of ten seconds ago when you got loud enough to hear. What are we talking about, by the way? I just assume everything is her fault on some level."

"Nothing a colt like you needs to know," Corsica called back, smugly sticking close to Faye.

Papyrus rolled his eyes, made a kissy face at them and went back to scheming.

"Odds were," Corsica muttered, remembering to be quiet again, "he was the one who invented it and that's not even how he came back, and he just wanted us to have to think about it. You're still welcome, for sharing the load."

Faye sighed. "Actually, I talked to Starlight in the kitchen before he got dragged in, and from what she said, he might actually be telling the truth. But it's not like this matters to either of us, right? Neither of us are blank, neither of us have any dead people we want to bring back, and on top of that, moon glass would probably kill me." She blinked in realization. "At least, I don't have anyone dead like that. You're not...?"

"Nope." Corsica shook her head. "And even if I did, I'm pretty sure you need their special talent for it to work. Which isn't something I imagine you can easily get."

Faye lowered her voice further. "It might still merit thinking about, though. Because... Papyrus said Chrysalis stripped the special talents and souls from all the Empire's batponies, turning them into changelings. And there are other ponies who supposedly died back then, but are still here today, like Leitmotif. And if Chrysalis can do it, what about Coda? What about ponies who know about changeling queens and are researching these things, like Lilith. What I'm saying is, there could be other creatures out there in similar situations."

Corsica felt a chill. "Oh yeah? Well..." She stopped talking entirely, mouthing her words for Faye to read. "You told me your real mother was Chrysalis. If she could do that, steal and hoard special talents, who's to say that you aren't...?"

Faye's pupils constricted.

"And who's to say that I'm not, either?" Corsica returned her voice to a whisper. "I have a weird talent that appeared in a weird way at a weird time. What if it did that because I had it all along, and it was just waiting for a time to show up? I never met my mother. What if... you know?"

For a moment, Faye looked stony. "If you were, would it matter?"

Corsica blinked.

"If either of us had been someone else in a previous life," Faye repeated, "would it matter? To Papyrus, it only matters because he remembers it. And he was so famous, some people actually recognize him. For that matter, I don't know what happens when we die. Maybe that's how it works anyway, and Starlight just did it herself for him instead of letting nature take its course. So, I think this is something we shouldn't worry about, even if it could be true."

Corsica tilted her head. "You sure? If I used to be someone else before becoming who I am now, I feel like I'd owe it to my past self to try and figure out who they were, and what they wanted to do with their life."

"Positive." Faye closed her eyes.

Corsica squinted. "...I feel like Halcyon would agree with me on this. Do you know something...?"

"She and I are more different than you're giving us credit for," Faye said, shaking her head. "And I just don't like thinking about having a history I couldn't have changed, but still have to feel responsible for."

Corsica winked. "Fair enough. Here's something else to think about: why not go and ask Seigetsu to trade? Right now. Stop thinking, start doing. Today's a good day for me - shocking given how early it is, I know - so trust me on this. Don't bother filling her in on the last two days, just switch. I'm tired of your mopey butt going solo."

Faye gave her a skeptical look. "What are you suddenly on about?"

"Dunno. Maybe talking with you has made me feel like doing something useful." Corsica gave Faye a push with her telekinesis. "Quick, before I realize what a sloth I'm supposed to be and come to my senses."

Faye stumbled along, seeming to comply. Corsica could practically feel the inertia coming off her: procrastination, a desire to prepare, fear that she would mess something up by acting too hastily - and it was a poor match for the Halcyon she knew, hater of bureaucratic obstruction and professional science snoop.

Actually, it sort of fit Halcyon too, notoriously unable to take action when push came to shove, who would concoct a beautiful plan and then stop trying the moment phase one began. Fitting that someone as paradoxical as that would be split into separate selves that couldn't reconcile with each other into a single person. But right now, Corsica wanted Halcyon's energy back. And in the precious window of time she had where everyone else was getting facerolled by life and she was inexplicably okay, it was time to act on her desire. With her intuition to guide her, she might not even need her talent.

Corsica watched in satisfaction as Faye stumbled up to Seigetsu, and made the request.





I felt like I was struggling beneath a cold, black lake.

My limbs felt heavy and disused, trying to climb anyway, chasing a glimmer of green that grew into a bonfire as I rose, and then a window, and then a world. And then I slid back into my body, doubling over and catching my balance as reality poured itself like a bucket over my head.

I gulped down sweet, flowery air, that smelled of blossoms and fertilizer, waiting for my world to stop spinning so that my memories could re-orient themselves. What had I just been doing? Taking control back after being on my own for a while, but...

The Crystal Empire. There was supposed to be Luna, and Aegis, and Nanzanaya. In a dark room.

I was in danger. Arrested for trespassing. And yet there was also blue sky.

Cobbled streets. Thatched roofs, none made of crystal. Ponies standing around and talking. Tranquility on the wind.

And also Papyrus and Seigetsu, the former completely distracted and the latter watching me with passing interest.

Seigetsu had been in the tower, in the Aegis room, helping Princess Luna. Betraying me.

What was going on?

The sound of hoofsteps barely alerted me in time as someone approached from behind, grabbing me and putting me in a headlock. With a spike of panic, I tried to light my bracelet, but it was missing-

"Woah! A nerd!" Corsica's joyous voice cried out, and a hoof was aggressively ruining my mane.

"Hey-!" I tried to struggle, but it was no use.

Corsica swung around in front of me without letting go, her grinning muzzle barely two inches from my own. "You alright there?" she asked, letting up on the noogie. "You looked like you were really spacing out."

"What's happening?" I asked groggily, breaking free from her grasp and stepping back just enough to protect my personal space. Also, my coat was gone, replaced with a pious, oversized robe. "Where are we? And why am I wearing this?"

The discontinuity reminded me almost of when I remembered my first meeting with Egdelwonk. Had I been sleeping? Did my dreams just repair a hole someone had left in my mind?

Corsica finally looked a little more serious. "That's actually a long story and it'll take forever to fill you in on the details, but the short of it is you probably don't remember the last two days. Crystal tower, Aegis room? I ditched you to go hang out with Princess Twilight because you ditched me to go hang out with the zebra? Those are the last things you were there for?"

I squinted. Did I believe that?

Might as well see where she went with this. I nodded.

"The important things you need to know are," Corsica went on, dropping her voice to a whisper. "You're sort of on probation for that thing with the Aegis room. Seigetsu has your bracelet. No, you can't get it back. Second, Papyrus is literally Gazelle, not just a joke, and the other you might have made a bargain with him you'll live to regret, but for now he's on your side, not being a mass murderer, and probably better at knowing what makes Starlight tick than you are. And last, everything's good between us now. We had some heart-to-hearts and got all the awkward stuff sorted out and in the past, so don't worry about that. You good to walk?"

"Hold on," I pushed back. "How about you start with where we are, and then prove that you're not Egdelwonk and he had nothing to do with this."

An apple core bounced off my head. Glaring, I turned, already knowing what I was going to see.

"For the record, I had less than usual to do with this," Egdelwonk said, lurking deep enough in a wastebasket beside an outdoor diner that all I could see were his red-on-yellow eyes. "Want some local specialty?"

A bat wing talon rose out from the basket, holding another apple core.

I sighed, turning back to Corsica.

"I'm serious." Corsica shrugged. "I bailed you out so hard you could have practically kissed me - not that you did, or anything - and we're basically even now. All that stuff you were freaking out over earlier is water under the bridge. And you're getting your head screwed back on right now, as opposed to any other time, because there are currently no stakes and everything is going reasonably according to plan, and all we have to do next is watch and wait. Any of this getting through to you?"

I had absolutely no idea what to think.





Corsica tried her absolute best to read Halcyon, stopping short only of using her special talent, and still had absolutely no idea what she was thinking.

A blank, jaded look was fixed on her friend's face, as if Halcyon was unconvinced this was reality and not a mirage. For a moment, Corsica wanted to wish anyway to read her friend's mind, to gain some sort of insight, to know the right words to say. Sure, they hadn't actually smoothed things over thanks to Halcyon being gone and Faye not being the one Corsica had a quarrel with... but if she could convince Halcyon they had, maybe that would be all it would take to normalize things between them again. If Corsica could get over it, convince Halcyon she was over it...

This was too important a chance to pass up. She wished she could get a tiny clue of what Halcyon was thinking.

On command, the insight slid into her head even as a rhetorical lumberjack knocked a modest chip in her determination for the day. And what she got told her that Halcyon was presently a paranoid wreck who wasn't going to trust the ground beneath her hooves, much less anything anyone said. No matter who was saying it.

Faye hadn't been kidding about the betrayals wracking up in Halcyon's life. Forget Aldebaran and everything from Ironridge, that was old-school. Just since they crossed the mountains, Halcyon had been betrayed by her airship, her body, her instincts, Yelvey the shady Snowport cleric, Seigetsu, and even Corsica herself, not to mention getting off to a bad start with Princess Luna and maybe the dragons, and never trusting Papyrus or half her team in the first place.

Corsica looked her up and down, and with a slow, familiar despair, realized that nothing she could possibly do could reach this mare.

Why had she been feeling optimistic about this, again?

A look of brief surprise flashed across Halcyon's face, and suddenly her posture changed.

"You're back?" Corsica guessed, assuming Faye had re-asserted control.

Faye's ears fell. "She's still watching, this time," she whispered. "I... don't know what I was expecting, letting you talk me into that. And it looks like I've cost you your good mood. I'm sorry." She flicked her tail.

"Don't be," Corsica said, trying to scrape her spirits back together into a pile. "I think I've got a better idea of what's going on here, if nothing else. You... just let her keep watching, and we'll see where Papyrus can get us? And maybe she'll trust you to fill her in on the important stuff?"

Faye looked somewhere between skeptical and resigned. "Right." She nodded. "I guess we'll see."

They started walking again, each in silence. Corsica's head spun once again, this time with things she could do for her friend.

It was abundantly clear to her now how bad that incident in the tower's Aegis room had been for her friend. Halcyon took it like a brick wall took earthquakes. Faye appeared to take it better on the surface, but only because she was laying down. But Halcyon had lost her spark, and Faye never had hers in the first place...

Valey had lost hers, too, back in Ironridge. Starlight had lost hers, here in Ponyville. Corsica sometimes had hers, but it was so unreliable it was worth nothing at all. But if no one did anything, Chrysalis or the windigoes would win. The world could face another changeling invasion, or else freeze solid.

That spark was the only missing ingredient. If Starlight was really as phenomenally powerful as her friends believed her to be, all it would take was the will to fight on to make a difference. But with what little energy she had, where could Corsica make a difference? How could she focus on something small enough that it would be a goal she could achieve? Even trying to return the favor to the mare who got her back on her hooves after her special talent appeared was like trying to move a mountain with a toothpick.

Maybe... she could confront Princess Luna, try to clear up whatever misunderstanding had come between them, undo the things that had knocked her down one blow at a time? Maybe that wouldn't be possible. What about Seigetsu? The dragon had shown an openness toward underhanded dealing before, as long as it served what she saw as the greater good.

What about the ponies around her? Could she rely on Papyrus to be the spark Ironridge needed? One of history's great villains, trying to figure out why he had been given a chance at round two? Certainly not. Leitmotif and Nehaley, back in the Crystal Empire? They weren't even here... and she still remembered how Leif had treated them during the Aldebaran incident.

Jamjars? Someone else back in Ironridge? Corsica never interacted with Jamjars enough to truly learn what her deal was, but had a solid read on her as a soloist who only trusted others when she had collateral held over their heads. Not someone who could inspire others to win a war, not someone powerful enough to do it on her own.

...Twilight?

Twilight was barely staying on her hooves handling things in Ponyville. She might be an alicorn, and she might have time still before life reduced her to a guttering stub, but Corsica doubted that mare could stop a tax evader, much less a war. And she was gung ho enough to try it anyway, and hurt herself in the attempt.

Corsica plodded onward, searching for a way out where she knew none existed.





The atmosphere inside Sugarcube Corner was unfittingly festive for Corsica's mood. Much of this seemed to be the fault of Nanzanaya, who was delighting the shop's two owners with how much she could put away. In fact, it seemed to have devolved into an eating contest with Pinkie Pie.

Rainbow Dash was loudly egging the contest on. Fluttershy was quietly following suit. Rarity and Applejack both looked mortified by the quantity of sugar that was being guzzled, Starlight looked like she was indulging in a badly-needed distraction, and Twilight wore the fiercely protective grimace of someone afraid for their research budget.

Everyone looked up as Corsica, Seigetsu and Faye entered... and Papyrus brought up the rear. Only Twilight, Starlight and Rainbow Dash even recognized him.

"Ladies," Papyrus said, swaggering only slightly as he tossed them a bow. "Thanks to your silver-tongued and deep-pocketed friends here, we've struck an accord and I'm now nominally on your side and not about to repeat the mistakes of decades past and all that. Sorry about all the insults, by the way. No hard feelings, Princess Puffball?"

Twilight gave him a look. "You say one thing, and then you mean the other... Why do you keep calling me that?"

"Nicknames are fun." Papyrus shrugged.

One of the shop owners, a short, rotund mare with a mane that looked even more like ice cream than the average pony's, waddled over. "New customers, dearies? Or here with your friends? Or both!"

"Get whatever you want," Twilight sighed. "And please don't make me regret offering."

"One of those, if you please." Papyrus pointed absently at a pastry display case while swiping an apple with his tail. "And might there be a back room we could dine in? I've got a stellar joke I've been practicing the whole way here, and I'm afraid someone won't catch the punch line over the noises those two are making."

He pointed with a feather at Pinkie and Nanzanaya.

"Of course," said the other owner, a lanky stallion with a short goatee. "Right this way, any who are coming!"

Papyrus didn't need to motion for anyone to follow. Twilight, Starlight and Rainbow automatically gave wary chase, trying their best not to look suspicious to the shopkeepers. Corsica just followed at an ordinary pace.

"Right then," Papyrus began, putting his forehooves together on the table as the door behind them swung closed. "I-"

"Hold up," Twilight interrupted. "Supposing you've really had a change of heart and these two convinced you to play fair..." She glanced at Corsica and Faye. "That is what happened, right?"

Both mares nodded.

Twilight turned back to Papyrus. "Have you got any explaining to do for yourself?"

"The chaos made me do it." Papyrus dismissed her with an idle wave of his hoof. "That passes as an excuse for some redeemed baddies around here, or so a noodly dragon-goat-thing friend of yours tells me. And I'm a master of insincere apologies too, so you won't want me to waste my time on those. Happily for you, actions speak louder than words, and I've had the whole walk over here to prepare my act."

He thumped the table, burrowing into Starlight with a poker glare. "You. Flame of Laughter. Go there. Fix things. And then go make up with your friends."

Starlight gave him a blank look. "Why do you care?"

"Because, I've been around them long enough to see the before and after," Papyrus swaggered, though his tone was serious. "And on the wrong side of history often enough to get a taste of their idea of justice at their prime. Remember the first time we fought, in the rain on the outskirts of Izvaldi? You remember how little you hesitated when you decided I needed to be stopped? I know how your horn used to be. I know how badly you hurt yourself in that fight. Valey, too. I remember the feeling of my claws sliding through her flesh... and I remember how easy, how natural it was for you to drop what you were doing and stick it to the bad guy. You needed no hesitation, despite the danger! And all for what, because I was being rude to someone who frankly deserved it?"

He leaned in. "You remember all those times I told you I didn't fight fillies, and you got in my way anyway? Remember how you hunted me down after the end because you couldn't stand the knowledge that I might still exist somewhere in the world, doing things you couldn't control to people you cared about? Remember all that?"

Starlight frowned.

"Let it marinate in your brain for a bit, and then consider this." Papyrus tossed his apple, caught it, and bit down with a sassy crunch. "You've got a place you need to go. Fate of the world hinges on it, blah blah blah, nothing new for you, I'm sure. And the one and only reason you can't bring yourself to do it is 'personal reasons'. Sounds like you've got some history there, eh?"

Starlight narrowed her eyes. "You were listening when I said that?"

Papyrus casually gnawed the apple. "In my defense, it took some time to work up the courage to see your reaction to my presence. I am mortal now, and part of that involves an instinctual and sometimes inconvenient desire to remain among the living. Nevertheless, imagine this: suppose I took my leave of you, went to this Flame of Laughter, and threatened to take some pictures and bring them back to you? Or maybe you've got a bad history with ponies who live there, and I threatened to tell them all where you live now? Innocent actions, the same thing you turned a god into charcoal over once before. Would that get you up and motivated?"

"You have a very backwards understanding of how I work," Starlight said, closing her eyes and turning away. "I saved you and your sister so that you could get the chance at normal lives you were previously denied. Is taking that not enough?"

"Same to you about the backwards understanding thing." Papyrus stuck out his tongue at her. "My old goal was plain and simple: give Gwendolyn the world, and make her want for nothing. Thanks to you, that's now something that's less a matter of conquering nations and more a matter of leaving well enough alone, giving me nothing much to do. Except there's also a deranged changeling queen and a swarm of windigoes threatening an area very near and dear to her, and while I could take a page from your playbook and grab her and run away, look how well that worked out for you."

Starlight grimaced.

"And I tragically lack the preparation time and position of power necessary to pull off a stratagem to head off this war all by myself," Papyrus lamented, "and am no longer a super god capable of doing it through brute force. So technically, by haunting you, I'm still doing what I've always done: trying to keep my sister safe, this time by goading you into saving the world. I bet you've got plenty of things you never got the chance to do before it was too late, don't you? How would you feel if you slacked off yet again, the windigoes did their thing, Lyn died again due to your inaction, and I once again went berserk over it and ruined your happy little life here?"

"You have no powers anymore," Starlight warned, her voice hard. "If you think-"

"That I can beat you for real after all this time, then I'm sorely mistaken?" Papyrus winked, taking another crunch off the apple. "Oh, I'm very much aware. But I could probably still make enough of a nuisance of myself that you'd remember me."

"You're making a pretty big nuisance of yourself already," Twilight pointed out.

Papyrus innocently curled his lip. "Guilty as charged, but I suppose that's the point. But fine, then. If you won't get off your rear to avoid a repeat of history with me, won't you at least do it for Lyn? She, unlike me, deserved to be brought back, and also unlike me you've yet to see the fruits of your labor."

Starlight looked away.

"Valey won't be able to do it," Papyrus said. "She's given everything to keep up the good fight, and that spark you two shared back in Izvaldi is almost gone. But even if she's fading, she's still alive. It's not too late to see her again, you know. And Shinespark! Garsheeva's breath, the kinds of magic that mare delved into to restore her horn and support Valey from the shadows... If anything happened to her, that's an awful lot of power that could fall into the wrong hooves. And Gerardo is still sailing the skies with Slipstream, on a never-ending hunt to keep his promise to you all those years ago. Wouldn't you like to tell him it's all over, and he can finally come home?"

Starlight squeezed her eyes shut. "Please stop," she whispered.

Papyrus leaned in, resting his chin in his hooves. "And what about Maple? The way I heard it, it didn't even take a year for Valey and the others to get their first writ from Yakyakistan, and she immediately left to go join you in Equestria. I take it she never finished that journey, eh?"

Starlight froze up.

Papyrus took another smug bite from his apple.

"So sad," he mourned after she didn't respond, crying crocodile tears. "So many friends for whom it isn't yet too late... until it is. Sit on your haunches and bury your head in the sand, it'll all be fine... until it isn't! But who will be next?"

He broke out in a sharp grin. "With the way things are going up there, it could even be all of them at the same time."

Twilight and Rainbow Dash looked ready to intervene, but Starlight beat them to it.

"You...!" Her horn pulsed, and a spike of crystal formed around her hoof, drawn back and ready to impale Papyrus where he sat.

"Hit me if you want," Papyrus drawled, throwing the apple core at a wastebasket over his shoulder and missing, not even flinching despite his peril. "But I'm just giving voice to what you already know to be true. Hitting me would be like hitting yourself. Like what you're already doing, day in and day out, every time you bludgeon the voice inside you into submission that's telling you the same things as me."

He got out of his seat. Starlight's crystalled hoof was shaking, and he batted it aside with a wing. "With such a war against yourself, what do you think is going to be left at the end? The good, precious angel who risks everything to stop dastards like me? Or a hollowed-out shell who cares about nothing and thus can do anything, and has no limits to stop her when she goes astray?"

Starlight looked like it was she who had been stabbed. "How... do you...?"

Papyrus licked his lips. "I've tasted your psyche. Remember the hospital, in Kinmari? I know the innermost depths of your fears. Was too insane at the time to make anything useful of it, I'll admit. All I saw in you back then was a kindred soul who could grant me the release I desired. But now, I know how to break things, and I know what makes you tick. And whatever walls you've put up, whatever excuses you're using to keep yourself from doing what you once knew needed to be done, are mine to devour."

Starlight only stared.

With a chuckle, Papyrus turned his back on her and made for the exit. "I've said my piece. Barring anything changing, the next train to the Crystal Empire has my name on it, as do any airships I have to steal to get across the mountains. Just because I've had a slow start doesn't mean I'm not about to try and protect Lyn my way. You can come, or you can stay. But your life here has been nothing more than a pretty illusion. All the work you've left unfinished will haunt you until it's finally too late... and it'll be High Prince Gazelle who brings the news."

He closed the door with his tail behind him, the pastry he had ordered held proudly in his teeth.

Rainbow Dash whistled.

"Starlight, are you...?" Twilight gingerly reached out a hoof.

"Gather anyone who's up for a walk," Starlight said distantly, getting to her hooves. "I need a trip to the canyon in the Everfree to get some things. And then... we're going to Our Town."

Twilight and Rainbow perked. Corsica did too, presuming that was the area near the Flame of Laughter...

"I don't know about anything after that," Starlight said stiffly, gathering her things. "I can't go back to the north. I can't. But..."

"We'll be there with you," Twilight whispered, putting a hoof on her back.

Starlight pressed her eyes closed, took a deep breath, and opted to leave the rest unsaid, squeezing her way out the door.