//------------------------------//
// The Third Chapter 
// Story: The Hybrid 
// by LucidTech 
//------------------------------//

        Celestia gave a moment of silence to the stallion beneath the bed sheets. Her insides twisted themselves into knots as she watched the blood stain the cloth crimson again, undoing the magic she had cast mere moments ago. Eventually Celestia found herself with a growing urge to continue the questions to the victim who had wrapped himself in anything available. A vain attempt to keep the heat from bleeding out of his body. 

        Steel Swirl had been the earth pony brother of the infamous unicorn mage with the same last name. He had remained mostly unnoticed by the populace, but he had done as much, if not more, than his brother in protection of the kingdom. Star Swirl was the creative of the two, but Steel received the muscles and miltaritarian quick wit. He had stood against a dragon once and had come out alive, if barely. After several weeks in the hands of the best medicial ponies he had eventually been brought out of his coma, Star Swirl had been a wreck the whole time,

        His life had come to an early end when Luna had turned into Nightmare Moon. He had fought valiantly, giving Celestia enough time to prepare the elements, but had died before the spell could be cast. 

        Or so it had been thought.

        Celestia’s eyes looked towards the sword again and any doubt she may have had about the stallion’s identity was gone. It seemed to brighten the room from it’s position in the middle. She had enchanted the steel herself. It reflected the stallion’s current life force, it had been known to light up an entire room by itself, back before the corruption of Luna. The dwindling light it now shown seeded worry in the princess of the sun. 

        She turned once more to the mass in the bed and asked the question in her mind. “How did you live?” It was a curious, yet determined tone. An odd mix of emotion that Celestia had become known for recently, her campaign against the changelings had changed much.

        “Luna saved me.” He stated. “Her Nightmare magic is a lot stronger than you know, stronger even than the limit that my brother hypothesised all those years ago, where the magic would destroy it’s wielder.” A loud crack echoed from underneath the blankets followed by a pained gasp. The sheets became a visible shade darker. “When the Nightmare cast the spell to kill me, Luna used extra magic to add something else to it. Immortality. Nightmare’s spell dropped me into a volcano full of lava. It burned like all the heavens but it didn’t kill me. Eventually I escaped that torment.”

        Celestia’s heart went out to the stallion, she wouldn’t wish that on her worst enemy. “Then why do you not want to talk to Luna?” She asked.

        The blankets scattered in a sudden burst of rage. The hybrid stared her down, the first time she had seen him completely since she entered the room. Slits of broken carapace were marked with red, many dripping blood. “Because she had no right to save me!” The words were filled with loathing. “I don’t know about you princess, but I felt the PAIN of being in the middle of lava, but I didn’t get to enjoy the sweet release of death!” A heavy exhale exited his nose. “I would much rather have died.” A soft laugh followed. “And now that I have a body that doesn’t hold all of her spell, I probably can.”

        Celestia decided not to comment on that. It was true, she could feel. But she had long ago removed her ability to feel too much pain. Thus, she believed, the insanity that she saw in his deep blue eyes was... acceptable. After what he had done, for the country, for her sister, for her.... he had the right to whatever he wanted. Deciding to get directly back to business she opted to ask the stallion questions. If he was intent on death, then she needed her answers sooner, rather than later.

        “What were the changelings planning?” She jumped straight to it. 

        A laugh echoed from Steel’s throat. He had climbed back into bed, dragging several red blankets with him. “Nothing, your highness.” Despite his previous jovial chuckle his voice held the same dignified tone that he had used whenever he had spoken with her prior. 

        “Nothing? Then how do you explain your... current state?”

        “They we’re just trying to make me into a changeling, Celestia. I broke out early.” His words weezed out of his muzzle and Celestia delayed her shock for a moment. A look of worry crossed her face as she looked at the stallion who had protected her for the ten most hectic years of her reign. He had kept his head outside of the tomb-like collection of blankets that he had piled on top of himself. He coughed up a collection of blood and green changeling ooze then looked to her out of the corner of his eye. The gaze snapped her from her moment of indecision and she spoke up again.

        “You broke out? But that’s...” Celestia’s mind drifted back to her time in one of the changeling cocoons. Her magic was nullified by the liquid inside it, and she had been too weak to break out. Her mind drifted back to Steel’s victory over a dragon and she realized that he had always been much stronger than her.

        He didn’t make a move to finish her sentence, and let the silence hang as it was. Then, as Celestia made to leave, he spoke up. “You were always so much stronger then I was, Celestia.” Shocked, the princess of the sun turned to face the hybrid but discovered he had pulled his head beneath his blankets once again. As a parting gift Celestia cast the cleaning spell on the sheets once again. The least she could do was make his last moments as peaceful as possible. Then, without another word, she left the tortured soul to his fitful sleep.