Twilight shook with her rising and falling breast, her breath came in ragged bursts. The stone upon her back was cooling, a dramatic contrast with the warmth of blood pouring down her face from behind her right ear and from the base of her horn, down between her eyes and off the side of her muzzle. She shuddered, fighting back the urge to cry. She didn’t have the time for tears. The sound of falling debris caused her to snap her head to her right, her eyes flying open and her ears perking up to catch any sound. Across the street that had once been her home in Canterlot, so many years before, the facade of a storefront crumbled slowly from damage. Past where she sat and further down the street, she could see smoke rising into the cloudy sky, from the fires of the ruined city. Had she been told that such a thing would’ve happened just the day before, she would’ve told anyone that they were insane. Who knew how many lay dead? Goodness knows she had seen more death in the last several hours than Equestria had seen in the last thousand years.
She looked down at her trembling hooves and felt the threat of tears welling up in her eyes once more. She looked elsewhere, hoping to find some ember of hope. Something. Anything? Above her hiding spot, next to a water-barrel in an alley between two of the buildings in the Canterlot business district, she saw a tattered spider’s web flutter in the breeze. Her eyes snapped shut as she shook her head, violently trying to expel the desperate screams of a changeling drone as a shadow… No, she just couldn’t think about it. As it was, she was on the edge of falling apart. Oh, gods, was there any chance for them? Any?
Instead of facing her fears, she turned from her hiding place and continued running. The war-torn streets of Canterlot offered her little solace, but plenty to keep her mind occupied and reminders of what had happened…
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Earlier.
Luna dreamed of the dark times, when Discord had ruled and her ponies screamed out for a savior. As much as she loved this new Equestria, with its peace and harmony, there were times when the past haunted her. When the darkness clung to the edge of her dreams and the gates of Tartarus loomed over her, the screams of the damned calling out to her. The pounding on the drums of war, a time when her and her sister had been needed. Their tempo steadily increased to a chaotic beat, a desperate hunger for her blood, calling out her name. It was the frantic pounding hooves and the intermittent cries of pain that woke Luna from a troubled sleep.
“Princess! Princess Luna! Wake up! Princess Luna!” The muffled sound of Twilight Sparkle’s frantic voice fluttered through the heavy door of her bedroom.
Unlike her sister, Luna preferred to sleep in complete darkness. It made the moon appear all that more lustrous and bright when it rose every night at her call. Despite this fact, she strode across her darkened domicile with great speed and nary a misplaced hoofstep.
“Twilight Sparkle what-” She began as she opened the door.
The smaller princess, practically tackled her larger sister. “Luna, we’ve got to go, Canterlot’s under attack!” Twilight cried, her hooves pawing at Luna’s barrel.
“What!?” Luna gasped, “By whom? We must raise the guard!”
“There’s no time, they were right behind me…we must fly!” Twilight begged, pulling on her frantically.
“Where’s my sister? Why’s Celestia not with you!?” Luna pried off the smaller princess, her stern voice demanding an explanation.
“Luna we-”
“No, Twilight, what hath transpired?” Luna shook the other mare.
“Celestia tried to fight,” – a sharp, wailing scream of a stallion, coming from the stairs silenced the two mares – “Oh, Celestia, they’re here!”
“Stalwart…” Luna gasped, lunging forward only to be caught by her barrel, “Let me go, Twilight!”
“No, Princess, Equestria needs you, we must flee for our lives!” Luna continued to struggle, even as Twilight choked out a desperate plea, “It’s what Celestia wanted…”
The Lunar princess shuddered and moaned, “No…”
“Shining Armor’s marshaling the guard, but they’ll need you, Luna! Without you, they’ll be lost!”
Luna suddenly turned and made for the balcony, Twilight in toe, before turning her head back toward the stairs, “Aegis, take wing! Your princess is safe!” Only a relative silence greeted her ears, causing her to shake her head in dismay.
The Princess of the Night fought back tears even as she took wing with her younger sister. She knew each of her few guards personally, and if they didn’t come running to her every beck and call, they were never coming. The warmth of the mid-morning air was quickly drawn from the elder princess as the sounds of further screaming filled her ears. The smoke rising from the palace’s missing windows, told her more than any report she could’ve received from anyone at the front. Canterlot was lost.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Twilight and Luna landed on the far side of Canterlot, at the lower gatehouse. Already the guard was regrouping under the hoof of Shining Armor. Both princesses landed rather roughly, mentally and physically exhausted from their flight from the keep. The white unicorn’s eyes widened at the sight of his sister and he darted toward her.
“Twily!” He shouted out in joy.
The young-alicorn’s ears perked up and her eyes lit up with hope. Her head jumped up to see her love running toward her, and at that moment she knew everything was going to be fine. However, as soon as the refreshing hallucination came, it left her, fading to reality. The image of her brother galloping toward her was indeed comforting, but after what she was expecting, nothing could stop her face from falling. Thankfully, the stallion didn’t notice even as he threw his arms around her.
“…Shining Armor?” She sighed, a part of her wishing it were Tau Niem.
“Twily, you’re alright? What took you two so long?” He asked his sister, now pawing her over, to see if she was injured.
“I’m fine, really.” She reassured him, “It’s just that the shadows are not earthbound.”
Shining Armor shook his head as he sighed, “As if things weren’t-” Twilight silenced the stallion with a hoof to his barrel, which forced him to look up at the shocked Princess of the Night, “Your majesty, come on inside. I’ll get you up to speed…”
Luna nodded vacantly, “Of course, Captain.”
Twilight had the sudden compulsion to look back toward the keep that served as the seat of Celestia and Luna until this morning. Her breath was stolen as one of the great, golden spires languidly slid to one side, before toppling slowly over. As it did, she saw several tiny, golden specks fall from the uppermost levels and she couldn’t bear to watch, but couldn’t turn away as she watched what she knew to be good and valiant ponies falling to their deaths. Finally, she shuddered violently and tried to shake away the tears.
“Please, girls, please…just make it out of there.”
After a moment to compose herself, Twilight entered the makeshift headquarters to see Fluttershy leaning comfortingly against Rainbow Dash, with her wing over her back. Seeing the two of them was all it took to elate her, a small victory that she would take without question. The excited mare dashed toward her friends, sitting in an otherwise empty corner of the room, while guardstallions gave them a wide birth.
“Girls!” Twilight exclaimed, “Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy I’m so glad-” Her voice caught in her throat as Fluttershy looked up at her sadly and at that moment, all the inertia in her hooves suddenly disappeared as she ground to a halt, “Where are the others?” She looked back and forth between the two rough looking mares, “Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie...?”
Rainbow Dash shuddered at the mention of their pink friend’s name and her head fell slightly. If she hadn’t known better, Twilight would’ve swore that her prismatic friend’s mane deflated and dulled, just a little. Fluttershy’s slowly shaking head finally drew Twilight’s numb expression from the utterly defeated Rainbow Dash.
“What were those, Twilight? Where’s Tau Niem? Celestia?” Fluttershy’s voice was filled with fear and concern, fear and concern that her violet friend could do nothing to relieve.
Twilight shook her head before speaking, “Demons,” she offered weakly.
“No, Twilight, those were not demons.” Luna’s voice suddenly drew her attention to the large, hastily assembled war-table at the center of the room for the first time, “Those were shadows, the servants of the Demon.”
“You mean that’s just one demon!?” Shining Armor exclaimed from Luna’s side.
She nodded her dark head. “Just one.” Her response elicited sighs and muttered curses from several of the solar guards in the room, “That is exactly why we need to stop it.”
“Stop it, how’re we supposed to stop a demon? We can’t even stop those shadows from…from…” Rainbow Dash protested, her voice rapidly falling out from under her.
“I understand your loss, Rainbow Dash, but we most certainly can stop them. And, we most certainly can stop the Demon.” Luna replied forcefully, for a moment, every mare and stallion in the room felt a little stronger, a little more confident, a little more mighty, “I’m not about to lie to you and say that this will be easy, it will not. The last time a demon descended to Equestria, its words burned a scar into the world. You know it as the Everfree.”
“The Everfree?” Fluttershy squeaked.
“The Everfree.” Luna repeated with a nod, “One tore such a wound in the world that it may never heal. If the darkness makes it to that wound, it might tear it wide open and release yet more of its kin into Equestria.”
“The last thing it said to Tau Niem was that it was going to open the gates to Tartarus and-” Twilight’s voice cracked and broke at that moment, a shudder running down her spine.
“And what, Twilight? What else did it say?” Luna asked, a tendril of fear sneaking into her voice.
Twilight looked up at her sister princess, “That it was going to kill everypony and make me watch.”
Tears flowed into her eyes as the creature’s horrible voice played over and over again in her mind. It sounded so perfect that it should’ve been a pony, but it was too perfect to have been a pony’s. There was something dark and menacing about it, when there really was no reason for it to be. She shuddered once more, even as Luna’s broad wing enveloped her, drawing her smaller form close.
“I won’t let that happen Twilight Sparkle.” Luna’s voice warmed her heart and lifted her spirits about as much as they could be. For a moment, she forgot about Canterlot burning, Celestia wounded at the base of her throne and the numerous ponies that might be dead, including her pink friend. Then she remembered Tau Niem, crawling through that portal with one arm like a wounded animal and it brought back the tears all over again… “He’ll be alright.”
Twilight looked up into Luna’s teal eyes, tender concern filling her features. Luna’s smile reminding her that he was still alive and a part of her knew that so long as he was, there was hope. At least there was someone that she didn’t have to worry about. A fire built in her stomach and her worries just seemed to pour off, a weak smile even managed to sneak its way onto her face.
“Right.” Twilight nodded.
“Right.” Luna agreed, her smile growing.
Twilight turned to her depressed pegasi friends. “Chin up girls,” She reminded them with a little bit of cheer and her two friends looked up to her in surprised confusion, “after all, this is Pinkie Pie we’re talking about, and if I know Pinkie, she has those shadows running themselves ragged!”
The two childhood friends looked to each other, before giving a reserved nod and turning to Twilight. “Right.” Rainbow Dash declared with what little enthusiasm she could muster.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Twilight stepped out of her corner of the barracks dressed in a simple garment of red with yellow accents and blackened leather, holding sapphires and aquamarine crystals. It was the kind of battle apparel not worn by unicorns since the times of Starswirl the Bearded, the crystals were designed to magnify the unicorn’s magic many fold and when worn by an alicorn… None quite knew just how powerful the Princess of Magic could be wearing such an ancient relic. Regardless, the robes did make her a fair sight to behold.
In short order, Princess Luna stepped from her own corner adorned in her own battle armor, that had been smuggled out of the keep by the solar guards at great cost. Likewise, with Twilight’s garb, no one had seen the Princess of the Night in her battle attire in at least a thousand years. When she had adopted the alter ego of Nightmare Moon, she adopted a new set of armor for the role. Now, she was once again clad in her armor and an impressive sight she was. Heavy-looking obsidian plate covered her barrel and neck, accented by a massive, ethereal crystal in the middle of her chest. Further plates protected her fore-shoulders, knees and legs, all the way to her hooves. While thinner plates adorned her flanks and around her rear. Atop her head, an angular helm with three points to protect her horn and ears, gave her the regal look of a diarch in battle. Truly, if Celestia was to be viewed as the loving, caring, mother of Equestria, then this armor declared Luna to be its defender.
The sovereign of Equestria allowed her subjects a moment to bask in her radiance, before she raised a hoof, “Come everypony, fell deeds await our iron-shod hooves.”
Everyone looked somewhat confused by Luna’s statement, before Twilight stepped up to assist her. “The ponies of Canterlot need us!” She declared.
“You heard the Princesses, you know what to do! Look alive!” Shining Armor shouted at his subordinates.
Everyone leapt a tiny bit in surprise, before taking to their tasks just a little faster and with a little more pep in their step. Luna looked to Twilight and nodded appreciatively, whom merely smiled back in response and returned the gesture. Both Rainbow Dash and Flutterhshy approached them then, wearing harnesses of solar guards’ armor fitted for a mare - they were a rare breed, but not unheard of.
Just then, a slew of gasps and startled whinnies arose from outside. A startled guardstallion threw open the door, “Captain, Princess!” He gasped.
The trio quickly filed back out to see Queen Chrysalis standing proudly, defiantly eyeing the ponies glaring death at her, while a dozen of her swarm flanked her. Upon seeing the two Princesses, she smiled deviously. Her eyes full of secrets and lies as always, hinting at the plots and plans hidden behind them.
“Chrysalis!?” Shining Armor hissed venomously.
“Hello to you too, Shining Armor. It’s been too long.” She purred in response, before Twilight stepped in front of her brother protectively.
“What do you want Chrysalis? Do you mean to take advantage of our relative weakness to steal the throne? If that is the case, you will find that I still have plenty of fight left in me.” Luna nearly growled at the changeling.
“I am no fool, Princess Luna. I’m aware that this demon is a threat to all of Equis, not just Equestria.” She held her head just a little higher then, “I’m here to aid you in banishing this darkness.”
“How did you know there was a demon in the city?” Twilight barked accusingly.
She adopted a cross appearance, “ I thought that much would be obvious, Twilight Sparkle.” Her voice then turned sweet, “Congratulations on your ascension to Princess, I do hope you can forgive me for not being in attendance. Or perhaps I was…?”
The Changeling Queen’s laugh drew an angered growl from Shining Armor, “I’ll see-” He started, only to be silenced by Luna.
“No, Captain.” The Princess of the Night then turned to Chrysalis with a curious expression, “What exactly is it that you want? Besides from the obvious?”
“Amnesty. You forget the our past transgressions and allow the swarm into Equestria under a banner of truce.”
“Surely you can’t be serious!?” Twilight gasped.
“I can and I am.” Chrysalis then smiled like the Cheshire Cat, “You need my changelings, both of us know it. Every second you waste, the more desperate the situation grows and the more power the Demon gains.”
“We accept.” Luna declared, eliciting gasps all around.
“Princess, surely you can’t-” Shining Armor blurted out, before Luna’s eyes commanded his silence.
“If it meant saving Equestria, I would make a deal with Discord himself!” She declared resolutely.
“Oh-ho-ho! Was that someone saying my name, just now?” Discord chuckled from above the ponies’ heads, lying atop the gutter of the roof.
“Speak and he shall appear…” Luna muttered grimly under her breath.
“Oh, and here I thought you would be happy for good news…?” He said, looking rather indignant.
“Good news?” Luna looked to Twilight who gave a shrug, before looking back to Discord, “What good news?”
He disappeared in a flash of light, only to reappear on Rarity’s fainting couch. “Oh, I just thought a little chaos was in order. Spice things up a bit, you know...” He chuckled as was his won’t.
Twilight snapped. “Discord, Canterlot is burning, ponies are dying! Help us!” She shouted at him, spittle flying in her rage - her wrath only withheld when Luna placed a hoof upon her barrel.
“Discord… Now is not the time for your antics.”
“Oh…?” He replied, arcing his brow, before disappearing, only to reappear coiling up around Luna’s neck. For her part, she had an excellent poker face, seemingly unfazed… “Is that so, Princess of the Night? What would you know of chaos, hmm…?” He shook his head before any could speak, “No, you know nothing of chaos. Ordered beings as you are. All of you.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Queen Chrysalis asked cryptically.
Discord looked to her, only to reappear at her side, gently pulling her face toward his. Several of the drones that accompanied her hissed angrily in response. She removed his claws with her hoof. “See, I knew you were going to do that. Structured. Regimented. Ordered. All of your lives. None of you know chaos.” He looked toward the burning keep, “Not even the dark one, whose name hurts ear and tongue.”
“You know its true name? How!?” Luna demanded.
“Please...I am older than you, or your sister. Is it that hard to comprehend that I know more of the universe than thee?” He asked skeptically, putting on an old Equestrian tone at the end to tease the Princess.
“What exactly have you done, Discord?” Twilight asked hesitantly.
“Oh, for starters, I asked the Changelings here to help in the fight. It took a little convincing-”
“Convincing? You filled my hive with chocolate milk!” Chrysalis growled at him indignantly.
He laughed, snorting gently at his own joke. “I know...it was good wasn’t it~”
“Discord…” Luna reminded him steely, trying to bring him back on topic.
He looked up to the Princess and briefly shook his head. “Humph, trying to instill order… A lesson, Princess. Life is chaos, death is void. A spirit of chaos is ill suited for an empty world.” At that moment, for the first time any present could remember, the Spirit of Chaos actually looked somber.
“Alright.” Luna stated so flatly it all but startled everyone present, “Thank you for your help, Discord.”
“You’re quite welcome.” The words from his mouth sounded anything like Discord that it was almost painful, like watching a being without purpose.
With a snap of his fingers, he was gone. Just like that.
Chrysalis released a sigh and shook her head. “What do you say, Princess? Do you accept my terms?”
Luna took a decisive step toward the Queen of the Changelings and regarded her with a steely eye, “You help drive the Demon back to the shadows and there shall be peace.” She said, with nary a hesitation on her part as she held out her hoof.
Chrysalis shook her hoof with a nod. “Half an hour. We make our push upon the citadel in half an hour, do not tarry with your forces, Princess.”
“We shan’t.” Luna assured her.
The changeling queen looked toward Shining Armor and gave him a wink, before turning around, “With me!” She called out to her drones that promptly formed up on herself.
“Are you sure that was wise, Luna?” Twilight whispered to her.
“Wise?” She replied quietly, “Most likely, no, but what choice do we have?” She shook her head and turned to Shining Armor, “Captain, you’ve got twenty minutes, prepare what forces you can.”
“Yes, Princess.” He snapped to with a salute and went about following his orders.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
There was no resistance as the Equestrian Guard marched toward the palace of marble and gold, just silence. The smell of blood and burning flesh was overwhelming, a reminder that they were trotting toward doom incarnate. The ponies were soon joined by black-chitin changelings. None spoke as they regarded the spires nearing ever closer. Then, materializing from the shadows, several dark forms slid into view. Spears were levied and horns were charged, but none saw the ones that descended upon them, tearing into their formation like so much hot water.
A scream, that was their first indication that something was horribly amiss. One stallion screamed, then another and another in short succession, and then they were beset. Spears passed though shadow and magic did little to phase them. It was a horrid thing to watch, as stallions and drones were suddenly taken over by the creatures, only to fall to the cobblestone, writhing in agony. It was worse yet when their death throes abruptly ceased. Their ranks broke, ponies and changelings alike fled. Took to their hooves in whatever direction seemed most fitting, furthest from their foes. Then Twilight herself was targeted. A shadow being dove upon her, only to be repelled by a quick blast of light from her horn.
“Light, they hate light!” She called out, only there were too few to heed the call.
A few turned to stand, only to be cut down. Then another made a run for the mare and only too late did she see it. This was to be her end, she knew it. Her eyes fluttered closed, only to hear a hissing-yelp. Her eyes opened up mere inches from the dull, pain filled eyes of a drone.
“Princessss~” It hissed, before its voice became an ear-piercing scream.
The last thing she saw was the bug going into spasm. She turned and ran. Fear overcoming her and tears in her eyes, she ran. There was no particular rhyme or reason to where she fled, merely away. Anywhere was better than there.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Twilight shook with her rising and falling breast, her breath came in ragged bursts. The stone upon her back was cooling, a dramatic contrast with the warmth of blood pouring down her face from behind her right ear and from the base of her horn, down between her eyes and off the side of her muzzle - she couldn’t even remember being cut. She shuddered, fighting back the urge to cry; she didn’t have the time for tears.
The sound of falling debris caused her to snap her head to her right, her eyes flying open and her ears perking up to catch any sound. Across the street that had once been her home in Canterlot, so many years before, the facade of a storefront crumbled slowly from damage. Past where she sat and further down the street, she could see smoke rising into the cloudy sky, from the fires of the ruined city.
She looked down at her trembling hooves and felt the threat of tears welling up in her eyes once more. She looked elsewhere, hoping to find some ember of hope. Something. Anything? Above her hiding spot, next to a water-barrel in an alley between two of the buildings in the Canterlot business district, she saw a tattered spider’s web flutter in the breeze. Her eyes snapped shut as she shook her head, violently trying to expel the desperate screams of a changeling drone as a shadow…
Instead of facing her fears, she turned from her hiding place and continued running. It wasn’t even fleeing considering her direction was simply: away. Amidst everything, a strange sensation caused her hair to stand on end and she ground to a halt in the middle of an empty street. Strange sounds filled her ears. Over the screams of stallions and changelings, she could make out shouting and hooffalls...no, those weren’t hooves. It was strangely familiar, but she couldn’t place it.
As if on their own, her hooves suddenly bore her in a new direction all together. She was following the sound, desperate to know what it was. Amidst Canterlot, city turned battlefield, she was following a strange noise. It surely was madness, but she did not question, merely allowed herself to follow as her hooves instructed.
Metallic shouting voices sporadically broke over the din and very soon whip-snaps too, not unlike those of the twang of a crossbow filled the air. What she had heard as hoofsteps, had morphed into something altogether different, softer, but louder. Decisive and short, muffled yet still powerful. A faint hope sprung up within her. She had heard something similar before, somewhere in her mind, she knew that sound and was drawn to it.
Before she knew it, she was back in the place where she had started. Recoiling a hoof in trepidation and fear, she noticed then that there were no shadows present. Her path was clear. A quick glance to either side revealed odd pot-marks on some of the walls surrounding the gatehouse, nearby to where they had been stopped. They were not from any spell she knew, that was sure. Furthermore, the drawbridge had been lowered by force, the chains severed by some unknown force, melted through. Daring getting the better of caution, she ran. She charged alone into the citadel, following the marks.
Within the walls of marble, she found several odd, glassy burned spots, fires still smoldering gently on rugs and tapestries that were supposed to be fire retardant. Flying up the stairs toward the throne room on reserves of unknown speed, she cut a desperate bee-line, her haste overcoming her sense of prudence. Rounding the corner and turning into the threshold of the large, open, golden doors, what she saw defied words. There were two forms at the center of the room. The first was large and white, with a pink mane and covered in cuts, bruises and blood from snout to hoof, to the point of being almost unrecognizable. The second, was little more than a mass of black. It was small, little bigger than a pony as it knelt down, two diminutive limbs outstretched toward the other immediately next to itself. Its wail suddenly cut through the air…
“Medic!”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Medic!” I called out, once again searching for the alicorn’s pulse, but to no avail, “Damn it… Medic? Medic!?”
“Here…” The man suited in similar armor as myself reported at my side, regarding the wounded alien skeptically.
“She’s not breathing.” I replied frantically, “I can’t find a pulse…”
“I don’t-”
I grabbed him by the only available spot at the back of the neck and pulled him forward, “She is their sovereign, make her breathe!” I growled in return.
“Celestia…?” The faint voice of Twilight broke over the hall.
Suddenly, a half-dozen Hata were leveled on her. Each of the men with myself had her trained in his sights. Though it was clear that she had no idea of the threat that the simplistic looking weapons posed, she froze at being the center of attention of a half-dozen alien figures.
The vaguely wedged shape of my black visor depolarized, revealing my face to her underneath, “Twilight Sparkle?” I spoke incredulously, “Stand down, let the princess through.”
Twilight didn’t even wait for the men to lower their weapons before rushing myself. If it weren’t for the medic between us, I think she would’ve taken me off my knees, her entire mass slamming into mine as she enveloped me in a hug.
“Asto…” She cried quietly into my shoulder.
My hand instinctively went to her mane as I held her close, “I’m here.” The embrace lasted not a second, as she suddenly released me and went to lunge for Celestia, only for me to hold her in place as she called her name, “Wait, stay back, my man is working on her…” She wept as she gently cried her mentor’s name and I pulled her tightly into my chest, even as she still struggled and cried, “I know, I know. He’ll do what he can…” I reassured her.
The medic drew a nanomachine syringe that looked rather like a needless EpiPen and jabbed Celestia’s prone form with it, eliciting a practical panic from the purple princess. “Get away from her!” She shouted.
With a roll of my eyes, I grabbed her by the head, cranking it around to look at me. “Twilight...Twilight!” I barked at her, “Listen to me. He’s trying to save her, leave him be.” She went to protest, only for me to force her mouth closed with a hand, “I need you to focus now, I need your help. Where’s the demon?” I asked her, removing my hand.
“I-I don’t know…” She replied shakily, “It’s supposed to be here.”
“Yes, well, it’s not. How could it have slipped out of the city?” I asked her brusquely and Twilight merely shook her head. “How about your forces, the Guard?” Twilight lowered her head, shaking it again, albeit gently. I sighed, empathizing with her. Of the fifteen I had started with, but seven had made it to the throne room, the other half had fared no better than the ponies. Pulling her close I wrapped my arms around her neck. “I suffer with you.”
“Why doesn’t this feel like a victory?” She wept quietly.
I knew that nothing I could say would soothe her, so instead I merely cooed in a calming voice, gently running my hand down her neck.