//------------------------------//
// 138. Can You Feel the Love Tonight 
// Story: Rebirth of the Damned 
// by Borsuq 
//------------------------------//

	Marahute’s eyes followed the rainbow-maned mare as she flew into the air, leaving the ponies she had talked with. The Great Spirit have hidden herself from both the eyes of the mortals as well as their higher senses, on top of taking the small shape of a sparrow. She wanted to observe the pegasus without anybody noticing her. And since Provato’s student had joined her not long afterwards, Marahute had to take extra precautions.
After those past several hours, she came to a conclusion that, in this mare, her blood had definitely awakened. The way she flew, how little exertion she put into it, her smoothness in the air… and now, as Marahute watched her, she had reached an impressive speed within seconds after taking flight. This Rainbow Dash was born with this mane, not had it dyed as some zebra worshipping her had. This pony bore a mark of being born to the skies, in more ways than she could realize.
Marahute frowned, pondering. “Why had she been born with this mane?”
All pegasi were Marahute’s descendants, like every child of the skies in this world. But within a few generations all those millennia ago, when her oldest child Sairyss had mingled with their kind, her blood dispersed among them, and that trait had disappeared. Since then, only a few had been born with those manes.
“The three last ones led the pegasi during the bloodiest battles with the cubs of Snowfeather,” she recalled, “and the one before them rallied them into the Pegasi Armada three thousand years ago. Is this one destined for greatness as well?”
Marahute wondered if this was truly the first pony in which her blood had awakened in twenty five hundred years. Ever since the pony tribes had left their old lands up north, Sairyss had cased observing them. “Probably lost his interest in his descendants after what that one had done…
Her thoughts returning to the present moment, Marahute contemplated about everything she had seen this day. Rainbow Dash wasn’t the only thing that gained her attention. She and Provato’s disciple, as well as those four other mares, had an unique connection. It seemed as if they all had been touched by some power. Though it was weak and difficult to pick up, Marahute recognised this power, despite the many, many millenniums since she had last sensed it.
It was almost identical to the power of those who had shaped this world.
“And they’re not the only ones…” she thought, glancing at the white stallion that along a lavender mare and a dragon hatchling had been left by Rainbow Dash. “This one… though it’s not exactly the same… it resembles the Lights that became the Sun and the Moon more than them… though unlike Celestia, he doesn’t seem to be connected to either of those two, rather to something… higher…” Marahute trailed off, puzzled. Though that power all but emanated from him to those who had the eyes of true sight, there was something else. Something that stood in contrast with his entire being. The touch of death.
“Does she have anything to do with him?” Marahute pondered. “It doesn’t seem like her… and besides, I doubt he’s a shadow hunter, he feels different from them either. And why does his soul seem so scarred?” the Great Spirit thought, focusing on the other strange thing about the white stallion. “As if it wasn’t fully here with him? This is strange… ”
Then again, he wasn’t the only one who seemed strange in this little group. That unicorn he was now talking with, she also seemed different beside the touch of that ancient magic. Marahute could sense that great destiny was ahead of that. “And then there’s this little dragon…” she thought, her eyes focusing on the hatchling on the lavender pony’s back. “There’s no mistaking it. He’s-”
She paused as she felt somebody’s mind reaching to hers respectfully. Marahute quickly recognized it to be her current champion, Prophet Amaka.
“What is it, Amaka?” she asked, a touch annoyed.
“I beg your forgiveness, Great Spirit, but you had said that you would be away for only a day.”
Marahute made sure her champion could sense her amusement over her worrying about a being such as her. “The situation had changed a bit. I decided to take a closer look at some things.”
“As you wish, Great Spirit. I shall inform everyzebra at the temple.”
Once Amaka’s consciousness left her mind, Marahute jumped from a branch from which she observed the group of ponies and took the air. Though she felt tempted to continue watching the white stallion, lavender mare and the baby dragon, or search for the female changeling - whose race she seldom had a chance to observe, ever since they first appeared a thousand years ago - during her courtship ritual, the Great Spirit wanted to see how fast the rainbow-maned mare could fly.
Flying with speed that was impossible for the form she wore, Marahute quickly caught up with Rainbow Dash. She kept her distance from her, watching her form. The mare was completely relaxed, and appeared as if this already impressive speed was merely casual for her.
“Now, how to coax you to fly a bit faster, child?” Marahute pondered, but before she could conjure any idea, something draw her attention.
A brief flash of light in the distance, and short screech that carried to her through the wind.
A smirk made its way to Marahute’s beak. Forgetting about the pony mare, she changed her direction, flying directly up. As she rose higher and higher, she made herself visible, both to mundane senses as well as those higher ones.
When she broke the cloud level, she dropped her disguise, appearing to the skies in all her glory and wonder.
Not even ten seconds had passed as the one called Al’ar burst from the cloud as well, following her.
Marahute’s smile grew bigger. Up close, the creature Provato’s student had claimed to be “the Phoenix God” looked even more majestic, more worthy of that name. “Except he isn’t a phoenix,” she noted as Al’ar flew closer. “At least, he isn’t a descendant of Fafnir. Although, like my son, he seems to be a half-elemental… Could he be a child of Aine?” she pondered, but quickly dismissed the thought. “No, he cannot be. There’s something… unworldly about him, but I don’t think he came from the Flamelands, or any other Elemental Kingdom.”
By then, Al’ar had almost reached her. Marahute cased her inner dispute, deciding to have a little fun and test him. With an effortless push of her wings, the Eagle Mother increased the distance between them by a great length. As she expected, the bird of flames did not show confusion by her act. His only reaction was increasing his efforts in reaching her.
“Alright,” Marahute thought as she turned away, “let’s see if you can catch me.”
Of course, she wasn’t going to fly at her full speed. As the fastest being in the world, Marahute had to go easy whenever she wanted to test somebody. Though, as she had quickly learned, Al’ar didn’t need much of a handicap from her. The Phoenix God had was gaining speed, the air around him burning as he put more of his power into reaching her. Marahute smiled with approval as Al’ar finally gained in on her by the time they reached the Everfree’s Forest.
“How about your agility?” Marahute wondered, swooping down.
Al’ar immediately lined his course with hers. The Great Spirit veered left; so did he. When she leveled her flight and turned right, just to fly back up, Al’ar was on her tail the whole time. Marahute did a barrel roll while flying upwards, and he was there, right in front of her. The two circled in the air for several heartbeats before stopping in mid air, accompanied by nothing but the sound of their wings and hearts.
“I’m not one to be easily impressed,” Marahute cooed, gazing into his burning ruby eyes as she touched his beak. “So being accepted by me is a rather great praise.”
Al’ar cawed in reply as he moved his beak along her face.
“Unable of speaking?” she thought, a touch surprised; his eyes spoke of great intelligence. “Oh well, not like it matters…”
“You won’t mind if we change the scenery a bit, won’t you?” she asked as they nuzzled each other in the air. “It would be distracting if any of those ponies were to come by us in the next couple of days… especially as it’s been a while since I laid eggs…”
If Al’ar had any objections, he did not showed them. Marahute smiled as she entered the Spirit World, pulling her mate with her.
As the world around them changed from colorful and sharp to gray and blurry, with the stars and Moon barely visible from behind the great vortex, the two birds flew towards the land.





“I really would have been more comfortable if we had told Applejack,” Nymph said after few minutes of silence.
Big Mac sighed. He would have preferred if the first thing either of them mentions on their first date would have been something other than his sister’s attitude. Though he couldn’t really blame Nymph for bringing that up; not with either of them being too shy to say anything since they left the stage of the performance and went to the park, right after Applejack’s friends had distracted her and lied for Nymph to keep her away.
“Ah must remember t’ thank ‘em later.”
“Me too,” he admitted, turning to Nymph. “But mah sister’s mighty stubborn. If she thinks ya’re up t’ no good, then tellin’ her would just convince her she’s right,” Big Mac said, rolling his eyes.
“Then…” Nymph started, then hesitated. “Then maybe we shouldn’t… I mean, I like you very much,” she quickly assured him, “but I would hate to cause any strife in your family…”
Big Mac suppressed an urge to sigh again. He had expected Nymph to say something as much. He was about to tell her that he couldn’t care less about what Applejack thought, when he spotted something in the corner of his eye.
“I know that you’re going to say that only Applejack has a problem with me,” Nymph continued, not noticing him bending down to the side of the road they walked. “So if she would attack me - not physically, of course - Apple Bloom and Granny Smith would defend me along with you, but… it’s just unfair to Applejack.”
Big Mac, having picked up the object he spotted with his mouth, leaned to her.
“It could make her feel like I am stealing her family from her, and I-” Nymph trailed off in mid-sentence, finally noticing Big Mac’s actions. Her eyes widened as the huge stallion brushed her cheek and slid something into her mane’s hair, right above the ear.
A small rose flower.
Big Mac leaned back, wanting to see the surprise on her face as she looked at the rose, visible on the edge on her vision. He waited for the Nymph to turn back to him with that warm and shy smile he grew to like so much, before he leaned back.
And kissed her on her cheek.
“Don'tchya worry about mah sis,” he told her as her face became red; his was too, but luckily nopony could hardly ever notice. “She will come around. Tell ya what,” he told her, seeing that she was still not convinced. “Tomorrow mornin’ mah sisters are goin’ on a campin’ trip with ‘eir friends. They will be gone for a few days. Ah can tell Applejack in the mornin’ that we’re goin’ out, and by the time they got back, she-”
“No,” Nymph interrupted him, shaking her head. “It’s a good plan, but I wouldn’t want to ruin the girls trip. Applejack would be angry through most of it. But,” she added, smiling timidly, “maybe after they come back?”
Smiling, Big Mac nodded. That sounded like a good plan.
It took him several moments to realize that both of them spoke as if taking the future dates for granted.





Storm Clash tried to read the magazine about fashion he found in Rarity’s living room, but he couldn’t concentrate on it. He kept glancing toward the stairs leading upstairs, listening for the sounds of hoofsteps.
It’s been almost half an hour since he met with Rarity after the concert. Of course, he had been there for it, he wouldn’t miss the beautiful unicorn singing for the world. He wished that he could hear only her, without those three other ponies, but he (hoped he) could get a solo song from her sometime in the future. Once he had met her, he escorted her to her house - complimenting her on the performance - so that she could, as she had put it, “freshen up”.
Now Storm was waiting for her, slightly fidgeting in suit, wondering how the date was going to go. They were going to one of the town’s more elegant restaurants, so refined behaviour was required. Luckily, with that shouldn’t be much problem; after all, he had been a royal guard. He had seen plenty of those snooty nobles during various events in the castle. There might be some problem with ponies staring at his jaw…
“Light blind them, let them,” he thought, pushing away that worry. “I’m a knight-lieutenant now, if anypony will look down on me, then that’s their own problem, not mine! Alright… now what else can go wrong?”
He was pulled from his musing by the sound he waited for so long; the sound of hoofsteps. The paladin rose from the couch and trotted to the stairs… and started, stunned, with his crooked jaw dropping at odd angle.
Rarity was… just… Storm could find no words, nor he felt could any higher force that could have been looking down at them at that moment, even if it was writing their fate. She was very beautiful already, but now, in this gorgeous blue and white dress, in these pearl necklace, and in the very flower he had given her tucked into her mane above her ear, she was stunningly beautiful!
And she knew that. Rarity waited a few seconds, watching his reaction, before she started giggling. “Darling, I do hope you plan to get a hold of yourself. After all,” she added, trotting closer, “if you are serious about dating me, you’re going to see me ‘dressed up to the nines’, as they say, a lot,” she stressed the last part, stopping before him. Nodding in the direction of the door, she added: “Shall we?”
Somehow finding strength to nod, Storm turned around and waited for Rarity to move to beside him. He offered her his foreleg, which she took, and they left her house.
“So,” Rarity started, smiling, “as we go to the restaurant, how about you tell me something about yourself I do not yet know about you, my knight?”
Storm, who by then had regained most of his thinking processes, couldn’t help but snort with laughter hearing the rank she used.





Wind soared around Rainbow Dash as she flew across the fields surrounding Ponyville, when finally her destination became visible in the moonlight: Ghastly Gorge.
And what was more important, as soon as she neared it, she heard sounds coming from inside of it, confirming her guess was right. Rainbow landed on the edge and peered down at the green glow.
The light came from Wind’s horn. He was using it to light the area around himself, as he was cutting several large rocks in half with those strange green blades Rainbow had seen him use to attack Zahara earlier. All around him, there was rubbles and pebbles, probably from all the boulders he had cut or crushed to pieces so far. The walls of the gorge had also suffered; as far as Rainbow could see in the light of his horn, they bore the marks from his blades.
“Geez, talk about anger control issues,” Rainbow commented. “Then again, he isn’t doing that to ponies, so… I guess that’s a plus?”
Shaking her head, she spread her wings and swooped down into the gorge. Wind Reaver was so absorbed that he hadn’t even noticed Rainbow as she hovered behind him (while keeping her distance; she didn’t want to get hit by accident). She opened her mouth, wanting to call out to him-
“What do you want?” Wind Reaver asked, without as much as looking back.
Rainbow rolled her eyes. Apparently, he wasn’t as preoccupied as she had thought. “Arthas was worried about you,” she said, flying closer and landin. “Nopony has seen you all day.”
Wind sliced another boulder in half, then paused, hovering in the air and turning to her. “Who?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh, I mean, the Hivespeaker,” Rainbow explained, realizing that only their friends and Nymph knew about Arthas real name.
The changeling before her snorted and turned around. “Tell him I’ll be back by tomorrow.”
Having said that, Wind immediately returned to his earlier exercise, and hit the remains of the boulder. Rainbow tilted her head, watching him for a while as he all but obliterated it. “Are you okay?” she finally asked as he finished.
Wind stopped, his blades halting in mid-air. “Am I okay?” he asked, turning back. “Well, let’s do a recount, shall we?” The changeling’s blades shimmered, and within a second they receded back to his forelegs. Wind landed on the ground and started talking. “A few months ago the love of my life vanished.  Not even our queen, who can locate any changeling with a mere thought on the entire planet can tell where she is. The Swarm searched for her high and low, and found no trace of her. And because I failed my covert ops training, I cannot go and help my brothers and sisters search for my own intended mate!” he shouted, baring his fangs in an angry snarl as he took a step forward.
“O-okay, I get that it might be frustrating…” Rainbow stammered, shocked by his anger.
However, Wind wasn’t done. “It came to that we had to ask ponies for help finding her. Not only do we have to swallow our pride and try to find a way to coexists with our favorite prey, but I have to suffer the humiliation of knowing that when I will finally be able to see her again, it might be because ponies had found her, not me or even my own kind!” Wind growled, taking a step forward.
Rainbow backpedaled. She was beginning to fear him; only now she had remembered how back when he first came to Ponyville he attacked her almost instantly when she touched a very sore subject for him, and only his queen’s intervention had stopped him. Since then, Rainbow had never seen him lose control over himself…
Until now.
“But you know what?!” Wind Reaver didn’t wait for her to answer, he gave it himself. “I would have been fine with that! As long as I could just hold her together again, I would be fine with whoever would have saved her! So I volunteered to help with this ‘let’s make friends’ bullshit, and I got stuck protecting that wimpy excuse for a queen’s heir who’s freaking afraid of how ponies think of her!”
Even though her fear, Rainbow’s mind registered what he had said. “Nymph? Queen’s heir?” she thought as she continued to back away. “Wha-”
“And what happens?!” Wind shouted, stopping her trail of thoughts. “She gets attacked by a fucking zebra! I try to defend her, and end up with explosion to my face! I could have died if she hadn’t saved me!”
Something touched Rainbow’s hind hoof. She glanced back, only to realize that she had reached the wall of the gorge.
Her ear perked as she heard a buzzing noise.
Rainbow didn’t even have the time to turn back when Wind threw himself at her. She grunted, more from surprise than pain, as she found herself pinned to the wall of the gorge, with a very angry changeling inches away her face.
“And you’re asking me,” he snarled, “if I am okay?!”
Rainbow didn’t want to wait and see what would he do next, or whether the Changeling Queen would stop him again. Wind Reaver was pissed and had attacked her again; she did the only thing she could do.
She mashed her forehead into his muzzle.
A crunching sound resonated through the empty gorge, followed by Wind’s grunt as she backed away, forehooves gripping his nose. Apparently, despite how sturdy changeling’s chitin seemed (“And felt, ouch!” Rainbow added, grabbing her head), if one struck with great force they could still inflict some serious injury.
However, Rainbow didn’t pause to see what exactly she did to his muzzle. As far as she knew it, she had still a crazy changeling to deal with, who now, on top of being pissed, was wounded.
Recalling all her battle training she received from Arthas, she jumped at Wind. Being still confused after her attack, the changeling couldn’t reach in time as Rainbow kicked him in the stomach. She grabbed him by the head and threw him above her shoulder, sending him flying…
… literally.
“Oh, right, forgot this is Wind, not Arthas.”
The moment she heard the buzzing of his wings, she dashed into him, smashing him against the wall of the gorge. Wind gasped as the strength of her attack pushing the the air out of his lungs… or whatever it was that changelings had for those. Rainbow quickly grabbed him and flew him against the ground, landing heavily on him.
Wind definitely didn’t like that. The changeling under her began thrashing immediately. Rainbow pressed her body hard against his, ignoring the itching feeling of his wings vibrating against her chest. She wrapped one of her forelegs around his head and lifted it up a little, so he couldn’t point his horn (from which he had fired two bolts of magic already) at her. Their struggled lasted for several moments, until Wind’s effort finally began to case.
“Have you calmed down already?” Rainbow asked, not easing his hold on him.
The changeling did not answer. Rainbow Dash waited for him to reply, not trusting him to behave civilly until he would get a vocal confirmation, when suddenly she heard a weird sound from below her. It sound as if he was choking or slurping something…
“Wait,” Rainbow thought, realizing what this sound reminded her of. “Is he… crying?”
She finally let go of Wind and got off him. He hadn’t moved, just stayed on ground, still making those sounds. It was too dark for Rainbow to see his face, if her was crying or not, but there was definitely something wrong with him.
Not sure what to do, Rainbow placed delicately a hoof on his shoulder. “Hey…” she started, but Wind cut her off.
“I just want her back…” he moaned, not even turning to Rainbow. “I want to hold her in my hooves, to see that she’s okay… if only this would have happened a month later, we would have been mates, and everything would have been fine, I would have found her…”
Her dislike of the changeling before her evaporated as if by a spell. Seeing him broken like this, with his pain exposed, made her do the only thing she could do; act like a friend should. She gently pulled him into a hug. “Hey, c’mon,” she said, hoping her voice sounded confident. “Everything will be alright, you’ll see!”
Wind didn’t reply, although he did return the hug and buried his face (which was a bit wet) into her shoulder. They stayed like this for a while; long enough for Wind’s sobs to trail off, and for Rainbow to start being uncomfortable and embarrassed.
She was about to say something, about maybe getting back to Ponyville or something, when she felt Wind’s forehooves slid down from her back to her flanks.
More annoyed than offended, she sighed. “Really?”
A chuckle escaped Wind. “Everyling has their own coping mechanism.” Rainbow rolled her eyes and pushed him away. The changeling lit his horn. “Thanks, though.”
“Yeah, well, you’re welcome,” she replied, looking at his face. To her confusion, she realized that his eyes weren’t reddened or swollen, nor were there trails left by tears under them, or any other sign that he was crying. From his nose, however, a green liquid was dripping down. “Let’s go, you need to get it healed-”
“Nah, it’s nothing, it will heal on its own,” Wind said, then smirked. “As long as I get some looove-”
“Dream on,” Rainbow replied him shortly, though inwardly she couldn’t help but snort with amusement; it was a bit funny. And it was good to see him be back to his usual self. “Lets go, I’ll see you to the Abbey before I go home,” she said, spreading her wings and soaring into the air.
“Aaaw,” Wind moaned as he followed her, “but I don’t think I should be alone tonight…”





“I must say, this was a splendid night,” Rarity said as turned back to him after opening the door to her house. “Thank you, my knight-lieutenant.”
Storm felt himself blush hearing her use his new rank for about the twentieth time. Not that he minded, though he liked it even more when she used just his name. And he agreed full heartedly; tonight was just… splendid. The dinner they had, their date… everything was just perfect.
“I had a great time, too,” he said, smiling. “So… would you like to go on another date?”
Rarity’s smile widened. “I would love to. Sadly, I have this camping trip tomorrow,” she said, frowning, “but we will schedule a date as soon as I will go back.”
“I will look forward to it,” Storm said, bowing courteously. When he raised, he saw that Rarity was staring at him intentively, as if waiting for somethin- “W-well,” the pegasus stammered, becoming suddenly nervous. “I’ll… I’ll see you soon!”
Before he got a chance to turn around, he felt something grab his face and pull it towards Rarity. In the next split second he saw that this ‘something’ was Rarity’s horn, glowing with magic.
In the split second after that, they were kissing.
His wings immediately sprung open, practically the very instant their lips met. But the kiss didn’t end there. Both of them deepened it at the same time, as if they were of the same mind. As Storm's tongue wrestled with Rarity’s, he became aware to kiss him like this Rarity must have tilted her head at an odd angle, as if wanting it to be perfect. Not wanting to be outdone or for her to be uncomfortable, Storm moved his head a bit to make the act easier for the mare. Once she started humming, he knew he found the right angle.
After what seemed like a minute (guessing by how out of breath both of them were) they parted, panting heavily. Storm looked into Rarity’s amazing blue eyes as she gazed back.
Smiles crept on both of their muzzles.
Rarity, who was first to recover after such passionate kiss, took a step back. “I think our next dates will be even more enjoyable,” she said as she stepped into her house.
Storm nodded, and wished her good night. He waited until she replied and - slowly - closed the door. Only then did he jump into the air, his wings carrying him into heavens as he announced his happiness to the world.





Nymph became unhappy as they slowly reached the entrance to the Abbey. Rarity had told her that “becoming intimate” on the first date was unbecoming of a lady, and although she didn’t care much about that, she wanted to seem to Big Mac as… as much a normal pony as she could. It was the best course of action she could take if she wanted this relationship to last.
And besides, they’ve already agreed to meet tomorrow.
“Would you mind walking me to the barracks?” she asked Big Mac, leaning against him. “So that we could part in private?”
At the entrance, as usually, were Sound Wave and Cherry Bomb, standing guard. Parting there would not only be awkward because of the onlookers, but also because of who they were.
Ponies she had slept with. Or rather, had done everything but slept with them.
Nymph had to hand it to Rarity; the unicorn mare had kept on repeating over and over during their lesson in the spa that a mare shouldn’t just have a casual sex that she had actually made a changeling feel slightly like a slut. She even actually felt so bad about it, that when during their date a subject of “exes” was brought up, she had mentioned them to Big Mac, but had quickly assured him that they meant nothing as nearly much to her as him the instant she felt a wave of hurt for him. Nymph even begged him to stop feeling like that, said she would do everything… but before she had a chance, Big Mac’s pain disappeared, replaced by amusement and a feeling of… of…
Nymph leaned closer to Big Mac as they passed the entrance (while the two guards quaked in fear under the unexpected glare the big stallion send their way) as she recalled that wonderful feeling. The feeling of-
“M-miss Nymph,” Sound called out as they passed him and Cherry. They both turned back - with Big Mac growling, which made the unicorn stallion step back - and looked at him expectantly. “S-sir L-lightbringer wanted to see you tonight before you would go to rest.”
Nymph tilted her head in surprise. “What could the Hivespeaker want from me?” she thought as she nodded in a sign that she understood, and she and her date continued to trot towards the barracks. “Did something happened to Wind? I haven’t seen him since that zebra’s… mistake.”
She forced those thoughts out of her head as she turned to face Big Mac. They were at the door leading to the barracks. It was time to say good bye. And currently, for Nymph, that took priority before everything.
Big Mac was frowning in the direction of two stallions. Nymph didn’t need to be a changeling to know what he was feeling.
Fortunately, she knew exactly how to fix that.
“Hey,” she said softly, taking a step towards him.
The second Big Mac turned to her, she grabbed his head with both forehooves and kissed him with all the passion she could muster. The red stallion was so shocked that he actually backed away a few steps before she finally returned the kiss, wrapping one foreleg around her.
All that Nymph wanted was to melt in his embrace…
When Nymph had finally pulled back and pressed her nose against his, Big Mac was becoming purple on his face. “Tomorrow we’re spending the entire day together, remember?” she whispered to the red stallion.
“Eyep,” Big Mac replied slowly, gazing into her eyes.
“The whole day, just the two of us,” Nymph whispered, moving her head so that she could nuzzle his cheek. “I’ll show you just how much you mean to me.”
Having said that, they shared one more kiss and parted, wishing each other a good night, knowing that the other would be thinking about the other. And although Nymph was almost certain that she heard two high-pitched yelps and something breaking as she descended further into the halls of Abbey’s barracks, she knew that Big Mac wasn’t worried about those two anymore.
She kept thinking about him and about their date… until she had finally reached the door leading to the Hivespeaker’s office. Then she returned to her earlier thoughts after Sound had told her he wanted to see her. What could it be that the Hivespeaker wanted from her at that this time?
“Come in, Nymph,” came from behind the door as she knocked.
The changelings entered the room to see the Hivespeaker sitting behind his desk, putting a book he was reading on it. “I am terribly sorry if I had interrupted anything-”
“No no, it’s alright,” Nymph quickly interrupted him.
“I’m glad to hear that,” the Hivespeaker said. “Having Big Mac angry at me is about the last thing I need…”
“What is it that you wanted to speak with me, Hivespeaker?” Nymph asked, confused. It didn’t seem like anything bad had happened…
Hivespeaker smiled. “Well, it’s not just you I want to speak with, but your queen as well.” As Nymph’s eyes widened, so did the Hivespeaker’s smile. “I have great news.”





Spottedleaf lifted her head, smelling the air. There was no scent of any wild mice or squirrels anywhere.
“I finally get tired of all those fishes and go hunting, and there is no prey. Figures,” she thought, before continuing her prowl through the edge of the forest. “Maybe I should try for a rabbit instead…”
She knew it was really dangerous. She knew she had promised to not hunt any prey. But she was starting to go crazy with only fishes for every meal. She wasn’t a RiverClan cat, nor was she a kittypet to try those dry blocks they eat. She was a ThunderClan Cat, and tonight she was going to taste mice!
Or squirrel. Or a mole. Or…
The wind changed its direction, and was now blowing from behind her. A scent she had never tasted before reached her nose.
Spottedleaf whirled around, prepared to fight or run… and could only stare at the creature before her.
He was big and majestic, like the the warriors of old. Spottedleaf would have thought him to be a TigerClan cat, except his fur was purely black. And his shoulders weren’t such broad as tales of their ancestors said… was he somehow half TigerClan, half LeopardClan?
Before Spottedleaf could shake her stupor away and greet him, the great cat lowered his head to hers, gazing into her with eyes that shone with stars. “Is he a spirit?” she thought as his nostrils flared, inhaling her scent. “Did… did he come for me? Or-”
His nose moved lower down her body, making Spottedleaf gasp in surprise.





He took another step through the blizzard that seemed determined to keep him away. He wasn’t going to give up! He was so close… he reached out…
And through the blizzard, in his dream, Spike grabbed her.