//------------------------------// // Epilogue // Story: Justice Itself // by Autocharth //------------------------------// It was nice, Gilda thought, to walk through town without the constant sound of construction. She cracked a nut, spearing the innards on a sharp talon. It was even nicer not to have construction ponies leering at everyone. Well, almost everyone. The griffon grinned nastily to herself, gulping down the nut. They’d been rather loud right up until she got close and really cracked a n- “What are you up to?” The question jarred her out of her fantasy. Gilda squawked, jumping a foot from her cloud. She turned to glare at the snickering pegasus. “Dash!” “That’s the name, don’t wear it out. What will all the little colts and fillies cheer then, huh?” Clinging to the edge of Gilda’s cloud, Rainbow Dash gave a lazy salute with her wing. “You looked ready for trouble.” “Naw, just thinking about something fun,” Gilda said. She sat down again. “Besides, what are you, my parole officer?” “Wouldn’t surprise me,” replied Rainbow Dash. She let her smile take any sting out of it. “Just thought I’d say hi. I’ve been kinda busy, you know, so I thought maybe we could...talk.” They both shuddered instinctively. Neither mare nor griffon were fans of talking about emotions. They shared a look of distaste, but Gilda stayed rooted to the cloud, and Dash kept her wings closed. Silence stretched between them, the sounds of a busy town reaching the pair as they waited for the other to start. “So, how’s the wing?” Rainbow asked. She winced, and flexed a wing in unconscious sympathy. It wasn’t the most sensitive of questions, but she wasn’t the most sensitive of ponies either. Gilda shrugged, as nonchalant as she could be. Despite herself she brought her wing around to her front, rubbing it. “Eh, I can fly. Not like I need anything more,” she said. Silence threatened to break out again, but Rainbow Dash forged on ahead. “Good thing the Princesses had that unicorn with the healing stuff come in. I think they thought a lot more ponies were gonna need it.” “Yeah, I guess. Iron Will was kinda busted up, and big red-” Gilda agreed. “Mac. Big Mac,” interrupted Rainbow Dash. Gilda snorted, which was quite a remarkable gesture with a beak. “He’s big and he’s red. Big red works.” “Yeah, but his name is Big Mac, not big red,” Dash said, a faint pout on her lips. Looking at the pegasus at last, Gilda smirked. “Why’s it so important? Is Dashie all grown up and having feelings for the big red stallion?” Rainbow’s tail snapped up and gave Gilda a light smack on the arm. A faint blush coloured her cheeks as she said, “Shut it, I was making sure you knew his real name. Mac’s just cool, okay? The second the dust settled, he was already helping clean up all the mess.” Nodding, Gilda felt the moment of teasing, just like when they were kids, fade away. She couldn’t stand to let Rainbow Dash look in her eyes, and turned away again to hide the shame. It made the sigh from Dash, nearly too quiet to hear, hurt a little bit more than it might have. Gilda wanted to turn back and make some sarcastic remark, to allude to their past, but it hurt too much to think about it. For all her assertions that emotions weren’t her things, Dash could tell things had taken a cold turn in Gilda’s mind again. She shook her head, not knowing what went on in that griffon’s skull, but wishing she could do something to stop it or change it. Gilda was finally in one spot, with nowhere to go! She wasn’t letting this chance get away. “I heard Iron Will did that too. The docs were bothering him the whole time to let them check him out, but he wouldn’t stop. Never thought the big scary minotaur I’d heard about would be so….” Rainbow Dash paused, searching for the right word. “Community spirited?” Gilda asked drily. ‘Hide it, don’t let her see. Don’t let anyone see it. Just be cool until she leaves.’ Dash nodded, chuckling. “Yeah, that. He’s a nice guy. Shame he couldn’t stick around, he was awesome at cheering and motivation.” Her chest visibly swelled with pride. “Did you see when he got like everypony doing The Wave? It was amazing.” Gilda kept her beak shut, deciding it was better not to pop the delicate bubble that was Rainbow Dash’s fantasy of the situation. It had looked more like ponies too cowed to argue doing The Wave rather desperately to her, but then, at least Iron Will’s attempts to show how thankful he was to Fluttershy - and by extension all her friends - hadn’t actually destroyed anything. There had been more than enough clean up work to go around already. The lack of reaction didn’t stop Rainbow Dash. She refused to give up. Gilda was going to open up to her, if she had to make small talk about the whole town! She didn’t waste any time leaping into the next vaguely related topic. “How are you settling in? Like the place?” ‘Cause you’re never there when I come by.’ Rainbow Dash hid the emotions that thought brought up. It wasn’t like Gilda was avoiding her or anything. Gilda shrugged, and said, “It’s alright. More than I expected.” ‘Makes it bucking hard to avoid you and the kid when you know where I live.’ “I was gonna see if I could make you a cloud house, but Twilight got all ‘town ordinances’ on me and blah blah blah, so that’ll have to wait. Pretty cool of Vinyl Scratch to let you stay at her place, even if she’s not using it,” Dash went on, rambling. “I bet she must have some radical stuff in her place.” “Yeah, it’s nice,” agreeing, Gilda tried to steer the conversation further from herself. “Why’d they leave anyway?” This time, Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I think Scratch wanted to spend some time with that prissy marefriend of hers. Something about Ponyville being crazy and stuff.” “...I wonder why,” deadpanned the griffon. She ran a claw through the edge of the cloud. A tuft broke away, floating a few inches. It began to break apart, too small to support itself. “At least they stayed for a while.” Dash snorted. She rolled her eyes. “Stupid photographer, she left before she could capture my good side! She already got my awesome side, but I gotta let everypony know as cool as I am, I’m still approachable.” “You’re a regular pony of the people,” Gilda agreed with a faint snicker. She watched the last of the little cloud fade away, leaving only a view of the pristine new houses and homes where, a month ago, there had been a battlefield. “...they’ve fixed most of the damage pretty fast, didn’t they?” “Bet when the Princesses are paying, they know they had to work fast.” Pride filled Dash’s voice as she went on, “Ponyville’s got a lot of experience. If any town is gonna bounce back from a demonic rampage, it’s Ponyville!” Gilda nodded in agreement. She gestured at the homes below. “I guess those dweebs knew how to do that at least, even if they had shitty manners.” Rainbow Dash laughed, guffawing loudly. “You’re one to talk about manners!” Gilda scowled. Her wings twitched, ruffling in annoyance. “Hey, that just means I’m an expert on bad manners,” she muttered. “Sure it does. Who needs Rarity? When I need a friend who knows all about manners, I’ll come to you,” Rainbow said with a snicker. She noticed a moment later that Gilda wasn’t laughing. The griffon had gone stiff, muscles tensing between fur and feathers. Her chest barely moved with each breath, drilling a hole through the sky with her gaze. The sounds of Rainbow Dash taking the two steps needed to stand next to her made Gilda flinch. “Gilda?” Rainbow Dash, for once, hesitated. Uncertainty filled her normally brightly confident eyes. “You okay?’ ‘Say it. I need to say. I need to know,’ Gilda thought. She closed her eyes. ‘Even if she says...no, I need to do it...I need to know if...’ “...Are we really friends?” she blurted. She didn’t open her eyes or look at Rainbow Dash. She wanted to, but she couldn’t bring herself to. “I mean, come on, are we? I left, and we didn’t talk, then the next thing I know this weird pegasus I ran into out in the middle of nowhere is nice but I run off on him too because I’m stupid and suck, so when I finally go looking for him some monster turns me into a monster! A monster that tried to kill you! How can we be friends after that?” Gilda shut herself up at that point. She clamped her talons over her beak. Being on a cloud was a mistake, she realised belatedly. How was she supposed to shove her head into the ground, or wish for the earth to open up and swallow her, if she was up here? ‘Maybe I can still hide in the cloud!’ The insanity of the idea didn’t register, only the hysterical desperation. She had barely begun to rip the cloud open when hooves seized her and pulled her back. “First of all!” Rainbow Dash said with eyes narrow and a glare that was all determination. “Stop trying to dig into a cloud, you look ridiculous, and not Pinkie Pie ‘that’s really kinda funny’ ridiculous, like, a poor mare’s ostrich ridiculous. Seriously, you’re looking like a giant chicken.” “Hey!” Gilda paused to glare at Rainbow Dash, her pride rising everything else in her wanted to dig down and hide. “I don’t look like a chicken!” “Sure you don’t, G, just like you’re not worrying over stupid things,” Dash pushed on ruthlessly. She gave Gilda a shake, leaning in to stare her dead in the eye. “Because that’s what all that is; stupid.” A spark of something hot and furious lit in Gilda. Her worries that kept her up at night were being dismissed so casually. Her fears waved off as ‘stupid’.and everything that had tormented her were being brushed off. Her arms rose, knocking Dash’s forelegs aside and gripping the mare. “Stupid! They’re stupid?!” she shrieked. “Yeah!” Rainbow Dash roared back, right in her face. “Because they don’t matter!” “Yes they do!” Gilda shook the pegasus, but found Dash’s hooves knocking her arms aside this time. “No, they don’t! Because I don’t care! I don’t care what happened in the past! I don’t care what that monster made you do, because it wasn’t you! You’re Gilda the griffon! Sometimes you’re a bit of a jerk, sometimes you don’t think about others, but you know what? I do the same! I still have friends!” Panting with her overuse of exclamation marks, Rainbow Dash leaned back to give Gilda some space. “Friends look past each other’s stupid flaws, and they don’t blame them for things they had no control over.” “But I don’t deserve that! Why won’t any of you listen? Not you, not the kid, not even that damn unicorn! The only thing we have in common is that we got turned into monsters and beaten up by the same ugly freak, and she goes and lends me her house!” Gilda hid her face behind her talons. It was all pouring out now, no matter how she tried to keep it in. “That...is because…” snarled Rainbow Dash. She hissed the words out between breaths as she yanked one talon away, then the second, “...you’re being...stupid!” They stared at each other, one furiously determined, the other broken and afraid. “I don’t care about anything except that my friend is hurting herself by thinking like this. I don’t care what happened last time, or what that monster made you do. I am worried you’ll just leave, thinking you don’t deserve friends, so I’m here to tell you that you do.” Dash gave Gilda thump on the chest, pressing her hoof against soft feathers. “Scootaloo is your friend. I’m your friend. Down there is a whole town of ponies, and any of them could be your friend too. Don’t even think about just giving up on yourself, because I never will.” They stood there, frozen, for who knew how long. Gilda hated herself right now, for being so weak that she felt touched by Dash’s little speech, for letting it get to her and make her...make her want to give in. She wanted to let Rainbow Dash be her friend, and now she couldn’t even refuse it by saying she didn’t deserve it. Gilda opened her beak to reply, then snapped it shut before she said something stupid. The words she wanted to say were stuck in her throat, unable to rise out, leaving her opening and closing her beak time after time. “I..I...I don’t know what…” she tried to say. Rainbow Dash lowered her hoof. Her hard expression faded into a soft smile. “You can buck up, ‘cause you’re not going anywhere, and neither am I.” “Rainbow Dash!” hollered a voice from below. “We need to go!” Suddenly, the very public location of their outburst came thundering back to Rainbow Dash. Her cheeks reddened as she glanced over the edge of the cloud. with a nervous grin. “Hey, uh, be there in just a sec, squirt….” she said, chuckling awkwardly. ‘How loud was I? Celestia, I hope nopony heard me being so sappy!’ Scootaloo frowned. “But if you have another emotional speech we might be late, and I think that’s, like, really, really bad to do at something like this!” The heat in Dash’s cheeks exploded. She groaned, hiding her face behind her hooves for a moment. A slight pressure on her back made her look up. “We’re comin’, kid, geez,” Gilda called. She patted Rainbow Dash on the back and offered a hesitant smile. “Thought you were supposed to be fast. What, old age getting you down?” It took only a moment for Rainbow’s hopeful look to blossom into a grin. “Heh, you’re older than I am! I’d offer to race, but I don’t wanna make Scoots walk there on her own. Plus, I think that’d be...” The cloud shook slightly as the pair took off, gilding to the ground. Gilda’s smile fell away as they descended, catching Dash’s meaning immediately. She nodded as she landed. “Yeah, might not be the best thing to race to,” Gilda agreed. She gave Scootaloo a pat on the head, trying to hide how awkward she felt. She looked at the sun, just beginning its descent into a late afternoon that would soon become evening. “I...was trying not to think about it.” Rainbow nodded. She managed a sad smile as the trio set off. “Don’t worry. It’ll be tough, but you’ll be with friends.” * They arrived at Fluttershy’s home with time to spare. Why here, she wasn’t sure, but Fluttershy had offered. Truthfully, she had insisted. Why, again, Dash had no idea, but it was her choice. Rarity was already there, for once not dressed to the nines. She had worried her far-too-fashionable friend would have been done up in an ‘appropriate’ manner, but it seemed the unicorn had come with more consideration to his taste than to her own. Rarity waved them over, leaving off fussing over Sweetie Belle for a moment, and Rainbow wondered if she wasn’t shouting because that would have been inappropriate. It certainly matched the mood of the gathering. Pinkie’s mane wasn’t exactly drooping and limp, but neither was it fluffy and full of life. She sat between Vinyl Scratch and Octavia, not saying anything, just sitting in companionable silence. If she were the sort to feel it, Rainbow Dash might have been chagrined that they had arrived from Canterlot before her, but then, she was a few minutes early anyway and she hadn't been able to catch a ride with Shining Armour and Cadance like they had. She exchanged a brief nod with Fluttershy's mother, the powerfully built guard for once shunning her armour, and with her husband, waiting just outside their daughter's home. Nearly everypony was here, she saw. With her had come Scootaloo and Gilda, but Applejack and her family were already off to one side, Apple Bloom glancing towards the new arrivals. She and Scootaloo shared a look, but neither was in the mood to talk or play, so they stayed where they were. Rainbow Dash gave the filly next to her a sympathetic look. “Looks like nearly everypony is here,” she muttered as they advanced. She exchanged nods with her friends, the only one not present in the yard being its owner. Her ear twitched, a faint tingle in her wings feeling distant displaced air. ‘I guess they didn’t wanna just teleport right in,’ thought Rainbow Dash. She glanced back just to see the pair emerge, long alicorn legs eating up the distance from behind a nearby hill easily. Twilight, of course, rushed past her to meet the Princesses at the gate. The elder alicorn leaned down to nuzzle her student, which is all Rainbow Dash saw before the creak of the cottage’s door drew her attention away. Fluttershy stepped out. She didn’t say anything, but it was clear, with everypony there, it was time to start. It was only a short walk, but it felt longer. No more than a minute could have passed, but it felt like an eternity to Dash. The sombre procession entered the clearing, and laid their eyes on Paladin. He lay exposed, the coffin lid removed, and the grave waiting for him at his side. He looked as if he had simply laid down for a nap, but the truth was evident to all of them. Paladin was gone; all that remained was a now-vanished angel, and the dead shell. With no soul, it had lasted a few weeks until the extent of medical magic had been reached. There was no organisation to what they had come to do today, not really. They all knew their places naturally, taking them around the grave. The only pony already familiar with the setup, Twilight, would have smiled in any other situation at the natural organisation taking place. There was no official order, and for a moment, Twilight wondered if she should begin. To her relief, Princess Celestia stepped up. Perhaps it was just her imagination, but it seemed to Twilight that her mane was less lively today. “There is little to be said today, because, I think, our departed friend would not have wanted us to spend our time waxing philosophical about him. Allow me to be the first to say, he will be missed. He was a strong, kind pony. I wish I had known him better. Paladin gave much for this world, and everyone in it.” It was short, as royal speeches went, but heartfelt. Celestia stepped back. They stayed silent, nopony quite willing to be the next. To speak of the departed was a hard thing, and none wanted to stop the others. It would have gone on, if Gilda hadn’t run out patience. “I know I’m not exactly the nicest, or anything, but he was cool to me. He was pretty great actually, since I was such a bi-” Gilda felt Scootaloo’s little elbow nudge her in the side. “-ig jerk to him. I...I wish he’d be around longer, but I’m glad I met him and…” Her throat closed over, and she lowered her head, unable to look at him any longer. “...and I’m sorry I never thanked him for finding me out there and making me realise I missed having a friend,” she finished. Rainbow Dash spread a wing over her friend’s back. “He was honest, an’ hard workin’,” came the next. It was not, despite the accent, Applejack. Big Mac paused, stewing over the words. “Held his drink pretty well too, considerin’ it was his first time drinkin’. Woulda been nice to give him the chance to practice some more.” Applejack smiled sadly, nodding in agreement. “That he was. Honest as an Apple, an’ a heart to match.” They began to speak, each of those who had known him offering their thoughts on the pegasus they had known for, it was now apparent, far less time than they had wanted. Those who hadn’t known him, invited because they, too, owed him something, such as Vinyl Scratch and Octavia, stayed silent as they listened. On they talked, until Celestia and Luna feared they would have to step away to bring the night before it was over. At last silence fell once more. Another who hadn’t spoken, she who had more reason than any other to know him, approached his body. Fluttershy laid a small bundle upon him. A single yellow feather, bound in pink hairs, stood out against his dark fur. A tear tickled her cheek as it ran down, falling to turn his coat a shade darker in one little spot. “...goodbye, Paladin. I love you.” She turned away.She had nothing more to say. Any words she had, they were meant only for him. Fluttershy closed her eyes, letting her ears tell her that his friends were moving forward. Yet she heard only hooves. “Gilda,” Fluttershy murmured. She opened her eyes, meeting the surprised griffon’s own nervous gaze. Another tear joined the first. “You were his friend too.” Hesitant, Gilda stepped up. Together with Big Mac, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, she picked up the coffin. They began to lower the mortal remains of their dear friend into his final resting place. It was a rest he had earned. They left shortly after the grave was filled. Words had been spoken. Memories had been shared, and together they took their grief to leave him in peace. * Creeping through the earth like a slithering viper through the grass, a root with veins of light pressed against the coffin. With a creak none could hear, it pushed through the wood. Had any been able to see into the coffin, they would have witnessed Paladin’s body vanish without so much as a flash or flare. He was simply gone, and the root became still. * He swam through darkness. There was nothing physical to grasp, and nothing to grasp it with. The murky oblivion on all sides pressed upon him, yet he felt pulled in countless directions. He was indistinct, and this troubled him. Discovering he could be troubled was something of a relief; he hadn’t been sure he could be troubled, but somehow, the fact he could made him feel more certain of himself. Something lurked in the back of his mind. A name. An identity. Was it his? It was so hard to remember. He was a….he wasn’t sure. He doubted himself in that moment. If he wasn’t sure what he was, was he truly anything at all? Of course, no, he realised. He could be troubled, and he could doubt. Yes, he could think of these things and know he was there to think. His thoughts could not exist without him, and so he was reassured that, yes, he was there. Yet he had nobody to be there with, and no sense of what his ‘there’ was. A voice called, soft and sad, from so far away. I love you. Love...ah, yes, he knew that. He knew love. He hadn’t always known love. Oh, he’d known what it was, had seen it in others, but it had never grasped him on some personal level. He had never felt such an intimate, unwavering love for an individual. The oblivion became yellow and pink. In all directions it spread but he knew that, no, it wasn’t around him. He focused. He thought. He struggled to grasp the ideas that failed at his consciousness. There was love here, love from another that held his heart in an unbreaking hold. ‘For someone to love me, there must be a me. I am distinct. I am me. I am...’ The name. He had a name. It escaped him, lost to his uncertain mind as yellow and pink became dark navy blue and glorious stunning white. He had to remember. He had to know his own name. it was the key. ‘I am...I am....’ It resisted him. He needed more. He turned his bodiless thoughts to the love he felt, and wondered how he felt such love without a body. Yes, a body! He could be more than just thoughts and uncertain memories. So he opened himself to the sensations and he asked it, he gave it the choice, for his form. His body. Feeling, real physical feeling, began to return. With it came more, synapses firing, telling him more. Ponies. Yes, ponies of every colour. A single pony of many colours. Another of shades of pink with bright blue eyes. A pale pony with vibrant violet around her. One of purple and more purple so close to pink. A pony orange, warm and honest. Bigger, redder, a sixth that towered silently above the others. He saw a not-pony, a….a griffon. Alone, angry, prideful, and in desperate need. They flooded through his fledgling mind, but only one held his attention.. Yellow. Pink. ‘Fluttershy.’ The name, not his name but a name he knew just as well, exploded across his being. It gave him shape in her eyes, and her in his. She was Fluttershy, the pony he loved. The pony who loved him. Yes, the connection. The pony she loved, his name came back to him at last. In the depths of the Everfree, beneath a crumbling castle, Paladin opened his eyes to a new world and, unexpectedly, a promise fulfilled. * Fluttershy sipped at her tea with the same maddening gentleness she had for the last hour, and Angel Bunny considered giving her a kick in the shin or something. Her big dark brute wasn’t around anymore, but...well, even the coal-hearted rabbit knew now was not the time. So the little white bunny crossed his arms, scowling as he watched Fluttershy mope. Her parents hadn't even tried to make her be happy yet, simply saying she needed some space. “I’ll have to get more medicine for Mister Beaver tomorrow,” she murmured. Possibly to herself, perhaps to Angel. The rabbit just shrugged, obviously not caring. She could attempt to distract herself, but she wasn’t going to distract him. Angel turned his head to the side, a tiny frown on his face. Fluttershy was still rambling. Probably trying to reassure herself. He was half-tempted to get one of her annoying friends to come back so she could admit she wasn’t in the mood to be alone, but then, her friends were annoying too. Fluttershy fell silent when she noticed Angel leaving. She couldn’t blame him. The sad mare sighed. Her life, she knew, didn’t revolve around Paladin. It hadn’t, save when he went running off foolishly on his own, but then, she’d done the same not too long after, so she wasn’t one to talk. She sipped her tea again. It was cold by now. It was the same cup she had been nursing since seeing the last of her friends off. As much as she loved them, she had little desire for company right now. They would murmur platitudes and sayings, trying to comfort her. Odd, that she couldn’t accept such things right now. She loved her friends, of course, but sometimes… “Sometimes,” Fluttershy whispered to herself. “...we need to be alone.” She lowered her tea cup, peering into the half-drained liquid. ‘What if’s and ‘could have been’s had plagued her. Some nights, worse nights, she had let out impotent demands that Tyrael bring back Paladin. Others, she had merely dwelled on what she had lost. On her best nights, she didn’t even think about it for most of the time until some reflexive thought hit her. ‘Paladin might like this,’ she had thought idly one evening as she prepared a salad. The icy dagger of loss had swifty torn her pleasure away. In the end, she had simply given it to Angel before she had even finished it. The knock at the door made her sigh. Whoever it was, she wasn’t sure she wanted to deal with them. She couldn’t even tell who it was from here; it was easier, lately, to leave her empathic power to wither. They had weakened, enough for her to leave them alone, and she knew better than to try simply suppressing her grief like that. She wanted to, though. Fluttershy sighed again. She wished she could, but at the very thought, everything she remembered of Paladin told her not to. His voice all but whispered in the back of her mind that this gift was not meant for such things. If she could return the gift, just to see him again, Fluttershy knew she would have agreed to such a deal instantly. The top half to the door swung open, and she peered out. “Hel…” Her voice failed her. “Fluttershy…” gasped the dead stallion. His tone was a starved wanderer in sight of relief, a desert pony in sight of precious water. She stood, stock still, staring with wide, stunned eyes. Paladin stared back. Relief mingled with concern and uncertainty, but they were familiar eyes despite the natural blue that ringed his pupil. A mere month would not rob her of the memories, of his gaze. She wanted it to be him. She wanted it so badly. “No.” Fluttershy shook her head, stepping back from him. “It can’t be. Paladin...Paladin is gone. Y-you’re just...just a changeling, a trick, trying to hurt me. You must be.” “I would never hurt you, Fluttershy, you know that! I am Paladin, I swear,” the stallion plead. He stopped at the door, unwilling to advance in. “I-” Anger blazed in her eyes. “We buried Paladin!” The words exploded from her, louder than either had expected. Tears of frustration and grief ran, solitary and alone, down each cheek. “We buried him, so please, stop this.” “Feel it,” he begged. His voice dropped. “Please. It’s me…Just for a moment. Feel my emotions, Fluttershy. I am a pony; flesh and blood and soul. No more, no less, than you. All you need to do is open yourself, and you’ll know.” It had to be a trick. She knew that. As much as she wanted to believe, as much as her heart cried for it to be him, she knew it couldn’t be. Yet, in the end, there was a tiny spark of hope. It was the hope that led a man to gamble his life away, certain that his chance will come. It was the hope that led to desperate chances, failures a million times and victory on a single one. It was the hope of the desperate, and she knew it had already seized her. Their eyes met. Hers glowed. His did not. “Paladin!” It was a cry, a shout, of stupendous joy. He grunted when she hit, a butter yellow blur that connected and latched on. Fluttershy wrapped her wings around him, and he his hooves around her. They simply held each other, the warmth of the other all they needed in this moment. “I missed you,” he whispered. Tears ran down her cheeks, tears of joy she ignored as she nuzzled him. “I...I missed you too. We thought...we thought…” “So did I.” He minced no words as they embraced. Nor did he spare his emotions, his own eyes suffering what he would later insist were simply leaks. “I gave up myself, but it seems Tyrael decided that sacrifice had a reward. I...I am mortal, entirely. Whatever spark of him remains, it will never become more. I am Paladin.” He nuzzled her. “And I am a pony.” She pressed against. There was no need to hear more. She didn’t care how or why. He was back. What more mattered? To her, nothing. Except, she noticed as her tears dried, one little thing. “Paladin…” she whispered in his ear. “...why do you have a foal?” His confused grunt was her only answer, until a moment of recollection made him smile. “The Heart, it seems, is fond of second chances,” he explained. Gently, he lowered his wing and angled his weight. The little bundle of silver fur slid down without a worry. A faint, tired snore left the young muzzle. Fluttershy blinked. Her joy took a momentary backseat as she stared at the foal. It was a colt, that was easy to see, a little unicorn roughly the same age as the Cutie Mark Crusaders. His flank was as bare as theirs. A horn, thinner and more pointed than Sweetie Bell’s, poked out of a messy white mane. He squirmed in his sleep, but with her plush carpet under him, he seemed as content as he had on Paladin’s back. She drew her attention back to the stallion when she felt him nuzzling her neck.She returned the gesture, holding close to him as they looked down at the child. “Who…” she began. Something about the colt made her pause. Her brow knit as she stared down at him. “There’s something…” Paladin chuckled faintly. “Perhaps the Heart decided that, if one of us got to recover from our sacrifice, so did the other.” It clicked. Fluttershy gasped. “T-that’s...he’s really…” The full force of her daze returned. “I-I don’t understand.” “I found him, when I woke,” explained Paladin. He kept her stable, holding her close. “He is not as I was; Ardleon will never return, I think. What was left of his mind and soul were merely rescued as his Lightsong poured from him in death. Scraps, remnants. The Heart took his remaining essence…” The colt snorted in his sleep, shaking his head as stray fur tickled his nose. Fluttershy reacted automatically, reaching down to brush away the hairs and murmur softly until he grew still once more. “...and gave him a chance to become something more,” Paladin finished. They watched the pony who had once been Ardleon, sleeping on Fluttershy’s rug and as cute as a button in all the glory of youth. Together, they stayed close, sharing without words the welcome return to something both had missed. Though it could never last, she let it go on as long as she could. “What are we going to do with him?” Fluttershy asked at last. Paladin looked thoughtful. “Well,” he said, “I seem to recall promising a certain three fillies to find a colt to join them, and I’m sure it would be irresponsible not to find him some ponies his, uh, own age to play with.” He met her eyes; they twinkled with mischief, enough that Fluttershy had to cover her mouth with a hoof to keep the giggling contained. “But, mostly, I hoped…” At last, it was his turn to grow nervous and hesitant. Worry and doubt filled his normally stern and confident eyes. With a deep breath , he began again, “I plan to care for him. Whatever happened, whoever we are now, he is one of mine. I know it will be hard, at times, but I cannot turn a blind eye. He will need somepony to help him adjust.” Fluttershy smiled. “He will,” she promised. Her hoof pressed against his. “We can make sure of it. Together.” Paladin smiled back. His fears faded. His worries waned. Their lips met for a moment, a single word whispered to her in their embrace. “Together.” The End.