The Sanctuary of Lights

by SapphireStarlightPony

Last Glory

Chapter 10
Last Glory

Morning came all too soon for Sapphire Starlight. Everything was still a haze when she answered the door and found Light looking as alert and well-composed as ever. Sapphire cursed inwardly. She'd not been expecting him nearly so early. Running through the list of grooming rituals in her typical morning routine, the bleary-eyed unicorn tried to gauge just how awful she looked. Wash mane, brush mane, brush tail, brush teeth... Sapphire realized she'd done exactly none of these things. She grimaced inwardly, trying hard not to imagine the mess she must look like. An image came to mind, courtesy of the stories about the night-pony next door that one of the young colts in the neighborhood seemed to be telling his hooligan friends nearly every time she was in earshot. Sapphire could see it now – hazy visions of herself as a mangy-haired witch with leaves and brambles caught in her mane and pelt, an unkempt hermit living out in the forest all alone.

“Light! You're early!” Sapphire barked out. It sounded more accusatory than she'd wanted.

“There was a breakthrough,” Light said. “The crystal is ready. Emberwind is ready to go. I have opened a portal into the Nightmare Realm.”

“Woah Light, slow down a minute there. Portal? Nightmare Realm?” Sapphire's groggy mind was having trouble keeping up with the stallion's energetic pace.

“Yes, it's a brilliant plan,” Light said brightly, enthusiasm was creeping into his voice. “Insomnia will never expect an incursion through the Nightmare Realm. You will be sneaking in the back door. She'll never see you coming.”

Stardust appeared next to Sapphire in the doorway. The hybrid seemed just as alert as ever. Does she ever sleep? Sapphire wondered.

“I will lead the way,” Stardust declared. She knew the place better than any other. Sapphire wasn't thrilled about following the ill-tempered hybrid around for days in the Nightmare Realm but she could see no other choice. Light seemed to be going through the same thought process and his look of worry mirrored her own.

“Stardust will make an excellent guide,” declared Light. The hybrid nodded amiably.

“I'll gather my things,” Sapphire said, still a little stunned by the rapid progress.

* * *

Sapphire could hardly believe her eyes. Light had done all this in one evening? The portal's energies whirled outward from the spinning vortex in Light's living room. Though she knew the portal was Light's creation, the yawning chasm seemed to stare back at her in quiet judgment, like a great lidless eye accusing her of some unknown sin. She shot one last nervous glance back at him as she followed mechanically after Stardust. The portal snapped shut behind Emberwind. A geode hung around the fiery pegasus's neck. Thanks to Light's enchantments, the soft azure stone would open the portal on the other side. It would be a one-way trip. With the geode's magic spent, the three mares would have to walk back in the waking world.

The Nightmare Realm was fittingly named. The air seemed dead. It was cool and still and just a little hard to breathe. Sound didn't seem to carry far, quickly becoming muffled by the oppressive fog. The ground was uneven rocky plates, broken and fractured. Here and there gruesome plants had erupted through the cracks. Some bore dark, shriveled fruits with the hue of freshly spilled blood. Sapphire found herself looming over one such plant, eyes fixed on the unsavory produce.

“Do not eat the fruit,” Stardust warned. Her wings snapped sharply against her sides, drawing attention to the danger that lurked in even the most passive forms of life in that lightless place. Sapphire's curiosity was piqued. If these were in fact the berries that had warped Stardust's body, perhaps they could also hold the key to the hybrid's redemption? Determined to investigate the possibilities more fully, the unicorn deftly swept a few of the sickly berries into her pack and hurried to catch her companions.

“Do you think Insomnia will be here in the Nightmare Realm?” Emberwind asked. Stardust shook her head.

“The dragon remembers her old home, once her prison,” the hybrid explained. “She's not returned once since the day she escaped into Equestria. It's the same with Wrath. I have no doubt he's returned to the Sanctuary. He took a great risk coming back here. He knows I'm after him. He'll not escape me again.” The grim determination in Stardust's words worried Sapphire. The mission was important above all things, and with the former pegasus expressing sentiments like that, Sapphire needed to be prepared for the possibility that the hybrid would abandon her and Emberwind to pursue revenge against Wrath.

With little to see, Sapphire's mind was quickly numbed into near insensibility. She trudged along dully, not even noticing when night fell. A subtle decrease in the gloomy light was easy to overlook. Had Stardust not called a halt to the march Sapphire felt she might have just kept going until she passed out standing up. Despite the disturbing landscape, sleep came easy to the worn out ponies.

Sapphire was stirred awake in the middle of the night by the thick sound of greedy slurping, the smacking of lips and gnashing teeth. A cold growl made the unicorn's hackles rise. She gritted her teeth and illuminated the area with the light of her horn. Emberwind stood just a few feet away. Her head was stuffed into Sapphire's bag.

“Emberwind?” Sapphire asked. No response. Sapphire's stomach lurched. She had not been able to quite make them out at first, but dark crimson spikes had begun to erupt through the other mare's mane. Sapphire's heart skipped a beat.

“Ember... Ember stop....” Sapphire whimpered. She reached out and pulled the bag off of the pegasus' nose. Emberwind's eyes had turned bright red and glowed fiercely in the dark.

“Sapphire, you fool...” Emberwind's voice gave way to a growl. Her wings snapped open, spilling feathers across the ground. She arched her back as more spikes cascaded down her spine. A long reptilian tail had already unfurled behind her. “What have you done?”

“I... Ember I'm so sorry... I... I can fix this,” Sapphire pleaded, but she was melting away under Emberwind's hate-filled gaze.

“What have you done?” Emberwind snarled, advancing on the fear-stricken unicorn. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!”

The last thing Sapphire saw was a savage orange claw racing out of the darkness. It struck her throat, slicing through her soft flesh with brutal efficiency, spraying her lifeblood across the grisly floor.

* * *

Sapphire's heart hammered in her chest, pounding against her ribcage like a bird desperate to escape a snare. She woke up screaming at the top of her lungs, struggling against an oppressive weight. She couldn't move. She couldn't see. She couldn't scream loud enough to placate her beleaguered soul.

“Sapphire!” a familiar voice called.

“I'm sorry Ember! I'm sorry!” the unicorn sobbed. Hot, wet tears streamed down her face. Her voice finally gave out under the punishment. Soreness in her throat, a dry mouth. Light standing over her.

“Sapphire!” Light shouted again.

“Where is Ember! Where is she?!” Sapphire pleaded.

“I'm right here.” It was Emberwind's voice.

“Don't eat the fruit!” Sapphire shouted as she collided with Emberwind. She'd summoned up every bit of strength she possessed, sending Light tumbling and shoving Stardust aside to get at the fiery-maned pegasus.

The entire room broke into panicked chaos. Light and Stardust struggled to pry Sapphire off of Emberwind. Everypony was tangled up in a sea of clinging bedsheets. Somewhere in the struggle an entire shelf of books was knocked loose from the wall and spilled across the melee. Over all this was the sound of Emberwind shouting over and over again: “Somepony get this lunatic off of me!”

Finally Dawn Chaser stepped in. He took Sapphire by the scruff of her neck and pulled the sobbing unicorn off of his mate.

“Emberwind forgive me! Please forgive me!” Sapphire was sobbing uncontrollably.

“Sapphire it's fine!” Emberwind snapped.

“Wh...what?” Sapphire asked, trying to rub clarity back into her tear-muddied eyes. She finally got a good look at her pegasus friend and found that Emberwind was whole. Sapphire sniffled, mind whirring as she tried to piece together what she was seeing, where she was.

“Are you okay?” Dawn Chaser asked.

“You're not supposed to be here...” Sapphire said.

“We came to help,” Light said. Sapphire barely heard him though. She was looking around the room, her room. It was her sheets she had been tangled up in. Her books that had been scattered across the floor.

“What... happened...?” Sapphire asked, rubbing her head.

“A nightmare,” Emberwind said. “Everypony's having them tonight. There's no stars out either.”

“It was so real,” Sapphire said, suddenly stricken by the zeal of her outburst. A portal into the Nightmare Realm in one night? The geode built without her in the same brief span of time, Emberwind sneaking food from her bag, and Light sending her off to fight a dragon alone? It seemed so silly that she'd believed it was real.

“Nightmares can seem very real,” Dawn said. “But you've not left the tower all night. Your neighbors seem to be watching out for you.”

Sapphire harrumphed. “I bet they are.”

“You've been under a lot of stress,” added Light. He pressed his muzzle against her shoulder and nuzzled tenderly behind her ear. The mare visibly began to relax.

“This is how the changeling hunts,” Stardust said. “All at the dragon's bidding. Every soul will be plagued by Avarice's nightmares. Who can resist Insomnia's armies when there is no rest, no reprieve from the struggle day in and day out? She'll have victory before the battle has even begun.”

“Fine, then we have to stop him.” Emberwind said, stamping her hoof. It made a loud clack against Sapphire's stony bedroom floor.

“If he's casting a spell on the entire city he has to be close by,” Sapphire said. “And he's probably got a rune.”

“What does he look like?” Dawn Chaser asked. He had been keeping a wary eye on Stardust, and his attention had not gone without notice.

“Less wretched than I,” the hybrid snapped. A curt snarl underscored her words.

“Have you seen him?” Dawn Chaser asked, speaking slowly, loudly, and glaring down at Stardust across the tip of his muzzle.

“I don't know,” Stardust answered vaguely. She sneered at Dawn Chaser, gazing defiantly into his eye. The stallion's patience had been reduced to a quickly fraying rope holding a heavy rock aloft. Stardust was standing just beneath it in his mind's eye.

Emberwind took her mate's angry snort as her cue to intervene. She took a step toward Stardust to get her attention.

“What do you know about Avarice?” Emberwind asked once those callous eyes were turned toward her.

“He is a cunning and devious trickster,” Stardust said. “He takes on many forms to stalk his prey. He could be standing next to you at any hour and you would believe he was a lifelong friend. He will afllict you with delusions nearly impossible to see through. The truth is often less acceptable than the lies he'll wield. He has probably come and gone among us as he pleases for days.”

“Why do that though?” Emberwind asked.

Stardust just looked at Sapphire for a moment. The unicorn had a truly miserable look on her face, slouched there on her bedroom floor.

“To learn your fears and desires,” she said. “And he'll turn them against you. He is an intimate and callous hunter. Always he feels the Nightmare's hunger. He paws at the ground, eager to slake his appetite with your sorrow.”

Stardust seemed to shudder for a moment. She remained fixated on Sapphire's stricken visage.

“Stardust?” Emberwind asked. Stardust's ears pinned back, and the drooping spikes along her spine stood up a little as her shoulders tensed. Emberwind's mouth shut without another word. The seconds seemed to slow to a crawl in the tense silence that followed. At last she spoke.

“He came to me once. That's what you wanted to know right? How I know these things?”

Emberwind nodded slowly.

“It could help,” Sapphire added.

“It could,” Light echoed Sapphire in agreement.

“It was almost a century ago,” Sapphire said. “Maybe more. You begin to lose track. I was asleep in the inner sanctum. Right there before Brazen, where he's stood vigil all this time. I woke up to a hoof on my shoulder and I looked up, right into his eyes. For the first time, he looked back, and I knew he could see me. He'd opened the way into the Nightmare, he said, because of the Stone's divine power he was able. All to save me.”

“But it was Avarice...” Sapphire said somberly.

Stardust's claws raked the floor, leaving little grooves in the stone in their wake. She roared her fury, rattling the shutters on the windows. Sapphire grimaced at what was going to amount to one more barely-civil conversation with her neighbors in the morning.

“I had him, right there. I could have killed him. I failed. I missed the chance, and now that monster is free.” Stardust had begun to pace about the room with a sort of nervous restlessness. Watching her, Sapphire couldn't help but wonder if they'd still be facing this enemy if he'd made the misstep of approaching Stardust as Lyric instead of Brazen. As far as she knew, the two mares she'd brought back from the Sanctuary of Light hadn't so much as been in the same half of town as each other since their harried arrival a few days ago.

Sapphire was snapped out of her thoughts by Light's muzzle against her shoulder. His voice was calm but firm.

“It would be prudent for us to look for a way to protect ourselves from Avarice. Immediately.”

“Shouldn't I get some sleep?” Sapphire asked.

“I don't know,” Emberwind said. “Are you going to wake up screaming again? I thought for a minute there you were going to choke me to death.”

Suddenly Sapphire felt her blood run cold. She turned her head slowly, surveying the faces of those gathered around her. In her bedroom. In the middle of the night. She could feel an icy chill crawling up her spine.

“Why are you here?” she asked. Almost on instinct, fire began to crackle at the tip of her horn. She couldn't imagine using the strength she'd already begun to summon up, but fear was a powerful motivator.

“Everypony came to help,” Light answered.

“Easy there Sapphire,” Emberwind said. She and Dawn were each inching away from the blue-maned unicorn.

“Relax Sapphire,” Light said. “There are no threats here, but you are right to be suspicious.”

“We were passing by and heard the screaming. Dawn thought... Well it doesn't matter,” Emberwind said. Her eyes had involuntarily drifted toward Stardust. The hybrid growled to herself, then turned away with a disdainful snort, melting into the plentiful shadows that she seemed so comfortable in.

“Well we heard shouting and came to help,” Emberwind said.

“Stardust isn't dangerous!” Sapphire said, stamping a hoof.

Dawn hadn't seemed to be paying attention until that moment. His eyes narrowed as he furrowed his brow as he stepped up to the plaintive unicorn.

“Listen you,” he said, glowering down at her. “It's good that you trust her, Celestia knows someone must if she's ever going to heal from... from whatever that place did to her to make her that way, but it is my duty to question every soul that comes through those gates. Do you understand?”

“She saved me – ”

“Do you understand,” Dawn Chaser repeated sharply.

“– from the manticore, and she led us out of the dragon's lair. It's hardly fair that-”

“'Fair?!'” Dawn Chaser barked, shouting down Sapphire's rant before it could gain momentum. “This is war, Sapphire Starlight. Nothing about this is fair. What happened at the Sanctuary of Lights was awful, but it's time to face facts. This isn't about you, it's about Glendale. Glendale needs you, now most of all. We put four new banners in the cemetery yesterday and the battle has not yet begun. Pull yourself together.”

Sapphire's backside bumped into the wall and she slid down into a clumsy seated position as Dawn Chaser's words struck her like a hammer blow to the head. She could feel tears beginning to well up in her eyes, threatening to run down her face.

“Easy there,” Light said, resting a hoof on her shoulder.

“I think she gets it,” Emberwind said, nudging her mate's jaw. “Why don't you go on home, I'll stay here the rest of the night and keep watch?”

“Fine,” Dawn Chaser said gruffly. “See to it.”

He left through the window. Sapphire scrambled to wipe away the tears.

“I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me,” she said, staring at the ground bewildered and embarrassed. “I never get this way.”

“You've been through a lot,” her friend said softly. “And Dawn is very zealous. Many of the ones we've had to bury were once our students. You've just been sleeping so much. It's worrisome.”

“I have?” Sapphire asked, genuinely confused. Emberwind telling her she was sleeping too much? What was next, Stardust announcing she'd decided to pick up playing the harp? Then again, the pegasi were still awake and active when she'd woken up screaming like a banshee.

“I'm sorry,” she said remorsefully.

“It's sunup soon,” Emberwind said, glancing out the window. “An hour or two at most. The donut shop will already be open. We can go have tea and donuts. Maybe that'll put a little vigor in your legs.”

“It's a great idea,” Light's Hope encouraged. He was just as energetic as ever, despite the late hour. He smiled warmly at Sapphire. His enthusiasm was a little out of character perhaps, but she was in distress, and the sunflower yellow unicorn always seemed to know exactly what she needed.

“You go ahead with Emberwind. I'll catch up.” Light ducked out of the room, trotting into the darkness after Stardust.

“Alright,” Sapphire said, forcing a feeble smile. Inwardly, however, she cringed. The bed was just a few feet away. An entire day of work on the keystone with only a few short hours of sleep lay ahead of her. She didn't feel she was up to the task, but wearily she fell in step behind the pegasus, and followed her out of the sanctuary of her tower.

The air was biting cold, stinging the unicorn's nose as she trudged along be0neath the silvery moonlight. She cast a despondent look skyward. It was a perfect night. Exactly right for her studies. Her books had languished weeks already, and were liable to be gathering dust for much longer.

* * *

A cheery metallic jingle summoned Minty Whisper to the front counter. The sea green earth pony went wide-eyed at the sight of the first two customers of the morning. Sapphire became starkly aware that she'd completely failed to run a brush through her mane and looked like she'd just crawled out of a week long safari into the Everfree Forest. A little getaway cottage out in Everfree, wouldn't that fill out her reputation quite nicely? She chuckled at the thought. Minty Whisper was still staring, biting her lip. Why was...? Oh yes, her son was that cheeky little colt telling everyone stories about the night-pony witch living in the tower.

“So uhm, what can I get for you?” Minty asked.

“Two witch chocolate,” Sapphire said. “With! I mean with! Two with chocolate.”

“I see you've already tried an espresso?” Minty asked, giving her a bewildered look. Sapphire wished she could disappear. It got added to a long mental list of spells that she meant to learn one day.

“No but that's a great idea,” Sapphire said. “I'll have one of those as well.”

“Same for me,” Emberwind said, shoving a few coins onto the counter.

The coins were quickly swept away and replaced with a tray of sweet treats and two steaming cups of 'the good stuff'. Sapphire took a sip and felt her face scrunch up on its own.

“Geh, you could etch diamonds with this stuff,” she said, eyeballing it. Two more swigs of the bitter caramel elixir and Sapphire could feel her racing heart skipping beats like a schoolfilly playing hopscotch.

“Do you like it? It's our special house blend,” Minty said, coming up to the table.

“It's potent,” Sapphire said, honestly. The bitter taste left much to be desired, but the effect was spot on.

“Glad to hear it,” Minty said. “I'm also glad you came by again. We've not seen you around since...”

Emberwind cast the donut pony a look of warning. Minty flushed and started to make a hasty retreat back to the counter.

“Anyway his amulet looks quite lovely on you,” she said, and was gone.

Sapphire's hoof automatically went to the jewel resting against her chest. The weight of the silver chain was so subtle she barely noticed it even now. Her donut made a soft landing on the tray and the haze of blue magic winked out around it. She looked down at the amulet, holding it up to see better. It glowed softly from within, a little teardrop of captured light. Light's amulet.

“It does look nice on you,” Emberwind said somberly, her voice barely above a whisper.

Sapphire could feel her head spinning. Light's amulet? She couldn't remember how she got it. Why didn't he have it?

“I need to get some air,” Sapphire said, pushing away from the table. Suddenly the donut shop seemed stiflingly hot. She burst out the door into the cold night, taking a deep breath as though it were her first in minutes. Light was there, coming up the road toward the shop.

“Sapphire? You look terrible,” the stallion said, frowning. “Why don't we go for a walk?”

Sapphire nodded mechanically, following her friend down the road. Emberwind sat watching on the steps for a few minutes, but didn't follow.

“Sorry,” Misty said forlornly, joining the pegasus.

“It's not your fault,” Emberwind said, even though her tone said otherwise. “Don't worry about it...”

* * *

“Where are we going?” Sapphire asked after a while.

“It's not far,” Light said. “Do you remember when we first came back to Glendale?”

“You were hurt,” Sapphire said, immediately wondering where the stallion was going with this.

“Was I?” Light asked. “Think carefully.”

“Of course, that's why we came back,” Sapphire said.

“That's why yes, but do you remember?” Light asked.

“Does it matter?”

“Sapphire Starlight. Look me in the eye,” Light said, stepping in front of her on the path.

“I don't like this Light,” Sapphire whined. “Let's go back to the donut shop. Emberwind will be worried.”

Light shook his head, his face a dour mask of concern. “Emberwind is already worried. All of your friends are worried. You know this.”

“I don't walk to talk about this!” Sapphire shouted. Light fell silent. Sapphire found herself avoiding his gaze, then seeking it when her guilt caught up to her for yelling at him.

“Then come with me,” Light said, starting back down the road. It was not a request. Sapphire had to hurry to keep up with his pace. The stallion had his head down, intent on the near horizon.

“Why are we here?” Sapphire asked. The night air suddenly felt a lot colder. She felt her knees wobbling.

“Because you have my amulet,” Light said. “You never even saw that you were wearing it until tonight.”

“That's not true,” Sapphire said.

“But it is,” Light answered sternly. “You cannot lie to me, Sapphire. You know why. Now, tell me how you got my amulet.”

Sapphire closed her eyes. She flinched, her whole body shaking. The memory was slow to surface, little more than a hazy image at first. It felt years old, like faded glimpses at a childhood vacation. There was Fleethoof, placing the amulet around her neck. Her eyes stung, and she could feel hot tears in twin streaks down her cheeks. Fleethoof had said something to her, but the image got blurry, more tears, her sobs were drowning out the words.

The mare's eyes snapped open. She looked up at Light and shook her head. “Please, no, I don't want to think about this. I can't... I won't...”

“Sapphire, it's okay,” Light said, nuzzling her forehead. “All my life I stood against the darkness...”

Sapphire could hear Dawn Chaser's voice. He was standing on a little platform, looking out at a small crowd.

“All my life I stood against the darkness, that I should fear no evil,” Dawn Chaser said. “That's what he told me before he slipped away.”

He stopped for a moment and looked down at Sapphire. She was barely standing, leaning against Emberwind for support. She struggled to lift her head to meet his gaze.

“Light's Hope was a good stallion,” Dawn Chaser said. “We honor him today not only for his great sacrifice, but for the life he lived day by day. Light was a faithful friend, a source of comfort to those that needed it, and a skillful artisan of his craft. There is not one among us that did not have their life somehow made better by his companionship. The world was brighter for his presence. May we all strive to live such a life as his, that when we stand to account for our days, we may hold our heads high.”

Sapphire collapsed at Light's hooves, choking on sobs.

“I don't understand,” she cried, looking up at him through the blur of tears. “I can see you. You're here.”

Light looked up at the little yellow banner that bore his symbol. The pendant fluttered gently in the early morning breeze. He reached down and lifted Sapphire's head from the ground.

“Avarice,” he said. “He has been plaguing your for days. I know this because you know this.”

The yellow stallion reached down and touched his hoof to the amulet around Sapphire's neck.

“This protects you,” Light said. “I left this to you because I knew I might not always be around for you...”

“You're... not real?” Sapphire's voice quavered. She sniffled as Light shook his head.

“The amulet is real, and I am the amulet. I never would have wished for it to be used this way,” he said. “You know that. Avarice wished you to believe I was alive, that we've been working on the keystone.”

“We've not?!” Sapphire yelped, eyes-widening.

The phantom Light shook his head. “No, not at all. You've slept the better part of three days.”

“You have been quite a nuisance,” a familiar voice crooned, emerging from thin air. Ironfeather reached out, running a talon across the amulet's shining diamond. “So it was the necklace all along that resisted me.”

“Ironfeather?” Sapphire asked. “What are you saying?”

Light bristled, growling at the gryphon. The diamond shone brightly, its lambent glow casting harsh shadows off the graves.

“Avarice!” Sapphire shouted, pawing at the ground like a bull about to charge.

The gryphon sneered, looking at her in disgust. “Well. Aren't you clever?”

Ribbons of dark purple smoke rose up all around like cage bars, slowly filling in to form opaque walls, blotting out the faint moonlight. Sapphire found herself trapped, with the gryphon stalking toward her menacingly.

“All this time? No, you wouldn't have warned us of your own escape...” Sapphire asked, desperate to buy time. If Avarice was a changeling, or even a demon as the legend suggested, she had no idea how to fight one.

“Worried about your cowardly friend?” The false gryphon shrugged. “He's dead, I imagine. After Light died it was easy enough to replace him. All those dead gryphons, an entire pride fed to the wolven horde... Forcing him to watch that over and over again every night made it a simple matter to drive him mad, send him screaming into the night. Oh that look of disgust suits you well, Sapphire Starlight. Perhaps Ironfeather had not told you how he hid and watched, watched as they were consumed.”

Light flashed from Sapphire's horn, striking the gryphon in the center of his chest. The beast screamed agony as Sapphire's arcane comet set fire to feather and seared skin. Abruptly the screaming stopped. With grim determination, Avarice set his gaze on Sapphire's chest, and forged across the tiny arena, weathering every barrage of comets that the desperate unicorn could summon. A sudden swath of ice erupted around him, snaring lion paws and eagle talons. Avarice roared his frustration, cracking the ice with a furious blow of his powerful beak. One by one he freed his limbs.

“Your magic, will run out,” he growled ominously, freeing his last paw. Again Sapphire reached out with her magic, ice blossoming around her like a giant frozen flower, the vines wrapping around the gryphon, pinning him down.

A savage cry drowned out the gryphon's unrelenting growls and snarls. The smoky wall cracked, and Stardust forced her way through from outside.

“You...” Stardust growled, advancing on the gryphon. A new look appeared on the demon's face. Eyes widening in terror, he struggled violently to tear through the icy bonds that held him.

“I won't let you escape again,” Stardust said, licking her teeth. “I know where we are... I know what it means...”

“No, wait, don't. I can fix you. Trust me, I can. She won't like it but I can...” Avarice bargained, drawing back as the hybrid closed the distance. His back feet were both still trapped. Stardust charged, barreling into him with her head down. Her ice-bound foe was unable to even attempt to avoid the blow and landed flat on his back, wings flailing beneath him. Stardust put her one hoof on his chest, holding him down.

“There's only one thing I want from you...” she hissed, her claws tracing lovingly across his soft vulnerable chest --

The gryphon whined pitifully. “But I can f-”

Avarice mouthed the last two words silently, only the slightest hiss of air flowing from his throat. He went rigid for a few seconds and then fell still. Sapphire looked away, stumbled a few feet, and vomited espresso and donut chunks behind the bushes.

Comments

[paul]

245820
Very nice story. I hope you are not going to abandon it because of some comments.
btw I found this story from http://septiphadrean.deviantart.com/#/d5575qv - why do not add this art to story description ? It's cool :)

[SapphireStarlightPony]

831140
Greetings,

Thank you for your interest. I'm actually currently finishing up my second draft of chapter 11. As for the artwork, I was on the road when GSphere finished so I hadn't had an opportunity to post it as the new cover image. Didn't they do a great job? I am so stoked to have it.