Sol marched what remained of her forces hard, bringing them swiftly back to Canterlot. The few gangs and marauders foolish enough to get in their way on the path back were quickly and cruelly disposed of, without slowing their pace.
They arrived, exhausted and battered, and once there, Sol immediately made for the castle. The Baron received her, eager to hear her report... but he was surprised when instead of meeting with him, instead, she made her way directly to the Magic Academy.
Titan was left to try and act as diplomat, to explain what had happened and reassure the worried Baron that they were going to do all they could in order to protect Equestria. But he also advised that the Baron reach out to the others: in times past the baronies had often waged war against each other, making battle both in the field and at the political table, but now they had a common enemy. An enemy that would not be pacified by land or money or anything else, but would require all their strength to defeat. And that strength would only come with unity.
While Titan spoke to the Baron, Morgan and her lover slipped away. Morgan wanted to help, but did not know what she could do: her paladin did everything he could to reassure her, to soothe her, to make everything better... but even as Morgan took solace in his words and allowed herself to be comforted, she felt uneasy. The paladin spoke, all too often, of slipping away from the battle... of things that sounded so sweet and comforting, like how he would whisk her away from all this if he could, and yet as they turned over and over in her mind, she heard the secret meaning in his promises...
She asked him if he wanted to run away: the paladin, of course, responded vehemently that he did not want to. But then, in gentler tones, he whispered that he wanted to see her safe, and he wanted to be safe with her.
He whispered beautiful words to her, but as pretty as they were, as happy as they made her... at the same time, Morgan wondered if they weren't laced with poison. A sweet, numbing, happy poison, but a poison nonetheless, and one that was trying to twist its way through her mind and compel her to do things she never would have considered in the past. To flee from the battle, and leave, and be happy with her paladin, and pretend that he was strong and fierce and that he could protect her when really, he was still a young stallion. Still uninitiated in battle, afraid of being hurt, unable and perhaps unwilling to put his life on the line to protect others. Who gloried not in the honor of his order, but in the honor that came with being part of the order. Who did not understand that there was more to service than simply the armor, the sword, and the rewards. That duty, in and of itself, was reward.
Morgan, for the first time in many days, drew herself away from her paladin, saying she needed time alone. She left her paladin, and climbed to the top of a high, lonely tower of the castle, gazing out into the beautiful night, at the moon and stars suspended in the sky, raised by the unicorns of Canterlot.
Morgan sat, and thought, and wondered silently if it would not be better if she simply lived her life with only her family at her side.
Titan did his best to mend fences, to convince the fearful and the meek and the proud to work together, to fend off the coming evil, even while the Baron continued to dawdle and fret and make up excuses.
And Sol planned, and forged weapons and armor, and developed dangerous, devastating enchantments and traps. Tools of great power and great risk, that she knew would serve well in their battle against the Wyrms... but after the beasts were destroyed, could very well be claimed and used by ponies for their own cruel designs.
But as the three had learned, nothing in life came without cost and consequence.
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