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"B-big sis... s-she's helped m-me ever s-since..." Heiro tries to think of the words, but they wont come, so he just returns the hug, holding his father tight. "Y-you should g-go and t-tell Falcata t-that Kris is... is safe...  I-I can bring her back to the fortress..."

Midnight laughs a cold laugh. "Can't be any worse? Bones, blood, and flesh strewn across this clearing, and your son laughing in the center. That is what would happen if the darkness took over fully. Death is no bad thing compared to that."

"Is he? Your son is a colt, he has never grown past his villages destruction. I have fought nearly every battle he has ever had."

 "Do you want to know what happens when your son tries to fight without me? You see these bodies, they are the work of the darkness in our mind. Even I cannot stop it fully at times, if he was alone... if he was alone you would be looking at nothing but red stained grass. There would be little enough left of these two that they could be buried in a handbasket. Distasteful as it is... a fight should be quick, clean. End things with a single stroke... not like this..."

Midnight/Heiro shakes her head, "But that does not matter. I will not let you torment him more. He is lucky enough not to remember what we do when the darkness takes us."

"I-I... but..." His eyes shift and the fear seems to leave him, replaced with a coldness. "Heiro didn't I did. Threats must be dealt with. Threats to family destroyed. Any who would harm a foal, they don't deserve even a second thought. That has kept me alive and Heiro safe for sixteen years in the wilderness. Why should it change now?"

Heiro staggers from the blow the shock stunning him. "W-w-what d-do you mean? I-I... I s-saved K-Kris... A-and Adamant... W-what d-did I-I do... do wrong?"

Heiro nuzzles his daughter, holding her tight. He looks over at Starkey "Dad, it's a good thing you're here, you need to find Falcata, she's probably really upset if she thinks Kris is gone." He pauses, seeing the look on Starkeys face. "D-dad... w-what's wrong?"

"Missing something?" Heiro laughs a darkness coming into his eyes. "Oh, don't get up, it will just take longer if you run"

He drops his axe and jumps on the diomedian, Stomping and bucking. He circles around it, delivering crushing blows with his hooves again and again until it looks Like nothing less than a small pile of fur and flesh, smashed so badly that one could hardly recognize that it used to be a pony. With a final kick, his rage starts to subside, he takes a deep breath, retrieves Midnight's axe, then goes and cleans himself in the lake.

He returns to Kris' side, his worry beginning to return as the rage fades. "Hey there little one, daughter. It's okay now, you're safe. Lets get you back to your mother, I'm sure she's really worried about you. Just focus on me okay, don't look around." Heiro brushes Kris' mane as he speaks, trying to calm her.

Heiro looks at the darkbolt, so he thought he was one of the raiders then... "Of course I would be happy to take her, means I get the credit. You sure you don't want any help? This pile of meat didn't last nearly long enough."