My knees knock together and I feel nervous, walking down the old paths. It's already two, almost three days in and I'm just getting here. I feel about to cry as I walk up to the giant, almost stationary cloud. It's moved around the mountain somewhat, but otherwise, my home is the exact same as it was.

"I don't want to." I murmur softly. "I don't want to I don't want to I don't want to." I want to turn back, to hop on the back of Mirage (the nice Dragonfly Canira who brought me here) and fly back home.

I let my wings slowly lift me upwards. I flap once, twice, and spiral up faster and faster, struggling against the still, limp air. I pant and land firmly on my cloud home.

If I can even call it that anymore.

For some dumb reason, I always imagined that when I came back, Shine would be the first to see me and my mom and dad would protect me from whatever else others might say about that horn. Nervously, I cover it up with fluffy pink fur. Now it looks like I have the world's weirdest head growth.

I ignore it and walk forwards. Feeling nervous I pick up my pace a bit. I hear footsteps, muffled by the cloud but still loud and clear, and I run, my wings making a racket as they flap as I restrain myself from getting up and flying away. I slide on the cloud and the figure comes up behind me. It's a young Pegasus Canira, a male with milky but wise eyes.

He looks at me for a while, and says, "Come."

Something about him feels safe and familiar. Like a forlorn pup following her mom, I trot after him, scared but strong. We stop at where the formations of cloud begin, the city. It was only a few minute's walk but it felt like longer.

"I can't go any further." he murmurs, and a tear hits the cloud, staining it red.

Confused, I look up at his eyes and see there are none. There's nothing but empty holes, black where the exposed flesh would've been. "Who... who are you?" I say, scared.

He lifts up his wings. His wings are broken. "Not all of us are lucky enough to survive the fall, sister. Stop them before it becomes too late."

I walk into the city without him. When I turn back, he's gone. Disappeared into mist. He's... gone.

I walk to the only place I know, my old den. A familiar face greets me, my dad. He stares at me, looking straight at the horn, which must've been revealed while I ran.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Avery. Your daughter." He doesn't recognize me. No, he has to. Maybe this isn't him. My dad has to recognize me.

"It... is..." He looks at me, inspecting every patch of fur. "No. My daughter is a Pegasus Canira. Not a Unicorn Canira."

"I have wings! Look!" I cry, opening them and embracing him with them.

He swings his claws across the wingtips. "You are a monster. Get away from us before I kill you. You are not my daughter and if you are I don't want you back."

"Daddy! Please!" Tears stream down my face.

My father slashes the wings again, bloody feathers falling on the floor. "GET OUT!"

I run out of the old den and bump into another Pegasus Canira, a female about the age I was when I left, eleven.

"Hello missus. I'm Cloud Dust, who are you?"

"I'm Avery. Can you take me to the leader of the Pegasus Canira?"

"Of course, missus."

She bounds across the clouds, and we reach a ladder that reaches up higher and higher, a gateway to the stars made out of whispy steps of cirrus. I walk up them. "Thank you!" I call to Cloud Dust, and then I move on.

I jump up the last rung, unable to fly, and my paws reach the edge of a platform. I scoot up and see a regal looking male Pegasus Canira. He leers down at me, noting my bloody wings. "Who the heck are you?"

"Avery. My name is Avery."

"How did you get the wings, Unicorn Canira? Did you take them off one of our dead soldiers?"

"I'm a Pegasus Canira, and proud of it!" The problem with this is that I am not proud anymore. After seeing truly kind and peaceful Canira, Canis, and even dragons, I can no longer love my own people.

"Well, then. What are you here to ask me about?"

"I want you to stop the war."

He laughs at me and the laugh disintegrates into a wheeze. "What?! Why would I ever???"

"Fine, then. Why are we fighting?"

"Well, I guess I can tell you that much before I kick you off the cloud. We fight for our honor."

"What honor is there with paving the ground in dead bodies?!"

"Long ago, we were allies with the Unicorn Canira. We were a mighty team of land and sky. One day, they murdered the heirs to the throne when they were out walking together with the Unicorn Canira's heirs to the throne. We found only our heirs' dead bodies with horn marks gouged into them and the symbol of one of the Unicorn Canira sorcerers carved into the stone.

The next day, we told them about it, and they told us that they would never do such a thing and that they blamed us for the loss of their heirs.

It started with just arguments, but then the arguments became feuds. The feuds broke out into battles and the battles stretched out into a war."

"What did this symbol looks like?"

He draws three spiralling scars into the ground.

Dark Rainbow draws the Obsidians' mark into the ground. "What were they like?" I ask her. "Did they have awesome darkness powers or what?"

"They can shapeshift, that's about it." She says, doodling with her claw.

The memory hits me like a lightning bolt. "The Obsidians!"

"What about them? They're the black- things, right?"

"That's their symbol! How could you not know that?!"

"We live on clouds," he mutters indignantly. "And I'm seriously considering chucking you off them right now."

"Can you heal my wings?"

"You can fly with what you have. It's harder, but you can."

I gulp. I've never been a very strong flier. "Listen, I'll come with you tomorrow. You can show me whatever you want to show me then."

"Where should I stay?"

"You have relatives, right?"

I shake my head slowly. "They all died in a war," I lie.

He glares at me. "I know your father, stupid. Don't lie to me. How am I supposed to trust a liar?"

I back away. "I'm sorry, I just... my father cast me out when he saw the horn..."

"See? You're probably a mixed breed too. Get off now before I push you."

I back up further, my back paws hanging over the edge. That's when I see him again, standing right in front of me- the empty eyed figure from before.

"You will not touch the Chosen of Love." he warns, growling.

The proud leader stares into the empty sockets of the demon's eyes and a see a flash and the leader has tucked his tail into submission. "Who are you?" he asks, staring up at the figure.

"I speak for the fallen. This must not continue." he says gruffly, and just like that, he is gone, lost to the mist.

I stand there for a second, facing off against the leader. He sits back on his throne, curling up and ignoring me.

"Tomorrow?" I say.

I hear no answer, but slowly I walk away, and spread my wings to fly back down, just to prove that I am strong. My wings ache, but I lay down on the fluffy cloud that just doesn't seem the same. Halfway through the night, I hear ruffling of wings, but I'm too tired to open my eyes. The next morning I wake up with a soft wing covering my face. I don't know whose it is, but I see old marks from a fall and I know it's Shine.

"Sh-shine?" I whisper.

She is silent. I get out from under her wings and see she's lying silently across the cloud. Her body is only slightly warm, and a horrible sensation of pure dread trickles through my body when I realize that she might have thrown herself over me to keep me warm and died.

"Shine?" I whine, poking her with my horn. "Shine, wake up?"

I thrust my head against her chest and hear a dim heartbeat. There's a scratch down her throat which my horn must've caused. I try to pick her up, but I'm too cold. "Shine, wake up. Please."

Shine opens her eyes and says slowly, "I can't move... I'm so tired..."

"Why did you have to do it, Shine?" I huff, trying to cover my worry with a more collected tone.

"I dunno."

I roll my eyes and drag her across the cloud. I see beside me the pup from yesterday... Cloud Dust. Another pup joins in, and another. I bring her to where the sun is brightest, but her heartbeat is beginning to slow. I dip my head, thinking of how much I love Shine and everything she's ever done for me, and something clicks. My horn glows pink and a warm, gentle power fills the area. The light falls on Shine's body, and she opens one eye, and then the other. "Avery?"

Tears fill my eyes and I catch her in a warm embrace. "Avery, the war... it's getting worse. Go on ahead. I feel better." She flashes me a reassuring smile.

I bid her and the pups goodbye and climb the stairs again. The leader waits unamused.

"Just show me your stupid problem and get out, filthy mixed breed."

It stings so much more than I let on. I soar down to the main cloud, him following behind, then I fly all the way down below to the meadow below. A cool breeze turns chilly as we go down.

"What is this place?" He says, landing and I hear a loud crack. The jawbone of a Canira shatters beneath his paw, the rotting flesh long gone.

"This is the cost of the war. Do you recognize any of your friends?"

Even though he tries to conceal it, I can see his eyes dart from one place to the next, dead bodies littered across the empty ground. I look to one all too familiar body and see the limp form of my mother. Maggots squirm in her eyes, grotesque and I pass out only to wake up minutes later. "My mom..." I whisper. "My mom is dead..."

He looks unimpressed, but then I see him walk over to two bodies, hand in hand with each other, both no more than bones. A horn jutts out of ones head and the other has strong, lithe wings.

"It's my brother and his mate." he says finally. "I never thought... that... We're going. We will stop this."

I nod, and brush my hand across my mom's body. "I miss you, mami." I whisper. "Goodbye."

* * *

"Well, well, well. Borealis and... what the heck is that?" screeches a patrol Canira on the mountain.

"We are here to end this. If you do not let us pass, well..." Spreading his right wing, the proud leader reveals a legion of Pegasus Canira. One young one carries an olive branch in her mouth, flitting proudly at the front.

He lets us in without a word.

We pass dimly lit passages, pictures of lovely valleys and stories with no words, but as we go on, I see more violent things. Old pictures have been erased, layered with drawings of wars. The last few are painted with blood and feathers and I feel sick.

"Do you want to turn back?" Borealis asks.

"No. I'm good. Totally fine." I lie.

We reach the leader's stone room in what seems like forever but was probably about five minutes.

He waits there, and bares his teeth when he sees us. "What are you doing here? I should have you killed right now."

"We want peace."

"So, you're surrendering, you pathetic furry pigeon?"

Borealis growls but I hold him back. "No, we're here to do something that should've been done a long time ago."

In the dim light, he sees my horn and laughs. "Oh my gosh, you brought a mixed breed? What class. How did you find one? I thought they were only in comedy skits. So stupid..." He tries to knock off my horn, but it stays there. "It's real? She has a real horn?!"

"Bring all your tribe to the place where the heirs were taken at midday. We will talk there." I say, and when he nods, I turn and run away from this awful, closed in place.

* * *

Two sides. Ready to fight at any point, but I will stop this. I look at everyone, each side staying away from the other, and announce, flying above them all, "Look down at where you stand."

Everyone does.

"Does anyone see the gashes on the ground? They are the cause of all your pain."

Confused murmurs break out along the crowd.

"Long ago, the Obsidians, vile shapeshifters, abducted the Unicorn Canira heirs and turned into Unicorn Canira themselves to slash the marks into the bodies of the Pegasus Canira heirs, which made it look like you guys were trying to hurt each other. They meant to start this."

"Why should we believe you?"

"Yeah, why?!"

"Horn freak!"

"Who ya calling a horn freak? Wings are weirder!"

Nasty insults break out, but I scream, "QUIET!" and fan my wings in a full arc with more power than I need to stay aloft, brushing the sound down to them below.

Everyone is silent. "Look around you. Your best friends and family are here. Do you believe they would kill each other just to start a fight?"

"Well, no."

"Not really."

"I don't know, my aunt has a temper on her..."

"There was no reason to fight! Ever!"

It's my own father who speaks up. "Give us some proof!"

The crowd erupts into a roar, until one Unicorn Canira raises his paw. I shouldn't recognize him- I only knew him for minutes. But I do. I saved his life.

He holds up a bloody piece of obsidian, and then another Canira holds up another, covered by rock but still bloody. Soon, a tenth of the crowd, about twenty Canira, are holding up obsidian pieces.

"That," announces the Unicorn Canira, "Is your proof. The blood is crimson. Royal blood."

My first thought is, He didn't just run away.

My second thought is, Ew, royal blood is crimson? How did you test that?!

Slowly but surely, members of each tribe begin to mingle. At first, they are hesitant (they just sit there for twenty minutes), but the pups run over immediately. They don't care what anyone looks like- I know myself that the war is hidden from pups until they are almost ready to fight.

The parents follow suit. The relatives. The singles seek out their own kind. The leaders shake paws and glance down at that awful meadow of bones, knowing it will never take a victim of war again. They not only look less hostile, but a lot of them look... happy. Like this was meant to be. I hear wings flapping by both my sides. On my left is the hollow eyed figure, and on my right is... the Unknown Canira. She has no wings, she's just sitting in midair, like the laws of physics don't apply to her.

She smiles at me, saying in her omnipotent voice, "I did not have to interfere. You did a good job. The charmspeak probably helped too."

"Charmspeak? I have charmspeak?!" Confused onlookers stare up at me talking to myself. "I mean, I totally didn't know I had that much talent. Thank goodness you all can be friends now!" I grin.

"There is a lot you do not know, little one." Like that, she is gone.

The hollow eyed Canira turns to me. "Good job, little sister. I waited for you for many years."

"Who are you, really?" I say, silently enough so that no one stares again.

"I'm your brother, of course." he says with a empty grin. "I... it is time for me to move on."

"Good luck." I say. He too disappears. I hope he has his eyes back in the stars.

I head down to the rock, fluttering over to Borealis. "You will stay, right, Avery?" He smiles.

"I have unfinished business to attend to." I sound as disappointed as I can, although I miss the others more with every passing second. "I guess, until then... I can stay for a while."