Of course he would do that, of course he would move in front of them. She should have known, should have done something to prevent it, but here they were and what seemed so brave and easy a moment ago seemed so foolish now. Not that she would change the fact that she had not run when she was first told to – she would never, ever take that back. But perhaps there had been another option, some other route that she might have taken.

She understood so little of what was happening around her – Resplendence’s fear made it real, made her mind seize the only explanation that made sense to her: that demons had come, that sweet Aurelia was possessed and now Mikey was… well what would happen? – he would turn into the thing he never had wanted to be, the thing he was in name only, or he would die.

Everything had been fine when they had left. What had they brought back with them? These thoughts repeated themselves in her mind until she was so sure this was her fault.

With Mikey was before them suddenly a soft blue glow surrounded her and Resplendence. If she had only managed to turn her head she might have seen that it was being emitted by a pinecone, might have realized that it was protecting them, but the glow only served to obscure her view of her friend.

“I can’t.” was her weak response to being told, yet again, to run – not even feeling the nip on her shoulder and unable to tear her emerald eyes away from Miykael. How could she possibly just leave him?

Well, she wouldn’t… not if she had been alone. She would have stayed whatever the consequences. There was fear, of course, but she didn’t even know what would happen and how could she fear that? The unknown wasn’t frightening for her. Surely there was a chance that everything would be fine!

Just a few moments ago she had felt strong, strong enough to give support out freely – strong enough to get them all out of there safely (though she had no idea how). She was weak against this, against whatever this was, and that realization took the wind out of her. Her mind buzzed and hummed trying to come up with something that she could do.

It took the second and third call to get her hooves to unstick themselves from the earth, for her eyes to finally slide away from her friend. Falling from her lips were whispered apologies, to everyone, she wanted to scream them but they could not come out any louder. When had she ever screamed in her life? Everything felt as though it was restricting inside of her, her mind screaming at her both to stay and to go.

Oh Alysanne isn’t this what you do best, abandoning those you love when they need you the most? First your son, then the Edge, now Miykael.

But what could she possibly do against this? She was useless, worse than that – because of her he was in this mess. Because of her, they were all in danger.

Running had never been an option, not before. But now she was not fleeing alone. They were being given a chance by the unicorn mare she didn't even know the name of.

She was crumbling, her mind slipping to blank because the alternative was just too terrible at this point. So she turned after Resplendence and ran to escape the feeling of her own heart breaking. What else could she do?