Aile had now the full attention of Warpath, Carbon and Snipit . Whether that was a good thing, remained to be seen.

It was three against one - but three followers against one free stallion made a whole lot of difference. He just hoped that his tactic worked.

He lowered his spear to the one who was standing in the middle - Snipit. He spread his wings to intimidate him and took a step forward, snarling. Because of his armor, he couldn't hit him without injuring him badly. So he had to knock him off guard… but how?

From the corner of his eye, he saw Carbon back away towards Wing and Civviq.

"Oh, no you don't."

He lashed his spear towards Carbon, who blocked the assault with his own spear. Behind him, he heard Warpath's claws scrape over the stone to attack him.

Quickly, he turned around to face Warpath and block his attack, but Snipit knocked him aside, right in Carbon's range. Seeing the spear coming at him, he quickly ducked. Behind him, he heard the clang of spear against armor.

He rolled over to face Snipit again, but Carbon and Warpath were quicker and pinned him to the ground. Snipit lifted his hoof to give him a blow, but he dodged the hoof and threw Snipit off him. Carbon was still holding his shoulder down, but he gave him a blow with his other arm, forcing him to let go. Warpath, who was still on top of him, lifted his claw. Behind him, Snipit and Carbon had aimed their spears at him.

He gulped. He couldn't move anymore; the unidragon was too heavy to throw off. But from the corner of his eye, he saw Wing and Civviq furiously digging away in the spot where Enerjack got the avalanche on top of him. Luckily, nopony noticed them. Then, Civviq and Wing disappeared.

At least he had kept them safe.

Swift was furiously beating his wings. He had to get up, to Dark Heart, to defeat him. Below, he heard the scraping of claws against rock. Enerjack was climbing on the dome, using his healthy wing for extra boost. At the same time, he was charging up a blast - Swift saw the runes on his back light up.

He looked back up, but then hovered for a moment. Where were Wing and Civviq? There! He spotted them at the cave-in. Nopony had noticed them.

He shook his head to clear it a bit up. He had to focus. He gritted his teeth and beat his wings to get higher.

But below him he heard a gigantic roar that made the entire dome shake. A beam of light caught his eye. He just managed to avoid the beam, but his wings were badly burned from the heat. He yelled out of pain and fell down.

As he fell, he saw the beam hit part of Dark Heart. He screamed, and the platform gave way. Shadowflame and Dark Heart fell. But Shadowflame's platform quickly formed again, saving him. But Dark Heart fell, his hide smoking.

Swift fell for what felt like forever. In mid-air, he turned, in the hope to land on his four hooves, but then he saw Aile, pinned down, Warpath's claw up. He had to help him! But how? One thing was for sure: he couldn't keep his current form.

He had to change.

Aile gritted his teeth, preparing himself for the final blow. But then, something else caught his eye. A form fell down right at Warpath, who didn't seem to notice it. Aile squinted his eyes - it was Swift! But… What was wrong with his coat? It was… it had holes in them…

He's a changeling, a voice hissed in his head. he is not your friend anymore. He betrayed you.

"That's not true." Aile said through gritted teeth, "You're lying, Mörk."

How would you know? You don't know him.

"He saved Wing and Civviq." Aile retorted. "He wouldn't betray them."

At that moment, the changeling above him pulled his katana.

Me and Wing ran away from all the commotion towards the walls of the dome. Wing looked back to his father, who was still fighting furiously.

"Wing, look!" I pointed to the cave-in. There was a big chunk out of the wall, which revealed a passageway. But it was still half-concealed behind a lot of stones.

"I found something. Come and help me dig!"

After one last look, Wing started to help me dig.

I saw on his face that he wasn't okay with just leaving his father.

"Wing…"

He kept digging.

"Wing, he will be okay. I'm sure he knows what he's doing."

He closed his eyes.

"You can say that easily. You don't have any parents." He spat.

I winced. "I…"

He stomped on another rock.

"Neither did I, until recently…"

I frowned.

Without looking up, he continued.

"I just don't want to lose him… not again."

I sighed, and smiled at him.

"And he doesn't want to lose you, either. He wants to keep you safe."

He thought about that, and nodded. "Yeah… I guess."

We kept digging in silence, until the hole was big enough for us to go through. It was really dark, so I grabbed one of the torches and motioned Wing to do the same.

Swift had changed back to his real form. He took a deep breath: it felt so… freeing. But he was afraid of Aile's reaction - or any of their reaction, really. But what matters most, now, is that he has to save him.

"Well, then," he hissed. "Let's dance."

He pulled Shinigami out and raised it above his head, ready to fight. With a loud yell, he caught Warpath's attention, who turned around to see what was going on. He could just lift a claw to defend himself from Shinigami.

Aile bucked him off him and stood up, lifting his spear once again and threw it at Carbon. He caught it in his magical field and lifted it together with his own spear.

Snipit lifted his own spear and aimed at Aile, but he bucked Snipit's spear out of his magical grip and caught it with his teeth. Carbon managed to throw a spear at Snipit for him to catch, so they all had spears again.

Warpath ducked from Shinigami and tried to tackle Swift, but he jumped up and let Shinigami clash with Warpath´s armor. Warpath roared and turned around to see where Swift is, but he had jumped up again and gave Warpath a blow on his shoulder. He toppled over and Swift gave him a hard buck in his side so he fell down.

Warpath roared again. With his magic, he formed a barrier between him and Swift to protect him from Shinigami. But Swift came down on his shield, hard, crushing it. He lifted his hoof to knock him out, but Warpath grabbed his hoof with his claw and flipped the changeling on his back. He then lifted his claw to give the killing blow - but Aile knocked him away.

Aile looked in the changelings eyes. Swift saw that there was mistrust, doubt and disappointment in Aile's eyes - but also appreciation and thankfulness. Aile nodded, and swift smiled weakly..

Aile saw Carbon's and Snipit's spears coming at them - and pushed Swift out of the way. The spears hit Warpath, who was standing behind them, right in the shooting range. He roared in pain and fell down, spears sticking out of his front paw… and one out of his neck.

Swift's eyes went wide. "Warpath!" he yelled. Aile saw that Carbon and Snipit fell down, screaming as well. Enerjack gave a gigantic roar.

"NO!" Dark Heart screamed, his voice amplified by the echoes in their minds.

"NO, YOU IDIOTIC PAWNS! YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO CRUSH THEM! NEVERMIND SOMEPONY DIES, IF THE ENEMY IS DEFEATED!"

Another loud roar from Warpath and a whimper. Warpath's eyes quickly changed from black to his normal eye color.

Swift and Aile ran over to Warpath's side.

"W-Warpath!" Swift said. "Hold on, we'll get these out…!"

Warpath raspily drew another breath and shook his head.

"Don't… You have to get Dark Heart…"

He wheezed again.

"Before… Before he escapes."

Aile shook his head.

"But what about you? We can't just leave you here."

Warpath laughed, half-coughing.

"This ole' unidragon... has gone through worse… much worse. Now go."

Aile nudged Swift. "Go. I'll stay here with him."

Swift looked at him, hesitating. After one last look at Warpath, he nodded and took off.

Aile sighed. "Now, why don't we get these wounds healed, huh?"

Me and Wing have been walking for what seemed like ages.

"Wing? Are we ever going to get out of here?"

He looked at me.

"Only if we defeat him… or, at least, until he weakens."

"But, how are we going to defeat him?"

"I have no idea." Wing walked on, and then stopped abruptly.

"Wing? What's wrong?"

Wing gasped clutched his head. "Ow…"

And then, I felt it. I yelped in pain, dropping the torch. Immediately, it was dark. I couldn't see a hoof in front of my face - but I was too distracted by the sudden splitting headache to care.

You try to run from me? Mörks voice echoed through my head.

You foals! You can never run from me - NOOO!

"OWWW!" Wing screamed.

YOU FOAL! YOU INCOMPETENT IDIOT! YOU M-

And just like that, it was over.

We looked at eachother, a bit dazed.

"What just happened?" I asked. Wing only shrugged.