Note: Hello! I actually have no explanation as to how I managed to write this whole chapter. I literally would squeeze in five minutes every day to write something... and it eventually added up! I really cannot express how happy I am with the responses I am getting. All of these reviews make it completely worth the work to put out good quality chapters! I know it is extremely important, now more than ever, to make sure everything I churn out for this story is top-notch quality. Now on to answering reviews! To Russet, yes... The season summer has left... But not the filly Summer. She will be here for a little longer. To Austin, I appreciate you being understanding, and I appreciate your encouragement. To Lanklore, I am glad my story has done something worthwhile aside from being entertainment. Your review has made me think over what I have done over the past year (well, I will admit it hasn't quite been a year), and I realized that I have put my heart and soul into this endeavor this entire time. Thus, you do not know how much it means to me to hear that my hard work has done some good. To madmanwithafork, I know of Dark Souls. Quite well, in fact. However, as for ideas... I am kind of full to the brim with them. But enough about that stuff... Let us go to Summer and Lyric!

Dimension: My Little Pony

Planet: Equestria Earth

Specific Location: Stallion Empire, the Frozen North

Time: Over a week after Lyric found Summer

Lyric opened his eyes slowly. His pupils immediately began to sting from the smoke that still hung low over the clearing. Coughing, the pony sat up on his rumb and looked about.

Scarps of metal from the decimated tank were scattered about the clearing. Bodies littered the area as well, and small fires were still crackling about in the underbrush.

Coughing sharply once more, Lyric grumbled, "Why? Why is it always us?"

Turning over he gently shook Summer. The filly opened her eyes, almost blissfully, as if she was just being awoken from a peaceful slumber.

Her face lit up slightly as her hoof found Lyric's.

"Lyric, is that you?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm here," he reassured her.

Groaning a little, Summer sat up on her rump as well and stretched her hooves.

"Goodness, I haven't slept like this for… well… for as long as I can remember! Which is not very long, but still…"

Lyric grinned. "I'm sure."

Summer got to all fours and sniffed the air. Her muzzle wrinkled distastefully as she exclaimed, "I smell smoke… Is everything still on fire?"

Lyric couldn't help but chuckle. "Yep. Everything is still on fire."

Summer shook her head a little in disbelief. "And we're still alive! We truly have been fortunate."

Lyric gently shoved her as he said, "You bet! You ready to get a move-on, sleepyhead?"

Summer smiled as she returned the shove. "Whenever you are ready, mister lazy. However… ummmm…"

Summer paused for a moment. She then sat down, looked at her hooves, and fidgeted for about a minute. Lyric was on the verge of asking her to spit it out when she looked up into his face. As her sightless eyes aimlessly swept over his weathered face, she said, "Could we… could we eat first?"

Lyric almost facehoofed. He had completely forgotten about the gnawing pain in his midriff.

"Oh course! I totally forgot! I think we still have some food in my backpack!"

Eyes sweeping the clearing, Lyric located his pack hidden beneath a small (and, surprisingly, unburned) bush. Trotting over to it, he quickly picked it up. He sighed in resignation as he looked it over. It was burnt black in some places, and soaked with ice water in others. The first aid kit he had picked up from the crashed airplane was smashed to shards of plastic, and everything aside from the celery sticks they had picked up at the small town had been smashed to mush.

Returning to Summer, he gently tapped her on the shoulder and said, "I have some celery sticks. The rest has been ruined."

Summer sighed in resignation as well. Then she brightened up and said, "Well, at least we have all these small fires about to keep us warm while we eat!"

Taking one of her hooves, Lyric led Summer to the nearest and largest of the fires still crackling in the smoking clearing. The two sat down by it and Lyric passes out four of the six sticks. Two for her, two for him.

Summer immediately took the two sticks in her hooves and began to gratefully munch on them, her face bright.

Lyric, however, immediately lost his appetite by the spectacle before him: a blind filly, Summer, was sitting, bloody and disheveled, amongst scorched corpses, trying to enjoy a meager meal after almost being shot to death. The pure wrongness of the scene snatched away whatever appetite he had, and forced him to simply quietly put the celery sticks back in the pack.

"Why are you putting your food away?" asked Summer (almost innocently) as she ate.

"I'm… I'm not hungry," murmured Lyric.

Summer stopped eating for a moment. She cocked her head to one side, and her ears twitched slightly. Her blind eyes swept over Lyric as she considered what he had said. For a moment her countenance was darkened by confusion and worry, but soon it was replaced by a smile as she attempted to be cheerful once more. She finished her food and got up.

Still trying to keep the air cheerful for Lyric, she "regally" held out one of her hooves and said, "Do lead on, please!"

A small smile twitched at Lyric's lips. He got to all fours and took the hoof proffered to him. Tugging at her, he led her through the smoking clearing back into the forest. Snow began to lightly fall once more as the two ponies entered the forest, and the snow-capped trees closed around them.

Chewing on the last of her meager meal, Summer said, "Are you okay, Lyric?"

Lyric sighed, and nodded his head slightly. "I suppose. It's just… I mean… Well, I just don't like the fact that you have had to go through all of this!"

Summer's sightless eyes flicked this way and that as she replied, "Lyric, I would gladly go through all that again, just to be with you."

Lyric literally started, tripped, and fell flat on his face when she said this.

Summer's laugh rang like bells in the ice-cold air as she tugged at one of his hooves to help him dislodge his face from the snow-covered ground. "See? It's these moments that make all the others worth it."

"For you, maybe," said Lyric ruefully, as he rubbed the tip of his muzzle, "But what gain do we really get in the end of all these trials save for blood and bruises?"

Summer leaned over and kissed him on the cheek lightly. Though her lips were turning blue, and were freezing, the light brush of her lips sent a fiery jolt through Lyric, warming his body and rejuvenating his diminishing energy reserves.

"I think you know," said Summer softly after a moment of silence.

With that, Summer let go of Lyric and trotted up to the nearest tree. Feeling the trunk and lightly tapping it, she hummed softly to herself. After doing this to the tree adjacent to it, she straightened up and said, "We're still heading east! Do you think we are nearing the Pillar of God?"

Lyric sighed. "I don't know. I never thought of looking when I was free of these pressing trees earlier, and now that we are here, the foliage is far too thick and snowy for me to properly see the horizon."

Summer cocked her head to one side again. Ears lightly flicking back and forth, she listened to something only she could hear. She then said, "I hear winds of an open plane whistling not too far ahead. I think… I think we are almost free of the forest!"

For the first time in days, Lyric's face broke into a genuine smile. "That is the best news I've heard in a while!"

Summer winked to him. "Straight from the lips of yours truly! Let's go!"

Lyric nodded his head readily (despite the fact that Summer could not see the gesture) and galloped ahead. He then stopped in his tracks, whirled about, and galloped back to Summer, where she was waiting with a proffered hoof.

"I'm so sorry!" he exclaimed as he began to approach her.

Summer smiled sweetly. "You'll get used to it eventually."

Lyric took Summer's hoof and the two trotted off to the east. Though at first the forest looked to be only getting thicker, the moment they crossed an icy brook, the trees actually began to become sparser and sparser. Then, as they pushed their way through several snow-laden bushes, the duo found themselves out in the open.

Lyric gasped in appreciation as the scene before him met his eyes. A large plane of flawless white snow lay before him. It stretched on for many kilometers, unobstructed for a great distance. But that was not the most impressive part. As the plane rolled on to meet the horizon, the Pillar of God rose from the point of fusion between the ground and the sky. Its name most certainly fitted the spectacle. A massive mountain of sheer, icy rock shot upwards into the sky. The colossal pillar of frozen stone was so large, in fact, that it simply disappeared into the cirrostratus.

"What? What is it? Tell me!" exclaimed Summer, almost irritably, greatly excited by the gasp of awe from Lyric.

"I… I… We made it! The Pillar of God is before us!" cried Lyric, "It's huge! A massive mountain! It's like a colossal pile of snow-laden now, going up higher, and higher, and higher! I can't even see the top!"

"Wow…" breathed Summer, now drinking in the words like it was a refreshing glass of water.

After a moment of awe-inspired silence, Summer glanced at Lyric and said, "Do you ever wish you could climb up there? I mean, what lies at the top?"

Lyric grinned as he replied "Probably just more snow."

Summer rolled her sightless eyes. "Oh, yeah, well, thank for ending my mythical speculation right there."

Lyric continued to grin as he said, "Just keeping you in check. You sounded like you were going to have a stroke!"

"I'll give you a stroke!" snorted Summer playfully. She shoved Lyric sideways, sending him tumbling into the freshly fallen snow. It cushioned him immediately as he plunged into the fluffy pillow of icy whiteness.

"I'll get you for that, Summer!" cried Lyric as he struggled to get to all fours. Leaping out, he seized the blind filly and pulled her into the snow. With a squeak, she toppled in with him, where they wallowed together, in the snow. There they lay, Summer on top of Lyric, laughing breathlessly. Lyric wrapped his front hooves about Summer's chest and squeezed her close to him. Once before, Summer would have squirmed in embarrassment and called him out for it, but not this time. She simply snuggled in closer as she chuckled softly.

However, just as their giggling quieted down, a sharp popping noise resonated through the air, and a slight light-distorting ripple spread through the air.

Both Lyric and Summer stopped laughing for a moment.

"What was that?" asked Summer quietly, ready for another (practically scheduled) vicissitude.

Silence descended on the clearing once more as Lyric waited for more information from his senses. However, his mental danger alert began to die down as he realized that nothing had gone wrong. Finally he made a consensus: all was well. All there was left was to wrap up the false alarm with a witty remark.

"I am pretty sure it was your old bone cracking, Summer," snorted Lyric, "You clearly cannot keep up with my kind of horseplay."

Summer twisted about so that she went nose-to-nose and chest-to-chest with Lyric. He blind eyes twinkled as she exclaimed, "Oh? Can't I? Well try using your level of horseplay to get out of this!"

She began to tickle him. Lyric's and Summer's giggles and cries of happiness rose into the air as their worries died away once more.

However, those strange sounds were far from nothing. They were the sounds of Harold doing his work. Over the course of a second he had vaporized the drone protecting the two, and replaced its unique Imagination Energy Signature with a fake (yet completely identical) one. And, as it seemed, no one would be the wiser, though Summer and Lyric would most certainly be less safe. Harold had worsened their chances of survival by a massive amount without even leaving his lair.

Dimension: My Little Pony

Planet: Equestria Earth

Specific Location: Stallion Empire, the Frozen North

Time: A week and a half after Lyric found Summer

Lyric sat up, shaking off the light doze that had enveloped him. Looking about, his memory returned to him. After playing in the fluffy white snow until they had literally collapsed from exhaustion, Summer and Lyric dragged themselves back past the tree-line where they had set up camp in the outskirts of the forest. Though they had been tired from their romp, they had been asleep, unconscious, or in a coma for so long over the last couple days that their exhaustion only resulted in them lightly dozing for the remainder of the day and the entirety of the night.

Yawning, Lyric turned around to look at Summer. Summer was still curled up, but her eyes were wide open. Her muzzle twitched slightly as her blank eyes stared through her hooves. He ears perked up when she heard Lyric's yawn, and she said, "Awake yet, sleepyhead?"

Lyric snorted. "Asleep? Who? Me? I've been awake for hours! Where have you been?"

Summer pulled a face. "Touché."

Lyric just winked at her (thought she clearly could not see it).

Summer then got up and sat on her haunches. As she yawned and smacked her lips, she said, "So... Can we eat?"

Lyric pulled out two celery sticks. He tossed one to her before he realized his mistake. The thing bounced off her nose, causing the filly to start in surprise slightly.

She then glared at Lyric in mock severity. "Oho! I see how it is now. Tossing dangerous objects at the blind little filly, are we?"

Lyric's stomach had done a somersault when he realized his mistake, but the mock glare pulled him out of his moment of regret and shock. So, instead, he chuckled, "Oh, yes. The celery stick I hurled is most certainly the most dangerous thing in this whole land. It was a miracle you survived my surprise attack."

Summer snorted playfully. "That was the second most dangerous thing. Here's the first!"

She scooped up a snowball with her right hoof and hurled it in the direction of Lyric's voice. Natrually, Lyric saw the whole thing coming, and nimbly dodged to the left. However, for some strange reason, it appeared that Summer had been predicting this development, and, despite her being totally blind, managed to smack him straight in the face. (No doubt Inquisitor Summer's powers at work.) Lyric started with shock as the icy cold particles washed over his face in a sparkling flurry of white flecks. He tumbled straight over, coming to rest with his face flat in the snow. As he pulled his face from the blanket of white, he saw Summer just sitting there, complacently munching on her celery stick, which she had located on the ground near her.

She smiled sweetly as he huffed in surprise. "Had enough?"

Lyric considered tackling her, but then decided against it. Now was not the time to playfully assault a blind filly. Thus, instead he got up, picked up his celery stick, and trotted over to where Summer sat. Sitting down next to her, he began to munch on his meager breakfast.

As he did so, Summer threw a hoof about his shoulder and said, "This isn't so bad."

Lyric grimaced. "I suppose. Imagine, it's been over a whole week since I found you in that plane…"

Summer gave him a peck on the cheek. "A week? You don't say?! Quick! Let's recap! You found me… We were almost killed by an avalanche… We found a town… We were almost killed by terrorists… We escaped… We were almost killed by more terrorists… We escaped… I was knocked out… I talked to Mattimeo-"

Summer abruptly stopped talking, as if she had said more than she had meant to say. Lyric gave her a side-long glance and asked, "Who is Mattimeo?"

Summer looked down at her hooves and mumbled something. Grinning Lyric gently poked her belly. "Come on! You can tell me! We're over secrets, remember?"

"You'll laugh."

"Lies! Of course I won't!"

"But… Okay…"

Summer sighed and turned to face Lyric. Then she continued.

"Well, when I went into a coma… I was met by Mattimeo – in my dream, you must understand – and he told me that it was all his fault for putting me in the coma. Apparently there is this whole argument going in another dimension about these powers that I have. I guess the argument ended up in Mattimeo attempting to take my powers by putting me in a coma, then waking me up after he had them. However, his idea fell through, and I was stuck in the coma until you woke me up! However, he felt so bad for what he had done that he stayed with me the whole time I was asleep. We talked, he told me stories… It was beautiful. I am even fairly sure that that strange invisible creature that destroyed all those bad guys when you woke me up was his doing! He's a good friend."

Lyric actually listened with interest. Most ponies would have scoffed at her, but not him. In fact, he actually believed her. Though the northern parts of the Stallion Empire were most certainly isolated, he had heard the tales of powerful, multidimensional beings that momentarily resided in Equestria. Mayhap this was one of those beings. And the powers Summer was talking about… those made sense as well. After all, he had seen those powers in action himself.

"Huh. That's interesting. Do you think you will meet Mattimeo again?" he asked after processing the verbal information given to him.

Summer shook her head sadly. "I don't know. My dreams were blank and peaceful."

Lyric lightly shoved her. "I hear those are the best, though."

Summer perked up and lightly shoved back. "Mayhap you're right."

Lyric shoved her again. "Of course I'm right!"

After that, Summer just rubbed her shoulder and pulled her face while saying, "Okay, mister know-it-all. So… Tell me… Where are we going now?"

Lyric got up and trotted to the edge of the forest once more. He narrowed his eyes as he gazed out across the massive plane.

"The morning star… Follow it until you reach the Pillar of God, the tallest mountain in the Stallion Empire. Then head straight south…" he muttered to himself, quoting the dying pony they had found in the town.

His eyes raked the plane, finally coming to rest on the massive mountain that erupted from the horizon. After a moment of lingering on this awe-inspiring monument, his eyes turned to the right. His eyes fell upon the beginning of yet another massive forest. However, this was less foreboding in its appearance. The trees were more spacious, snow didn't lie as thickly upon the top branches like a smothering mantle, and it simply seemed… warmer.

Lyric smiled as the next course of action became clear: they would trot across this vast white plane before them to that next forest. Then they would head straight south. Nothing could go wrong with that plan… right?

Note: Okay! That is it for today! Time to go back and check up on August and his team. Anyway... Who wants a plushie? I saw this absolutely amazing plushie of a cat recently, and it threw me back into the craze. Thus, in honor of that and this chapter... Whoever gives me a review will get an invisible plushie of Lyric and Summer! Hmmmmm... I am almost positive you guys have lost at least a few of the invisible things I have given you over the course of "A Mending Soul." Oh... And one last thing. I have a question for you all. What is the definition of a hero? What is it, truly? Think about that.