[quote=@Ariamis]
[@Stern Algorithm]

"Indeed she has," Maria answered with certainty. "But soon she will pay for her crimes, and we will start an eternal age of prosperity."

She landed back on her wheelchair. "But I can't do it without you, Eponine. Aurora needs us. The world needs us." She held her hand towards her.

"Take my hand, and let's make our dream come true."

[/quote]

Eponine thought about what would happen if she walked this path with Maria.  She imagined the lives shattered by the destruction and chaos that would come.  She imagined having to fight against magical girls that she had fought alongside in the past.  But then she thought of rows of soldiers, marching neatly; magical girls lined up at attention, under one banner.  People's lives, regulated to minimize both hope and despair to prevent unwanted contracts; witches dispatched in a precise and surgical way, more like an industrial farm than a hunt.  Could all this be possible?  But what wasn't possible, if only a magical girl could dream big enough?  Since becoming a knight of Aurora, Eponine had stopped dreaming, and suffered the same slow death as the city.  But Maria...she never stopped dreaming, she had the will to make it work.

"I will follow you my lady," Eponine said, "and I renew my pledge of loyalty to you, and you only."  She took Maria's hand and first touched it to her own forehead, and then brought it to her lips in a medieval gesture.