> Equestria's Ray of Hope
>  by The_Darker_Fonts
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Welcome to Equestria
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Raymond groaned as muffled voices flowed through his sleep deprived head.  Sunlight streamed through an open window, annoyingly accurate as it tried to pull him awake through shut eyes.  He scrunched his face up as he groped for his blankets, which must’ve fallen off at some point during the night, leaving him cold.  His searching hand only found his bare leg and boxer covered groin.  Jason had probably stolen them sometime in the night.  Again.
He grumbled incoherently to himself, and began rolling over in bed to continue his search for the missing blankets.  His alarm hadn’t gone off yet, but it was light outside, so that probably meant he only had some fifteen minutes of sleep left.  Five hours of sleep was better than four and a half.  Or, three-fourths, he didn’t give a crap, it was too early to be doing math.  He rolled to his right a little more, and smacked his head against something hard his groping hands hadn’t found.
Pain shot through his head as he pressed his hand against the spot, cursing.  A series of gasps echoed in his room, and with a start, Raymond realized that he wasn’t alone.  
“Crap”, he muttered as he turned leftward on his bed, where he attempted to roll off onto the rug only a few inches below.  From the small murmurs that had followed his crude language, and the sharp “Shh, he’s waking up,” he figured that his siblings had entered the room.  Unsurprising; by now they probably had enough invasion of privacy charges to get a life sentence.  Hopefully. 
Still, the prospect of another “no cussing” lecture from his mother made him want to personally teach them what a swirly was.  He loved his mom and all of that, but she had grown up as a single child, like Raymond’s father.  If they had had seven siblings growing up, then he doubted that they would be so hard on his profanity.
Raymond’s muscles groaned in complaint as he attempted to sit up, arms and legs determined to weigh no less than two tons as he stood.  Shouldn’t have taken that extra shift, he thought groggily.  Sure, the twelve hours of hauling trash at the dump had resulted in a bountiful check, but that extra work would probably hinder his abilities today.  Luckily, Chick-fil-A paid by the hour, not by the bushel.
He rubbed his eyes one last time to get the sleep out of them, then opened them.
Two blurry, knee-high figures stood on either side of him.  He placed his hand on the wall beside him, before realizing that it wasn’t a wall, but a tall marble column.  He scratched his head in confusion.  What trick was the demon spawn of his house working on now?  It took an embarrassingly long time for him to realize that the column was authentic, and that it wasn’t even his room that he now stood in.
Looking up, the ceiling was really only a couple feet from his short nose, indicating that either he had experienced a major growth spurt, or the room he stood in was very small.  It was adorned with bright depictions that Raymond’s sleep deprived brain couldn’t quite process, but that was fine by him.  This was obviously another dream of his.
He looked back down at the two figures who flanked him.  They had become more recognizable now that the fog in his eyes had cleared up, taking the shape of a small brown something and a slightly smaller lime green something.  They stood on four legs, staring directly at him.  Looking closer, Raymond realized they were some kind of equine, too short to be horses.  Ponies, he decided.  They wore armor that looked more like they were for decorative purposes than for practical means.  The spears they carried were no better, the tips so dulled out that Raymond deduced that if he were to throw himself on it, he would come away with a mild bruise.
With the pesky stream of sunlight that was still demanding he woke up all the way, he was able to see that behind these guards, there were small steps.  Tracing those steps with his eyes, he soon found himself staring straight into a pair of violet eyes.  This one was different from the others.  
For one, he could immediately tell that she was a female.  Something her face structure, and the way her hair was laid out, gave off the impression that she was feminine.  She also seemed to be a different variant of pony than the other two, a unicorn with a wings.  Alicorn, if his memory of eighth grade Greek mythology served correct.  
She also seemed to be their… empress?  It was hard to tell exactly what she was, but easy to see that she was their leader.  She sat straight backed on a throne that was adorned with a large purple star at the top, five smaller white stars forming a half circle around their larger cousin.  A crown parted her violet mane, splitting it right where a hot pink highlight sprouted.  It was golden and three pronged, the same purple star as before dead in the center.  
Looking and the rest of her bodice- he decided it wasn’t weird because this was just another dream- she was purple.  Or plum, Raymond really didn’t know enough colors to specify.  Her flank bore the same mark as her throne, which really made him start questioning whether she was more deity than dictator.  However, despite her imperious visage, she looked more than a little nervous.
Fine by him, he needed to find a way to get out of here.  It was nice and all that this dream was more realistic, but most dreams like this ended in his death, one way or another.  In the realm of dreams, Raymond thought he could relate a lot to Kenny sometimes.
Turning around, he found himself faced with two more guards.  One was shorter and leaner than the other, which Raymond attributed to her being feminine.  She was peach colored, her male companion a gray unicorn.  Both also had spears attached to a little holster on the side.
Oh, so it's that kind of dream, he mused, mentally preparing himself for some kind of fight.  A sudden *Ahem* from behind him made him turn his back on the too-cute-to-be-intimidating guards.  He once again found himself making eye contact with the nervous pony in front of him.  
After an awkward moment of silence from the two, the purple pony cleared her throat.  “My name is Twilight Sparkle,” she said,” Princess of Friendship, Ruler of Equestria, and bearer of-”
“Yeah, that’s great and all sweetheart,” Raymond interrupted, already bored of the creations of his mind and impatient to just get on with it.  If he was lucky, he could be done with this dream in a matter of a few minutes, leaving him with time to fall back asleep.  “Could you just tell me where I am so we could get on with this.”
The alicorn looked taken aback for a moment before saying, "Well alright then.  You’re in Equestria.”
“Nice,” he said, turning back to the guards behind him.  Beyond them, an incredibly long hallway with a lower ceiling than the room he was in stretched out like a cathedral.  There were colored windows that he couldn’t quite see due to the fact that there were marble columns flanking them.  However, thanks to the muddled depictions that the sun wrought on the right side of the hallway, he guessed it was sometime in the morning.
He went to take a step, when Twilight’s voice suddenly called out, ”What are you doing?  You can’t leave!”
Her voice wasn’t commanding though, moreso urgent and panicked.  Apparently she didn’t like the prospect of him leaving.  Raymond didn't know whether to take that as a comforting sign, or a warning.  Slowly, he turned back to her.
“And why is that?”
“Well...” the pony was looking down now, anxiety forming a crease in her brow.  The guards bore silent witness to all of this, though Raymond didn’t miss the way they kept eyeing him.
“Look, I’m not really even sure why I’m talking to you.  I have no idea what kind of crazy sleep deprived dream I stumbled into, but I think I'm gonna wake up now.”
“You can’t wake up from this.”  Twilight almost seemed guilty by saying that, like she was confessing something to him.  He narrowed his eyes at her, but she wouldn’t meet his.  Something about the way she kept fidgeting put him off.  And, like a bomb had been dropped in his mind, the realism suddenly made sense.
“This isn’t a dream, is it,”  Raymond asked, dreading the answer.  “I mean, that’s why the column hurt.  That’s why this is all so real.”
Twilight nodded.  Raymond felt himself growing frantic.  This wasn’t real.  It couldn’t be.  He had to still be back on Earth, right?  Back on Earth…  Relief flooded him as he realized what was going on.  But deep down, he knew the relief was hollow.  Still, he had to at least give it a shot.
“I’m comatose, completely unconscious,” he said, more to himself than any one in particular.  “My brain’s making up excuses for the weird stuff going on in real life.  I’m probably just lying in a hospital bed right now, family gathered around me, doctors telling them I’ll be awake any time now.”
Twilight muttered a small, shy “No”, head downturned in shame.  Raymond began to panic again, his brain racing for logical excuses to whatever the heck was going on.  He began pacing the circular chamber, hand running his hand through his hair, eyes now to the floor.
“I know,” he said, his voice sounding slightly unhinged.  “I’ve gone schizophrenic like Mags, and am having an attack.  I’m talking to myself, accidently hurting myself and coming up with excuses to keep up the illusion.  Mags says that sometimes she realizes she’s having an episode, so that must be what’s going on right now.”
Panting, he glanced at the alicorn for confirmation, but didn’t receive it.  He felt his jaw beginning to quiver as dozens of unrealistic possibilities ricocheted inside his skull.  Apprehension and manic desire for the impossible concept that this “Twilight Sparkle” was pushing as real to be proven false filled his chest, making it feel like it was trying to detach itself from Raymond’s body.  The air seemed to be going thin, the oxygen pulled from it, suffocating him as he tried to breath.
“What are you saying then, Princess,” he finally was able to ask.  He had attempted to say it calmly, but it came out as cold and unhinged, echoing slightly in the chamber.  The alicorn somehow was able to duck her head further in embarrassment, pushing back against her throne, into a position not unsimilar to a dog being scolded.  Her tail tucked around her front, displaying the same color scheme as her... he guessed mane was the proper thing to call it.
“I, um, I guess that I’m suggesting, I mean saying, that th-this is… real?”  Her answer came out as a question, as if testing to see what Raymond’s reaction to such a proposition was.  
“And how is that.”
“I- um, well I, brought you here.”
A sort of calmness settled over Raymond.  So she had accidentally brought him here, to this Equestria.  It actually kinda made sense now that he took a deep breath and thought about it.  Twilight seemed to be genuinely embarrassed about his being here, and he guessed that could be attributed to an experiment gone wrong of some sorts.  He let the breath out, letting the motion flow into a comforting smile as he looked back at the humiliated purple pony.
“It’s all right,” he told her.” I think I finally understand what’s going on here.”  Twilight looked up at him in confusion, a frown on her face.  “You were just messing around with some magic or other pony crap and happened to teleport me from my home.  All you have to do is simply reverse the spell and *BAM*, I’ll be back in Pittsburg.  And don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone about this.  Prob’ly just get sent to some mental facility if I did.”
The alicorn only cringed at his words, chewing her lip frantically.  “I didn’t bring you here on accident Raymond,” she muttered.  A chill passed through Raymond’s body.  He’d never told her his name.   What in the heavens above was going on here?  He shuffled a little, anger rising once again.
“Well, if this wasn’t accidental, congratulations on completing your experiment. You’ve successfully transported- gah, teleported- a human from Earth to this place.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to go back home now.  I still have a life there to attend to, and sleep is a major part of it.”
“You can’t go back,” she whispered, quietly enough that Raymond could barely hear it.
“What?”  The single question echoed in the room, filling the room with the same tension that he felt building up in his chest.  It was a culmination of anger and confusion, curling up over his heart and preparing to lash out like a snake.  Indeed, some of the current thoughts that were running circles in Raymond’s mind held the same deadly toxicity as a snake's venom.  “Why not?  You brought me here, so why can't you just put me back where I’m supposed to be?”
The guards, sensing the building tension in Raymond, had begun closing a circle around him.  A slight clinking from behind told him that the two guards ponies at his backside had completed the encirclement.  This effectively cut him off from both an exit and the Princess.
The pony now dared to look him in his narrowed eyes as she said, ”Because where you’re supposed to be doesn’t exist anymore.”  
In that moment, Raymond understood why the guards had stepped directly in front of their mistress.  He felt his confusion and anger spike, and for a second, Raymond felt like reaching out and wringing her neck whilst demanding what she meant.  Instead, taking a deep breath to once again calm himself, he asked, ”What do you mean?”
The voice that asked the question didn’t seem to be Raymond’s.  No, it was so cold, so callous, so enraged, that it made Raymond himself shiver.  Is this what really happened when he got mad?  The voice also gave the distinctive ring of unhingement, and he could definitely feel that familiar emotion taking on him.  Twilight had looked down when he had asked the question, and refused to meet his eyes as she began to answer.
“Your dimension, or reality, can’t be reached on this plane of existence.  Not anymore, at least,” she began to hasten her speech, as if worried Raymond would interrupt.  “When I pulled you off of Earth, I affected the balance between the two realms’ timelines.  In order to compensate, it erased you from existence in your home, and anypony from this dimension’s ability to even contact your dimension.  
“It’s like if you were to have a ball tied to your hoof.  Your hoof- er, hand- is the universe you’re in, and the ball is another universe, with the string tied around your hand the gateway between the two.  You stop the spinning of the ball to hold it for a moment, but have to cut the string to do so.  When you're done holding the ball and releasing it back into its swing, it rolls away from you, and you can’t control it anymore because the string’s been cut.”
She paused, then glanced up at Raymond as she finished her explanation, a small smile that seemed more like a cringe.  He simply stared back, not really sure what to make of the pony and her explanation.  Slowly, he felt something building in his stomach.  It writhed, sliding up his neck and tickling the back of his throat in a strange manner.
Before he could quite comprehend what it was exactly, it slipped out of the corner of his lips in the form of a chuckle.  Soon, that chuckling evolved into unhinged laughter.  His sides began to cramp and his eyes teared up, but neither from mirth or sadness.  The laughter became hysteric as his voice pitched an octave higher than it should have been.  The change in voice only made him laugh harder, the noise echoing off the confines of the throne room and into the hall behind.  He found this funnier than the pitching of his voice, and laughed so hard his cramps began to pain him.  The three figures in front of him shared disturbed glances with one another as his voice pitched higher, before becoming ragged wheezing.
“Um, did you break him, Your Majesty,” one of the masculine guards said, his deep, hesitant voice interrupting the unsteady series of wheezes that were still echoing in the chamber.
“WHAT THE HELL”, Raymond yelled, breaking off his manic laughter and interrupting twilight’s answer.  “YOU’VE KIDNAPPED ME FROM MY OWN HOME, TAKEN ME AWAY FROM MY LIFE, MY FAMILY.  DAMN YOU, YOU’VE SENTENCED THEM TO DEATH, YOU KNOW THAT!?!”
As quickly as he could- he was slightly dizzy from the laughing and yelling- he turned and ran for the hall.  The guards ponies behind them held up their spears in an attempt to stop him, but Raymond would have none of that.  He reached out, grabbing the spears shaft just under the head, and lifted them off the ground.  They were rather heavy, even the smaller one, due to their armor and equine structure, but years of work at the dump, not to mention wrangling seven younger “siblings”, had left him with large, lean biceps.  He tossed the two back into their comrades, causing all four to go to the ground.  Looking over his shoulder, he spun a full 360 degrees, snapping a crescent kick that hit all four, knocking them out cold.
Twilight gave a cry as he turned back to the hall.  About thirty meters away lay the doors that surely led out of the throne room.  As he ran through the hall, he glanced out of one of the stained glass windows.  From beyond it, he could see that the sun wasn’t rising as had thought.  Rather, it peeked out from behind a mountain that he realized the building he was in must be attached to.  In the distance, he could see that there was forest, and a clearing holding a small assembly of barely discernible buildings.
“Okay,” Twilight said from behind, her voice betraying her panic.  “You're obviously very upset about this whole thing, so how about I give you some time to think about it.  Sounds good?”  Raymond ignored her.  He was so close…  “Good!”
Raymond suddenly felt himself stop mid stride as a strange sparkly aura surrounded his body.  He desperately tried to fight through the field, but it seemed to be made from elastic because every time he pushed against it, he was snapped back into place.  In his core, he felt something tug on him, and with that, his vision faded as he was whisked away from the strange hall.
> The Queer Quintet
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The world around Raymond blobbed and shifted into a heaving mass of glimmering purples, whites, and pinks.  Near blinding white sparkles spun around his head in a rapid flow, making him dizzy as his eyes tried to keep up with the energetic balls of light.  A feeling had risen to his chest, similar to what Raymond thought dying of a sugar rush felt like.  He decided that this kind of feeling was going to be categorized as “meth dream” in his mental archives.  Suddenly, like the sea drawing away from the beach, the feeling cleared away, leaving him off-balanced and confused.
He rubbed his eyes, still seeing purple in the edges of his view, before taking in the scenery around him.  
He stood in the middle of a large field of unbelievably soft grass that was outrageously green.  All of the blades seemed to be that exact same height, as well as the exact same width and color. It seemed to be completely weed less, which seemed to be an impossible feat on Mother Nature’s part.  Raymond’s own front yard was only a grand total of three hundred twenty square feet, and was about sixty percent weed.  Looking behind him, he found that the field only extended a few feet behind him until it reached a forest.
The forest screamed spooky at him, near literally from the squacks of unidentifiable birds and squeals and wails of unworldly beasts echoed from within its depths, sending a shiver through his body.  If this was the same forest he had seen through the stained-glass windows, his plans for escaping into there were all cancelled.  The place reeked of unwashed toddler socks that he could smell from where he stood, and a thick, sickly-green haze slowly oozed from it.  Vines climbed up and down the gnarled trunks of every tree in his sight and hung off of their sharply angled branches.  A small path led directly into the forest, though why any sane person, or pony- he didn’t know, would willingly go in there was beyond him.
A shadow zipped across his peripheral vision, and he turned to track it with his eyes.  He found that the shadow originated not from the ground, but from somewhere up above.  He looked up.
Huge mistake.  Raymond found himself blinded by an impossibly bright  midmorning sun.  “And I thought a phone screen at one in the morning was bright”, he grumbled to himself, forcefully blinking his eyes to counteract his blindness.  This was more like getting beamed in the eyes with a thirty kilowatt floodlight. 
Still blinking, his eyes adjusted to the light level, just enough that he could catch a glimpse of something darting around in the sky.  He followed the orange and yellow streak as it shot from cloud to cloud.  It destroyed each puffy ball of condensation it touched, seemingly trying to clear the sky completely.  A slightly larger streak of light gray with a storm cloud trailing behind it met up with its fiery colored companion.  The two stopped just long enough for Raymond to discern that they were indeed ponies with wings.  Pegasi?  Well, if there were unicorns and alicorns, why not?  He followed their trail as they once again shot away, their path leading directly in front of the sun.
“Gah,” Raymond yelled as he was once again blinded.  He blinked his eyes furiously, rubbing them with the palms of his hands as they began to water.  With how many times this was happening already in this strange world, he figured that he would be blinded on day three.  Finally dismissing the image of the Equestrian sun that had burned itself into his eyes, he looked down, finding himself face to face with a rock.
It was perfectly dimensional, smooth and gray, but also tilted slightly towards the blinding sun.  It was almost as tall enough to reach his chest , but still missed the mark by about an inch.  Stepping around its rightward side, he could see a distant forest that seemed much more neat.  Upon further inspection, however, he could see that it was a well maintained grove of trees with dozens of red spots polka dotting the tree.  Apples?  Well, ponies had to eat something, and since they were most likely vegetarian, he severely doubted he would see a steak anytime soon.
Anytime soon…
Raymond slumped down against the rock, leaning back on its incline, suddenly feeling drained.  Something inside of him still was pushing this all as unreal, a dream.  He cautiously raised a hand up to where his head was still smarting.  The pain spiked once again as he lightly rubbed it, confirming that this was indeed reality.  Or at least, another one.  He still couldn’t really tell in this wacky, cartoonish world.
He felt his frustration mounting as he clenched his fists and started bumping his head against his rock companion.  It wasn’t hard enough to hurt, just barely enough to actually feel the contact.  Still, it knocked a thought from the depths of his mind, bringing it into his mental spotlight.  It was a very blatant thought, slowly making his conscience aware of the depressing realism of his situation.  It stopped all his thoughts in their tracks making him focus on that simple, yet painful aspect of his life.
He didn’t want to admit the terrible truth, because he knew once he said it, he wouldn’t be able to deny it.  He pulled his knees up to his bare chest, tucking his between them.  The thought kept tearing at him, swirling about like a mental hurricane full of sharp debris.  Clamping his jaw shut, he let his bitterness at the situation he was now in flow through him, poisoning his thoughts.  He cursed the pony princess, the whole world he was now unwilfully inhabiting.  Anything to keep that terrible truth from coming into light.  But slowly, it pushed its way into his mouth, tickling the edge of his tongue, begging to be released into the world.  With a long sigh of weariness, Raymond let the floodgates open.
“I’m never going to see them again.”
Mags, Kevin, Ben and Mason, Codey and Casey, and Sammy.  Mom and Dad.  Even grumpy old Mr. Gerald, the man who ran the dump.  He’d become sort of like his own grandpa, rather than some gruff old fart at the workplace.  He began to curse the whole situation one last time for good measure, when he suddenly felt something wet and cold drip onto his bare leg.
He stopped his tirade of obscenities, wondering what was going on.  Without looking, he reached out a hand and brushed the wet spot.  Another drip landed on his opposite leg.  He brushed the cold wet spot away hesitantly.  It wasn’t raining, as just a moment ago he’d seen those two pegasi clearing away the last of the clouds.  Slowly, he brushed his hands against the sides of his cheeks.  They came back wet, which meant-
He was crying.
He didn’t feel sad, though he knew all too well that that would come later.  Instead, he was angry.  Angry at stupid Twilight, at that stupid throne room, at the whole stupid world, or was it dimension?  He didn’t even know anymore!  Most of all, he was angry at fate, that out of the billion kids on Earth, he was the one who had been pulled away from home.  Why couldn't it have been some poor African kid who was starving on the steps of their home?  Why not a Chinese laborer, a slave to the corporation and government they worked for?
However, despite not feeling the cold of sadness, he did feel the burn of anger, and let his tears flow because of it.  He wanted to release all of the building anger before he unleashed it on the sturdy rock behind him, as he doubted there was an abundance of hand casts in an equine society.  Pulling himself closer to his knees, he began rocking as a sob rose to his mouth.  It died on his tongue, however, instead morphing itself into a low, guttural growl resembling that of an agitated Doberman.  Tears continued to flow down his legs in a steady river, soaking his boxers.
He felt another sob coming and decided to embrace it.  Might as well clear away all of his emotional tension now before it ended up hindering him in the future.  The sob shook his entire body, jogging loose any remaining doubt that this was still fictional.  He silently began counting the sobs as they rocked his body, but gave up after about twenty, his mind too numb from the unguided sorrow that had overtaken him.  It soon found direction in the form of his family, his lost home.
Memories of them flooded his head, each new one shredding away at him a little more with a full body sob.  Helping Ben build his metal Apollo 13 model in the early Saturday mornings of summer.  Pretending to be the evil tyrant of the land that tried, and always miserably failed, to catch Cody, Casey, and Sammy with his demon hordes.  Cheering as Mags received the Distinguished Scholars Award for straight A+'s through her entire middle school career.  Even the worst memories tore him to pieces.  Hours of lecturing his siblings to get their crap together before Mom and Dad had an anxiety attack.  Late nights spent pooling his earnings with his parents’, only to find that it wouldn’t be enough for all of them to eat.  Sacrificed meals, hours lost, all to try and keep his parents and siblings alike happy and unassuming.  To protect and provide.  That had been his one true purpose in his life. 
And now he was gone.
He realized that it wasn’t so much the fact that his family had been taken away from him that made him want to pound on his faithful rock companion.  Rather, it was the fact that he had been taken away from his family that made him beyond pissed.  How would they survive without him?  He had done enough of the bills and enough high school to know that he made roughly a fifth of his family's total income.  It paid for their food and clothing.  Now that he was gone, how would they make up the money?  Who else would protect Mags during one of her episodes, or calm down the twins when they became overly emotional?  Worst of all, with no other mentally stable person in the house, whose testimony would the CPS believe?  Would their tearing talons finally rip the family apart?
The fire in his belly returned, although this time cold as winter.  This Twilight hadn’t just sentenced his family to death, but to a hell on Earth like none before.  The poisonous thoughts that circled his mind made Raymond feel physically sick, to the point that he almost puked on his bare knees and legs.  He swallowed the rising bile in his throat, the bitter, acidic aftertaste leaving him parched.
He became vaguely aware of the sun warming his back, and briefly considered the prospect that time did indeed still press on.  He kept curled in a ball, but leaned back against his now warm, but ever faithful rock.  Other thoughts began cycling through his mind, less deep and more practical.  What would he eat?  So far, all of the creatures he’d seen had been some sort of equine, so there had to be at least a form of grain, and, as evidenced by the distant apple trees, there were also fruits, so it wasn’t hard to believe that there were some kinds of vegetables around too.  However, being equine, he doubted that they would have any of the essential meats with them, if any meats at all.  
There was also the problem of attire.  None of the ponies he’d seen wore a manner of clothing, since they had fur.  That also implied that technically… best not to follow that train of thought.  If they didn’t wear any clothes, then there would be no need for a clothing store, which also would mean that Raymond would only be in his boxers in this strange land for quite some time.  And, even though Equestria seemed like a peaceful place, he didn’t think his boxers had a lifetime guarantee.  That meant being nude around a bunch of technicolored ponies.  Raymond felt his face flush.  Maybe that creepy forest wasn’t the worst place to be after all.
Another sob racked his body, as he wasn’t completely done with his breakdown.  He sniffed, realizing that he now, along with wet trails from his tears, was covered in sticky snot.  He took a deep, calming breath, that decided it wanted to be a sob at the last moment.  This, in turn, made him get hiccups, and that was about all of the misfortune that his emotionally wrecked teenage mind could handle.  He dissolved, once again, into a blubbering pile of pitiful moans and wails.
He felt stupid, because he was crying over crying, and over hiccupping, and was hiccupping because he was sobbing because he was crying, and it all ended up being one large mess.  It wasn’t long into this second bout of hysteria, however, that he suddenly felt something warm, soft, and solid pressing on his right shoulder.  The smallest breeze was passing on his back and arm, somehow calming his near uncontrollable state as it soothingly blew across his exposed left shoulder.   The warm, blanked-like object became sentient as he felt something cool and smooth tapping him on the back.  His sobbing and hiccupping calmed slowly, allowing him to hear feminine “shh”’s and “there there”’s.  He looked up at the being on his shoulder, finding it was a pegasus.
She gave him a comforting smile, rubbing the crick of his shoulder with a hoof, the longest strands of her cream fur tickling him.  Her deep, teal eyes sought out his own like a prospector searching for gold.  Her wings shared the same cream as her body, the feathers well groomed and tended to.  Her mane and tail were a pretty pink, the foremost styled in a way that tried to hide as much of her face as it could without blocking her eyes.  
“There there, Mister Monkey,” she said, her voice somehow sounding more gentle than her actions were.  “It doesn’t matter how you look, you’re still a precious part of Equestria to me.  I think those pants you’re wearing are lovely, and don’t let anypony else tell you otherwise.  Just look on the bright side: none of your monkey counterparts are as unique as you!”
“What,” Raymond asked after a moment of silence, quirking his eyebrow in confusion at the buttercream pony.  She yelped in surprise, launching into the air as if she’d been shocked.
“Y-y-you can t-talk,” she exclaimed, raising her forelegs to her mouth.  Heaven only knew how cute her stuttering and larger than life eyes made the pony, and Raymond had to resist the urge to reach up and pat her on the head.  “I’ve been able to talk to animals before, but they’ve never responded in Ponish!  Wh-why, I didn’t even think monkeys could even talk at all, but -but maybe I was wrong?”
Her stammered statement ended in a question, so Raymond decided to answer it.  
“Well, I’m not a monkey,” he reassured the nervous pegasus, an amused  smile spreading on his face.  Oh, gosh, she was just too cute while she was trying to understand what was going on.  Raymond felt his mood lifting even now, before they’d started an actual conversation.  
“Th-that makes sense,” she said, tapping a hoof on her cheek in contemplation.  “I didn’t think there were any monkeys in the Everfree Forest.  Maybe you’re a gorilla, then?”  Raymond shook his head.  “Or maybe an ape?”
“Nope,” he said flatly.  The pegasus continued to tap her cheek before finally giving up.
“I-I’m sorry,” she needlessly apologized, looking embarrassed.  A red blush peeked out from behind her short pink facial hair.  “I know you’re some kind of primate because you have fingers and toes, b-but, well- um, I guess I just don’t know which kind.”
“Homo sapien,” he said kindly, giving her a small smile.  Internally, he was having a battle over whether or not he should trust the buttercream pegasus who was now hovering before him.  While he couldn’t deny how unbearably cute she was, he knew how deadly the cute ones could be.  Once again, sibling skills were helpful.  Besides, for all he knew the pegasus was a plant from Twilight, here to get him comfortable enough with Equestria so he would do… Gah!  He didn’t even know!  However, looking back into her eyes, all he saw was kindness and care,  which is why he found himself patting the grass beside him.  “You can sit down.  I know flying must be exhausting, and besides, I only bite on Mondays.”
The pegasus complied, landing next to him and giving him a smile at his weak attempt at humor, but followed through with it with a quip of her own.  “Well then, I guess I’m safe until tomorrow.”  Raymond chuckled at the joke, but filed away the information about the date.  He looked down at the pegasus.  Even when he was sitting, she only stood neck high.  She flapped her wings a couple times after landing before tucking them in and sitting down on her back haunches, facing him.
“So,” she began slowly, “can you tell me why I’ve never heard of these, um, ‘homo sapiens’ before?”
“Well,” he said, thinking for a moment, “probably because we don’t walk around calling ourselves homo sapiens.  We have a much more common name.  Does the word ‘human’ ring any bells?”
“N-no, I can’t say that it does,” she said apologetically.  Raymond felt his spirits drop.  He had figured that he might be the only human in this land, based on the relative awkwardness of Twilight and the obliviousness of this pegasus, but this conformation crushed him more than he was willing to admit.  The pony must have seen this, because she reached out a foreleg and patted his bare arm with it, giving him a comforting smile.  Whoever she was, she had mastered that ability, because he instantly felt better.  He gave her an inquisitive quirk of the eyebrow.  He knew all of the motivation behind the movement, he just really didn’t know why.  He was a complete stranger, and quite possibly a danger to her, but she didn’t even seem to have thought about this thought.
“Why?” 
“Hm?” 
Raymond hadn’t realized he had spoken out loud, but decided to follow through with the questions on his mind.  “Why are you being so kind to me?  We’ve barely met, and don’t even know each other’s names, but you’re treating me like we’ve been lifelong friends.”
The buttercream pony seemed confused at the question, like he’d just asked her why the sky was blue.  “Well, I guess I just heard somepony in need, and went to help in the best way I could.”
“Okay, but I could have been faking it or just really mad and been a danger to you,” he objected.
“Oh,” she said, as if the thought had just struck her.  However, she just looked up at him and said, "Well, you’ve been nothing but a sweetheart so far, and I don’t think you would ever intentionally hurt anypony.  Besides, I personally have a strong belief that if everypony was just a tad bit kinder, the world would go around a lot quicker than it does, and if I want that ideal to become a reality, then I need to follow through with it.”  A dreamy expression now covered her face.   “I also believe that if you ever want to have a lifelong friend, you need to treat everypony like they are.”
Raymond was stunned into silence.  This pony was much wiser than she let on to being.  The pony looked into his eyes and blushed.  “I’m sorry for going on such a tangent,” she apologized, “let me introduce myself.  My name is-”
“Fluttershy,” another feminine voice interrupted, before continuing to shout, “look out!”
Raymond snorted at the comedic timing of the interruption, before looking towards the source of the voice.  He stopped his snickering as he saw a blue dot with a rainbow trailing it launching in his direction.  
Crap, he thought, raising a hand to block his face from the oncoming bolt.  That was apparently the right call, as he felt a hoof connect with the center of his hand.  His eyes had involuntarily closed at the prospect of getting his face pummeled, but he didn’t need to see to toss his attacker over the back of his shoulder.  A crash came from behind the rock, followed by a prominent groan of pain.
Raymond opened his eyes, but before he had time to check on his adversary, a wild whoop filled the air.  He turned and saw an orange pony suddenly appear, seemingly out of nowhere, just a few feet to his left.  It was only then that he realized that he was on a hill, not in an open field of fresh green grass.  The orange pony had a peach mane and tail, with accompanying emerald green eyes.  Those eyes were narrowed in concentration, but, surprisingly, not anger.  They were, instead, full of excitement as they sized up their opponent.  Raymond. 
Another pony followed her- it was now becoming easy to recognize the physical feminine qualities of female ponies- head bowed so that her horn was set to ram into his legs.  She sported a pristine white coat that defied logic itself with its pearly cleanliness.  A long, curled plum mane trailed behind her.
The orange pony held a rope in between her teeth, swinging it around in a circular motion that formed a lasso.  She lassoed him, tightening it as soon as it fell around his arms, preventing them from moving.  Raymond frantically assessed the situation as the pearly white unicorn continued her charge.  Going on a whim, he dug his heel into the ground, shooting clumps of dirt at the oncoming pony.  As he had “predicted”, the unicorn stumbled back in shock as her white coat was splotched brown with wet clumps of soil.  She began to scream indignantly at the dirt that now matted her fur, running backwards, as if to escape the dirt.  Instead, she ended up running right over the edge of the hill, her scream cut off as she tumbled away.
The orange pony's mouth dropped in surprise at her friend’s fall, giving Raymond ample time to escape from the lasso’s constrictive grasp.  He attempted to get up, but the time he’d spent curled up made him clumsy.  He stumbled back against his faithful rock, trying to see all directions as he heard something whoosh past his head.  Looking up, he saw the blue rainbow dot was shooting up into the air.  After several hundred feet, it stopped, shooting back down at Raymond.  However, before it got too far on its descent, Fluttershy flew between him and it.  
“Waaaait,” she yelled, waving her forelegs up at the oncoming rainbow.  Raymond watched as the streak turned slightly to the left, slowing down enough to make out the cyan pegasus that made up the dot.  It skidded several times upon landing, finally stopping near the edge of the hill, spraying the unicorn from before.
“Rainbow Dash,” she said to the cyan pony in a scolding tone, articulating each word as she wiped the mud away.  Her voice was cultured and clean cut, like something he would expect from nobility.  “Have you no shame?  Do you have any idea the amount of time it will take to get all of this muck out of my coat and mane.  Enough time to get pruney, that’s for sure!”
“Um, Rarity,” the orange pony said.  This one’s voice was gruff with a prominent “farmer’s” accent.  “Don ’cha think we might have bigger prob’ems than mane maintenance?”
“Agreed,” she said, eyeing Raymond.  “Those pants that thing’s wearing just won’t do now, will they?  With those awful burgundy and black stripes, I bet I could play checkers on the thing.  Quite frankly, it would be better without.”
Raymond felt his face flush at the suggestion.  Before any of the mares could notice, the pegasus, Rainbow Dash, spoke up.  “I think AJ meant the thing itself, not what it's wearin.”  She flapped her wings, flying a few feet into the air.  “What is it anyways?  A hairless chimp on steroids?”
Raymond was about to object to being constantly referenced to as “it” and “thing”, but he once again found that Fluttershy had flown in front of his face.  He sat back against his rock, trying to get a good look at his pony assailants, but instead found that her long pink tail was blocking his face.  He sighed, trying to be content with only having the ability to hear what was going on.
“He’s not an it, he’s a human,” he heard Fluttershy say furiously, voicing his own thoughts.  “He’s very kind and just happens to be having a rough day, which, thanks to you three, has only gotten worse.  We were just having a nice chat, when you three came and assaulted him.”  Fluttershy stopped her scolding for a moment.  “Wait a minute.  You three?”  She rotated a full three hundred sixty degrees, eyes widening with fear.  When she finally faced her friends again, she asked, “Where’s Pinky Pie?”
Raymond’s brows furrowed together in confusion.  What were these names?  Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and now Pinkie Pie?  This dimension just kept getting weirder and weirder.  It took another strange twist when he heard the orange pony mutter a horrified, “Oh no.”
“Sur-PIES,”  an unbelievably high pitched voice yelled directly in his ear, threatening to shatter his sensitive eardrums.  He turned to where the ear splitting noise had come from, only to find something silver-gray and shiny directly in his face.  With an alarmed yelp, he realized he was now staring down the barrel of a miniature cannon. He turned his head to the left in an attempt to duck away from the deadly artillery piece, but it was too late.
The cannon boomed, and Raymond flew to the left as something warm, wet, and sticky splattered across his face, shoulder, and chest.  He groaned disparagingly, though he couldn’t hear anything through the ringing in his ears.  
Great, he thought sarcastically, this, of all things, is how I die.  Shot in the head by a cannon in a world of pastel ponies without anyone else to know what happened.  The cannonball must’ve clipped my skull pretty good, because I can feel the bits of it mixed with my blood.  The cannon also must’ve gotten a piece of my brain, which explains why I can’t feel a damn thing.  Although why I can still think rationally is beyond me.
However, despite not wanting to view the carnage caused by the cannon, Raymond opened his left eye, his right being covered in blood.  Pushing himself up just enough that he could see his chest, he found that it wasn’t covered in blood, but instead with pink and brown. He opened his mouth to question the feat, when a sudden pink blur launched into him, shoving something sweet and slimy in his mouth. 
The pink menace pushed him into the ground before reaching up into its mane and pulling out a green cupcake.  Raymond gagged as he realized that the thing that had been shoved into his mouth, now identified as a cupcake, had probably originated from those tangled pink curls too.   The pink pony raised the cupcake in the air threateningly.
“Don’t move,” she screeched, “I know how to use this!”	
“PINKIE PIE,” he heard Fluttershy yell angrily, catching the pony off guard.  “Get off.  Now!  Seriously, girls, what is wrong with everypony today?  He’s just a new friend, not a threat!”
“Oopsey,” the pink pony, Pinkie Pie said, looking sheepish as she climbed off his chest.  “Sorry Fluttershy.”
However, before she turned away, she gave him a look that said “Don’t try any BS or I’ll cream your face”.  She shoved the cupcake she held into her mouth, chewing noisily as the other ponies formed a half circle around him.  He grunted, pushing himself into a sitting position, when suddenly, a strange flash of color on Pinkie’s flank made him pause.
On it was a strange mark, precisely where Twilight’s had been, but this one was different.  Instead of it being the stars, it was three individually colored party balloons.  Looking around at the different ponies, he realized that they all also had their own marks as well.  The one called “AJ” had three apples, Rarity’s was a bright blue diamond, Rainbow’s was a cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt shooting from it, and Fluttershy’s was three pink butterflies.  This made Raymond question, did all ponies have these marks?
“My, you are a mess,” Rarity said, interrupting his thoughts.  Her horn began to glow a blue, the same color as her eyes.  After a second, a red and white checkered picnic blanket crested the hill, the same blue hue surrounding it.  It floated over to Raymond, then, after indicating he should grab it, he took it from the unicorns magical aura.
“Take this as my way of apologizing for assaulting you,” Rarity said as he wiped off his shoulder.  “It was rude of me and rather presumptuous of me to do it, and I hope you will accept this, though small as it might be.”
“We’re truly sorry for all this trouble,” AJ apologized, stepping closer.  Raymond could now see, with his good eye, that she was wearing a rodeo hat.  Typical.  “We all honestly thought that ’cha were gonna hurt Fluttershy, as you are a might stranger lookin’ than we down here are used to.”  Raymond stood up to wipe his chest off.  “Whooee.  Yer a tall feller.”  Then, hesitantly, she turned to Fluttershy, and asked, not quite in a whisper, “He can understand us, right?”
Raymond wiped his face off, finally gaining access to his mouth.  “I can understand you all right,” he said before Fluttershy could answer for him once again.  “And- surprise- I can talk too.”
He enjoyed a moment of amusement at the mixed reactions the four newcomers gave at the sudden revelation of speech.  Rarity’s mouth dropped quicker than a deadweight, stumbling back in shock and nearly falling over the side of the hill again.  Rainbow Dash, who was still hovering a few feet away, flapped her wings a bit harder than she must’ve meant to, because she launched several feet higher into the sky.  AJ raised a hoof to her hat, pushing it back with wide eyes, mumbling something incoherent under her breath.  And Pinkie Pie… well she was so excited about the prospect of him being able to talk that she was literally buzzing with it, a wide grin spreading on her face.
“You. Can. Talk,” the vibrant pink pony shouted, nearly bursting Raymond’s already ravaged ear drums.  The pony’s grin spread to an impossible length as her vibrating increased, giving the impression that she was floating above the ground.  The other ponies began to back away from their eccentric friend with wide eyed fear, and Raymond decided to follow suit.  However, it was at this moment that his faithful rock betrayed him, blocking his escape and pinning him between it and the hyper pink pony.
“YOU CAN TALK!!!”  Pinkie Pie exploded forward , launching herself back onto his chest, pinning him on the rock.  Her fur, still sticky from sitting in the frosting that was on him, spread a new layer of the crème on his exposed skin.  “Tell me EVERYTHING!   What’s your name?  Where are you from?  How old are you?  How tall are you?  Why are you here?  Are you moving here?  Why do you wear those silly pants?  Is it because you don’t have fur?  Why don’t you have fur?  What’s a human?  How can you speak Ponish?  Why are you so close to the Everfree?  Oo!  Oo!  Are you on a super duper secret mission from Twilight that you can’t tell anypony about, because you can tell me, and I won’t tell anypony.  Pinky Promise!”
Raymond blinked at the peculiar pony in front of him, trying, and failing, to remember and keep up with her rapid fire questions.  The other ponies began giving him quizzical looks, as if, for the first time, realizing just how little they knew about him.
“Now just hold yer horses, Pinkie Pie,” the orange pony said.  “Yer gonna fry the poor- er, feller’s?- brain!”
“Apple Jack’s right,” Rainbow Dash said, nodding in agreement.  “Let's start with simple introductions first.  My name’s Rainbow Dash, but you can just call me Rainbow or Dash, doesn’t really matter.  What’s yours?”
“Raymond”, he answered, suddenly feeling slightly nervous.  He didn’t know these ponies!  What if they were with that Twilight?  Then again, what if they weren’t?  “You all don’t need to introduce yourselves,” he added in quickly, “I already kinda caught everyone’s name.”
“But darling,” Rarity protested, “it’s common courtesy.  My name is Rarity.”  Despite her chatter, Raymond noticed that the pony was furtively trying to wipe away the dirt that spotted her once white fur.  Realizing that he still held the large blanket in a tight grip, he turned and walked over to the mare.  Folding the blanket to a non frosted side, he began wiping away the muck from his new… were any of these ponies to be considered his friends yet?  He’d barely met them, and that was because they had attacked him.  Given, it was for a good cause.  
He stepped away from the Rarity, his work done.  There were still patches of brown speckling the fur, but at least no clumps hung from her.  
“That was very gentlecoltly of you,” she complimented with a grateful smile, sapphire eyes delving into his own.
“No,” he corrected, stepping back so that he could view all five of the mares.  “That was apology accepted.  You five are the kindest ponies I’ve met today.”
“Yeah, really, really sorry for attacking you with a cake, and then assaulting you with a cupcake, and then threatening you with one,” Pinkie Pie apologized, sitting back on her haunches with a sheepish grin.  She raised a hoof to her head, then shrugged her shoulders.  “I guess after having so many wacky lookin’ baddies try to take over Equestria, I just sorta assumed that you were the next one.”
“That’s okay, Pinkie.  You know, in my family, we have a saying.”  Raymond paused, looking down.  “Or, well, had.”  He suddenly felt melancholy overtake him.  The small spark of happiness he’d felt from conversing with these ponies was washed away in an icy torrent.  He frowned at fate’s cruel reminder of just where he was, refusing to stray his gaze towards the equines around him.  He felt a single tear escape out of his eye, rolling down his cheek.  It dripped off of his chin and continued its path down his bare chest, trailing cold behind it as if trying to spread his sudden depression throughout the rest of his body.
“Hey Ray”, Pinkie Pie inquired in her seemingly always cheery voice.  “Why the looooong face?”
“Why don’t you go ask your pretty purple pony princess, Pinkie Pie,” he said, voice growing cold.  Bitterness had seeped into his voice and poisoned his thoughts, but it wasn’t unwarranted.  Still, when he looked up enough to see the pony’s faces, he could see confusion etched into their expressions.  They probably hadn’t heard that sort of undertone directed towards their dictator before.
“Oooooooo, nice alliteration,” a sly voice from behind said.  “I’ll have to remember that one for the next time I see Twilight.”
Raymond turned to find a creature unlike any other he’d seen before standing where his rock had been.  The thing had an antler on one side of its horse head, and a weird, wavy blue horn on the other side.  Its face also sported white eyebrows and a short white goatee.  It had a long brown body, with an eagle claw arm to its left and a lion’s paw arm to its right.  A bat wing, and what appeared to be, a pegasus, sprouted from its furry back.  A long reptilian like tail that ended in a white, paintbrush-like puff, topped the absurd creature’s appearance off.  For a moment, it even seemed to be the only sentient being, so far as he’d met, to be taller than him.  He realized, however, that the creature wasn’t standing on its equally mismatched legs, rather, it was floating off the ground entirely.
The creepiest thing about the newcomer, though, were its eyes.  They were pupil less, with only the uneven red dots that were surrounded by a sickening yellow sclera.  The creature leered down at him, seeming to grow taller and making Raymond’s 5’ 4’’ dwarf in comparison.
“Well, well, well,” the creature sneered, bending its neck so its face was unnervingly close to Raymond’s own.  “What have we here?”
> And Then There's Discord
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“My name is Discord,” the creature said courtily.  He extended an eagle claw hand and took one of Raymond’s own, shaking it in greeting.  “Lord of Chaos, three time tyrant, two times reformed, and Fluttershy’s number one friend!  Now that mandatory exposition is done,” it continued, leaning its face even closer in an almost hostile manner, “who exactly are you?’
“This is Raymond-”
“Ray,” Rainbow Dash interrupted, putting one hoof above another.  “It sounds about twenty percent cooler, in my opinion.”  Raymond nodded in agreement.  It did sound better.  
“Ray,” Fluttershy corrected, pushing herself between Ray and Discord, once again blocking his view with her buttercream body.  He grumbled in annoyance at the tiny pony’s protectiveness as she continued.  “He’s our newest friend, and was just about to tell us why he was looking so gloomy.”
“Oh that’s nice,” Discord said, his voice pitching differently with each word.  Ray suppressed a shudder of disgust as the strange beings head slithered around Fluttershy’s bodice like a snake, uneven red eyes staring him down.  “I don’t really have the mind for exactly how it is.  I care more for what it is.”
“Well, I could ask the same thing about you, couldn’t I,” Ray retorted, suddenly feeling indignant towards the way the creature kept emphasizing the word it.  Old anger, anger he’d thought he’d disposed of, began rising.  Why would people talk about him, but not talk to him?  A more rational portion of his brain argued that it wasn’t really these pony’s fault, since they’d never interacted with humans before.  Still, he felt like they could at least treat him a little more like one of them, and less like a new pet.  “However, I’ll answer your question instead.  I’m a human.  Any other questions can go to Twilight.”
“Feisty, aren’t we,”  Discord responded testily, a small fire growing in his eyes.  “I myself am a member of the humble race of the draconequus.  A step up from an ignoble, hairless, hornless subspecies of minotaur, if you ask me.”
“Really,” Ray growled, a small portion of the anger he felt towards Twilight diverting itself to the arrogant obstacle at hand.  “That’s a lot of crap coming from a creature that looks like it was hand drawn by a four year old and named by a two year old.”
A collective gasp came from the ponies that now encircled the pair of arguing strangers.  Shock, and no small amount of fear, shown like a rising sun on his new friend’s faces.  Fluttershy had backed away from the two at some point in time, sensing the tension rising between them.  It was only when he heard her mutter a worried “Oh dear”, that he really began to consider his words.  It probably wasn’t the wisest thing to insult someone who was deemed the “Lord of Chaos”.
Discord, however, seemed to get a kick out of the intended insult.  He began to chuckle, raising his lion paw up to his face in an attempt to block his smiling.  This was ultimately fruitless, as his chuckles slowly morphed into laughing.  Soon enough, he was howling with joy, tears springing to eyes as he clutched his stomach in a full body laugh.  Ray raised an eyebrow at the peculiar being in front of him.  Was this being entertained by Ray’s mockery of him in a good way, or a very bad way?  Discord was now rolling backwards in the air, roaring with the strange sense of humor he possessed, making Raymond very uncomfortable about the prospect of his answer being the more negative option.
“That,” he exclaimed when his face finally was level with Ray’s own confused one, “was absolutely priceless!”  He paused, wiping away a tear, before continuing.  “Everypony was like: ‘Oh no, what’s he gonna do?’  And then you were like: ‘Oh no, what did I just say?’  And- and-,” Discord broke off into another fit of hysterical laughter, before flying up to Fluttershy and nudging her softly in the ribs.  “My dear Fluttershy, where ever did you find this joker?  I can’t say that I’ve laughed like that in moons!”
“Well”, she began a bit hesitant, “I found him exactly where he’s standing right now.  I heard somepony crying while we were having our weekly picnic, so I excused myself to investigate.  I found him awfully upset about something, so I decided to try and comfort him.  I was about to find out what exactly he was upset about, but then the girls here assaulted him.”
“Oh I would have loved to see that,” Discord said, turning back to Ray.  “How’d you do?”
“He kicked ahr tails,” Apple Jack answered for him truthfully, shrugging under the combined glares of Rarity and Rainbow Dash.  “What?  He did!  At least, until Pinkie Pie showed up with a darn cake cannon!”
“Never underestimate the power of bakery,” Pinkie Pie muttered darkly.
“Anyways,” Fluttershy practically yelled to prevent further interruptions, “we were also finally about to find out why Rayond here was so sad, but then you also came along and picked a fight with him.”
“I- well, da tfft, I- pfffft, I would never pick a fight with our good old pal Ray,” Discord scoffed indignantly, wrapping his eagle talon arm around Raymond’s shoulder.  Ray quirked an eyebrow at the draconequus, which made him pull his arm off Ray’s shoulder.  “Besides, I’m reformed, remember?”
Discord pressed his mismatched hands together in a way that wasn’t far from what it’s like when one was about to pray.  A white halo suddenly poofed into existence over the crown of his head, a heavenly white glow emitting from it.  However, a single tilt of Fluttershy’s head and slight raise of the eyebrow was all it took to make the mighty “Lord of Chaos’s” façade drop away.  Discord sighed, extending his eagle claw once again for a handshake, this time seeming a little more sincere.  Only a little.
“I’m sorry for picking a fight with you,” he mumbled as Raymond took the proffered claw.  It felt strangely cool on his hand, like small slats of smooth sandstone being rubbed over his palm.  He gave the “repentant” creature a half smile, stepping close enough to pat him on the shoulder.
“No harm done, really,” Raymond reassured the wild being.  “After the day I’ve been having, I needed to blow off some steam.  Thanks to our friendly little scuffle, I probably won’t try to take over Equestria in a fit of rage.”  He leaned in close enough that only Discord could see his wink.  “Probably.” 
Discord’s eyes became alight with amusement as Ray stepped away from him.  “I think you and I will get along quite well,” he proclaimed.  Everyone (or maybe he should start saying “everypony”) seemed to sigh in relief at the de-escalation of the situation.
“Ahrighty then,” Apple Jack said, turning everyone’s attention to her.  She, however, was only looking directly at Ray.  “Now that we’ve all been introduced, couldja please tell us th’ answer to the question we’ve all been wait’n for.  Why th’ long face?”
“You know what they say about the third time right?  That i-”
“Pinkie,” more than one pony shouted in annoyance.
“Sorryeee.  I just can’t help it!  It’s so exciting and-”  Pinkie Pie was cut off by Apple Jack, who pressed a hoof against the pink pony’s mouth and looked back at Ray expectantly.  In fact, they all were now focused solely on him.  
He took a deep breath, suddenly nervous.  How could he explain to them what was going on in his own mind, when he could barely comprehend it himself?  How was he supposed to tell them he was from a different dimension, dragged here by their very own princess?  They obviously were happy here, and he knew that that couldn’t possibly be the case with a tyrant.  He wouldn’t be surprised if they actually knew her.  And how would they react to him revealing that he hated her, despised her more than…
His mind blanked.  Where was he?  His vision returned to him, revealing several concerned looking ponies in front of him.  When had he lost that?
“Raymond, dear,” Rarity said, her voice breaking into his jumbled thoughts, “are you alright?”
“Y-yeah.  Just a- a break in thought,” he managed to stammer out.  When had ponies gained the ability to talk?  “What were we discussing again?”
“You were just about to tell us why you were lookin’ so down earlier,” Apple Jack said, giving him a confused look.  She looked cute when she was confused. As a matter of fact, they all did (well, maybe not Discord).  
A glowing was now coming from behind Apple Jack.  No, it was coming from Apple Jack’s behind, specifically her butt mark.
“Hey, Apple Jack,” Ray said, his voice slightly slurred.  Mankind, this was the worst one he'd had in months.  Now he was seeing lights.  He tried to control his mouth even as he spoke.  “Your Booty Mark’s glowin’.”
“Mah what,” the orange pony asked in confusion, her brows furrowing in concern.  “Raymond, are ya sure yer alright?  Yer startin’ ta- Holy hay!  Rainbow Dash, yer cutie mark’sa glowin’!”
“Wait, what?”  Rainbow Dash bent her neck around to view her own glowing cutie mark.  So that was what they were called.  Everypony shared shouted exclamations of shock as they each viewed their own glowing mark.  Ray, meanwhile, shook his head, trying to clear it.  It was sharp enough to realize, from the expressions on the five pony’s faces, that this sudden illumination was not an everyday prospect of Equestrian life.
“You know what this means, girls,” Pinkie Pie questioned, buzzing with so much excitement that it looked like she was now floating off the ground.
“A friendship problem,” Apple Jack muttered, a confident smile slowly spreading across her freckled face.  “We’ve got a friendship problem!  And it's calling all’v us!”
“Awesome,” Rainbow shouted, pumping a hoof into the air, doing several loops in the air.
Fluttershy, who had settled on the ground sometime during Raymond’s temporary blindness, raised a hoof to her cheek.  “My, it’s been so long since this has happened, I forgot that it still potentially could.”
“I think we all did, darling,” Rarity said.  “I, for one, am curious as to the manner of this untimely call.”
Fluttershy, looked up at Ray.  “I believe it might have something to do with our new friend here,” she said.  This made everyone stop their various activities, and look once again in Ray’s direction.  “I-I mean,” she stuttered, suddenly nervous as Ray’s gaze fell on her.  “have you heard his remarks about Twilight?  And with his, um, n-no offense, outlandish looks, I mean, you know what I might be suggesting.”
They all seemed to take a moment of brief consideration.  Finally, Discord declared, “Well, why don’t we find out?  All aboard for a one way trip to the crystal castle!”
Ray was about to turn to ask the draconequus what he meant, when he suddenly felt a familiar tug in his stomach.  He realized why it felt familiar as he was suddenly whisked away from the hilltop.  The world around him changed briefly into a realm of checkered black, dirty orange, and dark violet.  Raymond felt like his still fuzzy head was being picked apart and then put back together by the most violent toddler in the world.
Then, just as suddenly as it had come, it was gone, leaving Ray dizzy and off balanced.  He nearly fell to the floor, but managed to catch himself on his knees.  His vision returned quicker than it had with Twilight’s teleportation magic, letting him have an amusing look at everypony’s, excluding Discord’s, “I’ve seen into the dimensional rift” faces.  It also allowed him to get a good look at his surroundings.
He seemed to be in a room made up of purple, blue, and cream colored crystals.  They made up the doorways, which held gold bordered doors.  They seemed to be composed of a different kind of crystal that was green and thin enough to let light in through them.  There was a main doorway with large double doors.  With a quick look around, he saw that there were seven separate and smaller doorways to other antechambers.  
The crystals formed long veins that climbed the blue stone wall, making the room feel a little like a closed flower.  Large windows lit the room, but were also aided by a strange chandelier that hung above the room.  It seemed to be organic, based on the rougher look and undefined twists it made.  After a moment, his eyes recognized the rough look as some sort of bark, which meant he was staring at a tree that somehow hung over his head.  Short trails of multicolored diamonds hung from it, indistinct images that were barely visible from the rug-covered floor moving about in them.  
Ray looked back at everypony and realized suddenly why they had all seemed eye-level.  Each of the five ponies sat on a throne with their designated Cutie Marks on it.  He stood, supporting himself on a smaller throne that was next to the one Discord sat on.  Looking past the creature, he saw a very familiar and hated symbol imprinted on it: Twilight’s Cutie Mark.  
The mark of a devil.
The thrones all circled around a large table that was topped by a 3D map.  It seemed to map at least a part of Equestria, and even though he’d only seen it briefly, he recognized the castle on the mountain at the map’s center.  Above it floated the Cutie Marks of the five mares that now sat around it.  
“It’s calling us to Canterlot,” Rainbow Dash asked, raising an eyebrow.  
“Not just to Canterlot,” Rarity began, “but to the castle itself!  Fluttershy, it appears that you were correct!”  She looked up from the map, towards where Ray stood, investigating the map.  “It appears our friend has something that he hasn’t told us about yet,” she accused suspiciously.
“Ray is on a secret mission from Twilight, isn’t he,” a certain pink pony yelled, making Rainbow Dash slap a hoof over her face in a sort of ponish facepalm.
“I’m pretty sure that’s not what it means,” she said in annoyance.
“I think it means that Raymond here hasn’t been completely honest with us,” Apple Jack proposed, giving Ray a pointed stare beneath her hat.
“Or it means I just haven’t gotten the words out,” he shot back, making the orange pony’s ears drop back in shame.  Ray hadn’t noticed how expressive these beings were with their bodies.  Pinkie’s tail wagged like an eccentric puppy’s, everypony’s ears angled in different directions to catch all of the sounds, and slight tilts of the head give off different emotions.  All things considered, reading pony expressions was exponentially easier than reading a human’s.  
“Now now, everypony,” Fluttershy chastised, “no need to point hoofs.  What we need to do is close our mouths and listen to Ray.  He’s the only one here who knows what is truly going on.”  She gave Ray a kind smile, and Ray swore he could hear Discord growl.  “Ray, if you would?”
Ray paused.  Did he, a stranger, tell everyone here what had happened to him, and how Twilight was the one behind his sudden appearance.  These ponies, though friendly as they were, probably wouldn’t believe such a prospect.  Not so soon after knowing him.  They had met, what, all of twenty minutes ago?- if that was even how time worked in this dimension.  And if he did tell them, and they didn’t believe him, would he lose the only friends he might’ve made in this world.  He couldn’t risk that, even if it meant they wouldn’t trust him completely.  However, there might be an easier way about it… 
Finally, he answered.  “I think it would be easier to believe if you heard it from Twilight herself, instead of me.”  Fluttershy seemed to deflate a little that Ray had avoided the question instead of answering it himself.  Still, she simply smiled at him and said, “Well, I guess that means we’ll have to wait for Canterlot.”
“Ugh,” Rainbow Dash groaned, throwing her hoofs onto her face.  “That means we’ll hafta wait until tomorrow!”
Pinkie Pie tilted her head towards her friend and asked, “Well whaddya mean, Dashy?”
“What I mean,” she began exasperatedly, “is that the 10:30 train left an hour ago, which means we’ll hafta get onto the 7 o’ clock train.  We’ll get into Canterlot at 9-ish, which is way after Twilight starts up the night shift, so we won’t be able to speak to her.”
“It could be even worse than that, darling,” Rarity suddenly said thoughtfully.  “Twilight’s schedule could be filled for the day, which could mean another whole day of waiting.”
Rainbow Dash groaned at the prospect of having to wait another day, flopping back against the throne in dismay.  A small giggle came from the opposite end of the table, making all eyes turn to the huddled form of Fluttershy.  She was holding a hoof to her mouth in an attempt to hide a beautiful little smile from her friends.  She blushed as the attention turned to her, but held her ground.  
“You girls are all so silly sometimes,” she said to them.  “There’s really a very simple answer to our troubles.”
“Beggin’ yer pardon,” Apple Jack questioned, giving Fluttershy a confused tilt of her head and raising an ear towards her, as if to try to hear her better.  “Is somepony gettin’ a bit more self confident?”
“Well, maybe a little,” Fluttershy admitted, looking calmly towards her friends.  “It’s just, you all are making it sound like the train’s the only way to Canterlot.”  Calmly, she turned to Discord, who looked like he already knew where all of this was going.  “Discord, could you please take us to Canterlot.”
“An unprecedented favor?  You know what that means, my dear,” Discord asked, smirking while raising an eyebrow in her direction.
Fluttershy returned it with a warm smile.  “Yes, I do, and I’m looking forward to it.”
Ray had to keep himself from gasping out loud as he realized the relationship between the two.  Re-analyzing the situation, he saw Rarity looking a little on the paler side, which seemed to be proof enough.  Rainbow, who was close enough to be heard making a gagging sound, only reinforced Rarity’s reaction and Ray’s prediction.  The other two ponies were simply smiling, though Apple Jack’s looked a tad more sincere than the loopy grin that Pinkie bore.  Without thinking, Raymond blurted out a question.
“Are you two dating?”
The room itself seemed to deadpan at Raymond, and he instantly felt just how awkward of a subject this was for the ponies.  Fluttershy began to blush so profusely that he could see it from across the table.  Rainbow glared at him, while Pinkie Pie seemed to find this the opportune moment to zip away.  Rarity and AJ looked genuinely curious about the actual answer to the question, as if the relationship wasn’t a hundred percent clear to them either.  Discord was fidgeting with his tail, much of his previous confidence evaporating at the sudden publicity of his relationship.
Pinkie zipped back into the room, stopping besides Raymond, the slamming of the chamber doors ending the uneasy silence that had ruled the room.  Behind her was the same cannon that she had nearly blown his face off with.  He shuddered, but quickly realized that the cake he had absently wiped off him was probably the best chance at food he would have for a while.  Whenever they finally arrived back at the castle, he doubted food would be one of the main priorities.
“Well,” Pinkie said impatiently, lightly stamping a hoof on the ground.  “Are you gonna announce it or not?”
“To the castle,” Discord exclaimed, and before anyone could object, they were pulled away.
> Betrayal
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fluttershy hadn’t been expecting the sudden teleportation.  Discord had really surprised her this time, even though she’d been getting used to random teleportations.  It wasn’t hard to tell why the act had been so sudden.  Why had poor Raymond opened his mouth?
Oh, but she couldn’t have blamed him, not after what she’d seen in his eyes.  Those dark gray eyes, tearful and sorrowful, but not for himself.  
She’d heard somepony crying, but it wasn’t the usual kind that she heard from woodland creatures.  She’d grown so used to the constant chatter and hum of her little friends, that when this new noise joined the fray, she couldn’t have excused it.  Upon investigating, she had found him.
Sitting back on a rock, head tucked between its legs, crying up a storm, she’d found him at his worst.  Initially, she thought it was an unusual breed of monkey, which would explain why she hadn’t recognized it.  But the way it looked, balder than a newborn foal, with only that dirty blonde mane and strange swath of fabric around its loins, prompted her to think it was an outcast.  It was incredibly strange to witness such a large, muscular creature broken down as it was.  No offense to Harry, but he was more fat than muscle.
She’d tried to help the creature to the best of her abilities, but it had taken almost five minutes for it to notice her presence.  Then, with their short conversation, Fluttershy knew just how harmless the human was.  Or so she had thought.  She knew that the girls were only trying to do good, but as soon as they had struck, Fluttershy’s initial assessment of Raymond  shattered like glass.
His thinking, so quick that she had had trouble keeping up with it.  His movement, fluid, aside from the little tripping stunt, and precise.  And then there was the scar.  
Nopony mentioned it, but it was still there.  She’d seen each of her friends peek at it at least once, and even Pinkie Pie had seemed slightly disturbed by the white lump of tissue.  In her years taking care of animals, Fluttershy had never seen one like it.  It was smooth, as if cut with a precise tool or dangerously sharp object.  The thought of Ray getting hurt made Fluttershy’s body shiver with disgust as a bloody image of Ray, lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood, crying in pain, invaded her head.  Fluttershy shook the image away, letting the first thought that came to mind distract her.  Unfortunately, that thought was how conveniently close the scar was to his lightly defined abdominal muscles.
She tucked her head in embarrassment as her face became flaming red, but this time she actually hoped that it was attributed to the indecent way she had landed.  Standing quickly so nopony else would notice, she looked around at her surroundings.  Large hall.  Check!  Tinted windows with vaguely accurate depictions.  Check!  Flustered looking everypony.  Check!  
Fluttershy glanced to her left and saw the double doors leading into the throne room.  On either side were two stunned looking guards, decked out in full royal guard attire.  They took a moment to process just what had happened, before they both rushed over, spears tranquil.  They helped Rarity get off the ground before turning to Discord, giving him a scornful look.  Even though it had been four years since his redemption, most ponies were still having trouble accepting Discord.  
Fluttershy sighed.  It wasn’t completely Discord’s fault that he’d gone evil.  He’d once explained that chaos wasn’t like regular magic.  It wanted to be used, to destroy, to create, anything and everything at one moment to the next.  Discord’s very sanity had fallen away during his losing fight to stay in control.  And in the end, he hadn’t regained all of his shattered mind, much of that due to being imprisoned in stone for eons.  The poor creature just needed some love, and she hoped she could give him some on their date…  Oh dear.  Their date.  Fluttershy’s blush, which hadn’t even receded yet, returned in full blazing glory.  
Discord said something, but she was tucked so far back in her mind that she hadn’t heard it correctly.  Luckily, the statement hadn’t been made in her general direction, so further embarrassment was avoided.  She began to pay attention more closely as Discord produced a sheet of parchment to the stern looking guards.  With a sigh, they stepped aside and opened up the chamber doors, revealing another long hall that led to the throne room.
This one was filled with much older stained glass depictions, such as the one with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna circling each other around a sun/moon hybrid circle.  At the far end of the hall stood Twilight's throne, with the little adjustment that made it possible to sit on the right hoof of Twilight.  The said pony herself was pacing in front of the throne, tapping her cheek with a foreleg, her muttering barely audible from the doors.
“‘Ello there, Twilight,” Applejack called, snapping the purple pony out of her nervous prancing.
“O-o-oh.  H-hello girls,” Twilight said as her friends approached.  She seemed to shrink after glancing at something behind Fluttershy.  Peeking over her shoulder, she nearly gasped in surprise at the glowering figure behind her.  Ray stood with an angry glare that wiped away the friendly, soft Ray he’d introduced to her back by the forest.
“W-what a surprise,” Twilight mumbled, not sounding the slightest bit surprised.
“Please don’t lie ta us, Twilight,” Applejack asked her.  “Yer only gonna make it harder for yourself.”
Twilight sighed.  “Well, I guess he’s already told you what happened,” she said sadly, gesturing towards Ray.
“Actually darling, Ray wanted you to tell us what happened,” Rarity chimed in.  “This whole business seems very fishy in my opinion.  A human shows up in our land, and then has some sort of connection with you.  It must be a very negative one, given how he's scowling at you like a piece of droppings on his hoof.”
Twilight actually seemed surprised for a moment, like she hadn’t thought that she would be the one to tell them.  She began to chew on her hoof, taking a nervous glance at Raymond and shuddering under his intense glare.  Her ears flipped back on her head, her wings clenched against her sides as she ducked away from him.  Fluttershy stole another glance behind her and realized just why Twilight looked so afraid.  
He stood, forehead creased in anger as the full force of his glare burned away the last image of a harmless, peaceful Ray in her mind.  His arms were still crossed, though now his knuckles were white with how much they were squeezing his biceps.  His bare chest rose and fell slowly as he took in deep breaths, as if struggling to keep himself under control.  This was only reinforced by the way his jaw was clenched, trying to keep his tongue from releasing the full fury behind it.  And then there were his eyes.
They were little more than narrow slits, but behind them was the full rage of the sun, threatening to burn anypony that angered him.  They quivered with the force of the glare, brown irises almost gaining a red tint to them.  Those gentle eyes had seen things.  Fluttershy saw it now.  How could anypony show so many different emotions in the course of minutes?  They would need to have had a very bad life.  She no longer saw him as 2 dimensional as her friends were.  He was very different from anything in this world, or the next, with no one distinguishable attribute. 
“Hey Ray,” Pinkie suddenly asked, voice as earnest as ever.  “Got something you want to say?”
Fluttershy had to resist the urge to cringe at her friend’s sudden question.  She loved Pinkie very much, but sometimes the pony could be very, very naive, beyond anypony’s good.  Pinkie twisted her head as she stared at the furious form of Ray.  The human shook himself for a moment, calming down enough to speak through gritted teeth.
“There are many things I would like to say,” he growled, giving a barbed glance before sighing deeply and pointing to the door.  “I should probably leave you all to talk.  You seem to be friends.”
He turned, walking away, and Discord had the good sense to follow.  Everypony watched them go, waiting for the doors to slam close to look back at each other.  For a moment there was silence, and even Pinkie seemed to feel the solemnity of the situation, at least enough to stop bouncing around.  Twilight looked like she was about to say something, but instead bit her lip.  Finally, she asked, “What all do you know?”
“All we know here is that Ray is awful sad about somethin’, he ain’t from anywhere we’ve been, and he’s somehow connected ta you, Twilight,” Applejack spoke, giving her friend a calm, yet questioning look.  “He’s decided to leave the rest for you to tell.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash reaffirmed, flying around the backside of the group.  “He said something about us not going to believe it.  Care to enlighten us?”
“Y-yes, of course,” she said, taking a deep breath.  “It started almost a year ago, the day after my coronation.  I decided to look into the future to see what challenges I might face, and allow me some time to deliberate on actions towards them.  Most of the things were minor; border disputes, weather manipulation, timberwolves, homelessness, friendly wavers, et cetera.  But one thing came up that couldn’t be resolved easily, or with friendship.”  Twilight’s voice dropped, and her tone became one of fear.  “Two years, two months, and thirteen days after my coronation, something… terrible invades Equestria”
“What,” Fluttershy asked, barely breathing.  Why would anyone want to invade Equestria?  There wasn’t much here to offer, other than the small abundance of gems.  However, that paled in comparison with the dragon’s hoards of goods.  There wasn’t much to be had here in natural resources either.  That was more in the realm of the Hippogriff’s thing.  They weren’t militaristically a threat either, with only police ponies and the Canterlot Royal Guard as protection.
“Minotaurs,” Twilight said.  
“Did I hear you correct, or did you just stutter,” Rainbow Dash questioned, “because I think I just heard you say minotaurs.”
“Yeah, Twilight,” Fluttershy said, confused.  “Minotaurs aren’t that threatening to Equestria, no offense.  I mean, Iron Will was a bully, but nothing like Chrysalis or Tirek.”
“That’s because he’s a monotaur, not a minotaur,” Twilight explained.  “Monotaurs are a subspecies of minotaur that have a more equine subvariant.  They generally live solitary lives, which is why there are so few.  Some can go their entire lives without seeing another of their kind.  They have a more equine mindset, too.  Much like us, they mentally can’t take the burden of violence and death too well.  And while some of them do participate in wrestling and other physical mischief, they only do it for sport, not for want of violence.
“These minotaurs though, have no restraints.  They glorify bloodshed, relish in the taking of lives.  When they come, we won’t be able to fight it.  There’s no parlay with them, no negotiation, no surrendering to them.  All they want to do is kill.  In the end, age, gender, it will all be inconsequential.  They will kill, and plunder, and destroy until everypony is dead.  And they won’t stop here either. 
"They’ll take all lands of Equus, starting with the Crystal Empire and Yaks.  The Yaks may be able to put up some resistance, but nothing that will slow the Minotaurs for too long.  From there, the Badlands and Mount Aris will fall.  The sea ponies may have a chance, but I didn’t look far into their future.”
“What about the Hippogriff Navy,” Rainbow Dash asked.  She had landed now, her eyes narrowed in concentration, staring at the ground and tapping on the bottom of her chin with a hoof.
“Little more than a glorified scouting and scientific party,” Twilight said.  “Besides, they too share a pacifist mindset.”
“And those spears they have?”
“Our guards have spears too.”
“So how does Ray tie into all of this,” Fluttershy questioned.  The whole situation was making her head spin.  Equestria conquered?  War?  Death…  It shouldn’t happen.  There was no way it could happen.  Right?  “Couldn’t we just use the Elements of Harmony, instead of whatever purpose Ray has?”
“Don’t you think I haven’t thought about that,” Twilight yelled, then rubbed her forehead with a hoof.  “I’m sorry, Fluttershy.  Truly, but this whole business is taking quite a toll on me.  In truth, I’ve probably been neglecting current duties in order to solve future ones.  But no, the Elements won’t work.  They are made to make peace through peaceful actions.  Turning creatures to stone is so that they can get a chance to rethink their options, and choose friendship over power.  But it won’t work for these creatures.  They know no mercy.”
“I’m sorry,” Rarity began.  “I know we’re on the topic of Equestria ending, but from what you’re saying about the Elements, Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow will all… come back?”
“Essentially, yes,” Twilight responded.  “Haven’t you noticed how every villain we’ve fought has either been redeemed or banished?  And any who’ve been previously banished have come back.  Discord, Sombra, Chrysalis, they’ve all been banished before and returned.  That’s another thing.  The Minotaurs will release Chrysalis and the others from imprisonment upon arrival in Canterlot.”
“Why in the hay would they do that,” Rainbow Dash semi-yelled.
“Well, if Celestia had made international allegiances with other creatures that we didn’t know about, then it’s not too far of a stretch to guess that Chrysalis or Tirek did the same.  I didn’t look far enough ahead to see what would happen then, because at that point everypony was dead.
“After the vision, I immediately began running through the different possibilities in my head.  I spent months trying to decide what I could do against such a force, but slowly realized that nothing in our world could stop it.  I asked for assistance from Luna and Celestia, but they told me ‘what isn’t in our world must be brought to our world.’  After another several months of testing and experimenting with Starlight and Sunburst, we finally perfected a spell that allowed me to view other realities.
“One of the first ones I found was Raymond’s.  The dominant species there are the humans.  They seem to be a technologically advanced and intelligent race, but have one major misdemeanor.  They seem to like to fight.
“What I mean to say is, the dimension is probably one of the worst I’ve seen.  Humans fight wars with each other with terrible weapons, and seem to be bred to kill.  They eat animals, destroy forests and other beautiful places, and grow up violently and wildly.  Even some of their younger ones seem to have a leniency to destroy something or other.”
“So you're saying that Ray’s dimension was terrible,” Rainbow Dash once again cut in.  “Why choose him then.”
“Because, in most ways, he was different,” Twilight said.  “That, among other things.”
“What about his family, his friends,” Fluttershy questioned.  The sudden revelation of Ray’s origins shook her to the core, leaving her head filled with unanswered questions and jarring thoughts.  She had guessed that Ray wasn’t from Equestria, or anywhere nearby, for that matter, but from another dimension?  And that awful place he grew up in, well, no wonder why he had such a diverse range of emotions.  And what was he, a singular pony, supposed to do in the wake of such a scary and destructive force?  Was there any hope left for Equestria?  And truly, if Ray had been pulled away from his family and friends, then it was little wonder why he had seemed so devastated when she had found him.  The worst part, though, came from Twilight’s silent response.  A small shake of the head.  He would never see them again.
Applejack scoffed in shock.  “Why that’s gotta be th’ most dishonest-”
“Unpleasant-” 
“Unfunny-”
“Unkind-” 
Everypony looked at Rainbow to hear what she might add.  Crossing her forelegs midair, she said,  “I mean, it isn’t disloyal to anypony, since she’s doin’ what she thinks is best for Equestria.”
“Thank you, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said, looking up from the polished marble floor.  “I-”
“That still doesn’t mean this isn’t the least coolest thing anypony has ever done before,” she added, making Twilight’s ears droop.
“I-I know,” she muttered.  “But it was the right thing to do.  At least, for Equestria it was.  And I know I deserve all of those things you’re saying and thinking, but it needed to happen.  For Equestria’s sake, and Raymond’s.”
Fluttershy cocked her head in confusion.  How could any of this be good for Ray?  He’d been foalnapped from his home and family, to a world he probably couldn’t even understand.  
“Twilight,” Fluttershy spoke up.  Everypony turned to her curiously, and she felt a little bit of her confidence drop.  No.  No!  She would not stutter now.   Raising herself confidently, staring her friend straight in the eye, she asked,  “Do you believe that this is honestly the only way to save Equestria, whether it’s right or wrong?”
“Yes,” Twilight answered.  For the first time, she lost all of her timidity, raising her head, ears up.  “Yes I do.”
Fluttershy nodded solemnly.  “Then I forgive you.”
“What,” everypony asked simultaneously.
“I forgive you,” she repeated.
“But why, Flutters,” Rainbow asked her, flapping down to be in front of her.  “After the way she went behind our backs and betrayed us?  How could you?”
“Well, we forgave Discord and Starlight, so why not one of our friends,” Fluttershy responded.  “I’m not saying that her not telling us doesn’t hurt, since we are very close friends.  However, we’re supposed to represent friendship for all of Equestria, which means we need to represent all aspects of it.  Especially the hardest one.”
Fluttershy stepped forward and gave Twilight a soft hug.  Whispering so that nopony else could hear, she said,  “I know this must have been really hard on you.  Let me help with Ray.”
Rarity was the next to step forward.  “Fluttershy is absolutely correct.  I, too, am hurt that you wouldn’t tell your dearest friends about the trials you’re going through, but understand.  Some things may seem like too much of a burden to share, but in the future, please tell us.  It is why we formed the Council of Friendship.”
“I know, I know,” she said, rubbing a hoof on the spot under her horn, staring at the ground.   It’s just-”
The chamber doors banged open, making everypony jump, and cutting off Twilight’s excuse.  They all turned to find a certain purple teen drake strolling towards them.  Even from across the hall, Fluttershy could see the confused dragon’s arms were full of fresh parchment.  He also had two saddlebags worth of ink bottles on either arm.  
“Sorry it took me so long to get back, Twilight,”  Spike apologized, crossing the hall as quickly as his legs could.  He’d grown two inches taller in the last year, making him neck high for everypony else.  “The load you ordered took hours to retrieve, since they hadn’t fully restocked, and was too heavy to fly home.”  Then, giving the others a sideways glance, he asked, “What’s everypony doing here?  It’s not Thursday.”
Fluttershy could see a lie on the tip of Twilight’s tongue, but it died with a stern look from Applejack.   
“I did it, Spike,”  She muttered.
“What,” he said, seemingly already knowing what she was talking about.  “But you told me we would do it together.”
“Y-yes, well, I didn’t want you there in case something went wrong.”
“And did something go wrong?”
“Well, our newcomer sort of knocked out all four guards, and then tried to break out.”
“What,” Applejack questioned.  “I knew th’ feller was strong, but knockin’ off four of Equestria’s finest?  Yeesh, even 	with all that height on ’im, I doubt it was an easy feat!”
“Imma hafta challenge him to a race,” Rainbow Dash said eagerly, getting a scathing look from Twilight.  “After he gets adjusted to Equestria, of course.  It wouldn’t be a fair race if he was all mopey and sad.”
“He has every right to be mopey and sad,” Twilight said, beating Fluttershy to the punch.  Her gaze once again found the marble floor, shame featured on every dimension of her face.  Fluttershy put a hoof on her shoulder.  
“You can’t put yourself down for doing what you believe is right, Twilight,” she comforted.  “You only have to stick to the path you’ve chosen.”
Rarity stepped in and gave Twilight another hug.  “Fluttershy is once again right.  By regretting your own decision, you’ll be making bringing Raymond here pointless.  It’s best to carry on with this course.”
“I recon yall’re right,” Applejack added, stepping in.  Spike wordlessly joined, gripping around Twilight's foreleg.
“You’re still our egghead,” Rainbow Dash said, “so there’s no hard feelings.  Just a mistake, right?”
“Right,” Twilight said, closing her eyes as she enjoyed everypony’s embrace.  Everypony, that is, except a certain pink pony.  “Hey, Pinkie,” Twilight asked, popping an eye open.  “What are you doing.”
Pinkie Pie stood exactly were she had been when the whole conversation had started, no small feat in of itself.  Stranger still was the fact that she hadn’t interrupted at any point, nor had she joined the group hug, one of her favorite things.  Instead, she stood completely still, save for a hoof rubbing her chin in contemplation as she stared at the floor.
“I’m trying to decide whether to throw a ‘Welcome to this Dimension’ party, a ‘Welcome to Equestria’ party, a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party, or a ‘Hooray for a New Friend’ party,” she explained.  Fluttershy smiled softly.  Only Pinkie Pie…  “The problem is,” she continued, “that no matter what I call it, it will always be wrong.  And having a ‘Welcome to this Universe/Equestria/Ponyville and Happy New Friendship Party’ is quite the mouthful, even for me!  And then there’s the problem that I don’t even know exactly what his favorite sweet is!  Sweet Celestia, this is gonna be hard!”
Everypony chuckled at that.  It was a nice moment, when the current problems could briefly be forgotten, but it didn’t last long.  As the light laughter died, Twilight’s face grew solemn once again.  
“I’m going to have to speak to Raymond in private,” she said, causing the last of the temporary mirth to go away.  “I’d like to speak to him privately, if you girls don’t mind.”
“Not at all, darling,” Rarity said before anypony could argue.  “We’ll let him know you wish to speak with him.”  
As they left the throne room, Fluttershy could’ve sworn she had heard Twilight mutter to Spike, “Oh I don’t wish to speak with him, but he needs to know.”
> Life Anew
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


    _______________________________________________________
Meanwhile
________________________________________________________________


Ray was fuming.  He’d thought that most of his anger had subsided thanks to some friendly bickering with Discord and the little wrestling match he’d had with the others.  However, upon seeing that cartoonish purple pony again, he’d nearly burst with sheer rage.  He’d wanted to snap every bone in her miniscule body, curse her with the might of harmonic profanity, and burn the entire world to the ground.  Instead, he’d squeezed his arms so hard they were bruised.
Discord stood across the hall from him, seeming to think it best to leave Ray to his own devices.  That probably was true, but he figured he should at least try to talk to the draconequus, instead of leaving him in awkward silence.  Taking a deep breath, he was about to ask a question, when one of the guards coughed.  Right, they weren’t alone.
“Hey, um, sir,” he said to one of the guards, making them turn.  Oh gosh, he was a she.  “Ma’am, sorry.  Would you please excuse me and my companion real quick.”
The mare raised an eyebrow to her fellow guard.  “Well,” she said, looking him up and down, “you’re not exactly under our jurisdiction, so yes you can.  However, you will need an escort so you aren’t just blindly roaming around the castle.”
“It would be my honor,” Discord spoke up abruptly, “to show my friend here his way around the castle.”
Both guards gave him an incredulous eyebrow raise.  They seemed to have experience with the Lord of Chaos, as one of them asked, “Are you sure that you are the best candidate for that?”
“Oh please, ponies,” he said, swiping a paw at them as he pressed his eagle claw against his chest in an arrogant manner.  “It’s not like you could do it, seeing how you have to guard the door.  Besides, it's not like I’m evil anymore.  I’ve been reformed, remember?”
“Yes,” the male guard muttered, “but you're not conformed.”
Ray couldn’t stop himself from chuckling at the guard’s quick wit.  This earned him an appreciative smile from him, and a barbed glare from Discord.  Still, he could see the small smile that tugged at the corner of his companion’s gray lips.  He turned back to the two guards and said, “Well then, fine, don’t trust me and try to get Ray out of the castle while I guard the Princess.”
The effect was almost immediate.  Both guards' eyes widened, and one the mare managed a quick, “No no, you can lead him away.  We were just curious, that’s all.”
“Curious my cloven hoof,” Discord muttered as he turned to Ray.  His face brightened as he said, “Come on then, my human counterpart, let’s go!”
Ray fell in step with Discord, only to find himself back in that checkered abyss.  As quickly as he was in the place, he was out.  He found that the room around him was rather bare, with the same blue, purple, and pink italics as the rest of the castle.  A single window on the far right of the room was the only source of light, but it gave enough that he could see the entirety of the room.
“Well,” Ray began, slightly off put by the sudden teleportation.  “that was sudden.”
“Oh, it usually is,” Discord said from behind him.  He turned to find him sitting in a stereotypical “talk chair” with a gray fleece jacket and glasses on to top off the psychiatrist look.  Ray suddenly felt something push against the back of his legs, forcing him to sit down on an elongated brown chair.  Suddenly, he was back in the middle school counselor’s office, talking about the… the- crap, what was it?  When was it?
Ray shook his head as Discord asked, “Well, my friend.  You seem to have something to tell me about.”
A brief spike of panic shot through him, but he quickly dismissed it.  He wasn’t talking about that.  He didn’t know about that.  He wanted to know about something else.  Hopefully. 
“What do you want to know about,” he asked, trying to hide the caution in his voice.
“Why, I’d like to know how you got here, of course,” Discord exclaimed.  Right…  
Involuntarily, the entire story began rolling out of his mouth.  The way he’d awakened to the sight of brightly colored ponies,  how he’d initially thought it was all a dream, and his attempted escape from the castle.  Discord even seemed slightly impressed at the taking out of four of the Princess’s elite.  He grew solemn as Ray rambled on about the inner workings of his mind while leaning against the sturdy rock.  A smile spread on Discord’s face, one that Ray was unable to identify, as he told of meeting Fluttershy and short discussion.  He kept snickering as the tale of how he’d been assaulted by the others unfolded, practically dying when it came to the part about his fake out death over Pinkie’s cannon.  In retrospect, it was kind of funny how he’d immediately defaulted to ‘Whelp, I’m dead’ mode, instead of something more logical.  Still, a cannon in your face is a pretty terrifying experience.
Eventually, the story was completed, and Ray took a deep breath, mouth dry from so much talking.  Discord handed him a cup of water, somehow knowing he was thirsty.  With a quick “Thanks”, he downed the cup.  Not the water, the glass cup.  Discord began to laugh hysterically, slapping his knee as Ray’s eyes widened in confusion.  The water, still in the form of the cup, fell into his hands.  He let go in surprise, which only made the water lose form and splash onto his lap, soaking his boxers.  He quickly crossed his legs and cupped his hand over his crotch, hoping that Discord had been too busy laughing to notice anything more… revealing.	
When he finally stopped, Ray gave him a flat stare.  “Anything else you want to know about?”
“Actually, there is,” he responded, giving him a smug smile.  “Why do you wear such ridiculous pants?”
Raymond coughed, a blush instantly lighting up his face as he remembered his attire.  Or, rather, lack of it.  How would he explain decency to a race naturally clothed by their own fur?  The matter was, he’d never worn solely his boxers outside of his bed for more than a minute on end.  And now, here he was in a foreign land, walking around for hours as if he needed nothing else.  Back on Earth, he would have been carted off to the big boys house for public indecency within the first ten minutes of being outside.  Not to even mention the fact that, even without the water flattening it, the boxers would be very revealing at certain moments.  He was just praying to whatever god this dimension had that none of the ponies had noticed the boys through the thin cloth.  
Of course, Discord caught on to his means of embarrassment, and only further pressed the point.  “Well, why?  You seem awfully embarrassed about the whole ordeal, so I just have to know why.”
Ray resisted the urge to reach across the short distance between the chairs and slap him, instead opting to give him a twins-worthy eye roll.  “It’s for decency.  In fact, where I come from, this is also considered indecent.  We humans are rather private about our, well, privates.”
Discord quirked an eyebrow in confusion.  “Don’t you have fur down there,” he asked.
“Not enough,” Ray muttered under his breath, but Discord still looked like he’d heard it.  “Hey, speaking of decency, do you mind helping me get more decent?”
“Why, not at all,” he answered enthusiastically.  “That’s what I’m here for, after all!  To help everypony who needs it.”
“Right,” Ray said, giving the all too happy draconequus a suspicious glance.  “Do you know what pants and shirts are?”  Discord nodded.  “What about shoes and socks?”  Once again he nodded, an eager look on his face.  “Coudja perhaps give me a pair of each?  Nothing too crazy, please,” he added right before Discord was about to snap his eagle claws.  He complied, as Ray suddenly found himself completely clothed in the requested articles.
The shirt was a short T that shared the same sort of color scheme as Discord himself, green bottom, brown middle, and gray top.  The shorts he was now wearing could have passed as from Earth, the blue denim slightly faded.  His shoes were also accurate representations of sneakers back at home, albeit a size too large.  He’d grow into it, at least, if his growth hadn’t somehow been affected by interdimensional travel.  The socks were also very near to the Fruit of the Loom pairs he’d worn back at home.  It seemed that cotton was also existent in this universe.
“Thanks, Discord,” he said with a smile.  “It’s nice to have a god as a friend.”
“Oh, don’t mention it,” Discord insisted.  “Besides, I’m not really a god, moreso a personification of Chaos itself.”
“Good, because that would mean I was praying to you earlier,” he joked, reaching up and scratching the top of his head.  “Would hate to stoke your ego.”
“A travesty, truly,” the beast agreed, chuckling.  His eyes, however, were not directed to Ray’s, but to the hand in his hair.  His grin widened as Ray slowly pulled the dirty blond mass down in front of his eyes, only to find that it wasn’t dirty blond.  Instead, it was the same white as Discord’s goatee and eyebrows.  Ray sighed and gave Discord a “really” kind of look.  He had no doubt that if there were a mirror nearby, he would’ve found that his eyebrows were also the same snowy white.
Without even having to ask, Discord changed his hair back to its correct color.  Discord looked like he was about to say something, when his mouth suddenly shut and his eyes became fixed on an unknown object.  Nodding, he looked back at Ray, he said, “It seems that good ol’ Twilight would like to talk with you now.”
Anger resurfaced, but barely had time to show thanks to the sudden tug at his stomach and pull through the dimensional rift.  Ray fell to the ground as he found the chair that had been supporting him was replaced by empty air.  He heard equine and draconequus laughter alike at his blunder, grumbling as he got up.  Even Fluttershy had a soft smile on her pretty little face.  Brilliant.
“Next time,” he began, before taking a calming breath.  “Next time please warn me before poofing me around.”
“He won’t,” Rainbow Dash said, giving him a smile.  “He says he will everytime, but he doesn’t.”
Discord pouted at her.  “Now Dashy, that’s not true at all.  Imabouttoteleportus!”  Before Raymond could even blink, the two were gone and back in a flash, leaving Dash with the misfortune of being off balance and falling to the ground.  Admittedly, it was funny, but Ray restrained himself from laughing.  At least karma was still up to her usual shenanigans.
“The Princess is waiting for you,” the female guard said, reminding him of the gray reality of why he was here.  He felt his brow furrow into the beginnings of a scowl, his lips downturned.  He nodded to the group, then wordlessly pushed through the heavy doors and walked into the chamber.  
Immediately, he had to shut off his anger, which also meant shutting down every other emotion he had to face.  Sorrow died away, dragging hope with it, who in turn cried for help from joy.  Joy simply blundered and tripped over Angers body and tumbled away with the other two.  Confusion tried to take over, shoving at Trust, but pushed too hard and toppled down with Trust.  All the while, Ray’s damn legs carried him closer to that damn pony.  
There was something accompanying the Princess this time.  It looked reptilian, with its purple body scales and tan stomach and throat scales.  It seemed to have the same birth gene that pegasi, its wings the same color as its primary lavender.  It had lime green frills on its face, slightly darker green plates, lining its spine from head down.  Its emerald green eyes were squinted in observation, and Ray could tell it was trying to read him.  Good luck with that, he thought sardonically.
As he closed the distance between them, Twilight drew herself up in false confidence.  It was easy to tell, with the way her ears seemed to be glued solidly to the side of her head and that slight trembling.  Still, she looked him straight in his eye, chin tilted up in a sense of imperious control.  A small part of him, more instinctual than emotional, wanted to snap that flimsy confidence in half.  The opportunity came almost as soon as he had the thought, when she said, “You have one sentence to say anything, and then I’m talking and you’re silent.”
“You’re a bitch,” he said without a moment’s hesitation. 
The effect was instant, her pillars of confidence crumbling away like sand.  She actually flinched away from him, her head turning down as her eyes squeezed shut.  He’d just won the battle, and she knew it.  In three simple words, he’d just exposed her weakness, exploited it, and tore through her papery credence.  
The creature growled, flaring its wings aggressively, a puff of smoke shooting out of its snout.  Ray gave it a moment, registering that the creature must’ve been a dragon, or something like that. 
“What’re you,” he asked it.  “A pet?”
The creature bared its teeth as it took a step forward.  It was actually funny how little distance that covered, given its miniscule size and stubby legs.  It must’ve had, based on how easily that went its skin, the maturity of a teen in its race.  This almost made him laugh out loud, and it saw that, because it began grinding its teeth together in agitation.  
“Hey,” Twilight suddenly snapped, “you have no quarry with him.  It’s me you're mad at, and nopony else.”
“He growled,” he muttered, glaring down at the two.  
“I was mad,” the dragon said, its voice dripping with anger,  “because you called Twilight a-a-a…”
“A bitch?  What’s wrong?  Too much of a big boy word for you,” he mocked it, gaining an actual glare from Twilight.
“No, he just doesn’t need curse words to deal with the dimwitted, arrogant, cloven-hoofed, imbecile in front of him,” Twilight yelled, flying up in front of his face.  She was panting from her tirade, anger sparking in her eye as real confidence had taken hold in her.  Her ears were perked up, and her look dared him to try to retort.  She took a breath, regaining her composure.  “Just because your day is absolutely terrible right now, doesn’t mean you have a right to ruin others.”
Ray opened his mouth to argue, but Twilight was instantly up in his face, pressing her muzzle against his nose.  “Your word quota has been hit,” she growled.  “You’ve said what you wanted to.  It’s my turn now.”
She flew back a bit, and settled on the ground.  “What I’m about to tell you is confidential, so this is between you and me.  I did tell the girls some things, but not all.  There’s much to be discussed, so you might wanna sit.”
Raymond did so, confused by this newer front of Twilight.  Where was the timid, unsure pony that had kidnapped him?  She seemed to have died away completely, replaced by a determined, solemn counterpart.  
“One year ago, as of next Tuesday, I was crowned Chief ruler of Equestria and all of her dominions.  At the time, I was nervous, not entirely sure how I was supposed to lead a nation.  I was given the powers of the sun and moon, and the knowledge that came with them.  I was advised by my former rulers on how to be the best ruler I could, by leading with kindness, passion, and friendship.  The one piece of knowledge that I didn’t receive was what the future had in store for Equestria.
“If you haven’t already noticed, or don’t know, I’m an alicorn.  Amongst ponies, that means I’ll never age.  I’ll rule this land until either I find a pony to take my place, or Equus itself ends.  However, the latter seems more likely than the former, thanks to some more recent insight I’ve gained access to.
“After being crowned, one of the first things I did was consult with some other very high level mages.  After weeks of research, experimentation, and study, we were able to perfect a spell that allowed divination of the future.  I, being the head of this endeavor, was the one who went through the gateway formed.  Under the spell, I was able to view future days in minutes.  Most of the things I saw were trivial.  That is, until I reached two years, two months, and thirteen days into the future.”
Twilight took a deep breath as her demeanor faltered under whatever memory she was having of what she’d seen.  Fear, disgust, and sadness flashed across her countenance, as she too sat down under the wait of her emotions.  Her reptilian companion patted her softly in a silent urging to carry on.  With a last deep breath, she continued.
“Equestria is invaded by a force like none other before it.  Minotaurs will come to our shores in massive fleets, thousands of their warriors spreading throughout our land.  They will hold no morals, killing even our youngest in a bloodthirsty wave that will cleanse Equestria of all creatures.  They will wear the skins of my ponies as trophies, feast on our flesh, and use our bones as weapons against our allies.”
Twilight was trembling now, silent tears streaming down her face and dripping against the marble.  She looked like she didn’t want to say anything more, but her mouth continued to move, and sound continued to come out.
“I saw it.  They invaded Canterlot, killing ponies as they ran by.  The streets became red tributaries to a river of blood.  Guards stood their ground, but were hewn down like grain in the field.  And then I saw Ponyville.
“They were unprepared, some even unknowing of the oncoming slaughter.  They attacked through the far side of the Acres, killing the Apples as they passed.  They wore their skin, blood and all, as they rampaged through the town.  I didn’t see everypony, b-but I- I saw Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.  They couldn't laugh their w-way out, and no amount of k-kindness did it…” 
She trailed off as the first sob echoed in the hall.  Twilight’s head turned down as her emotions got the best of her, tears leaving a puddle on the floor.  The dragon was now hugging her tightly, tears slipping out of the corners of his eyes as he comforted his ruler.  Ray sat there silently staring at the swirly purple floor, trying to comprehend. 
Ponies, bright, knee-high creatures, would be slaughtered by the thousands, for existing.  Pinkie Pie, the over eccentric, loony pony that seemed to be eternally happy for no reason but life, a bloody piece of fur on some monster’s shoulder?  And Fluttershy, the first pony to show him any form of humanity in this dimension, guts laid out on the street, lifeless eyes staring up at a bloodied sky?  It was scary how easy it was to imagine it.  The thoughts, though, instantly made him growl with the “not under my watch” tone that came naturally as an elder sibling.  
“Wh-what I... I’m trying t-t-to say,” Twilight stuttered, making Ray look back to her, “is that we ponies would be completely overwhelmed.  Unable to stand against these beasts of death, we’d be eradicated entirely, with only ruins to tell our tale.”
“Couldn’t you just fight back,” Ray questioned.  “Your guards have spears and armor, and you mentioned you have allies.  Couldn't you assemble a force to stop this all?”
“No,” she replied.  “The mind of an equine is not meant to handle violence.  The act of killing is unheard of amongst many ponies, and actually committing to it snaps the mind of a pony.  Being around death is sometimes even enough to break our minds.  Many of our allies are the same, and those that aren’t would either be too reckless, or too untrustworthy to have as defense.  We may call them allies, but in truth, they just have a piece of parchment stating that they will yada yada and will not blah blah blah.”
“Wait, you’ve said Equestria’s been invaded before,” he said, holding up a hand.  “What happened then.”
“Which time,” she asked blandly.
“If you’ve been invaded before,” Ray began exasperatedly, “why don’t you have set defenses for this sorta thing?”
“Because in my life,” Twilight calmly explained, “all of the invasions have been internal, save one aerial assault.  None have been done by coast before, and the old Equestrian Unification Wars were all on the continent.”
“Unification Wars?  So you've fought in the past?  Why not now?”
“I’ve asked Celestia the same thing, but she simply told me that after the wars, she locked away any violent tendencies we might have.  She used a mental block that passed on genetically, just in case she ever needed to use it again.”
“Then why don’t you just stop the mental blocking.  This Celestia seems to be one of the previous rulers you were talking about, so why didn’t she pass on that information to you.  Sounds like it’d be pretty important knowledge to have.”
“Well, Celestia did pass on the information, in a way,” Twilight explained, rubbing a hoof on a spot under her horn.  “I only know about this whole mental block thing because of this, but I can’t undo it since I wasn’t the one who cast the spell.  Since Celestia doesn’t have the power of the sun, she can’t undo it.  Besides, the introduction of violence into the pony's minds would create anarchy.  Murders would be committed, disputes would become violent, and war could break out internationally, if the wrong feathers were ruffled.  It also doesn’t help that Celestia hadn’t thought that far ahead.”
“Speaking of which, why didn’t Celestia or the other ruler just look into the future?  The must’ve been alicorns too, from what you’re saying.  Why didn’t they do all the predicting and crap?”
“You must understand that one of them was banished to the moon for a thousand years, and the other had to take over both the daily and nightly tasks of ruling Equestria.  With barely enough time to sleep, I’m pretty sure discovering the secret to divination was not one of the main priorities of Celestia.”
“Oh.”
“Anyways, after discovering what the future held, I tried to find any way to stop the invasion.  Ponies fighting was off the table, and since there was no force in our known world, I decided to call in the sisters in for help.  They told me that since there was no force in our world, then I had to bring one in.”
“Me,” Ray muttered.  His brain was currently a roller coaster of thought as the new information saturated every level of his focus.  The smallest bit of him felt injustice, but the rest of him was too confused to even register proper speech.  Finally, he managed to say, “B-but I’m only one kid.  How do I fight it off, when I’m not even a fighter.”
Liar.
“You can fight, you just aren’t formally trained,” Twilight said, giving him a pointed look.  “You have over a year to train for the coming future.”
“Only a year?  Why didn’t bring me here sooner?”
“It took me almost three months, with the help of my friends, to perfect a spell that allowed interdimensional viewing and interaction.  Since I couldn’t devote much time to it, it took me another month to find your dimension.  It took another six months to find you.  The perfect candidate.”
“But why me,” he asked, feeling completely numb with confusion.  Was his life really being lived in a hyper realistic, pony run world, as the involuntary champion of the innocent beings that populated this land?  Yes, yes it was. 
“Well, one of the major factors was that your English is an exact duplicate of Ponish.  There’s also the fact that you needed to be a little mature, while also being young.  Your intelligence also is a key detail.  Your ability to quickly respond to any situation is admirable,  and considering your past…”
Ray didn’t hear the rest of what she was saying.  His past.  She was referring to those two… two… Ray stared at the ground, trying to remember exactly what it was he’d forgotten.  He didn’t know how long he’d been sitting there, simply staring at the floor, before he was snapped out of his daze by Twilight clearing her throat. 
“Raymond?  Are you okay,” she asked, actual concern in her voice.  Of course there was.  He was Equestria’s only defense against the tide of blood that would wash through her land.
“No.  I’m not,” he said, looking back at her.  “You should know that.  But still, there must’ve been other candidates with the same attributes as me.  Why me?”
“There were others,” she admitted.  “The deciding factor, though, is the fact that, well, you… you died the day I took you.”
Silence veiled the room as Ray searched her eyes.  There was no lie in them.  She looked down quickly, as if it was her fault that he would’ve died.  He knew that couldn’t have been the case, but his suspicions grew anyway.  
“It’s why I waited until today to bring you here.  I wanted you to enjoy your life amongst your own kind as much as you could, before I took you.  I took you in the early morning, before you woke up so you wouldn’t have to deal with the side effects of interdimensional travel.”
“How did I die?”
“You would’ve been killed by one of those vehicles that you use.  Your death wouldn’t have been immediate either.  It took hours before you finally succumbed to your wounds.”
“My family, what about them?”
“Exactly how you might imagine it.  They lack the funds to function without you.  Your siblings are taken from your parents and put into foster care.  Both of your parents end up committing suicide, along with one of your siblings, Ben.  Your sister goes on to become an author, and your other siblings find their own passions, but aren’t able to properly function thanks to their disabilities.”
Each word was a knife to Ray’s heart, wrenching back and forth at the end of every sentence.  He knew that this is what would’ve happened, but the reality of the situation made tears once again slide down his cheeks.  Almost inaudibly, he asked, “And how will it be any different with me here?”
“Your dimension will readjust to compensate for its loss.  Most likely, your family will be shifted so that your sister will be the eldest.  Your family will have more of a capability to take care of themselves, and may even be adjusted so that mental disabilities are removed.”  Twilight seemed to want to stop talking, but instead said, “They might just do better without you.”
Raymond gave her a blank stare.  She cringed at what she said, biting down on her lip.  
“Let me summarize,” he said.  “You horses can’t fight a bloodthirsty mob, so you brought me to fight them instead.”
“Y-yes,” she reaffirmed.  
“Screw you,” he yelled.  “No.”
As he stormed away, he heard Twilight call, “Wait.  Aren’t you wondering where you’ll stay?”
She was right.  He turned back to her, glaring.  Even if this was an attempt to bribe him, it would do to have at least a roof over his head while he slept.  The thing was, no matter how much he resisted, he would end up facing the same fate as the rest of these ponies.  Twilight had mentioned something about over a year till the invasion came, so that was at least a year longer than what he would’ve gotten back on Earth.  Might as well enjoy it.
“I figured you’d be pretty mad at me, so I at least had the foresight to have a house built for you.  It’s in Ponyville so you can stay away from me, but also close enough that you don’t run away.  The house is as close to a representation of a human home I could get without having the builders asking too many questions.  If anypony but the girls asks, you stumbled out of the Everfree.”
“And why should I exactly keep your little abduction of me a secret,” he asked bitterly.
“The reason why, of course,” she shot back.  "Wouldn't want ponies to realize that they were doomed, and their only potential savior just refused to help take a stand."  Caught him there.  He simply growled in response.  Not much else he could do.
“Alright then, send me ‘home’.”
“As you wish.”
An all too familiar feeling of tugging in his gut began, and the world once again flashed away in purple and white.
> The Shower is a Great Place to Make Life Changing Decisions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 6 “The Shower’s a Good Place to Make Life Changing Decisions”

As his vision returned, Raymond fought the sudden urge to throw up.  Guess teleporting around willy-nilly was an easy way to upturn one’s stomach.  Big surprise.  Speaking of stomach, the unruly organ let out a loud groan, complaining about it’s lack of breakfast, and by now, lunch.  He sighed, looking up from his stomach to take in his surroundings.
He stood in what he could only assume was the living room of his new house.  In front of him was a desk with an accompanying bookshelf that reached to the roof, stacked with its namesake.  To his left was a window facing far hills next to the door that led out the house.  To his right, an open doorway led to another room, the wall beside it completely bare.  The wallpaper featured an endless pattern of zigzagging teal and cream lines.  
He stepped forward and turned around to get a better view of what was behind him.  There was a long, lapis lazuli blue sofa in the right corner that looked so airy that even a feather would make it compress.  Beside it was a padded wooden rocking chair with a more modern aesthetic facing the window.  How kind of Twilight to give him a place to contemplate his life.
He walked into the other room, finding it to be a white tiled kitchen.  Well, that was probably a good thing, since he actually knew how to cook.  Feeding seven monsters, two parents, and one’s self is a very quick way to learn how to cook food correctly.  There were three long cupboards on all three walls, the middle one broken up by a microwave.  Below it was a stove and oven, more cupboards on the ground level.  There was a sink to the right with a window above it, allowing him a view of Ponyville.  Overall, the average American kitchen.
He began rifling through the cupboards, finding the bottom ones were filled with mixing bowls, pots, pans, and other kitchen utensils.  The top ones were stocked with boxes of oats, wheat, rye, and other grains, along with some sauces and spices.  He  nearly tripped over a stool that was too small to be any use to him, but in doing so, discovered the pantry.  It had other food stuff in it, including a refrigerator that had cheese, milk, and, blessedly, soda.  He immediately took out one of the bottles and chugged it down, letting himself enjoy the tingle of carbonation.  It didn’t seem to have caffeine, but at least the sugar still gave him a small burst of energy.
He decided to eat before exploring the rest of his new home, lest he get sidetracked with some other feature.  He pulled a pot out, along with some noodles, tomato sauce, and a couple spices.  He quickly whipped up some spaghetti, noting that the clock on the stovetop read 12:48.  
By this time, he’d be heading to his other job at Ms. Pina’s.  Other than, he’d be stopped, in a rather painful manner.
Ray shook his head.  Best not to think of that so soon.  He let himself become completely consumed in his cooking.  He delicately stirred in the last of the basil he’d sprinkled in, then took a small taste.  Perfect.  Despite his situation, he smiled as he grabbed a plate and- whaddya know!  They have forks!- and plopped the concoction onto his plate.  He set out to the room behind him, a small dining room with two doors connected to it, and sat down on one of the wooden chairs.
The room was nothing fancy, something that Ray actually appreciated, just a table for four, and the two doorways.  There were also windows that allowed him a better view of the bustling town.  He ate silently, idly thinking that he would have to find some curtains to block out that still too bright sun.  He’d need money for that though, which also meant finding a job.
He quickly ran through a list of jobs he could do on the fly.  Anything to do with lifting, cooking, or gardening.  His mind instantly went to the well organized grove of apple trees he’d seen.  They must be part of a farm to be so symmetrical and tame, and Twilight had mentioned an Apple farm.  He quickly made the connection between a certain Apple Jack, and made a mental note to ask her about it next time he saw her.  He briefly considered the fact that Pinkie Pie had to be a cook of some sort, but dismissed the idea of working for her when he realized that trying to keep up with a pony that seemed to run purely off of sugar was beyond him.
Slowly, Ray felt himself relaxing, and even allowed himself to forget entirely why he was here in the first place.  He felt a little stinging on his shoulders, and quickly checked beneath his shirt to find slightly pink shoulders.  Sunburned.  Lovely.  
He finished up his lunch and walked back into the kitchen, washing off his plate and fork and setting them out to dry, as there was no dishwasher.  He walked back into the dining room, and decided to go through the door to his left since it was closer.  It led to a carpeted stairwell that went upwards.  Two story house, it seemed.  He was about to slowly creep up the dark stairs like in some horror movie, when he realized there was a lightswitch right by his hand.  
He chuckled at his own foolishness, flipping it on and lighting up the blue stairway.  He strode upstairs, finding a two way hall at the top.  The left led to two different doorways, the right one to a large room with chairs and sofas taking up the space.  He dubbed it the social room, because it seemed to be the only proper use for it.  He figured he’d explore the other two rooms, since the social room was basically completely discovered.  
Opening the door to the one on the right, he found that it was a pleasant master bedroom.  Inside was a queen size bed that could’ve easily fit three of his siblings with their stuffed animals.  He laid down on the bed for a moment, sinking into its soft mattress.  There was a double window to his left that allowed him further viewing of Ponyville.  He quickly saw just how far away from the town he was.  Nothing too far, just enough to keep most ponies away.  
There was an adjoining master bathroom that had the same white tiles as the kitchen below him.  The bathroom featured a large bathtub, a shower with distorted glass to allow privacy, a closet and a toilet.  Quickly realizing that he did need to go, he quietly did his business.  As he washed his hands, he caught a whiff of his pits.  Right.  He hadn’t gotten the opportunity to shower, since last night had been one of his more exhausting shifts at the dump.  He would have to deal with that after he finished his exploration.
He checked the other room, finding it to be a smaller bedroom, with a smaller bed.  This one he dubbed the guest bedroom, since there wasn’t much other use for it.  He wasn’t really sure exactly when or why he might have guests, but it was nice to set precautions.  Heading back downstairs, he found that the other door was just a closet.  So interesting.
Glancing at the clock as he passed through the kitchen, it was a quarter after one.  So much time left to the day that he didn’t even know how to spend it.  He began to allow the bitter thoughts to creep back into his brain as he reached the bedroom.  Grumbling incoherently under his breath, he grabbed a fluffy white towel out of the bathroom closet.  He couldn’t find the soap initially, but as he stripped down beside the shower, he saw it in the corner.  Tearing it out of the box viciously, he turned the shower on at full heat.  Within seconds, steam flowed out of the shower.  
Stepping into the shower, he realized that, unlike in his home on Earth, hot really meant hot.  Yelping in pain, he leapt out of the boiling.  He had a silent moment of rage to those people- scratch that ponies- that actually enjoyed two hundred degree water on their bare bodies.  Turning it to midway, he found that the water was sufficiently warm, and hopped back in, shutting the door behind him.  Letting his mind fixate the sound of rushing water, he felt his thoughts turn to the thoughts they usually did.
You see, in a house of seven siblings and two parents, the only private place to think the deepest thoughts one might have, was where the water blocked out the noise of the world and warmth couldn’t be pulled away.  Here, thoughts and secrets wound their way through the mind in a long, strenuous trail that ended with the flowing of warm water.  It took time, and that allowed more thoughts to be formed and ran through.  Usually, it was calm, soothing.  Right now was different.
The conversation with Twilight kept playing through Ray’s head over and over, like a broken record player trying to play through a disc.  Numerous questions were floating around his head, all of varying importance.  
Did the others actually approve of this violation of his life?  What would they think if he told them that he wouldn’t fight for their species?  Would they understand ?  He hadn’t been able to actually talk to them due to the demand he’d made.  That was lack of foresight on his part.  How would they be getting home?  That one was actually the lowest of his questions.  He didn’t even know them.  Why should he care?
What was family like back on Earth?  Twilight had suggested that they might be better off now than they were before.  Would they actually be better off without him?  He was the reason why his parents hadn’t finished college.  Would they actually have finished their education?  Were they now pursuing their dream jobs, instead of the makeshift work they had imprisoned themselves?  Was he the reason his family was destitute, nearly to the point where there wasn’t enough food to go around?
The last thought made him shudder in realization.  Yes, he was.  The thought was one that had never really caught up with him.  Pain, actual pain, burst from his chest as he tried to hold back tears that were collecting at the corners of his eyes.  He sobbed as he let himself remember why he’d always fought so hard for his family, had given up his dreams for them.  
His tears joined with the warm water that was flowing down his face.  He’d never wanted to accept this, never had allowed himself to think about it.  It was painful, beyond anything he’d ever felt, and he had to brace himself against the wall to stop himself from crumpling to the shower floor.  He softly banged his head against the wall, trying to feel any semblance of his body.  He was caught up in his emotions, unable to feel anything but his walls crumbling, releasing a flood of despair and anger at himself.  Years of keeping himself solid, unifaced, in front of his siblings was now falling apart in a single, interdimensional shower.
Ray scoffed bitterly at himself.  What a guy he was, crying in a shower that in reality, wherever that was, he had done nothing but destroy his family since birth.  He was utterly useless.  Another head among seven billion who had doomed nine.  He hit his head against the wall of the shower harder, feeling the bruise from his earlier run in with a pillar respond with pain.  He hit himself against the wall harder, wincing in pain as the bruise yelled at him.  He deserved it.
He began to increase his force, banging beginning to echo from the shower.  It wasn’t enough.  He needed to do more.  He ripped the shower door open, leaving the water on as he left.  Dripping across the floor, he began searching through the closet.  After only a few seconds, he found it.  
A razor.
He tore open the box, tossing it aside as he pulled the tool out.  He ripped the guard off as he strode over to the sink.  He held his wrist over the sink and pressed the blade against the vein there.
He could do it.  There was nothing here for him, and there was no way of going back to where he belonged.  He could just end it all now.  His life was pointless, inconsequential without any purpose.  He pressed the blade down harder on his skin.  Just a simple swipe, and soon life would be over.  No more suffering, no more failing, only darkness, maybe even heaven.
His hand began shaking, and slowly, he pulled the blade away.  He was a coward, unable to do even one thing right.  The blade slipped from his hand as his grip loosened, bouncing off the counter and clattering to the ground beside him.  He stared into the sink, hating himself. He didn’t deserve the air he breathed, the house he now owned, the second chance he’d been given.  
He sunk to the ground, shivering as the warm water on his back became cold.  The shower continued to run beside his, the soap untouched.  He didn’t deserve any of it.  Slowly, he got up and back into the shower, shutting the door behind him, as tears once again joined the water of the shower.  
At this point, Ray began to actually wash himself, allowing himself to calm down.  He stared blankly at the ground as he did so.  Was he really about to kill himself?  Despite the injustice of his whole situation, despite the injustice of it all, Twilight had still given him a second chance.  A chance that he could actually make a difference, for better or for worse.  Grudgingly, he thanked the pony for being crazy enough to choose him.
Now, he had a purpose.  Now, he had a life, not the slavery that he’d subjected himself to.  Although, was this a different kind of slavery?  Being forced to fight for another’s benefit.  In a way, this was his world too, and if the minotaurs did arrive here, he was just as screwed as everyone else here.  Slowly, he came to a conclusion.
He would fight.  He would fight for himself, for a second chance at life.  He’d fight for redemption for his past life, and he would fight for those who couldn't fight for themselves.  He wouldn’t fight for some prissy pony princess, but for his own sorry hide.  
He decided quickly that he would take up her offer to train him, even though she was the last pony he wanted to be around.  He would need an army, too.  Twilight had made it sound like the army of minotaurs was composed of thousands, if not tens of thousands.  No amount of training would allow him to take on a force like that and come out on top.  He’d have to ask her next time he saw her.  Hopefully not that soon.  He’d come to terms, at least for now, with his fate.
His brain began working faster.  He needed a map of Equestria, so he could get a decent look at his new home.  He quickly thought of the minotaurs from mythology.  Large, brutish beasts with a taste for human, or in this case, pony blood.  They were naturally muscular, so he’d need a weapon to combat that.  Something that would be quick, with as much force as he could put behind it.
His mind naturally went for a sword, but he realized that the elegant weapon would do minimal damage against the likes of them.  Unless he was able to get a throat slash, or between the ribs, it would be like poking a bear with a stick.  Instead, he’d need something long to keep him out of the minotaur’s reach.  A spear.
Not just a spear, though.  Something that could do surface damage beyond repair.  Something built to kill, even if it wouldn’t necessarily be immediate.  If the minotaurs were going to play inhumanely, then he would play their game to his advantage.  
There could be hooks on the side, forming a sort of V with curved out sides.  He played a mental movie in his head as he ran shampoo through his hair.  Him, in the front lines of some magical force, toting a spear like no other, courageously facing down the foes of existence.  He laughed as he unintentionally added the red effects of the Demon King to himself, with his three youngest joining him with their elven legions.  For the fun of it, he added Kevin with a submachine gun, spraying down wave after wave of beasts with unrealistic accuracy.  Mags would be manning artillery pieces in the back, working quicker than their greatest supercomputers to get correct angles.  Ben, flying an F-16C, dive bombing their ranks with Mason as his copilot.  Mental stuff really.
Ray laughed for a good long while as the movie played out in his head, the addition of his siblings giving the dark thoughts a happier twist.  Slowly though, the image faded away, leaving Ray back to his moping.  He really should stop.  After another moment of self indulgence in his despair, he put his walls back up.  He needed to be strong now.  He now had another reason to fight.  
The water had gotten cold now, so he turned it up a bit higher to finish his shower.  He began making plans.  He would need to tell Twilight that he would take her up on the offer to train him.  He practiced what he needed to say to Twilight to let her know exactly what he meant and why exactly he would fight.  The conversation would have to be somewhat professional, which naturally meant no cussing her out.  Besides, he’d already gotten most of that out of his system, and searching deeper, he actually found that none of that burning anger was still hiding, waiting to strike.  
Not that he wasn’t still pissed off at Twilight, it just wasn’t that he felt like tearing her apart at the mention of her name.  More like just wanting to make anything she had to do with him as hard as possible.  Act like a right git, if you so please.
Finally finishing the longest shower in his life, he turned the water off and stepped out of the shower.  Grabbing the white towel, he gave himself a quick dry off.  However, as he went to put on his clothes, he hesitated.  It was still light outside, with the sun not even setting yet, which meant that he still had several hours left to his day.  He opted to just wrap the towel around his waist tightly instead, as having slightly wet clothes on the rest of the day would lead to chafing in uncomfortable places.
He turned back to the bathroom and grimaced at the mess in there from his frantic searching.  He began quickly searching through the different bathroom supplies as he put them back in their proper places.  Who knew ponies had Q-tips and cotton balls?  It was a good thing they also had rubbing alcohol too, because one of his ears had gotten water in it.  Going through the procedure, he found that pony alcohol had to be weaker, since it took him three attempts to get the water completely out.  He also found a hidden stash of paper towels that he used to clean up some of the larger puddles on the floor.   
He stepped back, admiring his work.  It looked practically brand new, which actually made since, since Twilight had said that this house had been custom made for him.  Looking closer, he could easily see it.  The ceiling was at least two feet above his head, much larger than any pony would need.  The tub would fit him lying down, and his shower had proven that it had the capacity to work for a human.  The stove was at his stomach level, and the refrigerator also had a top freezer that no pony would ever be tall enough to reach without assistance.  
He hummed in slight appreciation for Twilight’s foresight, since being in one of those houses down in town would’ve been quite cramped.  Another thing he was already coming to appreciate was his separation from the town.  He really didn’t feel like dealing with equine solicitors at the moment, especially with his near death experience.  Begrudgingly, he thanked that while Twilight lacked any sense of morals, she knew enough about his psychology to put himself in a place where he could feel semisafe.  
Glancing at a bedside clock on a nightstand he hadn’t noticed when he first entered the room, he had to suppress a gasp.  The clock now read three minutes to four.  Two and a half hours in the shower, or out at some darker points.  Looking down at his hands, he saw that they were wrinkled from the amount of time they had been in the water.  His toes fared no better, as they looked like pale raisons stuck to his feet.  
Sighing, he opened the door to his bedroom and turned down the hall.  He needed a snack after such life changing decisions.  As he walked down the stairs, he noticed that the stairwell was unnaturally dark.  Hadn’t he left the light on?  He was too far down the stairs and too lazy to go back up the stairs to turn the light back on, so he simply continued down.  Opening a door that hadn’t previously been shut, Ray found the downstairs completely dark.  
The windows had been draped, and when he looked for the stovetop clock, he didn’t find it.  His skin crawled as he cautiously called out, “Who’s there?”
In response, the lights suddenly flipped on and a certain pink pony popped up in front of him, yelling at full, earsplitting volume, “SUR-PIES!”
> Welcome to Ponyville
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 7 “Welcome to Ponyville”

Scholars to this day still have no true understanding of the noise that came out of Ray’s mouth when the surprise was pulled on him.  It was some strange semblance of a curse, a yell, and a cry of terror.  To accumulate it into a word-
“FfffaAAGHHhhheeEEEeeeoout!”
The room instantly became silent as confetti and little streamers floated down around Ray.  Although he couldn’t see his own eyes, as they were in his head, he knew they had to be wider than the pony’s before him.  He tried to calm his heartbeat down from ripping out of his chest to cracking his ribs as Pinkie dropped down from the ceiling, somehow landing on her hooves despite dropping headfirst. In doing so, she allowed him a brief glimpse of the room.
Ponies of all colors and species lined the room, and a huge peach banner reading ‘Welcome to this Universe/Equestria/Ponyville and Happy New Friendship, Raymond!’ was strung from one end of the dining room to the other.  Dozens of ponies were here, many of them blushing at his current state of apparel, or severe lacking of it.  Ray just counted himself lucky he hadn’t dropped the towel, otherwise he might’ve just charged directly into the minotaur’s land from embarrassment.  Not that this was much better.
There were several smaller tables in the room now instead of the singular wooden table earlier, each with a different refreshment on it.  Some of the ponies wore little party hats, and there was a disco ball now hanging from the ceiling.  There was also a pony with white fur and a blue mane with lightning blue highlights sitting at a DJ station.  Ray didn’t really didn’t know how to react to the sudden party in his home, so he simply stared slack jawed at the scenery.
“Ooooooh, we gotchu good, didn’t we Ray?”  Pinkie Pie had suddenly reappeared in his vision with a grin that Ray could probably stand on.  “C’mon, tell me that was the most surprising surprise anypony has ever surprised you with!”
“What the hell,” he finally managed to ask.  The effect was that of one dropping the big F in a kindergarten classroom, as everypony gasped at his language.  Right, ponies were a bit sensitive about the whole cursing thing.  He’d have to remember that.  He decided to rephrase his question, as to get an actual answer instead of synchronized gasps.  “Sorry.  Can anybody tell me what is going on here?”
“Well, I don’t know if anybody can tell you what’s going on, but I know a particular pony that could tell you,” Pinkie said, her smile somehow growing.  She threw herself around his neck, and screeched, “That’s me.  We’re throwing a surprise welcome to this universe/Equestria/Ponyville and happy new friendship party!”
Ray set the soft pink pony down on the ground, finding her surprisingly light , all things considered.  He took a step back, looking at all of the ponies in the room, only recognizing five of them, the ones from before.  Had all of them really come just to welcome him to their home, even without knowing him.  He didn’t even know how they had found his home, since he’d only lived here for less than four hours.  And then there was the sheer amount of work they must’ve put into getting this party set up, since they had managed to be quiet enough he hadn’t heard them.
Not that he would’ve heard them, with what had happened.  Oh geez.  What would they have thought if he hadn’t come down, if he’d done it?   What would they think if they found their newest resident dead in a pool of blood, razor in hand?  Would they be able to understand what had transpired?  How would they have reacted to a stranger’s suicide?
Not that it mattered now.  He hadn’t carried through, whether for better or worse.  
He gave the room a small smile.  “Thanks for coming everybo- pony, but you really shouldn’t be wasting your time and money on me.  I’m sure you have better things to do right now…” 
Pinkie Pie pouted as she sat down. “Aaaah, what’s wrong?  We do this anytime somepony comes to Ponyville.  Or has a birthday here.  Or an anniversary.  Or-” 
“I think he gets the point, Pinkie,” a familiar rainbow maned pegasus called.  Several other ponies voiced their agreement, although most were looking away from him.  Right.  Towel. 
He looked down at the hopeful pink pony.  Giving her an uneasy smile, he told her, “Alright.  Let me just get dressed.”
“Yay,” she shouted, shooting into the air as confetti sprayed out of her tangled pink mane.  Ray backed out of the room, shutting the door to the stairs on his way out.  He ran up the stairs quickly, running a hand through his hair.  Why had he agreed?  The answer was surprisingly easy.  He was lonely, and had nothing to do for the rest of the day.  Besides, he’d seen Apple Jack in the room.  Hopefully he’d be able to offer up his services to her, if his assumptions were correct about her.
Quickly drying off any remaining droplets of water, he got dressed back into the clothes Discord had given him.  Taking a deep breath to prep himself for the upcoming socialization he was forcing himself into, he stepped out of his room.  And nearly into Pinkie Pie. 
“Gah,” he yelped, nearly stepping onto one of her hoofs.
“Sorry,” the pink pony apologized, her tail wagging as she stood up, grinning at him.  “I just couldn’t wait for you to come down.”  She shot up and plopped a party hat on his head.  “Now c’mon, Mondy!  We have a party to party!”
Raymond was suddenly dragged right back down the stairs, through an open doorway, and into the midst of dancing and chatting ponies.  The party seemed to have started up without him, which was fair enough.  What would you do during those two awkward minutes of waiting for the party recipient to return?
“Alright, everypony,” Pinkie yelled over the music the DJ was playing.  “Ray’s here, so now it’s really time to party!!!”
The crowd cheered in response and the music in the room turned up by about a hundred decibels.  Raymond slapped an uneasy smile on his face as he hesitantly walked into the room.  There was really no hiding in the crowd as he was almost four feet taller than everypony, and that gained him a lot of unwanted attention.  After only about a minute of awkwardly standing around, watching the party unfold, the song changed into a more upbeat tune.  Before he knew what was happening, he found himself pushed into the center of a circle of ponies.
“Dance Ray!  Dance,” Pinkie shouted springing above the crowd of ponies watching him.  He gulped, unsure of what to do.  This was more than he had bargained for when he’d agreed to join the party.
“I don’t know how,” he yelled back.  Like a cannon going off- actually, she might’ve launched herself out of one with how quick she came- she shot into the middle of the circle.  She had that slap happy smile on her face as she simply shouted, “Then I guess I’ll hafta just teach you!”
She stood onto her back two hooves, an impressive feat on its own, and bent her forelegs, swinging them back and forth.  “Like this,” she instructed.  Ray copied her moves, slouching a little so he could hear her better over the blaring sound boxes.  He heard some ponies laugh at his off center dancing.  He was pretty sure that he looked like a spasticated monkey running in place, and for some reason, he wasn’t bothered by this.  
Let them laugh.  He was a human, futher mucker, and he was going to enjoy this night as much as he could.  He actually began to laugh with his pink pony partner, and the song flew by in a blur of laughter and smiles.  
“Going for another round, Ray,” Pinkie questioned as the song ended.  She stretched her hoof out in a beckoning motion.
“Nah,” he said, feeling slightly more comfortable about joining the party.  “I think I’m just gonna mingle.  Ya know?”
Pinkie nodded, and just continued with her strange dancing as ponies began to fill in the circle.  Ray walked away, towards one of the concession stands in the corner of the room.  Along the way, he had to keep answering pony’s questions about what he was and how he got here.  He decided to use the story Twilight had given him, since it seemed the most plausible.  
When he finally arrived, he examined his options.  The stand bore several different colored cupcakes, some of them looking like they were made of more than frosting and pastry.  There was a very real possibility that one of them had cilantro in it, based on the smell emitting from it.  He decided to grab a peachy brown colored one with red frosting and green sprinkles.  He wasn’t sure if he entirely trusted it, but decided balls deep was the way to go.
He closed his eyes and rammed the cupcake in his mouth and chewed it quickly.  Ray tried not to gag too loud as the unholy combination of apple and chili pepper filled his mouth.  He swallowed as quickly as he could without choking as raucous, tomboyish laughter erupted from behind him.  He turned to find Rainbow Dash flying behind him smirking at his plight.  In her hooves were two plastic cups, somehow held despite her lack of any fingers.
Come to think of it, how did ponies go about everyday life if they didn’t have fingers?  It’s not like it’d be hard to replace handles with… um, hoof handles for most things, and he was sure that unicorns could use magic as such, but what about the other species?  How did they write if they couldn’t grasp their pens?  And what about software use, if they even had that.
They had electricity and some form of computer software in order to have the lights that brightened the room.  There also had to be some sort of radiological work in order for there to be microwaves, since that required radioactivity magic.  There were also refrigerators, which had to mean some other technological stuff he didn’t understand.  Who knew?  Maybe somewhere, in a dark back alley of Equestria, there were even guns being sold.  After all, Pinkie had a cannon.
Ray felt his tongue burning.  Right, disgusting cupcake.  Rainbow shoved one of the cups into his hand, and said, “Drink this, it’ll help.”
Ray eagerly took the proffered cup, taking a large swig of the drink.  It tingled a little in his mouth, so he figured that it was carbonated slightly to give it more of a kick.  It tasted like a sharper version of apple juice, but also had a dulled out hint to it, like someone had left it out a little too long.  It was warm in his throat, and so good that Ray finished the entire cup with a long drag.  He smacked his lips as he finished, turning to Rainbow.
“What was that?”
“Cider,” she responded, before pointing to the cupcakes.  “That was one of Pinkie’s infamous party pastries.  Every party, she makes some for those weirdos that actually like them, or, in this case, to prank the newcomer.  She personally taste-tests each one she makes to be sure it doesn’t poison anypony.”
“I think her testing is a bit faulty.  That, and her taste buds must be shot from taste-testing that.”  Rainbow guffawed and slapped Ray on the back, although slapped was a strong word for it.  More like a heavy tap on the back.  Ray gave her a smile, then asked, “So where are the actual concessions?”
“The Apple’s stand,” she said, pointing towards another concession stand where a familiar orange pony stood.  “AJ always makes sure that some edible food is brought to a party.  If you want more cider, there’s a barrel over there.”
He followed her hoof to the corner by the closet, where a pony-size barrel stood against the wall.  Nodding his head in acknowledgement, he strode over to it and filled his plastic cup with the frothy liquid.  He chugged the cup down and walked over to the other corner, right by the DJ’s booth, where the Apple’s stand was.  
“Howdy, partner,” Apple Jack called as Ray approached.  She grabbed an apple fritter off the table and extended it to him.  “Have one a’ these.  Saw ya had a little mishap with one a’ Pinkie’s ‘party cupcakes.’”
“Thanks,'' he said, bending down slightly to grab it.  He ate the entire pastry in one bite, letting the sticky, sweet flavor of apples and cinnamon float in his mouth before swallowing.  Apple Jack smiled in approval.
“Ya look like ya got somethin’ ya wanna say to me,” she stated with a knowing smile.
“Yeah,” Ray said, sitting down by the pony and squeezing into the corner so that he was out of the way.  “I was wondering, do you work on a farm or something”
“Why yes I do,” she exclaimed proudly.  “Sweet Apple Acres, to be exact.  Why?”
“Well, I was thinking that I need a job so I can pay to keep my stomach full,” he said.  He rubbed the back of his head, slightly nervous.  He’d had his fair share of job interviews, at least for his age.  They were usually more formal than asking to have any job he could during a party.  But this was a different dimension without any other humans in it, so it was probably different in the regard of job interviews.  Hopefully.  “And I figured that if you worked on a farm, you could use a hand with the work there.”
“So yer offerin’ me yer services, eh,” she said, thoughtfully rubbing her chin with a hoof.  She gave him an assuring smile and said, “We always need a hoof at the farm, and zap apple season’s right around th’ corner, so I’ll take ya up on that offer.  Given, I’ll hafta make sure that Big Mac knows about this, lest he bucks ya into next week fer trespassin’, but’cha got yerself a deal.”
Ray let out a sigh of relief.  “Thanks again,” he said, before holding up an empty cup.  “I’m gonna go get another cup of cider.  The stuff’s amazing.”
Apple Jack nodded in agreement.  “Family made,” the pony said proudly.  Ray huh’d as he turned and walked over to the barrel getting another cup of the delicious liquid.  He leaned against the wall, sipping his cup and letting that warmness spread as song after song played. 
After three, a sea green pony with a turquoise mane and tail walked up to him, a camera around her neck.  Her Cutie Mark featured two rectangles with green jewels overlapping each other, and he realized they had to be slides.  He gave her a welcoming smile as she walked up to him, an excited air about her.
“Hello,” she greeted in a singsong voice.  “My name’s Emerald Joy, Secretary and Archive Keeper of Ponyville.  I’m supposed to record any significant happenings that go on here, and I figure that a foreign creature moving here is pretty significant.  Mind if I take your picture?”
“Not at all,” he responded, smiling for the camera.  It snapped, and Ray rubbed his cheeks.  He hadn’t smiled so much in one day since… well he couldn’t even remember.  It was strange that in one day, he’d been the most depressed, saddest, and happy he’d been in years.  
“Thanks,” the pony said, looking down at her camera as she inspected the photo.  He gave her a little half smile as she looked back up at him and asked, “Mind if I ask you a few questions,”
“Not at all.”  
Five minutes, two cups of cider, and a song later, the pony walked away happily, humming an unknown tune.  Ray felt a soft smile cross his face as he watched the room, leaning against the wall.  All of these ponies were here for him.  Actually, with the amazing cider , awesome music, and fun dancing, maybe not.  Still, it was nice not to be alone for the rest of the day.  Speaking of amazing cider… 
Ray turned to get another cup.  As he did so, his eyes found two familiar figures in the crowd.  Rarity and Fluttershy stood in the only unoccupied corner of his dining room, talking.  He filled his cup and walked over to the two.  As he neared, he could hear their argument.
“...but darling, you have the voice of a songbird,” Rarity complained.
“And the heart of one,” Fluttershy shot back.  “I’m not doing any karaoke, and that’s final.”
“Don’t songbirds want to share their songs,” Ray questioned, joining the conversation.  Fluttershy jumped into the air with a tiny yelp, turning to him with a shy look over her shoulder.  Rarity, who had probably seen him coming, smiled up at him, before grimacing at his chest area.  He looked down to see if any food or cider or foo had gotten on his shirt, but found none.
“It’s just you, Ray,” Fluttershy said, her voice filled with relief.  He gave her a small smile.
“Mind if I join in,” he asked.
“Oh why not at all, darling,” Rarity exclaimed.  Fluttershy flew over a little so Ray could stand beside her.  “We were just having a friendly little chat about how Fluttershy here should try out a round of karaoke.”
“It’s not going to happen, Rarity,” the pink pegasus insisted, looking down at the ground.  She looked up at Ray and asked brightly, “What did you want to talk about.”
“I don’t know, actually,” he admitted, taking a sip from his cup.  “I saw some familiar faces in the crowd and gravitated towards them.”  He looked back down at the ponies with a guilty smile.  “Guess I’m just a little shy when it comes to getting to know people.  Or ponies in this case.”
“Oh, that’s okay,” Fluttershy assured, giving him a pretty little smile.  “I know I get scared in large crowds.”
“I can deal with it no longer,” Rarity suddenly exclaimed, startling both the human and pegasus.  Ray had forgotten that the pearly white unicorn was there.  “That ensamble simply won’t do.  Come over to my shop tomorrow, and I will measure you up and assemble a new wardrobe for you.  Those clothes Discord gave you are dreadfully representative of him, and that just can’t be.”
“Um, okay,” he agreed, not completely sure how to respond to the sudden outburst.  Instead, he opted to change the subject.  “Speaking of Discord, where is he?  I figure he would be here, since parties naturally spell chaos of some sort.”
“He’s asleep right now,” Fluttershy answered.  “He fell asleep around two, I think.”
“Why so soon?  I mean, it’s not like he would have a job or anything right?”
“Oh no,” she said, shaking her head.  “It’s just that, since he’s the Lord of Chaos, he falls asleep whenever his body decides.  The same goes with waking up.  In fact, not two weeks ago, Discord and I were having our weekly tea, when he suddenly fell asleep in the tea cakes!  I had to try to wake him up long enough to get him home.  He slept for three days afterward.”
Ray chuckled, sipping his cup of cider once again as he reached up to scratch the side of his head.  That did sound like quite the problem to have.  Imagine falling asleep during a funeral, and waking up to angry family members asking how one could be so rude.  Or falling asleep during finals, and waking up to an F.  Actually, that one made him cringe.  That would suck.
He looked down at Fluttershy, who was staring intently at Ray’s arm.  His wrist to be exact.  Ray followed her gaze to his wrist, finding a long cut there, right where he had intended to cut.  He hadn’t realized that the cut had been so deep, or so close, for that matter.  Just a couple more centimeters, and it would have all been over, whether he had meant to or not.
“Ray, what happened there,” the sweet pony asked, worry filling her voice.  He struggled to come up with a plausible excuse as she tried to read his face.  Her brows furrowed in concern as she found something he didn’t want her to see.  She tilted her head and put a hoof on his shoulder.  “You didn’t do that to yourself, did you?”
Finding he couldn’t lie to the buttercream pegasus, he raised the cup back to his lips, looking straight forward.  He could practically see her through the plastic that was intentionally blocking his vision, and promptly began to drink the remaining cider as an excuse for his silence.  However, due to the fact that he’d already drunk half the cup, and the cups were made for ponies, he quickly ran out of beverage to drink.  After a solid minute of drinking nothing, Ray caved in on his ridiculous act, lowering the cup.  
When he did, he found Fluttershy directly in front of his face.  She was giving him probably the most commanding look he’d ever had used on him in his life.  It was a cross between a glare and a “mother’s stare”, which, despite Ray’s best efforts, unnerved him.  He tried to look away desperately, but found that he couldn’t tear his eyes away from hers.  Her stare was growing stronger by the second as her eyebrows became more and more angular.  After several seconds of the stare, Ray let out a short, annoyed sigh.
He looked in either direction to make sure none of the ponies were close enough to hear him over the music, before saying, “C’mon.”  
He grabbed her closest foreleg and pulled her after him, across the room to the door to the stairs.  Opening it quickly, he rushed up the stairs, Fluttershy in tow.  Turning left in the hall, he rushed into his room, slamming the door.  He wasn’t actually sure what he was doing, but he knew that he didn’t want everypony to know exactly what he was about to say.
Turning to the now confused pegasus, he began speaking.  “I’m not what I look like,” he explained, heading across the room to sit on his plush bed.  “I didn’t have a happy life back in my home.  I put myself into a cage to pay back for the things I’ve done.  I tried to protect my family from many things.  One of the most dangerous was me.
“When I was born, my parents had to quit college to pay for and take care of me.  When my sister came along, they knew that they wouldn’t be able to go back to college.  When six more kids came, I realized fully what I’d done to my family.  I’d taken away my parents' shot at a happy life.  
“By the time I was eleven, I realized something.  I had damned my parents to a hell in life.  To make up for it, I swore that my siblings would have the life of their dreams.  I damned myself to hell in life so that my siblings had heaven that I never would’ve deserved.
“It was a year later, when I had time to think, that I realized I was pointless.  I was only another mouth to feed, my share of money barely enough to get groceries for the family.  I realized that if I’d never been born-” Ray’s voice cracked- “then my family wouldn’t be stuck on the road to destruction.”
Ray felt something warm brush his cheek, and, without moving his head, glanced over to see Fluttershy nuzzling his cheek.  Taking a deep breath to stop himself from sobbing, he continued.
“I became even more determined to do something, anything, to help my family.  I had picked up some… unlawful work, and that began to improve my income, and even living standards.  It all toppled down however.  Then, today happened.
“I don’t know if Twilight told you, but I was supposed to die today.  I would’ve been hit by a car, and just like that, my life would’ve been over.  Pointless, without even fulfilling my one true purpose.  My family would fall apart without me, some of them killing themselves, and it would’ve been all my fault.
“I was thinking about it in the shower today.  I was pointless in one life, a life that I had cheated my way into, so why would this life be any different.  I wanted it all to be over, to just be done with the pain and sorrow and suffering.  I wanted to just float away, forgotten.  But in that moment where I was holding that razor against my wrist, I couldn’t do it.  I would’ve, and a part of me still says I should.  But then a thought came to me.
“Initially, I thought of disregarding what Twilight had told me, about the war invasion.  I thought that I would just enjoy the extra year of life I had.  When I was holding the blade that could end it all, I realized what Twilight had unintentionally done for me.”  There was a brief silence before Ray continued. 
“She’d given me a chance.  Now, life could actually mean something other than the monotonous hell I was putting myself through.  I could finally do something.  I could fight, not for Twilight, but for my own damned soul.  I could save a world that had shown me it’s lightest and darkest sides in just minutes, or die trying.”
Ray stopped his rant, staring blankly at the white door.  He heard a sniff come from his left, and felt wetness through the fabric of his shirt.  Turning, he found a teary- eyed Fluttershy looking at him.  As soon as he had turned, she threw herself around his neck, sobbing.  Ray gently patted the pony on the back as he felt his own tears come on.  He knew that he had confronted himself about it in the shower, but saying it out loud finally made him feel better about his decision.  Now he had audibly made his decision, and he would stick to it through thick and thin.
“I’m so sorry you’ve had to go through all of that,” Fluttershy wailed.  “No pony should have to go through what you’ve had to.  It just isn’t right.  To me, you’re perfect the way you are.  I hope you know that.”
Ray smiled softly and gave the pony a small squeeze.  “Yeah,” he muttered, “I do.” 
They sat like that for a while, Fluttershy holding him around his neck and nuzzling him lightly.  He rubbed her back as newer thoughts, happier thoughts, filled his head.  If most ponies were like Fluttershy, then he would have a happy life here, even if it was short.  There were so many things to be had here, too.  With the way these ponies had almost instantly accepted him here, he felt more at home than on Earth.  Finally, Fluttershy pulled back to look him in the eyes.
“If you ever need to talk, then you can always come to my cottage to talk,” she assured.  “I don’t ever want you to feel like that again, you hear?”
Ray nodded, his soft smile growing slightly brighter.  “I don’t even know where you live,” he teased.  This made the pegasus’ cheeks flush red and look at the ground.  Ray chuckled before saying, “Don’t worry, I’ll find my way around Ponyville soon enough.”
Before Fluttershy could respond, there was a loud banging on the door, followed by Rainbow Dash yelling, “Ray, open this door now before I bust it down.”
“The door’s unlocked,” he yelled back, quirking an eyebrow in confusion.  A second later, the door burst open and a rainbow streak sped into Ray, hitting him squarely in the stomach and knocking the breath out of him.  Despite Rainbow being four times smaller than him, the force of the encounter pushed Ray across the bed.  When his vision returned to him, along with his breath, he found the pegasus sitting on his chest, glaring down on him.  “What the-”
“Oh no you don’t,” Rainbow shouted, pointing an accusing hoof at Ray’s nose.  “I don’t want any of your excuses!  You aren’t layin’ a hoof on Fluttershy tonight!”
“Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy shouted, sounding flustered.  “That’s not what was going on here!   We were just talking!”
“What are you two talking about,” Ray asked, the whole situation catching Ray off guard.  He wasn’t really sure why Rainbow was suddenly lighting up like a Christmas tree.  “What’s going on here.”
He sat up as Rainbow sheepishly climbed off of him, just in time to see a breathless Rarity charge into the room.  Her fur was orange and damp on her face, and her makeup was smeared on her face.  
“Rainbow Dash, leave them be,” she cried out, grabbing the pony with her magic.  
“Somebody please tell me what’s goin’ on,” Ray said as the unicorn began tugging the cyan pegasus out of the room.
Rainbow opened her mouth, but then shut it as a bright blush lit her face even more.  Finally, after Rarity noticed that Rainbow was about to say something and set her back down, she said, “Well, I saw you dragging Fluttershy away from the party, and went after you to stop you.  Other than, Rarity stopped me, which only made me more suspicious.  She said the two of you were talking, and that made me even more suspicious, because nopony misses out on Pinkie’s parties.”
“She’s right,” Pinkie agreed, making everyone jump at her sudden appearance.  “Everypony knows my parties are the best in Ponyville.  Anyway, you were saying?”
Rainbow took a breath to prepare herself to tell them what she’d thought was going on, and also possibly to recover from Pinkie’s jump scare.  “I also saw that you’d had six cups of cider, so I figured that you thought you could get lucky with Flutters.  I mean, three cups of cider is usually enough alcohol to get me pretty tipsy, so I thought you were straight whacked out.”
Ray’s eyes widened as he realized exactly what Rainbow Dash was implying.  He looked over at poor Fluttershy, who was using her wings and hooves to cover her beet red face.  Turning back to the others, he blurted out, “I’m only fourteen!”
“What?!”  All three ponies at the door stood in shock at the door.  Rainbow instantly went purple in the face as Rarity turned to give her an “I told you so” look, for what, he didn’t know.  
“You’re underage,” Pinkie pie shrieked, placing her forehooves on the sides of her head as she stood on her hindlegs.  “That means you shouldn’t’ve had the cider.  And I was the one that brought it.  Which means you drinking is my fault, which means I’ll lose my party license!”
The pink pony began to hyperventilate as she stumbled backwards, passing out.  Rarity smacked herself with a hoof in the pony equivalent of a face palm.  She simply said, “Girls, I believe that the party has gone on long enough, and since the main orchestrator is currently out of commission, I think we should end it.”
“I agree,” Rainbow nodded, looking awkward in the room.  She raced out of the room after Rarity, who was carrying Pinkie in her magical grasp, leaving Ray once again alone with Fluttershy.  The poor pony was tucking her wings back against her sides, her face still beet red.
“I-I’m s-sorry about Rainbow Dash,” she stammered, refusing to meet Ray’s eyes.  Not that he wanted her to, as he could still feel the remains of a blush on his cheeks.  “She’s a-always been protective of me, even though I’m two years older than her.”  Ray could hear the smile in her voice as she continued.  “She didn’t have any siblings, so when she saw me at her flight camp, she took me in.”  The smile left her.  “I wasn’t any good at flying when I was young, so I was a level lower than my age.  Rainbow’s the fastest flier in Equestria, so she was a level above her age.  Two misfits sticking together.  That’s what she called it.”
Ray felt a soft smile tugging at his lips.  This pony, though.  Fluttershy looked up and saw his smile and returned it with her own.  “I think we should head downstairs now.  It’ll be suspicious if we don’t.”
“You go first,” Ray insisted. Laying back on the bed.  His bed.  Jeez, this was going to be hard to keep track of.  “If we came down together, after spontaneous disappearance and being chased, rumors would fly.  Unwanted attention.”
Fluttershy nodded in understanding as she left the room.  Ray waited several minutes, listening to the sound of the music turning off and the door opening and closing dozens of times.  The house seemed to be large for one person, but, in reality, it was quite small.  The walls also seemed to be thin, which meant he could hear some murmuring through the walls.  After what seemed like a reasonable amount of time, he ventured back downstairs.
He found it completely intact, as if it hadn’t been changed at all from when he’d first gotten into the shower.  His jaw dropped as he inspected the clean manner his house had been left in.  There wasn’t even a sprinkle on the floor to hint the amazing party that had just happened.  That is, amazing until Fluttershy had worried her pretty little head about him.  Ray frowned.
He should’ve just told her not to concern herself about him.  It would’ve been so much easier, but there was just an enchanting way about her that had seduced him into talking to her.  Her calm, kind demeanor and large, watery eyes had demanded him to tell her everything, and he unwittingly had.  Now she knew more about him than any of his siblings had.  He sighed, trying to come up with an excuse as to why he had spilled everything -scratch that- most everything to her.  It was just too much to handle.  This day was too much to handle.
“So,” a voice suddenly said to his right.  “Ya just gonna mope around like that all day?”
Turning in alarm, he found Apple Jack casually leaning against the open doorway into the kitchen.  She smirked at his jumpiness, pushing her hat up so she could see him better.  Ray released a breath, relief that it was only his employer.  
“What’re you doin’ here,” he asked.  “Not that I mind, but all the others seemed to have left, and I figured that everyone meant everyone.”
“Oh, ‘s a’right,” she responded with a toothy grin.  “I was just down here while all th' others were… up in yer room?  Anyhow, I kept business goin’ down here while y’all were talking, so I reckoned I could just stay a tad longer to ask why.  Fluttershy especially seemed… flustered.  Mind tellin’ me?”
Ray grimaced.  “Y-y… yeah.  Fluttershy had some questions for me that I didn’t wish to answer… publicly.  Please don’t ask.  I told her things I wish I hadn’t.  Anyway, Rainbow had seen us going upstairs, and thought that I was trying to… b-bed with her.”
He winced at how bad that sounded and waited for a kick in the shins, but when he didn’t receive one, continued.  “Then it became a whole fiasco where we were tryin’ to explain what was going on, and it ended with Pinkie passing out because I’m only fourteen and had six cups of cider, which apparently alcoholic.”
Apple Jack stumbled as she lost her balance.  “Yer only fourteen?!”
Ray gave her a tight smile.  “Yup.” 
“Well hot diggity,” she muttered.  She glanced behind her, a mischievous glint in her eye as she turned back to him.  “I think I should leave now.  Wouldn’t want th’ poor poor boy ta miss his bedtime.”
Ray gave the orange pony a flat stare as she trudged out of his house, chuckling on the way.  Glancing at the stovetop clock, he saw it read 8:17.  “Not even that late,” he grumbled to himself.  As if to prove him otherwise, he yawned.  “‘Parently still tired though.  Has been a heckuva dat though.”
He shook his head.  These ponies were already purifying him.  Hopefully not too much though.  They’d need a monster to win this war.
> The Day After
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ray spent the next five minutes blankly wandering around his new house, trying to familiarize himself with the place.  In one of the side drawers to his writing desk, he found a calendar and a neat stack of paper.  The calendar was flipped to July, with the second Sunday of the month circled and captioned “today”.  He believed that Twilight had something to do with it, as she had said that she had commissioned the house.  
Come to think about it, he was trusting her word quite a lot.  Given the fact that she had lied to those who appeared to be her best friends, he could be playing right into her hand.  Then again, she hadn’t lied to him about anything as of yet, which meant that she at least wasn’t playing him.  Maybe.  Either way, he’d have to keep the lavender unicorn at arms length.
He took a better inspection of his food stock, and spent a good amount of time calculating just how much he actually had.  As it turned out, he had food set for almost a month, with all of the foods failing to expire for two weeks.  This was great news, only made slightly dimmer by the lack of any meat in his fridge.  He guessed it made sense, but still, he would miss good ol’ hamburgers.  By the time he was finished, it was nearing nine o’clock.  At home, he would still have three and a half hours on his night shift, but here, he was free to actually sleep.  
He took advantage of this unique opportunity and headed up the stairs to his room.  He made sure to lock the door on his way in, as he wasn’t completely sure that the townspeople- ponies, he’d have to try to adjust to their speech- would throw a “First Night in Town” party.  
He stripped his clothing off, down to his boxers, and spent the next fifteen minutes trying to figure out the mechanics of his clock.  He finally figured out how to set an alarm, setting it to go off at 6:15 so he would have time to get to the farm at seven.  Apple Jack hadn’t told him when to be there, but he figured early in the morning would be the most appropriate.  Besides, it also allowed him some early morning time to himself.
After setting the alarm, he climbed into the plush bed, pulling the sheets over him.  The bed was incredibly warm, the hoof-stitched quilts heavy enough to hold him down, but light enough to allow small movement.  He scooted to the middle of the bed, since there wouldn’t be any siblings tucking in with him.  They had done that on occasion, when they had had nightmares or were scared of the noises outside.  Now, he missed the feelings of protectiveness and brotherly love as they cuddled with him.  
He stared straight up at the ceiling, thinking.  Not of anything in particular, really, but just wondering.  He wondered if there was a universe out there that was peaceful, where life thrived without threat.  Here had seemed like the place, but recent revelations had proved otherwise.  He chuckled as he thought of the most innocent world possible.  It would be inhabited by neon colored squirrels that had more fur than body, and hopped around on their poofy tails.  The image died away all too soon.
That place couldn’t exist, wouldn’t exist.  Solemnly, he remembered something he had once read.  Humanity had only improved to do two things: create, and destroy.  They had made weapons, originally to kill animals better for more food, but those had been turned on themselves.  Weapons had evolved to make killing each other easier, leading to the deaths of hundreds of millions.  They had made cars, which saved time and made travelling easier and safer, yet those killed tens of thousands every year.  Had it not been for Twilight, Ray would have joined the masses.
Ray attempted to close his eyes, but found that the move was blocked by another thought.  He had agreed to fight a war.  He struggled to comprehend exactly what he had volunteered to do, since the worst fight he'd gotten into…  
“Dammit,” he muttered, turning over in bed.  Why did this always happen when he thought about… them.  Who were they?  Where were they?  Were they even real?  Muttering a viler string of curses, he got out of bed.  It wasn’t like he would get sleep anyways, with this train of loudly rolling through his head.  
He walked over to the curtainless window, staring out into the night sky.  Thousands of tiny sparks floated in the sky, blinking down at him.  He wondered if they knew about his plight, his story.  He wondered if they cared.  Back at home, light pollution had prevented him from being able to see so many stars, as only the brightest shone through.  Now even the dimmest could be seen.
He sighed, leaning his head against the windowsill as he watched the stars.  The moon, though only a thin crescent tonight, shone brightly.  Tracing the stars with his gaze, Ray realized that the constellations here weren’t all that different from the ones back on Earth.  He found both Ursas, along with their designated Dippers, and the Orion, although it took a more pegasus structure.  This world really wasn’t so bad, come to think of it.  Maybe some of the things in it, but no, this world was alright…

Wake Up!! Wake Up!! Wake Up!! Wake-SLAM!!

Ray smacked the blaring alarm clock off of the desk as he fell out of bed.  He must’ve gotten into it sometime last night, but he couldn’t really remember doing so.  Hastily putting on the only pair of clothes he had, he rushed into the bathroom to do his business.  Coming back out, he made his bed and placed the alarm back in its place, turning the alarm volume down so he wouldn’t be woken in the same manner as this morning.  
Rushing downstairs, he went to the cabinet he had mentally labelled “bread n’ crap”, and grabbed a bagel.  He figured that when he got more accustomed to the town, he wouldn’t really need to be in such a rush, but for now, speed was a necessity.  Eating the bagel without anything else on top, he went back upstairs to find a toothbrush.  Finishing the bagel in three bites, he found a toothbrush and toothpaste quickly in the closet.  He figured that it was probably best to not arrive at his new job with morning breath, especially since ponies had better smell than humans.  At least, he thought.
By the time he was done, it was 6:25.  Running out of the door, he began jogging down the dirt path towards the town.  The early morning air was crisp and cool, a light breeze brushing through his hair as he ran.  He smiled as he picked up his pace going down a hill, and crossing a bridge that ran over a deep blue river.  It was relaxing to just watch the green scenery pass as he ran, giving him a general sense of tranquility.  For a moment, he even forgot he was in another world.
He had only left Pittsburg once, to visit his grandmother’s grave in Harrisburg.  The space between the two cities was green and lightly wooded in some places, far different from the almost random placement of skyscrapers in the city.  He had longed to go out there again, to feel the openness and freedom of the outdoors, to breath in and not to taste the stench of burning gasoline.  
Now, as he ran back up the gently sloping, he took in the fresh, open air.  Reaching the top of the hill, the path took an unexpected turn, leaving him running through ankle-high grass.  Eh, he thought, screw the path.  Three seconds later, his foot caught an unexpected spot of mud, causing him to slip and fall into the soft grass.  Sharp pricks of cold nipped at his skin from wherever the dew-sprinkled grass poked his skin.  He came to a stop a couple of feet later, facedown in the ground, the taste of dirt in his mouth.
“Beautiful,” a mocking voice called from above, accompanied by the sound of flapping wings.  “Didn’t know you were so graceful, Ray.”
Muttering a very impolite string of curses into the ground regarding the cyan pegasus above him, he rolled over.  He found Rainbow Dash smirking at him, holding out a hoof to help him up.  Returning the smirk, he took the proffered hoof and pulled, resulting in the mare being pulled into the ground.  Ray laughed as the pegasus fell face first into the ground.  Luckily, for the both of them, they weren’t in the mud patch.
She came up with a sheepish grin.  “I shoulda realized that was gonna happen,” she lamented, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof.  “What’cha doin’ out here, this early?”
“I’m lookin’ for the farm,” he responded as the pony launched herself back into the sky.  “I have a job there.  Wanted to arrive as early as I could.”
“Nice,” she said, pointing across the town.  “Just that way.  At town center, there’ll be four roads: the one you’re on -the northwestern- one and each other one leading northeast, southeast, and southwest.  Take the southwest one, and it’ll lead you straight to Sweet Apple Acres.  Although,”  a mischievous glint entered her eye, “are you sure you’re old enough to work yet?”
Ray flipped her off as he stood, a gesture that didn’t go unnoticed by Rainbow.  “Whazzat mean,” she asked.
“It’s a human thing,” he grumbled.  “Means F you.”
As he turned to enter town, he heard her say, “Only if you want to.”
“Yeah, whatev-,” Ray did a double take, turning back to the cyan pegasus, who began roaring with laughter.  “What did you just say?”
“Only if you want to,” she replied with a smirk.  Ray shook his head, turning away as the pegasus once again began laughing, jogging away.  After only a moment, she caught up with him, flying beside him at the same pace he was jogging.
Turning his head so that he could see both her and the dirt path, he asked, “What’re you doin’?”
“I wanna race ya,” she cried.  “First to the farm wins!”
“Nah,” he denied, “I think I should save my strength for work.”
“That’s disappointing,” she said as they entered the town square on a bridge over a small stream.  Stalls and booths were set up on either side of the road, although most of them were empty.  He attributed this to the early hour, though the few ponies that were there gave him strange looks.  Probably just wondering what the frick I am, why I’m in their town, and if I would like a bouquet of roses, or lilies, he thought to himself.
“Hey,” Rainbow suddenly exclaimed, cutting into his thoughts.  “What about after your work?”
“Eh,” he responded.  “I’m supposed to go over to Rarity’s shop to get new clothes and crap.  After that, Fluttershy said I should go over to hers for tea.  If I can find it.”
“Hopin’ to get under her tail,” Rainbow asked, her signature smirk plastered on her face.  She tsked, before mock scolding him.  “You shouldn’t be gettin’ into relationships so soon.”
“You’ve gotta be the most vulgar pony to ever exist,” Ray groaned as he turned down the path that Rainbow had said would lead to the orchard.  Rainbow laughed at that, flying in front of him so he could see her face.  
“Would you believe me if I told you I was a twenty one year old virgin,” she questioned.
“Not even if you said you were twelve,” he snorted as he entered the grove.  He was now surrounded by neat rows of apple trees, looking ripe for the plucking.  Apple Jack had said harvest season was near.  Or zap apple, whatever those were.  Looking around at the lush green trees, he couldn’t help but wonder how any amount of ponies could raise and keep track of so many trees.  It was beyond him.  Suddenly, barely ten feet away, he saw a large, vine covered gateway with a simple apple covering on it, a wooden slat hanging from it.
“Guess that’s my cue,” Rainbow said, noticing the white fencing and largening clearing.  She flew up and off in another direction as Ray slowed down enough to stop without crashing into the gate.  The most surprising thing about stopping was that he didn’t feel nearly fatigued enough for running so long.  It wasn’t that he had run far, barely a mile by his estimations, but he had run pretty fast, through hills nonetheless, and was barely panting.
Ducking down so he didn’t hit his head on the gateway, he let himself in.  Taking in his surroundings, he saw there was a large homestead in the center of the clearing that must’ve been where the family lived.  A large portion of the red  building seemed to be a barn, which was fair enough, since they would need a large storage space for their crops.  The entire structure had a faded white border, and every window had a little flower garden outside of it.  The roof was made of a light purple wood, the entire structure topped off with a little windpointer.  Instead of the top of it being a tin chicken, a pink apple, which seemed fitting.
To the right of the house, a decent vegetable garden was growing.  Ray could see stalks of corn ready for the plucking, tomato vines with fat, red tomatoes hidden among the leaves, and what looked like overly large weeds sprung from the ground.  To the houses left was a small chicken coop- he could tell by the sign hanging from it.  Hay bales and large piles of hay were strewn all over the place in large piles, giving the space a more used feeling.  In the distance, he could see the hills behind the homestead were also covered with apple trees.  Four smaller red buildings also provided extra storage, so far as he could tell.
Beside him was a cobbled well with several wooden barrels beside it.  Behind the four extra buildings was a secondary white gate that led directly to the apple orchard.  He struggled to keep his jaw from dropping to the floor at the immensity of the farm, and he knew he was probably missing out on at least some proportions.  Shaking his head, he refocused on what he was here to do, and began searching the area for his orange pony employer.
After a closer look, he saw a peach tail sticking out of an open barn door, and began walking over.  The dirt in the cleared area was soft and wet, failing to kick up any dust as he made his way to the barn.  The sun had barely risen over the hills at this point, and if he had to guess, it was a quarter to seven.  Early.  
However, when he turned into the barn, he was greeted not by welcoming comments, but by four pairs of glaring eyes.  One of them belonged to a familiar pony, the other three unfamiliar.  One of them was a large red stallion with the same color mane and tail as Apple Jack’s fur, his booty mark a green apple with a slice taken out of it.  He was giving him a chilling look over that made Ray shrink.  The pony beside him, a pink unicorn with a curly grape mane and tail, was giving him a heated glare that made him feel like he’d done something bad.  Her cutie mark was a cupcake with sprinkles around it.  
And then there was the smallest one.  She was giving him a disappointed, angry little glare with her bottom lip sticking out at him.  Her hair was strawberry like the tall stallion’s fur and her coat was peachy yellow like AJ’s mane and tail.  Her eyes were full of rage, like he’d just stolen her ice cream, and he immediately felt like he had to beg her forgiveness for whatever misdeed he’d done.  How could he have dared disappoint such a cute being.
“Ya finally decided to show up,” Apple Jack said, bringing Ray’s attention back to her.  “Yer so late, we might as well have started harvest season early so we could get some work done ‘round here.”
“Yup,” the stallion agreed.  His voice was deep, like a bass drum that had learned to speak.  
“We’ve been waiting for you so long,” the unicorn mare added, “that my cupcakes have probably burned!”
“Yeah,” the littlest one chimed, turning to Apple Jack.  “you said he was trustworthy.”
“Well I thought he was,” the mare said, her brows falling deeper.  “‘Parently I was wrong.”
Ray’s eyes widened as he took a step back from the intensity of the four pony’s glares.  “I-I didn’t know what time to come,” he stammered.  “We never set up a time, s-so I figured I would just come around at seven.  It seemed early enough.”
“Well ya thought wrong,” Apple Jack yelled,her ear flicking in anger, making Ray wince.  How had he really been so wrong?  He hung his head in shame as he turned to leave, when he suddenly heard snickering behind him.  Turning around, he saw a smile peeking out behind Apple Jack’s hoof.  Looking around, he saw that the same story was playing out on the other three’s faces.  Without even a moment of confusion, he pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Prank,” he asked.
“Prank,” Apple Jack confirmed, before guffawing with laughter.  She was joined with what he assumed was her family, and begrudgingly, he joined in.  When she had stopped, she spoke up.  “Got’cha good, didn’t we?”
Ray nodded.  “That was really good,” he complimented.  “I didn’t think you the pranking type.  That seemed to be more of Rainbow Dash’s thing.”
“I’m usually not th’ prankin’ type,” she responded with a wry grin, “but this was an opp’rtunity I just couldn’t ignore.”
“Yeah,” the youngest one grumbled, looking up at the human.  “An opp’rtunity so good she had us all awake n’ down here at five in th’ mornin’ so we could pull it.”
“Ah, hush now, Apple Bloom,” Apple Jack said, turning over to the kid .  “This just means y’all get that sleepover with th’ CMC ya’ve been pinin’ for.”  She turned back to Ray with a grin.  “Why don’t I give ya a tour of th’ farm before we get started?  Just ta let’cha get ta know th’ place before ya start workin’ here full time.”
“Sure,” he agreed.  It wouldn’t really do to get lost here on his first day on the job.  He followed the orange pony out of the barn, where she stopped and turned back to him.  
“Best if I introduce ya to th’ family first, though,” she said thoughtfully.  She pointed to the large red stallion saying, “That there’s Big Macintosh, or Big Mac for short.  He’s my older brother.  Beside him’s his wife, Sugar Belle.  Th’ little one’s my little sis Apple Bloom.”  Apple Jack’s voice fell as she turned to one of the window sills, where a small headstone stood.  “And that there’s Granny Smith.  She passed away last month.”
There was a moment of silence from the family as they seemed to take a moment to remember their deceased kin.  “I’m sorry,” he muttered.  After a brief moment of hesitation, he bent down and gently rubbed the top of her head.  She stiffened slightly, before relaxing into it.  
“She raised us when Ma n’ Pa passed on,” she said to no one in particular.  “Was always sweeter than the' jams she made us.  Taught us better than any teacher could’ve.  She had a good long life.  She deserves peace.”
Taking a deep breath, Apple Jack turned back to Ray and gave him a small smile.  “Thanks fer that,” she said.  With another deep breath, she turned away from the grave.  “Might as well continue.”
The tour was carried out with relative uneventfulness, and Ray tried to memorize every word that Apple Jack said.  She also told him about Granny Smith’s history.  How she had been one of the first settlers, how she had discovered zap apples, and how she had raised the Apple siblings.  Every time Apple Jack began to become somber, he would rub her head to comfort her.  She explained that zap apple season was a month before harvest season, which was a week after the traditional “Running of the Leaves”.  
The work he was supposed to do today wasn’t actually related to harvest season.  Apple Jack explained to him that every four years, they cut down ten acres of trees, and replant them.  This way, the older trees wouldn’t become rotten and spread diseases among the other, younger trees, and newer trees could grow.  Then, they would cut it into firewood and sell the extra as profit to new tools for the next season of harvest.  Today, his main focus was on the furthest section from the farm, which was now almost seventy years old.  He, AJ, and Big Mac would all be cutting trees while Sugar Belle and Apple Bloom were preparing for the zap apples.  
When he actually got to it, the sun had now risen to the same level it had when he’d first been teleported to Ponyville.  Talking a moment of solemn silence, he turned to the work he’d been given.  The axe AJ had supplied him was the size of a hatchet in his hand, but it didn’t really affect his work.  The trees, while maintaining the same size proportion that differed from his world’s, were still several feet taller than him.  The bases were weak though, weaker than they were supposed to be even at their age, which wasn’t really that old in tree terms.  Big Mac explained that it was from sixty five years of bucking, which made sense.  
Swinging his miniscule axe with as much force as he could muster, he splintered the surface of the wood.  On average, he found that it took seven swings to take down the trees, as even though they had thick trunks, they were weak until the very center.  He worked faster than his pony associates, since they had to use their mouths to hold the axes, which greatly detracted from the total force they exerted.  This made Ray feel proud that he was able to work quicker than his own employer(s?).
The work was relaxing, and he felt himself fall into a rhythm of chopping and dragging trees.  His mind wandered away for a while, leaving him completely blank while he worked.  There was a certain tranquility in his work, as he slowly began draining his energy into the trees he felled.  Though he wouldn’t admit it out loud, he appreciated that none of the other ponies were close enough to converse with him.  For the moment, it was just him in his own little world of swinging axes and falling trees.  
Absentmindedly, he began to hum some music from home to the rhythm of the axe hitting the tree.  After several more trees, he began to regret humming, as it began to disturb his peaceful working.  Usually while he was working like this, he would have his phone in his pocket, listening to his mixes.  Out here, it was just him and his pubescent vocals, which were nothing pretty.  He chuckled as he imagined trying to actually sing some of his favorite Fall Out Boy songs.  Actually, he thought to himself, grunting as he swung his axe into another heavy hit, it wouldn’t really be that bad.
Looking around quickly for anypony, he didn’t see anything living close enough to hear him.  Slowly, he began to sing Centuries.  Before he knew it, he was on the third verse, thinking about what song came next.  Smiling as he finished the song, he switched to Light ‘Em Up, swinging in time to the rhythm.  After what only seemed like a second, he began the next song, and the next and the next.  Singing at the top of his lungs, he turned to the next tree, only to see a purple maned unicorn standing there.
“You a singer,” Sugar Belle asked, causing Ray to blush in embarrassment.
“Nah,” he admitted, looking down.  
The unicorn simply shrugged.  “Could’ve fooled me,” she said with a kind smile.  “Now come on.  We’re taking a lunch break.”
Ray followed Sugar Belle as she turned and began walking down a row of trees.  He smiled as he looked around and saw the bright red fruit of the tree, ripe for the plucking, gleaming in the sun.  As he caught up with her, he decided to start up some small talk with her.
“So,” he began eloquently.  “You don’t seem to be very concerned with the fact that I’m not exactly a pony.  Why is that?”
The pink pony giggled, before saying, “Well, before moving in with Big Mac, I lived in a village that had been taken over by a mare who took away everypony’s cutie marks so we could all be ''equal”.  My older sister-in-law has saved Equestria about a dozen times and is one of the Elements, and my relationship with Mac was heavily influenced by the Lord of Chaos.  I thought you were actually just some poor lost creature that Apple Jack was helping.  I mean, I guess you could be some sort of reformed villain that AJ was helping out.” She bit down on her lip and looked up at Ray.  “Are you a reformed villain?”
“No,” Ray denied, chuckling at that.  “I guess I am some sort of lost creature.  This is only my second day in Equestria.”
“So the music you were singing was from your country,” she concluded.  “Where is it?”
“O-oh,” he muttered. “It’s nonexistent.”
“I’m sorry,” she said sweetly, looking like she didn’t know how to react to the news.  Poor pony.  She brightened up as they came out of the grove of trees to the back gate of the orchard.  The others, including little Apple Bloom, were sitting on a picnic blanket, not unlike the one from yesterday.  “Looks like we’re here.  I made lunch cakes for everypony.  Two for you, since I figured you’d have a bigger appetite.”
“Thanks,” he said, his stomach suddenly speaking up in agreement.  
“Howdy, y’all,” Apple Bloom greeted, waving the two over.  “You can sit by me, Mister Ray!”
Ray smiled at the filly’s excitement, and sat in a criss-cross position by the little pony.  Looking down at his arms, he was pleasantly surprised to find them tanned instead of sunburned, like his shoulders.  It was probably the fact that his mom’s parents were Native Americans, since he usually tanned on less extreme days.  It also was in no small part due to the fact that Equestria’s sun seemed to be weaker than Earth’s.
Sugar Belle put a plate in front of him which carried two circular pastries on them.  They were roughly the shape and size of his fist, with long strands of gold wrapping around the pastry.  A sweet smell was emanating from it that made his stomach growl in anticipation.  Grabbing the pastry, he took a bite from it, enjoying the texture and flavor as it took his mouth by force.
The outside of the pastry was crunchy and virtually flavorless, like thin, saltless pretzels.  The inside was gooey and sweet, with a distinguishable apple flavor to it.  He hummed in appreciation, chewing quickly so he could get another bite in.  He briefly worried about having bad manners, but quickly dismissed it as he saw that the Apple siblings were eating in much louder and messier manner than him.
“Glad to see that you all like it,” Sugar Belle said, noting the other four’s ravenous eating.  
“Whatja make it wif, shish,” Apple Bloom asked with her cheeks bulging with an enormous bite of the sweet.
“I mixed applesauce, flour, baking soda, a dash of salt, a little cinnamon, and some honey, then wrapped it with hay.”
“Ah,” Ray said in sudden realization.  “That explains the crunchy.”
“Oh, sorry,” Sugar Belle apologized.  “Is something wrong?”
“No no,” he reassured, holding up a hand.  “It’s just that we humans don’t actually eat hay.  We replace it with…” 
He trailed off, not sure if he was completely comfortable with admitting the fact that humans were very much omnivores.  The ponies seemed to understand, however, and let the topic be.  They ate in silence for a while, allowing Ray to finish off his lunch before a conversation started up.
“Ya know, Ray,” Apple Jack said, breaking the ice, “there’s still a lot we don’t know about you.”
“I think I know less about you than you know about me,” he retorted lightly.  “Sugar Belle told me that you were an Element and that you had saved Equestria some dozen times.  Mind clarifying?”
Before he knew it, Apple Jack was going on in a long tale of how she and the others had met and defeated Nightmare Moon, then Discord, Chrysalis, Tirek, the Shadow Pony, the Storm King, Cozy Glow, and then the later and Tirek and Chrysalis.  Sugar Belle had not been exaggerating when she had said that AJ had saved the world a dozen times.  Apple Bloom would sometimes add some little tidbits in, while Mac and Sugar Belle silently listened, the mare leaning on her husband’s shoulder.  Ray let a peaceful smile spread across his face as he listened, although his brow dipped at the mentions of the three villains who had formed a coalition that had nearly taken the land.  He would have to ask Twilight for a better history of Equestria’s enemies.
“... And that’s basically it,” AJ concluded, looking up.  “Whooee.  Look at the time.  We all better get back to work.”
The others nodded in agreement, and Ray turned to follow the two larger ponies as they went back into the orchard.  He picked up his axe where he’d left it, resuming his steady working rhythm as the sun made its way across the sky.  Before he knew it, he was back to quietly singing as he chopped down tree after tree.  After what seemed like only minutes, he turned to find Apple Bloom smiling up at him from one of the trees.
“Apple Jack says ya can leave whenever ya want,” she said sweetly.  He nodded, wiping the sweat off of his forehead as he sat down wearily.  He had been working himself harder than he’d known, and now he was feeling it.  His shoulders were sagging and his legs were feeling so light he worried that they might float away completely.  Looking up at the sky, he saw that the sun was beginning its descent, although it had yet to touch the ground.
“How old’re ya?”  A voice entered his head, and he turned in surprise to the inquiring pony.  He had thought that the pony had left him once she’d delivered her message, but apparently he was wrong.  She gave him another adorable little smile, and continued.  “I didn’t mean ta impose, I was just wonderin’ ‘cuz ya seem so much older, but still look so young.”
“This may come as a surprise, but I’m fourteen.”  The gasp that came from the filly was so large that Ray could’ve built a house on it.  He chuckled at the thunderstruck look on the little pony’s face.  He stood and began walking away to where the homestead lay, calling back, "Try not to leave your jaw on the ground.”
Apple Bloom galloped to catch up with him as he continued walking.  After a brief second of stopping, he redirected his path to where he knew AJ was working.  He figured it would probably be best to tell the pony himself he was leaving so there wouldn’t be any confusion.  Apple Bloom had caught up to him surprisingly quick, and was now breathlessly looking up at him.
“Ya know what this means,” she asked excitedly.  “It means we could be like siblings!  I’m only eleven, and yer fourteen, so it’s only a three year diff’rence.”  She gasped again, this time in revelation.  “I should introduce ya to th’ others!”
“I’m sure I’d love to meet them,” he said kindly as AJ came into view.  “But I already agreed with Rarity to go to her boutique to get new clothes, and by then, I don’t think I’ll have time.  Maybe tomorrow?”
The filly deflated slightly, but still nodded her head eagerly.  However, no sooner had she finished nodding her head then another gasp came from her, startling Ray. 
“You said you were goin’ ta Rarity’s,” she asked.  By now Apple Jack had noticed the two of them and had set her own axe down, trotting over.  Ray decided that the quickest way to end the conversation was to go along with it, so he nodded.  “Well that’s just swell! One of my friends lives there, so I can go meet with th’ other one, bring ‘em there, and we could all say hi and then have our sleep over.  It’s perfect.”
“Sure does sound like it, sugarcube,” Apple Jack said, before tapping her chin in mock consideration.  “Although, ya can’t do that if Ray’s still here.”  Turning to him, she continued.  “That is why y’all’re here, right.  Leavin’.”  Ray nodded.  “Then why don’t’cha follow me.”
He did as Apple Bloom ran off to do some other task.  After a couple of minutes of walking, they were back at the homestead.  Apple Jack excused herself for a moment as she went inside to grab something.  After only a few seconds, she was back out, a piece of paper in hoof.  She rolled it out on one of the nearby barrels, displaying it.  It looked pretty official, and even had a stamp on it from the town hall.
“What’s that,” he inquired nonchalantly.
“Contract of employment,” she answered factually.  “It’s required fer all employment outside of institutions that aren’t family run.  Some big scandal a few years back made it necessary.  Just sign this and drop it off at town hall and ya’ll be all set ta go.”
He skimmed over the document, just so he was familiar with the work he was putting himself into.  It was a six month contract, which was fairly good since that would put him into February of next year.  There was one fact that slightly concerned him.
“Your name is spelt Applejack,” he asked.
“Yeah,” Applejack confirmed.  “Why?” 
“Well, it's just that I’ve been spelling it as Apple space Jack, not Applejack,” he explained.
Applejack simply shrugged.  “It’s no big deal,” she reassured.  Then, after a moment of looking around, she smacked herself on the forehead with a hoof.  “Darn it, I forgot to grab a pen ‘r quill.”
“That’s fine,” he said.  “I’ll just grab one at the town hall.  By the way, what does the town hall look like?”
“Big circle building in th’ center of town,” she replied.  “I need to get back to work.  Lots to do before harvest.”
She turned and began trotting away, and Ray took his own leave, grabbing the paper before ducking under the arching gateway out.  His weak legs made him decide that running was not an option, so he began to walk steadily through the trees.  The return to the town was at least three times slower than his exit of it, but that was fine by him.  Instead, he was able to watch the setting sun over the distant mountains as he walked down the soft dirt road.  Overall, he felt that his first day on the job had been a success.
He hadn’t counted exactly how many trees he’d felled, but he was estimating around a hundred.  They were just so easy to cut down that he had actually found the work easy.  Tiring, sure, but not so much that he was mind-numbed.  After what only seemed like a couple seconds, he found himself leaving the orchard and entering the rolling, grassy hills.  He took a deep breath, enjoying the fresh air.  By now, the sun had touched down on the mountains, which meant nightfall was soon to come.  
He picked up his pace as he entered the town, receiving strange glances from ponies.  He returned them with warm smiles to confirm that, no, he wasn’t here to ransack their town.  As he reached the center of the town, he looked around and found the hall near instantly.  The building was two circular stories tall, with balconies wrapping all around it.  There were pink windows on fifty percent of the building's cream exterior walls, with even the double doors being pink.  The spired top was velvet colored and had a small view point at the very top.
As he began to ascend the birch steps to the hall, the double doors opened inward, revealing two ponies.  One of them was the familiar sea green figure of Emerald Joy, who was excitedly speaking to her partner, a beige, spectacle wearing mare with a white and gray mane and tail.  The senior’s- he was guessing that age was the reason for the color of her hair- cutie mark was a scroll wrapped in a blue ribbon.  
“Speak of the devil and he shall appear,” Emerald suddenly said ecstatically.  Her face fell and she looked hesitant for a moment.  “Not that I think you’re evil or anything, it’s just…”
“Expression.  I get it.”  Ray gave his acquaintance a smile, then looked over to the side where her companion was gaping up at him.  “How do you, ma’am?”
“Fine, thank you,” she said.  Her voice sounded a little like when country and class meshed.  Turning to Emerald, she asked, “Is this the human you were talking about.”
“Yes, he is,” she confirmed with a warm smile in Ray’s direction.  “What’cha doin’ here, Ray?”
Holding up the document, he said, “I need to get this accounted for, since I’m workin’ for the Apple family.”
“The Apple family, eh,” the other mare said.  “Good family.  I can get that documented for you right here.  My name is Mayor Mare, mayor of Ponyville.  I hope I speak for the entire town when I say that you’re welcome here.  You’ll just need to sign that for me.”
“Right,” Ray said in realization.  “I need a pen or something.”
“Come inside,” Mayor Mare insisted, gesturing to him to follow her inside.  He followed, noticing that EJ- short for Emerald Joy in his head- had stayed behind.  She quickly told him that she had to go, and turned and dashed away.  As he entered, he suddenly found a pen being held out to him from a beige hoof.  Smiling at the speed of the pony, he took the black and gold embroidered pen.  Finding a desk, he did a quick readthrough of the document.  Not that he didn’t trust AJ, she was the fricken Element of Honesty, after all, he just wanted to make sure she wasn’t unfair to herself.
Finding the document agreeable for both sides, he clicked the pen open and went in to sign it.  However, he paused as he read something over it.
Full name please.
He stared down at it for several seconds, unsure of what to do.  Did his last name even matter in this world?  How would it hold any meaning amongst these ponies?  Even if it did, what did it matter?  His family was now non-existent.  Or was he? 
After almost a minute, he signed it.  Raymond S. Deang.  
He stood up and handed the paper to the mayor, before silently walking out of the room.  What was his name here?  Walking silently through the town, he found himself watching two foals running through the street.  The sun glistened off the cobbles of the street, giving the impression that they were galloping on tiny stars.  They laughed joyously as they continued their game, youthful innocence radiating from their grinning faces.  Ray stopped walking as he watched them clatter down the street.  
For a moment though, he didn’t see two foals running through the street like any other day.  Instead, he saw two pieces of bloody fur splattered on the ground.
> Measuring Up
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ray cried out in horror as he stumbled back.  Shaking his head quickly, he shot his gaze back to where the two foals had been.  They were gone now, but he swore he could have recognized one of them.  That's right, Apple Bloom.  Cute little Apple Bloom.  Not a piece of her lying on the ground in a bloody mess.  He let out a deep breath.  
What the hell was that, he thought, gazing in the direction the filly and her friend had been running.  The image wouldn’t leave him.  Everywhere he looked, he saw bloody pieces of pony lying on the ground.  He tried to look at one of the ponies at the market, but only saw a walking piece of the dead.  He shuddered, turning to follow where the fillies had gone.  He had to make sure they were safe.
He stumbled after the fillies’ trail, trying to keep them in sight.  He had to make sure it wasn’t really happening.  His brain told him that it wasn’t, but his heart was telling him it was.  His stumbling progressed into running, and soon, he was sprinting down the street as fast as he could.  He passed house after house as the dead watched on curiously.  No, they weren’t dead yet.  He could stop this.
Soon enough, however, he had run out of the very edges of the town.  Looking around the outskirts of the town, he couldn’t see either of the fillies on the grassy hills, reddened by the setting sun.  He tried to remember what they were supposed to look like, instead of the bloodstained images stuck in his head.  He continued looking around desperately, hoping he could see the young ones anyways.  He was panting from the short, speedy run he’d taken.  Collapsing to the ground, he sighed in defeat.  They weren’t out there, on those bloody plains.  
“Hey, Mister Ray,” a voice came from behind.  He turned quickly to find three fillies running towards him.  Fillies.  One of them was the recognizable figure of Apple Bloom, and the other was the dirty orange pegasus with a purple mane and tail from before.  The third one was unknown to him, but she had the face of a familiar white unicorn.  She too was pristine white, although her hair was pink with lavender highlights, which seemed to come naturally with some ponies.  The voice had come from the pegasus filly, who was noticeably faster than her friends as she arrived next to his crouched form.  
“My name’s Scootaloo,” she said jestily, holding out a hoof.  Ray smiled, hoping to hide the immense relief as he felt at the fact that they were safe.  A small part of him was calling out his foolish reason to worry, reminding him that the invasion wasn’t supposed to happen any time soon.  He ignored it as he took the filly’s hoof and shook it, standing up.  
“My name is Sweetie Belle,” the white unicorn introduced, turning to her fellow fillies.  Then, in unison, they yelled out, 	“And we’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders.”
They stuck their butts out at his as they finished, making Ray turn his head to keep their decency.  Besides, if his guess about Sweetie Belle was correct, how would Rarity react if she knew he’d looked at her sister’s behind?  Not very well, if he had any guess.  After a moment, though, he realized why they might be making the gesture.  There was something on their rumps that they might have reason to be proud of, other than the rumps themselves.  
Slowly, deliberately, he looked over at their flanks, where their cutie marks were positioned.  There, three near identical marks were proudly displayed for him.  They were shaped like shields, with three different colored stripes in the same order on all marks: red, pink, and purple.  However, the marks varied per filly.  Sweetie Belle’s had a deep purple star in the center, with a pink music note concealed in it.  Apple Bloom’s, which he had yet to actually see, had an apple shape with a heart in it in the center of her mark.  Scootaloo’s had a wing in the center, with a lightning bolt stored inside of it.  
“They’re awesome, aren’t they,” Scootaloo asked excitedly.
Ray smiled, deciding to have some fun with them.  “Yeah, nice booty marks,” he responded.
“Hey,” Sweetie snorted indignantly.  “They aren't booty marks!  They’re our cutie marks!”
The other two sounded their own agreement with their friend as Ray retorted, “Well, they’re marks on your butts.  So, yeah, booty marks.”  The three fillies scowled at him, making him drop the act.  “I’m just teasing, you guys.  Nice cutie marks.”
“We know,” the three ponies said, once again in unison.  They giggled as they raced off, and Ray took the cue to follow them.  The setting sun had now reached the halfway point in its descent, the dying rays of gold glistening on the cobbles.  He was quickly catching up with them, when they suddenly turned to a round building at the outskirts of the town.  
It was bell-shaped, with the bottom part decorated with an intricate baby blue and white pattern.  A single blueberry door split in the middle to allow people- or ponies- to speak to the owner of the house or enter.  The roof bore a checkered pattern of pink and light lavender, and gently sloped into a smaller second story.  The windows had their tan curtains drawn back to allow passersby to see the delicate dresses and suits displayed in the window.  The sign above the entrance to the shop was decorated with a model pony wearing a pony version of a pink corset.  The text under the image read Carousel Boutique, which meant-
“This is where Rarity works,” Ray muttered out loud in realization.  It was actually exactly what he’d expected, with the building's fancy aesthetic and clean demeanor.  The three fillies rushed indoors, and Ray after them.  As he entered, he had one thought: If the outside was fancy, then this is a royal level of fancy.
The interior was decorated with several different booths sectioned off by raspberry curtains.  He assumed it was so that customers could try on the various dresses and suits that were displayed on the model ponies that lined the room.  Gold lined mirrors peeked out of one of the open booths, allowing him to see himself on their reflective surface.  One wall to his left was completely hidden from view behind the rows of dresses, corsets, gowns, suits, hats, headpieces, and accessories strung up on hangers in rows.  There were benches here and there, presumably to allow seating while waiting for one's turn.  In the back of the room was a staircase that led up to the second story, where he figured most of the accounting and designing was done.  Currently, a familiar plum maned unicorn was trotting down the steps, looking furious.  
“Girls,” she yelled.  “How many times do I have to tell you to not race through the door like a bugbear’s chasing you!  If I have to replace the door again because of your bumbling about, I swear, I’ll make you three do it!”  Then, noticing Ray hiding a smirk behind his hand, she changed her attitude from flustered older sibling to charismatic businesswoman.  “Ray, darling!  How have you been?”
“Fine,” he lied.  “I just was chasing after the girls, and it led me straight to where I needed to go.  I need something that’s not Discord for working.”
“Working?  Already,” she asked as she trotted up to him, using her magic to pick up a measuring roll.  “I would figure, just from your circumstance, that you would take a break to get accustomed to your new home.  Arms out please.”
“Yeah, well, I usually work up to eighteen hours a week day, so it felt wrong to not,” he replied as he raised his arms.  “Hey, what were you thinking of making for me?  I’m not that  picky, but if it’s something like a fancy suit with a giraffe neck thingy, I’m tellin’ you, I won’t wear it.”
“While there are several ideas I would like to try out with your physique,” she admitted, wrapping the measuring tool around his arm, “I will restrain myself from any ideas you do not agree with.  However,” she paused hesitantly, biting her lip, “how does a suit sound.  Nothing fancy, just something nice to wear on special occasions.  Or for a special somepony?”
“Sure,” he agreed absentmindedly, before realizing he might need to clarify on what he was agreeing to.  “Sure on the suit.  Not for the special… somepony.  I’ve only been here for two days, and Rainbow is already pairing up Fluttershy and me.  It’s very disturbing how quickly some ponies are trying to get me laid.”
“Laid,” Rarity gasped, looking around for the younger ponies in the shop.  Finding none, she slapped him with a hoof, although slapped was a strong word for it.  More like tapped harshly.  “There are younger ponies in this house,” she hissed.  “I would mind your language.”
“Sorry,” he muttered as Rarity moved to measure the length of his leg.  “Speaking of younger ponies, is Sweetie Belle your sister?”
“Why yes she is,” she exclaimed, examining the tape measure.  “How did you know?”
“Family resemblance,” he answered.  A new thought occurred.  “You’ve never met a human before, so how do you plan on making clothes for me?”
She bit her lip again as she responded, “Well, I think I’ll just take your general body shape, width, and height, and use proportions to measure it up.  I need to make sure that the clothes fit, but aren’t too tight, lest they cut off circulation.  They also need to be presentable to the public, but not uncomfortable for the wearer, or vice versa.  It would be a shame to discredit both you and myself with an unfashionable piece.  However, I also need to consider growing space, so the clothes will last longer.  It would be a shame to have something you wear only once or twice that took such effort to make.  That is, if you are still growing?”
“Oh, yes, I am,” Ray responded, consumed in thought.  Rarity continued to talk, but Ray didn’t listen to anything she said.  All of what Rarity had just talked about applied to his current situation.  
He needed to make himself comfortable with this world in order to properly protect it, like a shirt protected the wearer.  He needed to keep the public comfortable, which meant he needed to keep complete secrecy about their predicament.  Even after only a day here, living life like them, he knew that if they knew of their fate without him, there would be mass panic.  He also needed to keep Twilight’s image pristine, because, despite the immorality of what she’d done, she hadn’t done anything wrong to her own people.  If they rebelled, however that might look, he couldn’t exactly trust them.  In spite of all of her downfalls, she was still the best bet to saving her own kind, and most knowledgeable of their circumstances.  Begrudgingly, he actually trusted her, because in all of the crap she’d put him through, thus far, she’d been honest about it.  She’d even had the foresight to give him a home and some friends.  Now, he would give them all life.
“Ray,” Rarity asked, breaking his thoughts.  “Are you even listening?  I asked if you would like to have the same style of shirt as Discord gave you or another style completely.  You seem to be completely somewhere else though.”  Her face softened.  “It’s about your current predicament, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” he muttered softly, looking around for any of the fillies.  “But it wouldn’t be appropriate to speak of such things around younger ponies.”
“They’re already outside and heading off to the Apple’s family farm. They left while you were… previously occupied.  Pray tell, what is your decision on the matter.  I would very much like to know what is happening or going to happen to my family and friends.”  Rarity used her magic to pull up a chair for both of them while simultaneously setting down the measuring tape in a nearby basket.
Sighing, he took a seat, head in hands.  “I’m not fighting for Twilight, or her ideologies.  I’m doing it on my own accord.  Fighting for my new home, my new friends.  I realized something last night, when I was about to take my own life.  It doesn’t matter how immoral the means by which I came here.  It would be twice as immoral for me to stand by and watch a defenseless race be destroyed by sheer brutality.  It would be like having a mother slap me, but then stand by and watch her children be slaughtered by someone else.  In my world, there’s a saying.  ‘Two wrongs don’t make a right’.  I intend to follow through on my humanity, despite being in an equine world.  I will fight and die for my world.”
He took a deep breath and looked up to Rarity, who was smiling despite the severity of his pledge.  The room seemed to echo with it as he slowly returned to normal breathing.  He slumped back in his chair, feeling genuine pride in himself for the pledge he’d been waddling his way to.  He’d have to tell Twilight about it, on Thursday when he would meet her again.  He felt she would understand, though.  She was a smart pony.
“You're a very noble stallion,” Rarity said with a soft smile.  “Anypony would and should be proud to call themselves your friend.”
“Thank you,” he responded, blushing.  He didn’t know when the last time he’d been praised like that had been.  Before he knew it, he felt Rarity wrap him in a warm hug.  Slowly, he returned the gesture, enjoying the warmth of her fur against him.  
“No, thank you,” she thanked.  He felt her sob into his shoulder.  “I-I have a family in Manehatten.  M-my parents.  And Sweetie Belle, of course.  I know what Twilight said about those… monsters is the truth, and I can’t bear the thought of losing them.  I have personal experience with violence that nopony should ever endure.  In the battle for Canterlot, I couldn’t bring myself to… ki-kill those changelings.  Despite the danger they posed, a piece of myself made every attempt to fatally wound my enemies a knockout hit instead of a life taking one.  Rainbow Dash is a more violent variant of pony, but even she says she never wanted to kill anypony, just, and I quote, ‘Kick their tail’.  Without you, I don’t know what Equestria would do.”
Ray smiled softly as he gave the unicorn a small squeeze and gently began scratching the top of her head, behind her ears.  In return, she gave a small, cat-like pur that made Ray chuckle.  Rarity snorted indignantly at that and pulled away, though she couldn’t hide that smile on her face.  
“I’ve  never been comforted like that,” she said defensively, “so I didn’t know that would happen.”
“It’s amazing what you can do with fingers,” he responded. Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind.  “Don’t mean to be rude or anything, but you weren’t just flirting with me, were you?”
“No, of course not,” she denied, sounding appalled.  She suddenly blushed and ducked her head, muttering, “Besides, I’m already with somepony else.”
As if on cue, a bell rang as the door opened.  Both pony and human turned to find a familiar purple and tan scaled dragon stepping through the doorway.  His eyes were shining as he closed the door behind him, but instantly narrowed as he saw Ray.  Oh crap, he thought as the dragon glared at him, this guy again.  This oughta be fun.
“Rarity, what is this guy doing here,” he asked in his squeaky voice.
“Well he’s one of my friends, and he needed clothes, so I offered last night,” Rarity explained.  
“Last night,” he questioned suspiciously.  “What happened last night?”
“Well, Pinkie Pie organized a party at his new home here in Ponyville, so the girls and I went.  He mentioned that he needed new clothes since the clothing Discord gave him wasn't particularly tasteful.”
“Wait,” the drake interjected.  “Discord trusts you?”
“Um, you know, it's kinda hard to tell with him,” Ray responded hesitantly.  He hadn’t seen the dragon breath fire yet, but if he didn’t answer carefully, he’d be getting more than the smoke signals he was currently giving off.  “But he did call me his friend, so I think that counts as something.”
“Okay,” he said, eyeing the human.  “If Discord trusts you, then I do.  Just keep your hooves off my marefriend.” 
Rarity rolled her eyes as she got up and crossed the room, giving him a peck on his cheek.  All of his tension melted away into a goofy grin as Rarity began speaking.  “Spike, darling, we’re just friends, and while I do agree with Discord in this case, is he really where you should put your highest trust?”
“Well, he is my best guy friend,” Spike responded defensively.  “And he has been reformed twice.”
“Yes, but he’s also invaded Equestria thrice,” Rarity softly retorted.  “I’m just warning you to make sure to have your own standards, and not just your friends.”
“Okay, okay,” he said, giving her a hug.  “Will do, my sweet.”
Meanwhile, Ray was looking anywhere but the pair, silently wishing they weren’t in front of the door so he could escape.  While love and that kind of crap was fine with him, it was incredibly uncomfortable to watch a toddler size creature and a mare that he aged in the mid-twenties making lovey eyes with each other.  Luckily, the two noticed him trying to stay still and silent through their little debacle.  
“Don’t worry,” Spike muttered, “I’m sixteen.”
Both Ray and Rarity turned to him in surprise as he had guessed Ray’s exact thoughts.  “How did you know-” Ray began, before Spike cut in.
“We’re both guys, you have seven siblings, and you seem to usually be the respectable kind, so you would be concerned about perversion,” he answered.  “Besides it’s usually what most ponies think when they see us, because I look like a baby.  I actually turn seventeen next month.  Because I’m a dragon, I mature differently.  The greedier I am, the bigger I grow, and since I was raised by ponies, my greed was generally controlled.”
“Raised by ponies?  How does that work,” Ray asked.
“When Twilight was six, she was given a test to see how she would handle failure.  Since nopony had hatched a dragon egg before, they figured there was no danger in it.  And then Twilight hatched me, technically making her my mother.”  Spike paused, looking disturbed at the thought.  “Instead, Twilight’s parents did most of the raising.  Twilight’s more like a big sister to me, which is why…”
“Which is why you got so offended by me calling her what I did,” Ray finished.  “I’m not going to say sorry for that, but I do apologize for offending you.”
A small grin spread across Spike’s face at Ray’s weak attempt at a joke, easing the tension that had been building in the boutique.  Seeing that everything was settling, Rarity stepped back and asked, “Well Spike, I must ask, why are you in Ponyville?”
“Twilight said I could have tonight off, seeing how I’ve been working two months straight without a break,”  he answered casually.  “I was thinking we could go out to dinner.  Whatdya feel like?”
“Well, I heard that the Cakes have a new menu at Sugarcube Corner,” she replied, walking over to one of the nearby drawers.  She opened it and pulled out a light blue scarf, and with Spike’s help, wrapped it around her neck.  “Thank you, dear.  Anyways, I was hoping that they finally applied the marshmallow cinnabon to their desserts.  Ever since Pinkie made it, I’ve been craving it.” 
“Breaking that diet, are we,” Spike asked teasingly, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and leaning in.  
“Well, I feel like whenever I look in the mirror, my body screams skin and bones,” she said, leaning in slyly.  “I don’t think you will mind that, my little Spikey-wikey.
Now that they had moved away from the front door, Ray slowly shifted to be in front of it.  Carefully opening the doors, he began walking out, when Rarity suddenly called out, “Why Ray, darling, why don’t you join us?”
Turning, he gave them a friendly, but apologetic smile.  “Sounds like it would be lovely, but I don’t have the money”
“Oh that’s fine,” Spike insisted.  “I have plenty of bits for the three of us.”
“No, really,” he responded, his smile growing sad.  “You don’t need to.  Enjoy yourselves.  I have a date with my kitchen.”
The other two seemed to get the message, nodding near simultaneously.  Ray took his leave, walking out of the doors, making sure to duck his head as he left the shop.  By now, night had fallen, the million-eyed sky staring down at Ray as he began walking down the empty lane.  He stared back up at the night sky, his smile dying as he found those familiar constellations.  Why were they here, in this world, and not back at home?  Had they, too, been pulled into this dimension, to witness the eradication of a species?  No, not yet.  Not as long as Ray was alive.
He began to stroll down the hill, pondering what he had to do to properly protect the ponies that he now called his friends.  Darnit, but that was the problem.  He couldn’t, at least until he talked with Twilight about it.  The most he could do right now was create scenarios and react to them.  It would never be enough in an actual fight, but it was the best he could do.  
As he ascended the hill, he began running.  Another thing he could do right now is prepare physically.  His previous life and work had built up a basic construct for his muscles, but he needed to continue working them to fine tune them.  If he was to be facing what he thought he was facing, then he would have to build his body's durability, agility, and stamina.  Currently, his job at Sweet Apple Acres was doing as much.  Hopefully the training that Twilight was providing was actually adequate for a human.  He didn’t really have much doubt, though.  Twilight didn’t seem like a pony to ever half-ass something, especially when it concerned the fate of her kind.
As he continued running, he saw that his house was actually quite far from the town.  It would be fairly easy for anypony to find my house, he thought.  I’d just have to tell them, “Hey, you know that house outside the town?  Yeah, that’s mine.  He chuckled at the ridiculous thought as his house neared.  However, on approach, he noticed a large difference in the appearance of his front door.  
Instead of green grass, freshly turned dirt and flower bushes lined the path to his front door.  Buttercream yellow daisies lined either side of the door.  From there, dark blue cornflowers and pink lilies spread out across his lawn in a skilled placement to allow the colors to compliment each other.  A note was taped to his door at his eye level, which would only be possible with a certain pony variant.  Walking up to it, he read it.

Hello Ray,
I hope you had a good time at work.  Angel Bunny and I decided to plant some flowers in your front yard.  They always help me feel better when I'm down, so I hope they do the same for you.  I’m sorry if you don’t like them.  I tried to guess which flowers would best fit you.  Just remember, anytime you need to talk, I’m here for you. 
Fluttershy

A slow smile spread across his face as he finished the note.  Looking back at the flowers, he realized that she had guessed perfectly what he would like.  There were more cornflowers than lilies, which seemed fitting to Ray.  With a last sweeping gaze, he entered his house.
> Normality
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

That night, after a warm shower and a sandwich, he stood by his window once again, restless.  He was unsure as to why he was so eager to get things going, but the thought of waiting two more days was making him anxious.  He sighed as jumbled thoughts continued to rattle around his head, giving him a headache.  The night sky didn’t give him any answers, simply watching his plight with blind eyes.  He sighed.  Why did it have to look so much like the one back on Earth?  This only muddled his brain further.
With another sigh, this one of resignation, he turned away from the window and the blasted night sky.  Flopping face first onto his bed, he moaned.  There was really nothing he could do at this point but wait, and that didn’t seem to settle his mind any further than the secretive night sky.  He tried to reason with himself, that it didn’t matter until Thursday, but then his brain would make another silly prediction, and it was back to square one.  
He flipped over in his bed, still fully dressed, and began to pull his blankets around him.  He knew he probably wouldn’t get a wink of sleep with his mind where it was, so he changed his thoughts to something more trivial to distract them from the more pressing matters.  He began wondering how he would ever get meat, but then almost smacked himself.  There were fish; he’d seen those in the river as he crossed over the bridge. There was also a large, untamed forest right outside of the town’s limits.  There had to be deer or rabbits or something in there
Plans began to formulate in his head at how to get them.  He could try to make a snare or something, though he wasn’t sure how successful that would be, seeing how he’d never done such a thing.  He could also try to make his own weapons, but their usefulness was at least as questionable. All of this would be excellent to know come wartime.  He would have to ask Twilight if she knew anything about weapon making.  
Another thing he’d have to wait for.  He took a deep breath as his thoughts raced back to the restless subject of waiting.  Cursing to himself, rolling to his other side, trying to figure out the best way to put his mind at ease.  The answer was almost immediate, and almost so simple that he smacked himself.  He couldn’t do anything until Thursday anyways, why should he worry until Thursday.  Near instantly, his mind shut its rollercoaster of questions and doubts shut off.  He sighed in peace, staring out into the night sky from under his covers.  He was still bothered by the fact that it looked so much like Earth’s sky, but he laid that off too.
Before he knew it, he was dozing off once again.  Sighing in content, he shifted into sleep, the warm darkness overtaking him.  The night sung to him as he slept, crickets now residing in the flower beds planted in his front yard chirping softly in the language of the night.  Fireflies, unseen by his sleeping figure, flew in a softly glowing cloud across the hills to a certain hut on the edge of town. 
It was shaped like a tree, as indeed it was, hollowed out but still alive with browning leaves.  Its branches were lined with bird boxes, feeders, nests, holes, and perches, all taken by sleeping fowl and mammal residents.  In the window on the upper story, a buttercream pegasus was nervously pacing across the floor, mumbling to herself.  A small white bunny watched the spectacle anxiously, eyes trained on his caretaker and friend.  She continued pacing before abruptly turning to her companion.
“Why would anypony feel like they’re useless,” she asked, concerned.  “It’s not like he doesn’t have a cutie mark to show him his true purpose, so why would he… feel so useless?  He has friends here, and we all want him here, so why would he”- she shuddered- “want to die.  And it’s not like I’m a therapist!  I just listen and try to help where I can.  I can’t actually do this!  Oh sweet Celestia, why did I put myself up to this?”
The white hare smacked a paw over his face, trying to act as casual as he could without being rude.  As much as he loved and respected Fluttershy, she really had a bad habit of over-worrying about things if she thought too much about it.  She was like this at first with Discord, before she and he became more… comfortable.  Yes, only comfortable, nothing more.  Half the time, the little bunny didn't even know what she was talking about, with all her stammerings and trailing off, but he still tried to give advice.  Now was not one of those times.
He squeaked at her in annoyance, telling her to slow down and actually tell him what was wrong so he could actually help.  Something had happened at that party the other night, something he needed to know.  Fluttershy had come home flustered and completely worn, barely giving him a greeting before falling asleep on the sofa.  Whatever it was, it was affecting her now, and it was somehow tied to the elusive stallion she was mumbling about.  
Slowly, she took a deep breath, looking out the window expectantly, like she was waiting for somepony.  “There’s a new creature in Equestria, Angel,” she muttered.  “He’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.  He’s hairless save for his mane, bigger than Harry, and so confusing, I just can’t understand him.  Something really bad happened to him in his old life, I know that, but he refuses to tell me what.  I think I understand, since we only met yesterday and he might have trouble trusting anypony, especially after the terrible way Twilight brought him here.  He has a large scar on his stomach, but he seems to pay it no mind.”
Angel immediately began screeching in condemnation, asking how she would be close enough to him to see his stomach.  Fluttershy flushed, looking down.
“It's not like that, Angel!  He arrived without any clothes save for the bit around his lower middle.  That’s another thing, he wears clothes all the time.  He’s very insistent on it, and seems to take pride in his own decency.  Anyways, he seems to be fairly happy on his exterior, considering his circumstances, but I’ve seen through that shell.  He’s quite frankly a mess, with things that have happened in his life that I can’t even begin to understand.
“Last night, during the party, I saw his fake exterior, and saw… something else.  He- he wanted to k-kill himself yesterday, just hours into his arrival here.”
Angel Bunny let out a small gasp, his tiny jaw dropping in surprise.  He had heard and seen plenty of terrible things in his life, it was a byproduct of living in the wild.  But this, this was something he had never heard of before, was unprepared for.  He couldn’t even begin to comprehend why such a notion would, could, exist in such a peaceful place.  
That was it, the problem.  The creature, whatever it was, was another evil being here to conquer Equestria and take Fluttershy from him.  Angel told Fluttershy so, making her head shake sadly. 
“Oh, I know this is terrible to say, but I wish that were the case, I really do.  Then, in the end, he would understand the Magic of Friendship and all would be okay.  But this is much worse Angel.  Poor Ray was brought here by Twilight to fight a war.  And he will.  Oh, this is all so terrible and confusing and scary, and I don’t know how I can ever help poor Ray with it all, when I can’t even deal with it myself.”
Angel rushed over and took the watery-eyed mare’s hoof, leading her over to one of the sofas.  He tittered to some of the squirrels that lived in the house, along with the family of mice, to go and get some tea for their caretaker.  They rushed off to do so as Angel gently patted Fluttershy’s hoof, her silently staring out the window at a group of fireflies.
The fireflies, continuing their journey, drafted off towards a controlled section of woodlands.  The playfully flitted about near-ripe apples as they moved along the grove, coming upon a small treehouse amidst the trees.  Inside the simple wooden structure, a yellow light shone from a lantern in the center of the room, giving light to the three fillies within.  They sat, whispering despite their privacy.
“Whatdya think about Ray,” Apple Bloom asked, grinning broadly.  “I think he’s a real charmin’ guy, in spite o’ th’ teasin’!”
“Yeah,” Scootaloo agreed, giggling slightly.  “Who would’ve thought of ‘booty mark’?”
“I don’t know,” Sweetie Belle jutted in.  “he seemed kinda strange.  Didn’t you see his eyes.  They looked haunted, like he had seen something really really bad.  And what about his running, like he was searching for something and he was scared of losing it forever.”
“That’s silly talk,” Apple Bloom said, lightly shoving Sweetie.  “He’s perfectly normal!  Just like us!”
“I’d say we’re hardly normal,” Scootaloo said with a smile.  “I mean, we go to the School of Friendship, are friends with the Princess, and have saved Equestria for Celestia’s sake!” 
“Good point,” Sweetie Belle responded.  After a brief moment of silence, she smiled mischievously asked, “So who do think he’ll end up with?”
“Ooh,” Scootaloo muttered thoughtfully, rubbing a hoof on her chin.  “That’s a hard one.”
“What if he ends up with one a' our sisters,” Apple Bloom asked, quirking her eyebrow mischievously.  All three fillies exchanged looks with smiles on their faces.
“Rarity,” Apple Bloom shot.  
“Nah,” Sweetie Belle shot down.  “She has Spike, and she isn’t gonna give him up.  Rainbow Dash?”
“Nope,” Scootaloo denied.  “She’s still hung up about Soarin.  AJ?”
“Far as I know, th’ only apple of her eye’s th’ one that needs pickin’,” Apple Bloom said thoughtfully.
“Wait a minute,” Sweetie suddenly cut in with a panicked tone.  “Didn’t you say something about Ray telling you he was only fourteen?”
“Um, yeah, why,” Scootaloo answered for her, staring in confusion at her fellow Crusader.
Apple Bloom’s eyes widened as she caught the drift.  “Ya don’t mean…”
“Guys,” Scootaloo yelled in annoyance at the display.  “I’m not as smart as you.  What’re you gettin’’ on about?”
Cautiously looking over at her friend, Apple Bloom whispered quietly, “Big Mac’s six years older than Sugar Belle.”
Scootaloo’s eyes widened as she made an unspoken realization.  All three exchanged glances once again, this time in horror rather than mischief.  
“That cannot happen,” Sweetie muttered, the other two nodding simultaneously in agreement.
“But how do we prevent it,” Scootaloo asked out loud.  “I mean, how do we stop love from actually happening?”
“Cherilee, that’s how,” Apple Bloom reminded, grimacing at the memory.  
“Well, we’re practically sisters, right,” Sweetie asked, gaining nods of agreement.  “Well, if we’re like sisters, then if he becomes part of one of our families, we won’t have to worry about that.”
“Ya mean… adoptin’ him,” Apple Bloom asked.  After a few moments of thoughtful thinking, she called out, “Dibs!”
“Hey, we didn’t even agree to that,” Scootaloo yelled indignantly.  “Besides, how would that work?”
“Well, we could go to Mayor Mare and ask to get paperwork to legally allow him ta join th’ Apple family.  Maybe as a sibling, since it would be kinda awkward if he became my nephew.”
“We didn’t even consent to that plan though,” Sweetie objected.  “Why should you get him and not either of us?”
“‘Cuz I’m th’ one that introduced him ta y’all, was th’ first one ta meet him, and he also’ll be workin’ th’ farm for th’ next six months at least.  Makes sense to me.”
“She does have a fair point,” Scootaloo allowed, looking to Sweetie to gauge her reaction.  She huffed in disappointment before nodding in agreement.  It did make the most sense.
“Hey y’all, look,” Apple Bloom suddenly yelled, rushing over to the window.  She pointed out a cloud of tiny embers floating right outside the window.  “Lightnin’ bugs!”
As the other two fillies rushed to the window beside their friend, the mass began flying away.  It floated up and over the trees, leaving the orchard as they migrated before a lightless, empty moon, where a certain princess stood.  She watched her own domain thoughtfully, staring out over the land that was now blanketed in the calm of night.  She closed her eyes, entering the Realm of Dreams.
She gently drifted between the hundreds of windows, all glowing with visions of what her little ponies were dreaming of.  She smiled at many of them, even chuckled at a few, as she continued her journey through the realm.  She was on a mission to find a specific dreamer, one that her friend had brought to this world.  She hadn’t entirely been sure if he would’ve slept at all yesternight, due to his new and drastic circumstances, so she was checking now.  Sure enough, she came across a foreign window.
She looked into it, wondering the things that humans might dream.  She gasped in surprise, pulling herself out of the monstrous nightmare she had just viewed.  Tentatively, she reentered, wincing at the violence of such a dream.  She had seen her fair share of death and gore in her years as co-commander of all of Equestria’s armed forces, but nothing compared to this child’s mind.  
Blood was splattered on every surface of the dream, pained screams echoing throughout the realm.  Dead mares and stallions, many of which she recognized, lay in bloody heaps.  The little ones ran, screaming in terror as minotaurs chased after them with weapons and teeth bared.  She recognized the Cutie Mark Crusaders as they ran from a trio of the monsters.  In the distance, she could see the human screaming as he tried to tear through the hundreds of minotaurs that infested the dream.  He swung his sword desperately, only to have it bounce off of the beast's thick hide.  Before she could end this terrible nightmare, she saw him look in her direction, making a chill run through her.
The entire nightmare faded into black around her leaving her quite literally in the dark.  She shivered, keeping herself still as a voice asked, Who are you?  Are you the instigator of all of this?
No, she responded slowly, trying to understand the depth of which this human understood the Realm of Dreams.  It was obviously well, as she could barely sense his consciousness here, but not as well as her.  Obviously not.  She had relinquished her knowledge of this realm to Twilight, not her power over it.  She made herself into a larger version of herself to give her a more powerful appearance.  We are not here to harm thee, human.  We merely wished to see what thou dreamest of.
Oh, the human responded, sounding dejected, knowing that she had caught his terrible nightmare.  He seemed ashamed of it, like it was his fault that it had happened.  He appeared, wearing a black tunic and cream shorts, looking down.  Even in her enlarged state, he still towered over her.  His eyes were sad, worn by something that Luna was very familiar with.  Guilt.
He was guilty for the fact that he was not impossibly strong, enough to save the ponies he had barely met.  They were also laden with tiredness, something that was rarely seen in a realm such as this.  His eyes spoke of much more, of tragedy, of self hatred.  Of death.
Who are you, and how did you get into my… nightmares, the human asked.  You seem to know much of this place, so I must guess that you are some form of sleep demon.  I’m never visited with angels.
Nay, human. We are no demon, or angel for that matter, she corrected.  She searched his mentality, finding his name was Raymond, but seemed to prefer Ray.  We are Princess Luna, Princess of the Night and all her holdings, ex co-ruler of Equestria.  We know thine name as Ray, the human Twilight deemed the champion of Equestria.
You know of this, Ray asked suspiciously.  Yes, he would be a good champion.  She could see now, even before she looked further past his defenses.  Of course you do.  But you should know that I am not fighting under Twilight’s order or name.  I fight under my own name, and under the banner of Equestria.  For no one else but my land and myself.
A very strange notion, but a noble one.  We see thee as a noble being, pure in heart for the cause.
A heart? Luna could hear the scoff in the human’s head.  That’s a first, but I guess I need one in order for it to break.
What do thou speakest of, Ray?
There was panic in his mind as he asked, Wait, you heard that?
Of course.  I am in your head, so your thoughts are portrayed to me as if you were speaking to me.  
Near instantly, a panicked image appeared.  Luna gasped at the sight.  A bloody hand gripped a bloodstained knife.  Blood covered his stomach, which was still freely flowing onto the stark white hospital sheets.  A needle was being put into his arm as he hoarsely asked for water, vision fading to black.  Several concerned looking doctors with masks and gloves were exchanging unheard remarks, applying pressure to his wounded stomach.  A beeping monitor was showing his heartbeat, which was dangerously low.  Immediately, Luna knew this image was no nightmare, but a memory.
What was that, Luna asked trying, to focus past the bloody image.  All she found however, was darkness.  No human, no images, not even the little bit of light she never dared go towards in every consciousness.  She had been kicked out of the humans head.  She knew in that moment that she had seen something that the poor child had not intended for her to see.  Private or not, it was a concerning image, one that she would have to talk to Tia about.  If anypony knew what to do about such a thing, it would be the one with the most experience with heartbreak.
She teleported away as the cloud of lightning bugs settled amongst the apple trees.  They covered the branches in tiny, glowing veins, blinking to each other throughout the night.  Suddenly, a bat swooped down, scooping up two in its hungry jaws in its hit and run.  The swarm didn’t seem to notice, continuing to cover the branch as if two of their own hadn’t been slaughtered amongst their brothers and sisters.  The bat, finding the lightning bugs’ taste to be rather chemical, flew away in search of a different group of bugs to consume.  Its journey led over an outcropping of buildings at the edge of town, where it found a tasty group of moths.  As night wore on, it traversed its way to a singular building amongst the hills, where swarms of insects were, attracted to the fresh flower beds.  As the sun began to rise, it tucked under a ledge under the window, set to sleep for the day.  A sudden blaring beep came from inside the room, followed by an unholy word, as the occupant of the room, having already been awake, was surprised by the loud alarm.
Ray whacked the sleep button on the alarm clock, rubbing his dry eyes as morning sunlight streamed through.  He shook his head, standing up and rushing over to the bathroom to take care of business.  He couldn’t keep his mind off of the strange pony that had entered his mind.  How much had she seen?  How much did she know?  Those questions had kept him awake ever since he had forced the alicorn from his head and awoken.  
He pondered over those questions more as he ate through two bowls of cereal.  Mulling over the possibility that she hadn’t actually seen, that he had only panicked at the thought of what she might’ve seen, gave him some peace.  That didn’t mean that he still wasn’t worried that he had actually booted the Princess of the Night out of his own head.  Well, he figured, it wasn’t his fault she invaded his mind and thoughts.  She should’ve known what his reaction would’ve been with such a revelation.  So far, it seemed that every Princess he had met would wrong him in some way or another.  It was a trend he didn’t want to continue, for he was pretty sure that if there was a Princess of the Night, then there was a Princess of the Day.
He began searching through the book shelves for a copy of a history of the land he was now in.  He found one that was approximately two thousand, three hundred, and fourteen pages.  He also found a twenty page children's book labeled The Tale of Two Princesses that he decided was easier to read in the five minutes he had before he needed to leave.  On the front page, there was a scribbled note.

Dear Raymond,
This is a legend that accurately depicts what happened between the two former rulers of Equestria.  If you have any questions otherwise, ask any of the girls or myself.  If I forgot to tell you when I brought you here, there are thirty five bits in the economics book.  I’m sorry that you have to be here, but please-

Ray stopped reading the note as it turned to an apology, setting the book on the shelf as he huffed in annoyance.  If he was going to receive an apology, he was going to receive it directly.  He quickly found the economics book, fittingly sorted into the E section, and pulled it out.  Opening it up to a spot where the pages bulged, dozens of coins fell out and thunked on the soft carpeting.  Flipping to the first page, he set the book down and began reading the note left there as he picked up the spilled coins.

Dear Raymond,
This is a guide to the basic economic structure of Equestria and the surrounding kingdoms.  If you were wondering, yes, bits are made of actual gold, and after some math, one bit equates to thirteen thousand, two hundred dollars.  They also use gems as a form of trade, and the one I used to sample (a four carat) was worth roughly thirty thousand dollars.  Anyways, I really am sorry-

Ray slowly looked down at the coins he was holding in his hand.  He currently held twenty in his palms.  Enough to buy a house at home.  Slowly, he began laughing, shaking his head slightly as he did so.  How quickly the table of life had changed.  Just three days ago, he was a worked kid on the streets of Pittsburg without a purpose but with a life.  Now, he was rich, with enough to completely remake his family’s situation, but no family to do so.  He shoved the coin in his pocket, leaving the rest on the table as he made his way out the door.  
He didn’t have to run this time, but he did anyway.  It was relaxing to just watch the scenery pass as he made his way across the hills in the cool morning air.  A light breeze rustled his messy hair as he made his way to the town.  It passed by in a moment, and he suddenly found himself jogging through the apple trees of Apple Acres.  With a smile, he came across two sleepy looking fillies as they trudged down  the path his way.  
“Hey,” he yelled, gaining their attention.  They looked up from the path and searched for him briefly, before finally making eye contact with him.  He stopped in front of them as he asked, “How was your sleepover?” 
“Oh, it was real fun,” Scootaloo answered before yawning.  Looking a little bleary-eyed as she continued, she said, “Yeah, we stayed up real late, talking and stuff…”
“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle added with her own yawn.  “Although we mostly forgot the sleep part of a sleepover.”
“We gotta go, though,” Scootaloo said, staring back at the sun.  “I’m supposed to check in with my aunts soon.”
“Same with Rarity,” Sweetie agreed.  “Bye.”
Ray smiled as the two began plodding on.  He once again began jogging through the trees before coming across Applejack on the trail.  She was speaking to Big Mac and Sugar Belle in a hushed tone.  Upon noticing him, she let a large grin spread across her face.
“Well-a howdy there, Ray,” she called, waving a hoof in greeting.  “We were just talkin’ aboucha .  Today’s work’s gonna be diff’rent from yesterday’s.  Since we were able to take down most’ve th’ trees, we need ta stump ‘em.  Unfortunately, the stumpin’ tools’re built for ponies, and seein’ as how ye’re a human, ya can’t help us with that business.  Instead, we’re gonna have ya workin’ on splittin’ the trees.  Axes’re on the other side o’ the house, along with the pile.”
Ray nodded in understanding, turning and walking away as he did so.  The three ponies behind him once again began to start up a hushed conversation as he turned, raising his suspicions.  He rounded the house and got to work, picking up the axe laid against the home’s red wall.  As promised, three large piles of dozens of trees laid around the back.  After a quick count, he found each pile had fifty trees in them.  
He started on the first tree by taking off its branches, throwing them into their own pile.  Then, he would chop the tree into three parts, and split those into four even smaller chunks.  He laid those against the side of the house in another separate pile.  The work was noticeably harder than only chopping them down, and soon enough, he was drenched with sweat.  
After what seemed like only mere minutes, Sugar Belle was telling him to come eat lunch.  While eating, he began to learn more of Granny Smith, the Apple’s parents, and the rest of the Apple family.  In return, he told them a bit of his own history.  He left out the darkest, most destructive parts, but even with the more refined version, he had them pitying him.  He simply turned the topic to what Earth was like.  They seemed most interested in aeroplanes and televisions, as in this world, such a thing had been unheard of.  It was extremely difficult to hold his tongue about Earth being a different universe entirely, but whenever he slipped up, Applejack would always find a way to cover it up.  He noticed that the Element of Harmony never lied, but always redirected the words to have a different tone than usual.
After the meal -apple butter sandwiches- he got back to work, sweating profusely as the late summer sun bore down on him.  The work, as tedious as it was, was relaxing, allowing his thoughts to empty into a warm void of nothingness.  It was comfortable, this kind of emptiness that allowed no problems, no strife, to contaminate its gray void.  As he worked, with nothing disturbing his rhythm, he found that this was what he needed more than any therapy.  In a way, this sort of therapeutic tranquility was the only thing that could take the constant questions off his mind.
After another short while, he had finished off the first pile, and had begun moving on to the second one, when he found that the sun had reached its setting stage.  He set off to find Applejack or Big Mac to tell them he was going, when he nearly tripped over little Apple Bloom.  She jumped back at the same time he fell with a surprised curse.  As he came up, he saw her blushing at his language, which in turn made him blush at his own crudeness.  Mentally, he made a note to break the habit.  This wasn’t Earth, so such words were not as acceptable.
“Sorry fer scarin’ ya so bad, Ray,” Apple Bloom apologized.  “I just needed ta ask ya a few questions before you left.  Assumin’ that was what ya were doin’.”
“Yeah, shoot,” he said, earning a grin.
“Howdya feel about becomin’ a member of th’ Apple family?”
Ray smiled sadly as he answered, “Now Apple Bloom, that’s sweet and all, but I think that I couldn’t do that.  Become a member of your family, I mean”
“Well, why not,” she asked with a confused look.  
“It just, doesn’t… feel right,” he answered, looking away from the little pony.  “I may not be able to go back to them, but I still have a family out there.  I can’t just leave them on the third day of being separated with them.  It would be… too early.”
“But wouldn’t yer family wantcha to have somepony to look after ya,” she retorted.  “Don’t you want to have somepony to call your family while yer here.  It doesn’t hafta be permanent or anything, just until ya get back ta ‘em one day.  We could be siblin’s by spirit and not by blood!  It’d be better than no family at all, right?”
Ray’s smile stayed sad as he met her eyes, and before speaking, he knelt down beside her.  Searching her hopeful eyes, he found the usual youthful energy and goodwill that had kept him going back in Pittsburg.  Come to think of it, she wasn’t too unlike Sammy, maybe older, but just as energetic and happy.  It was nice enough that he found himself reaching out and rubbing the top of her head affectionately.  “Sure thing, kid.”  
As he answered, three ponies came around the side of the red house, all with wide grins on their faces as they smiled at their new family member.  Before he knew it, they had wrapped their front hooves around him in a furry group hug.  Ray squeezed them all as tightly as he could without hurting them, tears slipping out of his closed eyes.  He would never admit it out loud, but this was really what he needed, what he really wanted.  This way, he had a connection here, something to tether him to his own life and purpose.  If these four were to be his family, then he would truly be connected to this land, an appendage of an irreplaceable piece of the town.  Finally, he was truly an Equestrian, a citizen of this land and inhabitant of one of its towns, a member of one of its families.  Except..
“Don’t we need to do some paperwork or something,” he asked into somepony’s mane.  That somepony turned out to be Applejack as she answered, “Yup, but that can wait for later.  Right now, let’s just stay like this.”  
He mumbled his agreement as he felt Apple Bloom nuzzle in closer to his stomach… He gasped as her nose met a familiar patch of scarred skin, drawing back breathlessly as he pressed his hand against the burning spot.  The four ponies gave him confused looks at his sudden movement.  No, three ponies.  Applejack seemed to know exactly what was going on in his head, where her sister had touched him.
“Now what was that all about,” Big Mac asked with a slightly suspicious tone.  
Using a lie he had already trained for in his past life, he answered, “That just… tickled.”
Instantly, suspicion turned to mischief as Apple Bloom launched herself onto his neck.  She rubbed her hoof over his sensitive neck, the longer bits of her fur brushing his neck in a way not too unlike a feather.  He laughed involuntarily, the nerves in his neck crying out as they were assaulted with fur and keratin.  The smooth substance seemed to be made for such things, as it made his skin want to jerk off his neck.  
He shot his hands back at the little filly, tickling around her neck and under her chin.  This seemed to have no effect, so he pulled out his cheat card, catching her behind her ears.  The effect was immediate, her breath catching as he rubbed the sensitive spot.  Her efforts were lost as she sank into his hand, eyes going lidded with the rubbing, a soft nicker escaping her mouth.  She pulled back in surprise, disdain in her eye at the unusual sound he had pulled from her lips.
“Now that ain’t one bit fair,” she complained.  Despite her disdain, there was still a fair amount of mischief in her eye.  Instead of responding, Ray simply grinned and stood.  Looking around at the four equines, he realized they adults were sharing smiles with each other.  His smile fell as a new thought came to his mind.  
They’re my responsibility now.  If the minotaurs get through, it’ll be my fault they died.  I’ll have caused the death of my own family.
His eyebrows fell into an involuntary glare at the thought, clenching his fists to keep himself from biting down his lip.  Unfortunately, the gesture was noticed by everypony.  Eyebrows quirked up in confusion at his new demeanor, and Sugar Belle asked, “What’s wrong now?”
Thinking quickly, he blurted out, “I need to use the outhouse.”
Applejack immediately began to laugh, and soon enough the other two girls had joined in, hooting with laughter.  Big Mac simply snorted in amusement, pointing at the outhouse less than twenty feet away.  
“There’s always that for use,” he commented.  “We try to be civil ‘round these parts.”
“Nah,” Ray said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.  “I need to go home anyways, and this’ll only speed up the process.”  He waved his goodbye and took off running without any second thoughts.  
As he raced through the orchard, his thoughts stayed constricted around the previous ten minute’s events.  He was now (unofficially) a member of the Apple Family.  On the paper, it didn’t sound bad, but the fine print told him otherwise.  If he were to fail in protecting Equestria, his new family’s blood would now be on his hands, as well as on his heart.  Worse, however, was the fact that he would now be missed if indeed he did die on the battlefield.  
In his head, he had always imagined letting himself die when victory was assured.  Now, with connections in his life, living was now added onto the impossible list of things to do.  He mentally slapped himself for allowing his feelings to cloud his judgement.  Even though becoming a member of one of the families in Equestria was benefiting for a moment, when war came, it would be a liability.  Or maybe not.  He had a solid foundation now, something he had to fight for with more vigor and violence.
He sped up, as the call for nature became realer than the fib he’d told the Apple’s.  He ignored anything else as he ran, his head racing through all that had happened today.  So much, but also so little.  In spite of being… “adopted”... the actual term for his situation was unknown to him, he had spent most of the day working.  The thought was almost funny.  He had expected a normal today?  Of course not!  Where did he think he was, back on Earth?  
Rushing down a hill, and then back up, he found he was being tailed by something.  It was a brief moment, but in the corner of his eye, he saw something white and pink colored flash in a small bush along the side of the road.  He grimaced at it, picking up his pace to his fastest, dashing past the guilty bush, silently praying something wouldn’t just randomly reach out and grab him.  Instead, he felt himself stop completely, entrapped in a sparkly golden aura.  The bush rustled as something stepped out of its hiding spot.
It was another pony, this one chest high, with a clean white coat.  It took Ray a moment to see both the wings on its back and horn on its head, signifying it was an alicorn.  It was also a she, based on its sleek figure and curled eyebrows.  Her mane and tail were interesting, floating and gently flowing through the air like waving sparkly flags of sea green, lime, blueberry, and pink.  Despite being held hostage by the alicorn, he felt no fear towards her.  She was studying him with an inquisitive gaze, her bubble gum pink eyes seeming to stare deeper than his skin.  
Another rustle came from behind as a more concealed figure left their hiding spot to get a better view of him.  From the wavey night sky hair and deep lapis lazuli coat, he could tell that it was the mare from his nightmare last night.  His eyes widened as dozens of thoughts raced through his head about what could be happening at the moment, none of them good.  He assumed that the radiant pony holding him captive was the Princess of the Night’s sister, as she seemed to be completely comfortable with the arrival of the second alicorn.  
“Do you see it yet, Tia,” the dark Princess asked with concern, her brow scrunched.  
“No,” the alicorn, Tia, responded.  “Not yet.”
“What’s going on here,” a sudden voice asked.  Jerking his head towards the source of the question, he recognized the flying form of Fluttershy.  She had a confused expression on her face, as if randomly coming across her new friend getting mugged by two demigods was merely a curious spectacle, not an alarming situation.  Luna had also turned to the buttercream pegasus, looking none the bit concerned she had been found out.  
“Nothing, dear Fluttershy,” Luna replied.  “We just saw something very concerning amongst the memories of Twilight’s chosen champion.  My sister and I were simply checking to see exactly what the offending image truly was.”
“I’m not her champion,” he growled, glaring at the alicorns.  “And I don’t want you poking around my head.”
“Unfortunately, that only strengthens our resolve,” Tia shot back, her closed eyes scrunching.  She had shut them at some point, and her head was now leaning in towards his chest.  Ray suddenly felt something like a prick inside of his head, and he heard Celestia grunt as she penetrated his mental walls.  
“Now, Princesses, I know it isn’t my place to say so, but, isn’t reading somepony else’s mind a little…” Fluttershy trailed off as Luna stared at her.
“No, Fluttershy,” she said, “it’s a lot.”
Fluttershy nodded slowly, landing beside Luna.  “It’s not hurting him, is it,” she asked her, looking even more concerned.  “And such extreme measures?”
“Because we believe that this human our dear friend Twilight brought may be more of a danger to Equestria than the vicious beasts he’s to fight,” Luna replied curtly.  
“Now that’s just not true,” Fluttershy responded, giving the two alicorns a glare.  “Ray would never hurt anypony!”
A sudden gasp from Tia broke off any retort from Luna.  All three looked at her in confusion as her face contorted into various expressions, none of them testifying in Ray’s favor.  Scrunching his eyes closed, he tried to focus on any irregularity in his mind.  Instantly, he found what felt like a tiny stone in the center of his head.  Something about the sensation sent Ray into a panicked frenzy.  Reaching deep inside his own mind, he imagined a hand reaching out to grab the stone and throw it as hard as he could.  Before he could finish the vision, however, the stone vanished, along with the feeling of being held.
Ray lurched forward as the magical barrier that had held him disappeared, the sparkly gold fading instantaneously.  The alicorn stumbled back a couple of steps, and despite her offsettled nature, she held his gaze with an iron determination.  There were tears in them, and he knew exactly what she had seen in the depths of his mind.  It was beyond him why she wasn’t impaling him with her horn at the moment with the knowledge she now held.  Then again, ponies were generally strange creatures.  
Instead, she bowed to him, eyes to the ground as she apologized.  “I’m sorry for this,” Tia said, turning to her sister.  “Come on, Luna.  It’s not as you feared.  Quite the opposite.”  Looking back at Ray over her shoulder, she continued.  “I’m sorry for what happened to you.  I will tell nopony else but my sister about those events.”
Ray tried to not let his anger show, instead opting to kill them into stone faced submission.  He watched as the two alicorns disappeared in a flash of gold and purple.  Turning, he found Fluttershy floating in front of his face.  Her hooves were crossed in front of her, one of her eyebrows raised in a questioning matter, face flat.  
“There’s something we should talk about,” Ray stated, turning to his house and walking up the path.
> Tea
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Walking alongside Ray, Fluttershy could see the tension he held for whatever he was about to tell her.  His shoulders were pulled up, the muscles showing through the shirt he wore.  There was an air of seclusion around him, like he was trying to deny the presence of everpony besides himself.  He seemed to be stuck in his head, silently moving towards a fixed destination without any conscious decision.  Fluttershy felt her eyebrows lower into a V of concern.  
There was something wrong with him, that much was easy to tell.  If the Princesses had thought him dangerous, he must’ve done something to drive them to the extremes they had gone.  A slow thought crawled over her.  It was horrible and made her want to apologize to Ray instantly for even thinking it, but a small part of her held back.  In case that horrible, wretched thought was even partially true, for even a moment.  Fluttershy shivered, stuttering her step so that she was now just out of arm's reach if she truly was in danger.  Not that she was, but, just in case.
She stared at the path as her inner battle continued, wishing that her terrible thoughts would just vanish.  She kept her eyes to the path, not daring even the chance of meeting Ray’s eyes.  She didn’t know anything about humans, and that included the fact that they might be able to read minds.  It was a ridiculous thought, really, but there was always that small chance… 
Fluttershy’s head bumped against the back of Ray’s leg, causing her to look up with a blush on her face.  He seemed to barely notice beyond stepping closer to the door to his house, looking as if his own thoughts had consumed him.  He gripped the handle, mindlessly entering the building.  With a deep breath, Fluttershy followed him inside.
The home was larger than hers, and she didn’t mean that as in square footage.  She had noticed it the other night at the party, but now that there was nopony else around to obscure her view, she could see that the ceiling was twice as high as hers.  It made sense, seeing as Ray was almost four times her height, but it was still mind-boggling.  The front room, which she had only a brief glance at before, was lightly furnished but otherwise comfy-looking.  She felt herself easing into the area, at least, until Ray plopped down on the wooden rocking chair in the corner.
He rested his head in his hands with a sigh heavy enough that it made Fluttershy feel as if she was being pressed to the floor.  Sitting like that, he suddenly looked three times his age, his hand running through his hair as he looked up at her, expression unreadable.  He seemed to be waiting for her to do something, so she moved over and sat on the lapis lazuli sofa.  His eyes tried to follow her the entire way, but they dropped off halfway through her short journey to the sofa.
Fluttershy tilted her head expectantly toward him, her ears twitching in anticipation for whatever noise he might make.  He sat silently, his eyes trained on an unseen point on the ground.  It was then that she saw how pained they looked, as if he was being reminded of something beyond her knowledge.  The best explanation she had for it was the look of a kicked puppy, which made her feel even worse.
“There’s one rule to knowing me, to being my friend.”  The suddenness of his voice made Fluttershy jump, but his eyes were still focused on the ground.  She nodded anyways, not knowing if he saw.  Either way, he continued.  “Don’t ever ask me about my past, at least, not what happened in December in Pittsburg… December…” He took a deep breath.  “It was bad.”
Fluttershy bit back her questions, seeing that the human friend before her needed her right now.  Slowly, she felt herself nodding.  Without looking, Ray returned the nod as he began chewing the bottom of his lip.  He didn’t seem to mind the silence following as he continued to keep his eyes fixated on the ground in front of him.  Fluttershy looked from the young human to the point on the floor he was staring at, then back.  
After another couple seconds of silence, she asked, “Do you have tea?”
He finally looked up at her to answer, and something about his eyes made her breath catch in her throat.  She tried to ignore it, but the moment was so long, so memorable, that it blocked out the noise of his answer.  Shaking her head, she tried to even remember what she had asked, but found her mind drawing a blank.  She blushed as she said, “I’m sorry.  I-I think my mind was just a bit out of it a moment ago.  Could you please answer it again… please?”
Ray gave her a knowing smile, before saying, “Yeah, I have some tea.  I would offer to make it, but I’ve never drank it before, let alone made it.”
“That’s okay,” Fluttershy responded, brightening up at the prospect of a topic change.  “I can teach you.  It’s really quite lovely once you get good at making it.  Not that I doubt your abilities, it just took me near a hundred times to get it right, but I’m sure you’ll do better.”  Her blush deepened slightly as she muttered, “I was always scared of being burned.”
His smile seemed sad as he continued to give it to her, prompting her to ask, “Why do you smile like that?”
He frowned.  “Like what?”
She paused from getting up off the sofa to tap a thoughtful hoof on her chin.  She had to think a moment before answering, “Like the world is gray and there isn’t anything left worth smiling for.  Like all the life just dulled and the sun no longer shines as bright as before.  Like you can’t laugh without forcing yourself to.”
Ray looked slightly amused by the eloquent description, though it faded so quickly that she thought for a moment that it was only her imagination.  With a deep sigh that bore enough sadness to lower her spirits, he replied, “The world’s different once you’ve seen it through a splash of blood.”
Fluttershy felt her jaw drop slightly.  She didn’t know what he had seen, but he had just revealed that he had seen something of death.  And, apparently, it hadn’t been pretty.  She found that now she was staring at the ground, halfway from standing as she felt Ray’s eyes searching her.  She stood abruptly, snapping her jaw shut and hopping off the couch.  She began walking to where she knew the kitchen was by memory, looking back expectantly.  Their eyes met, and she could see him trying to read her and her silence, to which she broke with, “Well, I don’t really know where you keep the tea, so you’ll have to show.  If you want it, that is.”
He stood without speaking, striding past her, though their eyes never broke connection.  He finally had to, however, when he turned the corner into the kitchen, and Fluttershy felt herself release held breath.  What had made her do that, she contemplated as she followed him into the room.  He wasn’t so intimidating that she was now fearing him.  Maybe it was just his stark grey eyes, or the way he seemed to have emotions under lockdown in the most intriguing way.  She shook her head yet again.  What was going on with her?
She hastily followed him into the kitchen, finding that he was standing cross-armed by an open pantry door, a small box of bagged ginger tea on the counter.  Had she really been standing there thinking that long?  She resisted the urge to shake her head yet again, instead stepping closer.  
“What do we need to do first,” he asked.  He seemed to be avoiding asking what was really on his mind, opting instead to distract from it.
Not wanting to push the point, she answered, “Well, if you want your tea to be warm, you’re going to want to boil some water in a kettle or something.”  Ray moved silently to one of the lower cupboards, pulling out a copper kettle and filling it with water from the tap.  She watched him carefully as he placed it on the burner, turning the heat on high without her telling him so.  The quick movements and hurried sense he gave off testified to his trying to keep his mind preoccupied.  However, no matter how hard she tried to see past his eyes, she couldn’t see anything but his steel wall irises.
“Okay, now you need to pull out a couple of cups, preferably porcelain so it doesn’t ruin the plastic.  Put a bag of tea in each cup and pour the hot water into it once it starts boiling,” she instructed.  He continued to move quickly, pulling out the requested items and continuing to make the tea as she spoke.  “Usually for these kinds of things we have biscuits or sandwiches to the side, and sugarcubes to put in, but we’ll have to make do.  If that’s alright with you, that is.”
Ray simply nodded as he carefully poured the now steaming water into the two porcelain teacups.  He silently went back into his pantry, returning with a small tub of sugarcubes.  He picked up both of the teacups by their handle in one hand and kept the tub in the other.  Fluttershy attempted to help him carry it, but with a single gesture, he dismissed them and motioned her to the front room.  Realizing his mistake she cried, “You need a coaster unless you want to burn your legs!”
Ray gave her a sidelong glance with a wry smile that seemed artificial and forced.  He paused, turning back enough to tell her, “Hot pads are in the second to bottom drawer under the sink.  Don’t really know if I have any coasters, but those’ll do the trick.”
Fluttershy nodded in agreement, turning to retrieve the hot pads.  When she reentered the room, Ray was sitting calmly on the wooden rocking chair, staring out of the window.  He looked as if he was once again lost in his thoughts, the teacups in his hand slowly falling towards his legs.  She wanted to move to sit on the sofa beside him, but she found that she was hypnotized by his form.  He was sitting there, looking all the worn old stallion he could, even though she knew he was nine years younger than her.  
Something about it was intriguing, yet saddening at the same time.  This young human looked so alone, so impartial to the world he was living in that it made her heart break.  He even had those same lost eyes she had seen in Discord the first time he had truly opened up.  Other than, it seemed to be the opposite in this case.  The more they conversed, the more he seemed to conceal himself and guard his secrets.  It was frustrating beyond words, but she had no place to object.  He had been foalnapped from his own world no matter how awful and-
“I’m a member of the Apple family now,” Ray suddenly spoke, still staring out of the window.  It took more than a second for Fluttershy to realize what he meant as she moved to the sofa, trying to place the hot pad as discreetly as she could on his knee.  He extended one of the cups to her, which she took with a hoof.  He finally peeled his eyes away from the window to give her a look, making sure none of the tea spilled in the transaction.  “Not yet, actually.  We still have a bunch of paperwork to put through at Town Hall, but they basically took me in right there and then.  It actually seemed to Applebloom’s idea.  She was the one who asked.”
“And you said yes,” Fluttershy asked, instantly feeling like an idiot for asking.  Of course he had.  He had just said he was a member of the Apple family.  
Ray still answered her, though it wasn’t what she expected to hear.  “Regrettably, yes.”
“Regrettably,” she questioned, tipping her head to the side in confusion.  Why would he regret agreeing to being a member of any family.  At that, why would he regret choosing to be a member of the Apples.  They were probably the best family in Ponyville, and definitely gave the most benefits.  Her mouth began watering at the thought of their zap apple jam spread over morning toast.
“Regrettably,” he confirmed, his face grim.  With a deep breath, he continued, “The plan had always been to fight as long as I could, and then, in the end, I would just let myself die.  But now, I have a family that keeps me connected to this world.  A direct bridge from my world to yours, if you will, that tethers me to life.  Before, I was free to die without any consequences.  Now…”
“What,” Fluttershy exclaimed in horror, shooting out of her seat and spilling her tea.  “How could you say such an awful thing?  Why would you ever, ever think such a thing about yourself?  Don’t you know you have friends here that would miss you once you were gone?”
“Friends,” he scoffed indignantly.  “Are  you claiming to be my friend?”
Lifting her chin, she declared, “Why yes I am.  Why not?”
“For one, you and I have hardly met each other past a couple conversations, and for two, I am not one to make friends with.” He paused, licking his lips before continuing, “If you knew the half of what I’ve done in the past-”
“I wouldn’t care,” she interrupted firmly.  “Whatever it was you did, I know that isn’t you anymore.  I can see it.  And I know that I, or anypony for that matter, could come to love you for who you are!” 
“Even if it meant loving a murderer,” he shouted back.  Dead silence filled the room, and Fluttershy could feel her jaw once again drop in surprise.  Ray looked down towards the rug once again, but this time his guard broke.  She could see the fear of hurting somepony in his eyes, the self hate for whatever he had done in the past.  He was biting his bottom lip now as his eyes teared up.  She tried to speak, to say anything at all, but her voice failed her.  Instead, a pitiful squeak was all that came out.  She looked down, sitting down in contemplation.
He couldn’t really be a… that awful thing could he?  He was so young, but, then again, so old.  It would make sense now, everything he said about it and all of his actions thus far.  He wasn’t a normal human, that much anypony could assume, but he was much more than just a special case.  He seemed to be something else entirely, not just an abducted boy from a different world, but a being like nothing else in any world.  She had never wondered about alternate worlds, alternate universes, until now.  Then again, her world had never been much bigger than caring for animals, even after all of her experiences outside of Ponyville, she’d been able to go back to her little cabin.  Now, without him, there would be no going back if Equestria fell to those brutes Twilight had described.  Twilight…
“That’s why Twilight chose you, isn’t it,” she asked quietly.  “Because of… whatever your past was like?”  Instead of receiving an answer, she heard a sniffle from the corner where Ray was sitting.  Looking back up at him, she saw that he already had several tear streaks down his face, a fresh tear silently rolling out of the corner of his eye.  She nearly gasped, but stopped herself.  Now was not the time for interrogation.  Right now, her friend was going through something terrible and needed her to help him, even if she didn’t really know how.  
She suddenly felt selfish about what she’d just been doing.  Who was she to try and get him to disclose his secrets to others that he had barely met.  He was right, they hardly even knew each other, so why did she have the right to know his deepest secrets?  Even worse, she had badgered him to the point of tears, which made her feel like crying herself.  She dived onto him, wrapping her hooves tightly around his neck, nuzzling her cheek against his.  He made a noise of surprise, but quickly returned the hug.
She tucked her cheek against his neck as he extended his neck to place his head on hers.  His arms wrapped around her back and tucked under her wings to complete the hug.  His longer arms were able to reach not only her back, but also reach all the way up to her head.  She suddenly felt something scratching on the inside of her ear.  It was a strange, but welcome sensation, taking an itch she didn’t know she had away and leaving her wanting for more.  She leaned her head into his hand involuntarily, silently asking for more of the wonderful feeling, to which he granted.
They stayed like that for longer than Fluttershy realized, as the sun began setting in the distance, giving the room an orange look.  After a while longer, the smell of tea reminded her of their original intentions.  Looking down at the area where she had spilled her tea, she grimaced.  She would have to remember to give him bits for the cost of having it cleaned out.  He seemed to notice her movement, lifting his head off hers, looking where she was.  His tearstained face seemed to understand her worry as he looked down at her, smiling softly.
“You don’t have to worry about that,” he muttered, reaching an arm out from around her bodice to wipe his eyes.  He swallowed and sniffed.  She hadn’t realized it, but he had set an empty tea cup to the side.  
“You drank your tea,” she said with a mixture of surprise and delight.  Then, quirking her head to the side in confusion, asking, “Did you drink that tea without any sugar?”  He nodded with a wry smile.  “How was it.”
After a moment of thoughtful contemplation, he answered, “Bittersweet.”	
She giggled at that.  She didn’t really know why, and she instantly began blushing after she did.  This in turn made Ray smirk, and Fluttershy giggled once again.  She got off of his lap, waiting for him to stand and followed him into the kitchen.  She didn’t really know why Ray was heading to the kitchen, but she knew that she didn’t want to be alone in a room in someone else’s house.  It just felt… awkward.  
He opened a few drawers, looking for something, before finally finding the correct one.  Pulling out a dish towel, he began moving back to the front room.  Seeing the purpose for the towel, Fluttershy told him, “Oh, you don’t want to have just that.  You need a carpet cleaner of some sort.  Otherwise, the tea will end up permanently staining your carpet.”
He nodded in understanding, moving back to the drawers in search of some cleaner.  As her eyes tracked him, they glanced over the stovetop clock, which read…
“6:47,” she yelped in surprise.  “Oh, gosh!  Is that really the time?”
Ray looked over at the clock and answered, “Well, I think it is.  It’s what I’ve been using, so either it’s on time or the Apples have been to lenient with my timing.”
Panic filled Fluttershy as she remembered that she had promised to meet Discord at the Barly Palace at seven.  That gave her barely enough time to get over there, let alone getting dressed.  And if she was late, oh what would he think?  She knew Discord better than anypony, and if he found out about her being late for the first time because she was with Ray, well, drama was sure to unfold.  
Turning to Ray, she stammered out, “I’m really sorry about having to leave so soon, but I forgot that I’d previously planned to go on a date with Discord tonight!”
“So you two are dating,” he questioned as she turned to leave.  She was glad for it, because she could instantly feel her face heat up like an oven.  Instead of answering, she rushed into the front room and out of the door.  She felt awful about it, but she knew she couldn’t be honest with him if she answered his question.  She began flying as she passed the garden she and Angel Bunny had planted outside, flying as quickly as she could towards Ponyville.  
The wind blew in her hair, reminding her that she hadn’t had the time to brush it, let alone clean it, after she had helped Angel Bunny’s mate with birthing.  She would just have to hope she didn’t smell like the bodily fluids that were spilled during birth.  She knew that Ray was too kind to mention that kind of thing, but with Discord, the whole matter was unpredictable.  Besides, with Ray’s small nose, maybe he didn’t smell that kind of thing.  
She landed in the center of town, looking this way and that, trying to remember if the Barly Palace was to the left or right from the town house.  After taking a wild guess she darted to the left.  She recognized a building not far from the restaurant, and she turned in the direction she now recognized where the building would be.  She stopped briefly to take a breath, spotting the elegant sign that hung above the entrance depicting a silver pony maitre’d holding a covered plater bordered by gold strands of barley.  
The place was too fancy for Discord’s taste, that much she knew, so he ad to have something special planned for the evening.  She briefly wondered what they might be, but stopped to finish the distance between her and the front door.  A gray unicorn with a brown goatee and slicked back mane stood beside the door, looking at a clipboard on a pedestal.  
“Ms. Fluttershy, if I am correct,” the stallion asked, eyeing her and the clipboard.  
“Correct,” she answered, out of breath from her run.  The pony nodded and opened the double glass doors with his magic, gesturing her in.  She did so, slightly confused that he wasn’t wearing a clown costume or something else silly.  It seemed that Discord hadn’t arrived yet.  Another pony, an orange mare with a white mane was there to escort her to her seat.  
Fluttershy watched her surroundings intently, looking for any signs of oddities or general chaos.  She found nothing but fancy ponies sitting at fancy chairs waiting to get their order of fancy food.  The walls were the same fancy black marble with soft candles in them, and the chairs and tables were the same fancy, well carved spruce.  She actually found herself slightly disappointed at it, seeing as all of their dates thus far had left her laughing and slightly dizzy.  She was so busy studying her surroundings that she almost ran headlong into her waitress, who stood by a normal table set for two.
“Your seat, madam,” she said calmly.  Fluttershy nodded as the waitress left, looking around suspiciously.  There had to be a touch of Discord around here somewhere.  Looking around, she found an clock on a far wall.  Squinting to see it, she saw that it read 6:58.  Maybe he wasn’t here yet…?  She continued to deliberate it as she took her seat.  As soon as her hindquarters were firmly settled on the chair, the world began to spin.
Before she knew it, the world stilled, leaving her eyes spinning as a familiar voice cheerfully shouted, “Greetings!”
As her head settled back onto her shoulders, she looked around, finding herself in a drastically different room than before.  The walls seemed to be made of large green, blue, and yellow balloons, making it look like a bouncy castle.  There was a stage made of sugarcubes, with Discord standing in the center.  He wore a serious looking tuxedo, but the situation in which it was worn seemed more to be satirical than for solemn purpose.  She already found herself giggling at the sight, and she’d only been in the room for a good five seconds.
Discord gave her a sly smile as he cried, “Well, isn’t this a pleasant surprise we have tonight!  Our very own Fluttershy has had the blessed opportunity to join us tonight.  Let’s all give her a big round of applause.”
A large group of Discords appeared around her, all clapping with their hands levitating in a circle.  She giggled once again as the Discords cheered for her, a small blush glowing on her cheeks at the attention.  They all vanished as Discord teleported to the seat in front of beside her, slightly startling her.  He wore a loopy grin as he asked, “Surprised?”
“Yes,” she answered modestly, “and pleasantly so.”
“Good, good,” he said juberously.  “I had hoped as much.”
“You did well on this one,” she complimented, taking in more of the bizarre scenery.  “It’s very… energetic.”
“Well, you know,” he said, twirling his hand around, “when you mix a little Pinkie with Discprd and add a smidge of Ray, you get a strange work.”
“What do you mean, Ray,” she asked, earning a double take from the Lord of Chaos.
“Oh, you know, his strangely natural height and vague curiosity.”
“I… don’t,” she muttered, her mind drifting off as she remembered the encounter on the road with the Princesses and subsequent discussion they’d had.  Discord continued to speak, but Fluttershy didn’t hear it as her mind began to drift involuntarily to their discussion.  It replayed over and over as Discord began to serve food and simultaneously perform all sorts of feats with his chaos magic.  She laughed halfheartedly at his jokes and managed nods convincing enough for Discord to not notice… at first.  However, after fifteen minutes of the facade, he noticed his date’s absentmindedness.  
“Fluttershy,” he began tentatively, snapping her out of her reverie.  “What’s wrong?  I know it has to be something on your mind, so could you please tell me what it is?”
Fluttershy knew there was no point in trying to deny it, so instead she asked him, “Discord, you said you could see somepony’s past with a touch of the hoof.  Did you see into Ray’s past?”
A grimace passed over his face, briefly, but in enough time that she could see the pain it held.  After several seconds of silence, he muttered, “Yes.  Yes I have.”  After another bout of silence, he added with solemnity that was rarely heard from the draconequus, “The kid’s been through some rough stuff, stuff you wouldn’t understand.”  
“Is it true, though, that he’s a… a… murderer,” she asked, afraid of the answer. 
Concern and confusion passed over Discord’s face in a waterfall of emotion as he considered.  Finally, he answered, “No, he is not a murderer.  Just… something else.”
A wave of relief flooded over her at the news as a separate wave of confusion collided with it.  How could he be something else?  And why did he view himself as a murderer if he really wasn’t?  The questions vanished as she felt the cool scales of his eagle paw wrap around her hoof.  She gasped at the familiar yet sensational feeling, looking up into the concerned eyes of her dearest friend.
“What brings up the question,”  he asked, his eyes boring into hers. 
“I came across Princess Celestia and Princess Luna interrogating him… I think,” she replied.  Discord nodded, muttering something about seeing it too.  Before she could ask, he leaned forward and grabbed her from under her forelegs, causing her to gasp at the suddenness.  He lifted her into the air, pulling her close in a vaguely risque motion, renewing her blush in full force. 
“How about we just dance tonight,” he suggested, not a hint of mischief in his eyes.  She nodded faintly, trying to remember to breath with their closeness.  “Yeah,” she murmured slowly, “that would be nice.”
Slowly, the room transformed into a ballroom as the two became one in an unsaid dance, their rhythm matching but distinctly different as the silence was dominated by the physicality of the two dancing their concerns away.
> Ado/aptions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ray awoke with a start as the bright morning sun shone through the window.  A combination of drawn back curtains and  perfect positioning with a touch of golden sun allowed the light instant access to his eyes.  He rubbed them sleepily as he moved out of the ray’s blinding path, sitting up against the sofa.  His neck was sore from the awkward position in which he had slept, and his back felt tight.  Standing, he twisted his core from side to side, earning several large cracks. He did the same with his neck,  earning more cracks and sighing in relief as the slight discomfort left him.
He started walking into the kitchen, squinting against the golden sunlight that filtered through the window and filled the rest of the room.  Crossing into the kitchen, he saw that the clock read 5:43 a.m, much earlier than he would have woken up with his alarm.  With slight worry, he wondered what would’ve happened if he had accidentally slept in past when he was supposed to be at work.  He was only three days into the job after all, and showing up late so early into his career there did not seem like a good thing.
He lightly slapped a hand over his eyes, rubbing his head thoughtfully, trying to remember exactly why he had ended waking up on the couch.  He had been cleaning up tea, thinking about what they had talked about, and -oh yeah, that made sense now.  He’d remembered it.  That night.  December in Pittsburg.  
He shook his head before he could be sucked back into his head like he had last night.  He’d remembered enough!  It was his past now, a past life to be left where it was supposed to be, not with multicolored ponies too kind for their own good.  He didn’t need it haunting him in his every thought, waiting for him in every shadow, jumping at him around every corner.  
He grumbled a couple indecent strings of profanity to clear his mind as he reached into the fridge.  Since he was up so early, he figured he would give himself a proper breakfast, something he hadn’t had since he’d arrived here.  Chuckling at himself as he pulled some milk and eggs from the fridge, he thought of how peculiar his situation was.  If somebody had told him five days ago that he was to be teleported to another world to fight a war for the pony inhabitants, he would have asked which dealer they were using.
He got out a small bowl and three of the eggs from the carton, cracking them into the bowl and beating them.  He mixed in a small amount of milk before he turned the burner, putting the smallest skillet he had on it.  As he put the milk and eggs away, he pulled out the butter, using a fork from one of the drawers to scrape it into the skillet.  As the butter finished melting, he poured the eggs into the skillet, rinsing out the bowl afterwards.  He searched for a spatula for a second before discovering it under some ladles.  Turning back to his eggs, he began to stir them around.  Finding them not quite in their solidifying stage, he rushed to pull out two slices of bread and put them in the toaster.  When he returned to the eggs, he found them solidifying and began scraping it around the pan with the spatula.  
Within two minutes, the eggs were well cooked and the toast popped out of the toaster.  He threw a little more butter into the skillet as he pulled it off the heated stove, turning it off and grabbing the toast.  He piled the eggs back into the sink, putting his fork in the hot mix so the remaining butter would melt off.  He pulled some jam out of the fridge and a spoon from the cubby, spreading the jam across the bread haphazardly.he took his meal and sat in the front room, watching the rising sun as he ate.
He briefly wondered what the day would hold, but then figured that  the best way to find out was to live it.  He sighed contentedly as he ate, the eggs and toast being the perfect meal for the peaceful morning.  He thought for a moment, then stood and went to the door.  Opening it, he left the house, walking out towards the open green hills.  The soft grass tickled his feet as he walked off the gravel path, the chill morning dew wetting them.  He smiled at the sensation, the peaceful morning smell of wet grass mixing with the aroma of buttered eggs and toasted bread.  He continued to eat as he moved, going down one hill and coming to the top of another in short time.  
Content with the spot, he sat, not minding the fact that the dew was seeping through his pants.  He crossed his legs, setting the bowl in his lap and finishing off his bread as he looked around.  Sunlight sparkled off of the morning dew, making the grass look as if it had been sprinkled in droplets of gold.  He smiled at the irony.  Gold seemed to be almost as common as pennies were back home, with gems and diamonds also as forms of common currency.  He wondered how the ponies thought of the scenery.  Gold was such a rare and valued thing on Earth, with people fighting for control over it, but here, it was just another piece of the market, like the dollar bill or pound.
He looked over at the mountains, wondering what it would be like to camp on them.  He’d never gone camping, at least, not that he could remember.  He fantasized of sleeping under the stars in an open clearing, a small fire dismissing the dark and cold.  He imagined hiking to the top, the peaceful serenity of the mountains taking over his thoughts and actions, the beauty of nature and the wonder of life surrounding him.  Shoveling another scoop of eggs into his mouth, he chewed thoughtfully.  
Life seemed much more abundant here, as if God had replaced all of the conflict here with beauty.  If God existed in a different universe, that is.  He stared off in space, slowly eating his eggs as he pondered such things.  He was a Christian, though not as devout as his parents and siblings.  He’d been too busy surviving, too stubborn to accept his Creator’s help.  His Maker had given him this situation, so he must have been designed strong enough to take it in stride.  Grunting in annoyance at his thoughts, he suddenly felt a sharp tapping on his knee.
Looking down, he found a small brown bird pecking the crumbs off his pants.  Smiling slightly at the sight, he carefully reached down.  The bird didn’t even flinch away from him as he pet it on its head, instead continuing to peck at the tiny morsels on his leg and inner thigh.  Wait, inner thigh... He moved to block, but it was too late.
The bird, searching for more crumbs pecked at his groin, scoring a direct hit on a particularly sensitive spot.  He yelped in pain as he buckled inward, frightening the bird into the sky.  It twittered at him angrily, as he pressed on the sensitive spot, grimacing slightly as he tried not to yell at the bird.  It was only an animal, he argued with himself, sitting back up and letting a deep breath out.  The bird continued to twitter at him angrily, so he turned to it.
“Yeah, sorry for scaring you, but do you have any idea what you just hit,” he asked sardonically.  Instead of continuing to twitter, it landed on the ground in front of him, cocking its head to the side as it listened.  Slightly astonished at the fact that it was actually listening to him, he said, “Do you know where you pecked me?”
He felt silly for asking a bird such a question, but the bird responded by shaking its head from side to side.  He looked down at the little bird, a small smile crossing his face.  “Nevermind,” he told it.  “You wouldn’t understand anyways.”  After a moment of hesitation, he amended, “Not that you wouldn’t understand me, you just, well… ugh, nevermind.”
The bird twittered in supposed laughter, to which he responded jokingly, “Oh shut up, you!  I’d ask you your name, but you’d just twitter, and I don’t think Twitter is a good name for a bird.”  The bird nodded in agreement, ruffling its wings slightly.  It looked up at him, a small twinkle in its eye.  With a little chuckle, Ray spoke up.  “I don’t even know if you’re a girl or boy.  Here, how about if you nod when I say your correct gender.  Girl?”  The bird's head stayed still. “So I guess you’re a boy, then.”  Once again, the bird’s head stayed still, though it twittered in the equivalent of a chuckle.  Rolling his eyes, he instructed, “Stop messing with me.  Just please work with me.”  The brown bird nodded, encouraging him to continue with, “So are you a girl?”  It -she nodded.  “Great!  And just for clarification, you aren’t a boy?”
She shook her head.  Ray’s smile dropped flat.  “Oh c’mon!  Don’t play me like that.”  The bird twittered cheekily, leaving Ray with his head in his hands as he let out an annoyed groan  “You’re a right git, you know?”  The bird only chuckled in response.  “Yeah yeah, look at you, the cleverest bird on the hill.
“Her name is Otolo,” a voice said from behind, making Ray jump slightly.  Turning, he found Fluttershy there, a soft smile on her face as she approached from the air.  He hadn’t noticed her, probably due to the fact that even now that he was listening for it, he couldn’t hear her wing beats.  She looked from the bird to him then back to the bird, smiling.  “  I found her when she was just a baby bird.  She had a cut on her wing and I couldn’t find her nest, so I took her back to my cottage.  Sorry for the intrusion.  I was flying over to Zecora’s this morning for some medicine for Angel Bunny’s poor mate to help her with birthing pains, and I couldn’t help but notice that you were talking to somepony rather… loudly.”
Ray refused to blush at the fact that he was losing an argument with a tiny brown bird, instead opting to ask, “Who’s Zecora?”
Still smiling, she answered.  “She’s the local zebra.  She makes potions for us and lives in the Everfree.  She tends to get lonely out there by herself, so I visit her biweekly to cheer her up.  This time I’m also in need of something.”  She paused as she once again looked from him to the bird.  “You know, you two make a good match.”
Ray snorted at the remark, smirking at the little bird.  “She won’t even answer whether or not she’s a she or not without spinning my words!”  The little bird responded once again with cheeky twitters as it hopped closer to his knee. 
“She says you were being unclear with your directions,” Fluttershy translated.  Ray actually found it unsurprising that the pegasus could speak with animals.  Someone so soft spoken with her own would have to be fluent with another form of interaction.  
“Oh confusing my a... rm,” he protested, censoring himself in front of the pegasus.  Turning to the bird, he commanded, “You tell her the truth, Ohs.”
The bird once again let out a cheeky series of tweets that left Fluttershy blushing.  Ray could’ve sworn she muttered, “Oh yes, definitely one of of the same in speech, at least.”
“What did the little bird say to me,” he asked, half to know and half to joke about.  Despite the bird’s annoying demeanor, the little blighter was genuinely growing on him.  He found himself smiling at the tiny bird, and could tell that the feeling was mutual.  
“Well, um, she said that you were too large for your own good and too strange looking for any good.  Minus some unimportant snippets,” she added quickly, looking like she might just choke on her own embarrassment.  Ray chuckled heartily at the statement.  He was about to say something in return, but Fluttershy continued to speak, now looking around the crown of the hill.  “You know, it seems like a lot of the other animals here think the same thing, or at least, that you are interesting.”
Ray was confused for a moment as to what she meant until he too looked around.  He found that a small cluster of grey and brown rabbits had encircled him, all eyeing him curiously from the grass.  A couple of blue jays had also joined them, their heads cocked to the side as they observed the strange intruder.  Fluttershy smiled at them, and Ray followed in suit.  Upon being noticed, the small critters began to retreat, but when they saw the friendly nature of them human, and the encouragement of the well known animal lover, they closed in on him.  
Ray reached out to the closest one, a grey one with short, dingy fur.  It clicked happily at him, something he didn’t know rabbits could do.  The others piled around and onto him, causing a giggle to escape Fluttershy’s mouth.  Ray shot her a smile and continued to pet embrace the little creatures.  After a couple minutes, Otolo chirped angrily at the other animals, flapping her wings as she flew up into their faces, scaring them off.  This only caused Ray to chuckle.
“Jealous, are we,” he asked cheekily.  He received the avian equivalent of a withering glare.  Ohs chirped heatedly at him, once again causing a blush to appear on Fluttershy’s face.  The little bird continued to chirp angrily as it hopped onto his knee, climbing up his leg in a supposed lecture.  He rolled his eyes at the little bird, pinching its beak shut with his forefinger and thumb as he used his other hand to pat her on the head.  “You know I’m just teasing, Ohs.  No need to overreact.”
He released her beak, frowning slightly.  The sun was now above the mountains, the day warmer and the dew dissipating.  It was probably close to time to leave, but he didn’t really want to go.  Something about joking around with the little bird made him feel more like a piece of the world he was coming to accept.  Back on Earth, birds in the wild didn’t understand what was spoken to them, much less respond to it.  Here, it all felt natural, as if it was intended to be like this.
As he stood to leave, Otolo flew up to his shoulder and landed on it, looking over expectantly at him.  “Oh what?  You coming with me,” he asked the little bird.  It twittered back firmly, and Fluttershy -who he had forgotten was still there- translated for him.
“She says of course.”  Fluttershy paused, giggling slightly.  “She couldn’t let you be out on your own.  It wouldn’t be safe!”
Ray quirked an eyebrow at the snarky little blighter, who only gave a short chirp of affirmation.  “Thanks,” he said to her.  Turning to Fluttershy fully, he apologized quickly, “Look, I’m sorry about last night.  For snapping at you and all of that.  Also, sorry for having to leave so shortly, but I have a job to get to.  Hope your date with Discord went well.”
“Oh, it was absolutely lovely,” she gushed, looking up to the sky with a bright smile.  “He surprised me really well to start with, and then he kept on giving me compliments and then we talked about… things and… danced.”
Ray felt a pang of some indescribable emotion in his chest as his brows dipped.  Shouldn’t he be happy for her, for them?  They were happy together, at least it sounded like it.  And what was with those little pauses.  What did they talk about, and how did they “dance”?  Was it merely as a lovely little couple, or was it something more scandalous.  Or was he simply reading too much into the shy pony’s words, and not enough into her actions.  She didn’t seem extra shy today, which he felt she would if she had been to bed last night.  In fact, she seemed even more cheery today than usual.  
Oh, who was he kidding!  He’d known her for only three days now.  Who was he to decide what was going on with her and what was going on in the later hours of the night.  She had to be at least twenty, which made her six entire years older than him.  Then again, life had taught him that age wasn’t everything to being old.  For all he knew, she didn’t even consider what he was thinking as a possibility!
Shaking himself, he once again said, “Well Fluttershy, it was nice talking to you, but I do have to go.  See you soon, hopefully.”
“Me too,” she responded softly with an even softer smile.  Dammit, why did she have to be so cute as she said that?  He turned back towards his home and the path to it as Fluttershy flew over him, straight towards where the path to the Everfree lay.  Otolo sat on his shoulder, giving him an inquisitive cock of the head as if to ask what all that was about.  She stayed silent, thankfully, as they entered his home. 
He made a mental note to buy a watch on his off time, as he had to go back into the kitchen to see it was 6:50 a.m.  With a short yelp of surprise at how late into the morning it was, he rushed to put on his shoes, finding them on the floor a few feet apart from each other.  Running back out of the door, he realized that Ohs had fallen off of his shoulder sometime in the hassle, and had to put his foot in the door to stop it from slamming shut.  The little brown bird shot out of the door, chirping angrily at him as she continued to fly over his head.  
“Alright, I’ll meet you at the Apple farm,” he called out to her as he sprinted off at top speed.  He raced down and up several hills, racing into town and carefully maneuvering around the much smaller native inhabitants.  As he turned to leave the town to the Acres, he had to leap over a cart pulled by a pony with a blue mane and green coat.  He yelled back at the human as Ray gave a quick apology, continuing to run.  Up above, he could faintly hear Otolo’s jeering twitters, which only drove him to run faster, as if in a race against more than just time.
He panted heavily, gasping for breath as he ran down the path and past the apple trees.  He was surprised to find that many of the trees were now bare of apples, which meant that they’d been working past him working there.  He nearly slapped himself for his idiocy.  Of course they did!  This was their entire life!  They ran dozens, if not hundreds of acres of apple trees, plus all of their other crops and livestock!  Eight hours a day, even if it was every day, was not a compatible amount of time for running such a large operation.  His thoughts halted in their tracks as the entrance into the farm became visible in the near distance.  
Otolo swooped down from above, gliding beside him as he ducked under the entrance, skidding to a stop.  He huffed, out of breath as Otolo once again landed on his shoulder, chirping as if to ask why he was so exhausted from a little run.  
“Hey, flying can’t be nearly so exhausting as running a seven minute mile.  At least, I hope it was seven minutes,” he added nervously.  He looked around for any of the Apples, but saw nopony in the main courtyard.  Looking over to Otolo, he asked, “See anypony around, Ohs?”  She shook her head, continuing to look around.  “Hey,” he called out.  “Anyone out there?”
As soon as he asked, a yellow and red blur shot into him from behind the well.  He went down in surprise as Ohs shot into the air, twittering in surprise and hovering above him.  After a few seconds of panicked struggle, he managed to turn the tables on his assailant, flipping them onto their back and pinning them.  He sat up, smiling at the now recognizable form of Apple Bloom as she struggled in vain against his restraining arms.  After a couple more seconds of struggle, she returned the smile, and Ray could see the confidence in it.  
Another force came from behind, shoving him into the ground.  Otolo twittered encouraging things he couldn’t understand as he rolled to the side slightly.  This made his attacker from behind, who hadn’t gained a proper grip on him, slide off with a feminine grunt.  So it was Applejack, then?  He tried to stand as Apple Bloom wrapped her forehooves around his knees.
“What the heck,” he asked as Applejack suddenly came charging into view, head bowed like a bull to a matador.  He managed to pry Apple Bloom from his legs in enough time to leap over the charging orange pony.  Gently tossing Apple Bloom to the ground, he turned in time to see a lasso flying into his face.  It caught him around the shoulders, but he was still able to reach his arms out enough to grab the lasso and tug it from Applejack’s mouth.  With a quick jerk, he pulled it off, tossing it aside in time to catch AJ in another charge.  He spun her slightly, accidentally running her into her sister.  He grimaced as their heads whacked and both fell to the ground with a groan.  
As the action died out, he heard laughing coming from the orchard.  Turning to the trees, he saw Sugar Belle and Big Mac watching the entire thing unfold, whatever it was.  Sugar Belle was the one laughing while Big Mac simply stood still, grinning broadly at it.  Seeing he had the audience, he gave them a sweeping bow, to which Otolo landed on his head.  
“Hey, Ohs,” he muttered to his companion, “you know I can’t stand back up without you getting off?”  She gave him a short tweet of acknowledgement, and hopped onto his shoulder.  “Thanks,'' he muttered to the brown bird before doing a double take.  “Wait, did you just listen to me?”
The little bird seemed just as surprised as Ray, and instantly began to give insistent chirps otherwise.  In the meantime, both AJ and Apple Bloom had picked themselves up from off the ground, groaning in pain.  He turned to them as he asked, “What the heck was that all about?”
Grinning sheepishly, Apple Bloom answered, “Well, I wrangled Petunia this mornin’, our rowdiest pig on th’ farm, and said ‘I bet I could wrangle any critter in all of Ponyville.’  But then Big Mac was sayin’ maybe, and Applejack said she’d believe me if’n I could wrangle you with her help.  I took her up on it, but apparently ya ain’t a wranglin’ critter!”
Ray chuckled lightly at the young pony’s short story.  “You made a critical mistake,” he told her, leaning in and gesturing for her to come in closer.  When she had done so, he whispered, “I ain’t no critter.”  She smiled at him as he stood back straight up, turning back to AJ, summoning a more respectful demeanor.  Even though he had whooped her tail twice now in wrestling, she was still his employer and still commanded his respect.  Wiping the mischievous smile from his face, he asked, “What job do you have for me today, boss?”
Returning her face to a more serious, business-like matter, she told him, “Today, we’re getting you to the town hall.”
“Uh, why,” he asked, smiling slightly at what might be.
“Cuz we’re makin’ you an official member of the Apple family,” Apple Bloom cried, launching herself back at Ray, although this time for a hug.  He returned it as Big Mac and Sugar Belle joined them in the little space by the well, both smiling at him.
“We figured better now than ever,” the red stallion told him as he leaned against his wife.  “After all, we wouldn’t be able to tomorrow because y’all are goin’ up to visit Twilight in Canterlot.”
The other three nodded in agreement as he felt a soft smile crossing his face, and he couldn’t help but feel slight pity for them.  They were such a good little family, and here he was, ruining them as the fifth wheel.  Yes, they cared about him, but they were loving a dead man standing.  Would they even have time to mourn his death before the minotaurs overran Ponyville?  The thoughts nearly erased the smile on his face, instead making it faker than before.
“C’mere,” AJ said, gesturing in for a hug.  He accepted, leaning down so that they were on even levels.  The other three joined in, and Ray had to resist laughing as Apple Bloom’s short coat tickled the inside of his ear.  He felt tears come on, and he knew he couldn’t keep these back for long, but he tried nevertheless.  As soon as he felt the tears of Apple Bloom on his neck though, he opened the floodgates, silently shedding his tears.  He could feel the others doing the same, and before he knew it, all of them were clutching each other as tears of joy and pain mingled.  
When they all finally pulled apart, Ray wiped his eyes as he grinned at the Apples.  “Oh gosh,” he muttered.  “I haven’t cried like that since…”  He trailed off as he remembered not even four nights ago, the fateful events that had transpired in his head.  Thankfully, the others took it as him attempting to recollect his memories as to when exactly, and not how exactly.  
Sniffling slightly, AJ conveyed a genuine smile and shouted out, “Alright, all y’all!  Ray won’t become a member o’ the Apple family if we drown ‘im.  We need ta get to town hall in order to make ‘im ours for good!”
The others nodded or vocally agreed as Otolo once again landed on his left shoulder, twittering in a cheeky attitude.  Probably something in bird about how cheesy the whole hugging and crying ordeal had been.  He actually had failed to notice that she had left his shoulders when the initial intimate moment had begun.  Now she was back.
AJ eyed the bird but said nothing about it as they all turned in silent agreement to the exit of the farm.  After a few seconds of walking, however, Apple Bloom noticed, prompting her to ask, “Uh, Ray?  Why’s there a bird on yer shoulder?”
Smiling a little at the memory, though it was more of a smirk, he responded, “The little blighter won’t leave my side.  Says I’m too big and dumb to find my way around Ponyville safely.”  Otolo gave a protestful chirp, pecking his ear.  “Paraphrasing, that is.  Although I do have my suspicions that Fluttershy secretly sent her to spy on me.”
Ray expected more protestful chirps from the brown bird, but he received none.  Turning to his shoulder’s inhabitant with wide eyes, he asked, “Fluttershy didn’t send you to spy on me, did she?”  After a second, he realized his mistake, his face dropping flat as he muttered, “Why am I even asking you?  You won’t answer me correctly.”  Otolo chittered sarcastically, which made Ray roll his eyes.
“You can understand her,” Apple Bloom asked, half yelling it.  
Unplugging his ears, he answered, “Nah, I just generally understand the gist of her  twittering.”
“What’s her name,” Sugar Belle asked as they crested the little hill that led into Ponyville.
“Otolo,” he responded, “though I call her Ohs.”
“She’s a cute feller,” Apple Bloom said conclusively.  “I like her.”
On his shoulders, Ray could feel Otolo jitter slightly at being called cute.  Muttering under his breath so that only the brown bird would hear, he said, “I agree.  You aren’t cute at all.  You’re a little devil, and little devils like you can’t be seen as cute.”  As if in an attempt to prove him correct, she bit his ear and tugged, forcing a surprised yelp of pain from him.  He flicked at the bird, intentionally missing, but causing her to hop away from his ear.  “We need to set some ground rules with your pecking habits,” he pointed out as he heard the older three Apples chuckling.
“We used to have a pet, too,” Apple Bloom said mournfully.  “Winona.  She passed not too long after Granny Smith.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Ray comforted.  “I didn’t know.  What happened to your parents.  I noticed they aren’t around either, and you haven’t mentioned them during our little conversations over lunch.”
He instantly regretted opening his mouth as he saw Applejack physically wince at the mention of her parents.  Looking back at him over her shoulder, she slowly spoke.  “Our parents’ death is a… painful matter in our life.  We… don’t really… talk about it much.”
Ray nodded.  “I see.”  Looking around, he was pleasantly surprised to find that they had entered the Ponyville plaza.  “Ah, it seems we’re here!”
They continued the short walk to the town hall in comfortable silence.  Ray noted the way many of the ponies in the central plaza paused briefly to give him a cautious look.  They would look from him to the Apples and go back to work, finding that if the Apples trusted him, they could too.  He paid them no mind, reminding himself that he was the equivalent of an alien to them.  He’d come to realize that other than their life in Ponyville, these ponies didn’t give much mind to outside affairs.  They lived their own lives in their own little worlds.  And he was here to protect that.
The grim thought was killed when he nearly tripped over Big Macintosh, who had stopped in front of the steps of the town hall.  The large red stallion hardly noticed, as he turned and faced Ray, stone-faced.  
“We aren’t forcing you to become a member of our family,” he said solemnly, looking Ray in the eye.  “If you feel forced to do this, please, don’t.  You don’t hafta, but we all would welcome you to our family with open hearts.”
Ray nodded in understanding.  Instead of answering his silent question, he stood at full height, and walked up to the steps, opening up the door to the town hall.  Smiling, he gestured for the Apples to enter.  Returning the smile firmly, Big Mac walked slowly into the building, followed by his wife and two sisters.  Before he entered the building, he took a deep breath, looking over to Otolo on his shoulder.
“You gonna go in with me,” he asked her.  “Kinda gonna be a long wait, I think.”  upon her nodding quickly, he smiled and said, “Well alrighty then.  Let's do this.”
The procedure wasn’t too complicated at first.  Mayor Mare’s assistant, Silver Quill, and Emerald Joy began questioning him alone about his family life.  Just some questions of if he had any surviving family members that would be offended if he joined a different family.  After telling them that he had no family in existence, they asked him questions on if he accepted the Apples as his family.  He agreed to that easily, though his consciousness mourned.  
Then came more complicated matters.  They began discussing property rights, to which Applejack and Big Mac helped him secure his house as his and nobody else’s.  They also came across the terms of his job, as he was now technically working for his family.  The three older Apples and him agreed that a separate piece of the Apple Acres bank account flowed directly to him.  The bank account was accessible for the older Apple siblings so they could make sure depositing and taxes were being held correctly.  It was then that he learned that while Sugar Belle was an excellent cook, she was also an amazing bookkeeper, managing a majority of the financing on the Acres.
Sometime during the ordeal, Apple Bloom fell asleep in the chair she had been given, and Otolo soon found a little comfortable spot on her head and fell asleep too.  As they continued to discuss the means of him becoming a family member, he decided to deny right to any shares of the Acres, along with the ability to make legal deals and payments on the Acres.  He may work there and be a member of the Apple family, but he wasn’t a directive of its operations.  He had a different purpose here.
Finally came the paperwork.  A stack of thirty pieces of paper filled to the brim with hand(hoof)written ink describing in detail the Equestrian adoption.  Although within only a few words of the ink, a problem arose.
“Um, I don’t know if I’m a minor or not,” he muttered to AJ.
Giving him a quizzical look out of the corner of her eye, she asked, “How the hay do you not know if you’re a kid or an adult?”
“Well, it depends on the aging system and the way time passes here.  For all we know, I’m only three here!”
Looking between Ray and AJ, who was heading the adoption, Quill asked, “What do you make of him?  Since he’s an entirely different species, and most likely ages differently, how would you count him?”  
Without hesitation, Applejack answered, “Adult.  Certainly acts like one.”
“Got it,” the mare said, writing something down on a clipboard.  “In that case, this isn’t really an adoption, more like… a transition to become a member of the family.  The papers you have will still work, I’ll just need to make a little note in the books on what really is happening.”
Nodding in understanding, he began to once again read the papers.  The sheets were well thought out, and even clear.  The reading was still boring, but he remembered exactly what it was for every time he felt his focus waver.  He actually began to learn from the papers of the social and familial psychology of the equines.  They held no last names, rather, a similar naming system like the Apples, and similar coat and mane coats as their parents.  He found it strange, but at the same time, welcome.  He would still be Raymond Stan Deang after this, holding onto his past family while accepting a new one.
He briefly wondered what his family would think of him doing this, joining another family that was a different species nonetheless!  They would probably think him crazy, but so did he!  He also wondered what his parents would think if they found out their son was the perfect candidate to save said race.  With a small smile, he knew that they would be proud of him.  
With a mental start, he realized that he should be too.  Here he was, with the ability to restart his life and live it, but at the same time protect those unable to defend themselves.  He was a special kind of person, he knew that.  His life had been painful before this, and he hadn’t thought of how blessed he was to be able to relive it better.  He wouldn’t thank Twilight for it, but he would thank those here that had made happiness a thing in his life again.
Smiling with determination, he flipped to the final page of the stack.  Three dotted lines marked the page and read, in order, Guardian 1, Guardian 2, and Adolescent.  Gripping the quill presented to him by Silver Quill, he scratched his name into the paper and into the Apple family.
> Coal Dust
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

That night was spent celebrating the newest member of the family.  They sang, talked, and ate late into the night, so late that Apple Bloom fell asleep on the front room sofa.  It seemed fitting that the first time he’d been into the Apple’s house was the day they’d all become family.  They shared stories of their families, though Ray was always cautious to get into exact details lest he began to fade.  
Sugar Belle had cooked the largest cake he’d seen in Equestria or Earth, and even more impressively, Apple Bloom had eaten half of it.  He’d taken a decent share, but he found himself reaching for more unconsciously after his first slice.  A strange thing, as at home with his family, he generally ate once and never seconds.  Fittingly, all of the food the Apples cooked were apple based, including apple spiced haystacks.  They were an awkward food to eat, seeing as he couldn’t actually ingest the compacted pile of hay, sticky with a strange, but sweet, sauce.  They had all laughed when he had silently pushed the plate to the side, trying to discreetly pull the hay out from between his teeth.
The night had wound down with the only non-apple product of the meal, a small glass of sparkling grape wine.  At first he had thought of refusing, but then remembered that the alcohol here was weaker than the version on Earth.  Besides, Apple Bloom had also received a glass, so he figured the Apples were fine with him having it.  They raised a toast to family, new and old, and spoke some more of their family relations.  He learned that Grand Pear was out on a business trip to Whinneapolis, though when he got back, he would surely be in for a surprise.  He was related to the Apples, though he actually had no say in the family workings of the direct family line.  It was about then when Apple Bloom fell asleep, and Ray excused himself to his house for the night.
The walk home had been without event, as the waning moonlit the way through the dark of night.  There was a package in front of his front door when he had arrived, and a note taped to his door handle.  He held up the package and shook it slightly, but nothing jingled or shuffled.  Searching its exterior, he found that there were no labels or notes to mark it specifically.  Shrugging, he grabbed the note, reading the elegant writing.

Dear Ray,
I’m sorry it took me so long to get these for you.  Figuring out your dimensions and the way you fit your arms in your shirt.  The pants should be fine, I just used the same sort of sizing I used for ponies and stitched out a pair to test on Spike.  It worked for him, so I just sized it up.  Anyways, I took the liberty to give it my own designs based on your personality.  If it isn’t what you like, then just tell me and I’ll get you a new wardrobe.  Don’t bother with trying to pay me at the train station tomorrow.  Consider it a gift and apology for the rude welcoming to town.  See you tomorrow.
	Yours truly,
	Rarity

He smiled at the note before heading indoors.  He unpackaged the new clothing, smiling at the stitched designs.  There were four pairs of regular day wear, along with one that could be considered more formal, and finally, a white long sleeved button up shirt and black slacks.  There weren’t any shoes or socks, though.  Not that he expected a pony would understand the concept of such with hooves for feet, but he would probably miss clean socks.  He chuckled as an image flashed through his mind of going barefoot the rest of his life like a hobbit.  The image of hairy feet burst into his mind and caused him to laugh harder, though it subsided as he went into the kitchen, carrying the clothes with them.
He checked the time as he entered the kitchen, glancing at the clock to see the time: 10:38.  He opened the window there, just in case Otolo wanted to stop by some time in the night.  She had left him during the walk home, and through a small amount of talking, bickering, and cursing, they had worked out meeting back at the train station the next day at 10:15 if they didn’t “chance” upon each other earlier than that.  He couldn’t help but smile a little at the thought of the little bird.  Not even a full day had passed and they were arguing like an Apple with a Pear.  Life was strange here.  Pleasant, but strange.
That was the thought that carried him to bed, along with a side note to turn his alarm to 8:30 so he had time to sleep in and get packed for the trip.  What he had to pack was unknown to him, but he’d let him in nine and a half hours deal with that.  He drifted into sleep quickly, and found himself caught in quite possibly the strangest dream of his life.
In it, he was walking through a large yard of pink orchid bushes, when suddenly the Apples were telling him it was time to be married.  Before he knew it, he was on top of their barn, under a canopy of flowered grape vines.  He couldn’t even discern what the pony's face looked like, let alone its gender, but they wore a bouquet of flowers.  Discord was holding the ceremony, while everypony was seated on the sloped roof of the barn.  He couldn’t hear any words, but about halfway through the vows, the ponies changed to sheep, then cows, then monkeys, humans, and finally, back to ponies.  When he finally awoke from the dream, he shook his head, not knowing what sort of crack he’d had before going to bed.
The second time he fell asleep that night was blessedly dreamless, leaving him tranquil until the alarm loudly proclaimed the need to be up.  Groaning a little, he got out from under the covers, knocking them aside to allow the morning chill to aid the waking up process.  Despite the rather strange dream, his sleep had been rather relaxing, and he felt better rested than any other day.  He didn’t allow thoughts of the events that were to come today, and whom they concerned, ruin his bright mood.  He found himself looking forward to the coming days, a member of a new family, whilst still keeping his other one.  
He took a cold shower to ensure that the last of the sleep had left him before going downstairs to eat.  He had cereal, a rather bland meal considering the wonderful dinner of the previous night, but still fulfilling.  A few minutes later had him back up the stairs, debating what to pack for the trip.  He didn’t know how long the trip would be, but it probably would take a good half of the remaining week.  Two pairs of clothes, maybe?  
Then, with a note of annoyance, he began laughing at himself.  With what, would he pack with?  He didn’t have any suitcases or bags to pack with, and he doubted it’d be very comely to arrive at a palace -of all places!- with an armful of clothing. 
He shook his head, changing into a fresh pair of shorts and a new shirt.  The shirt was a deep blue, almost like the sofa in the front room while the pants were made of a soft, tan fabric.  The two colors blended well, as designed by Rarity.  She had even put pockets in the shorts, a nice feature that allowed him to keep his hands somewhere.  His only regret was that there wasn’t a pair of clean underwear to go with it, but alas, he had no way to inform Rarity about such things without the scenario becoming awkward.
Considering himself packed for the trip clothes wise, he went downstairs to the desk that held his bits.  He packed all of them in his pockets, the cool gold feeling unbelievably heavy in their confines.  On Earth, what he was holding in his pockets was probably enough to get him back into school and his family better housing.  Here, it was just another coin used every other purchase.  He almost wanted to take a coin out to view it in the post-dawn light, but felt the thought too foolish to follow through.  
Stepping out the door, he took a deep breath, ready to start his way down to the train station, when his bladder kindly reminded him that he hadn’t gone to the bathroom yet.  Sighing, he went back inside.  Upon his return to the front door, he found Otolo curiously pecking at his doorway, the metal shining in the sunlight.  Seeing him, she began chirping excitedly at him.  
“Woah woah woah,” Ray interrupted, holding up his hands as if to push her away.  “Didn’t we agree to meet at the train station?  What’re you doing here?”
Otolo seemed to have a moment of realization before shaking her little head at him.  She twittered almost in a dutiful manner, pointing out the door.  Ray walked over to it, finding himself staring towards the Everfree Forest.  Frowning, he looked back down at the little brown bird.
“I have no clue what you’re tryin’ to show me,” he admitted blandly.  
Otolo flew up face level, shooting her head desperately towards the forest.  Thinking for a moment, he asked, “Is it a fire?”  Otolo shook her head otherwise.  Ray’s frown deepened.  “Is anyo- anypony in trouble?”  Another shake of the head.  “Well what the heck is up, then?!”
Otolo seemed to make a facepalm with her wing before pointing desperately to the forest.  Ray gave Otolo one last suffering look before stepping outdoors towards the forest.  And was greeted by the sight of open hills ended by gnarled trees...  Behind him he heard what sounded very much like tinkling bells, though he knew there were so such things.  His lips became a thin line as he turned to the chuckling bird.  He blinked at the smug little bird twice before asking, “What did I ever do to deserve this from you?”
Otolo cocked her head to the side, thinking, before giving a short, staccato chirp.  
“Ah, makes sense I guess,” he responded, not having a clue -nor a care- as to what he was agreeing with.  He waved for the bird to follow him as he turned away from her, beginning to walk down the path.  He felt a small weight land on his shoulder, and discreetly smiled at the battle he’d just won.
They made their way into town without meeting anypony, though once they were among the buildings of the town and over the bridge into it, they began seeing some.  The few that didn’t look at his looming form gave him strange looks, though not as fearful or hostile as his first few days in Ponyville.  By now, most of them had spoken to either the Elements or the other party goers from his first night in town.  They had figured that he wasn’t any threat, nor any more different than a taller, furless one of them.  A few even spared him a warming smile.  There were only a few thistles in the field, and those he could avoid or ignore, if needed.
Once he reached the familiar center of town, he began asking ponies around about where exactly the train station was.  At first the answers were vague, merely pointing to the west end of the town and saying “That way, a little.”  As he got closer, however, the directions became clearer, until he suddenly found himself facing a well worn cobbled street that led straight to a group of three buildings.  Walking up to it, he saw a sign with a train depiction and took the hint, walking up the short wooden stairs and onto the platform.  
There was a little box-like building with a dozing pony behind glass.  The ticket seller, he supposed.  A clock hung above his little building, reading just before nine thirty.  He was a bit early, to be sure, but that wasn’t anything inconvenient.  There was nothing else he could do with his time, anyway.  Except read some of those books Twilight gave him.  
He sighed, sitting down on the closest bench, which creaked under his weight.  The wood was obviously designed for pony sittings, as the wood pressed uncomfortably against his bottom.  Grimacing slightly, he shifted into a slightly more suitable position before finally giving up, moving to sit on the wood plank floor, legs tucked against his chest, arms over them.  It was much better on the almost seamless wood, no rises to cause him discomfort.  
He gave Otolo a sideways glance, saying, “This is basically what I’ll be doing.  Might want to go catch a worm or something.”
Otolo went to do something of the sort without a sound, just flying away.   He smiled slightly, closing his eyes as he leaned back against the wooden wall behind him.  His thoughts consumed him, thoughts of what was for sure to come.  He was here on this train station to take a train to the last pony he’d ever want to see.  He almost let out a bitter laugh at what he’d never thought he’d think.  On Earth, he had occasionally given thought to what the other animals that inhabited the planet were like.  He’d never thought he’d find himself a member of a family of ponies, nor getting his clothes from one!
He found the thought almost funny enough to laugh, but denied it.  On the off chance that another pony arrived, he didn’t want them to find him laughing at nothing but his thoughts.  Another thing he’d never thought he’d think.  Life truly was a strange endeavor.  
He had always thought he would die before he was sixteen, either on the street or in a hospital.  That was how life on Earth was always like, struggling to live long enough to make it matter to those he loved.  And then the most unexpected, random thing came by and saved him from what he’d never thought would kill him.  Ironic how he had never thought he’d literally die on the streets, but that he’d be killed in those allies and backstreets.  Ray laughed at that one, the bitter irony getting the better of him.
Now he had a chance to live.  Actually, no he didn’t.  Him against who knew how many bloodthirsty monsters in a land he had only begun to understand?  Yeah, screwed.  He could give Twilight hope and live the last year or so of his life to its full extent, at least, as full as he could in a pony world.  It didn’t matter what kind of training Twilight gave him, if godly powers didn’t come with them, then they were screwed.  Oh well, at least he now had a reason to be sorry he would die.  
Ray began formulating a plan to protect as many ponies as possible, especially those he now held dear, when they broke through.  He could have them hide in the Everfree.  It’d be a rather scary experience he guessed, but better scared than dead.  They could live among the trees -wait, no, they didn’t have hands.  Maybe better if they were to go below the ground.  Hide in caves like ants, coming up for food quickly.  He doubted that the brutes would stick around once they had nothing to kill.  Maybe.  
That seemed to be the key word in everything these days.  Maybe.  He didn’t know enough.  That was the main problem.  He swore to himself, cursing his anger for causing him to walk out on Twilight.  Despite how much he despised her, she had knowledge that was desperately needed, and their goals had become aligned.  Protect those they loved.  And with how quickly he’d found himself calling them his friends, he could easily see the reasoning behind Twilight’s actions.  If he had come to love these ponies so quickly, then he had no guess to how close the six of them had become over the last five years.  He’d never held a friend for that long, let alone held a friend at all, but it was almost unbelievable to him.
Pinkie Pie, the hyper, excitable, bundle of sugar that, despite unexplainable reasons, was less annoying than his siblings despite speaking at twice their speed combined.  Rainbow Dash, the cocky, sporty, slightly vulgar (probably more than slightly for ponies), that always had a joke with her every nuance.  Rarity, who alway seemed calm and collected, but trusted him enough to break her walls in front of him, showing him a more delicate, yet strong side.  The Apples, the family he had never had and yet there when he’d lost his own, the connection to his two worlds.  And Fluttershy, sweet, kind, shy, beautiful, Fluttershy.  He almost let out a sigh, but stopped himself.
She was the first pony he’d ever met, the first pony who had ever cared for him in the new world.  Given, she may just be that type of pony, but that just proved even more -in his opinion- that she was the best pony to ever meet first.  She had defended him against her own friends, something he learned from AJ that she had almost never done before.  The fact that she was interested in him wasn’t even because he was a strange anima she had never seen before.  Just two days ago, when they had had tea, she had shown him so.  She cared, and he knew it was more than that of friends.  
At least, he found himself hoping so.  
He grimaced at the thought.  It wasn’t like it would work out anyway.  Even on Earth no girl had caught his eye more than just because of their body.  He had never engaged in a relationship, because up until recently, he’d been too young.  And then he wouldn’t because he was too scared of his past, that night in December…  
He shook his head, refusing the fading again.  He wouldn’t let himself fall to whatever it was again.  He hadn’t had it so bad in so long.  Mostly because he was too busy struggling to survive to focus on what he’d survived in the past.  Another reason he’d never involved himself in a relationship past “Hello” and “Goodbye”.  
Besides, Fluttershy was older than him by quite a lot, at least by his reckoning.  If that proved to mean anything after his talk with Twilight.  There was also the fact that she seemed to be in a very close relationship with Discord, the embodiment of Chaos itself.  Pissing him off would be like shooting a lion with a Nerf gun, only with twice the retribution.  
And then there was the complete ice over: the fact that she was a pony and he was a human.
He let out a disappointed sigh.  There was hoping, and then there was outright wishing.  His father had always said “Wish in one hand and crap in the other.  See which one gets fuller faster.”  This, this was dreaming.  Semiconsciousness creating unrealistic visions of grandeur, convincing those participating in it to be the real deal.  A blunder of his own, allowing himself to dream that it could be.  Downright foolish and stupid.
“Hey, do ya think he’s awake,” a familiar tomboyish voice asked in a strained whisper.  Rainbow Dash.
“I highly doubt it,” Applejack called, loud enough that if he had been asleep, he would have awakened.  He opened his eyes, a smile already lighting his face.  Applejack and Rainbow both carried lightly packed saddlebags, accompanied by Rarity, who was carrying a mountain of luggage.  So was Spike, who had just stumbled onto the platform from the wooden steps.
“Um, Rarity, how much was I supposed to pack,” Ray asked nervously.  The unicorn looked about ready to ride the train to the end of the world and back with enough extra to build a small house.  
Instead, Rainbow guffawed, flying into the air as she slapped her knee area.  Rarity shot her a dirty look before turning to Ray.  “No, I suppose you do not need this much, as you aren’t a lady, but you should have at least something.”  She paused looking around, brows furrowing slightly.  “Where are your bags?”
“I… don’t have any…” he admitted sheepishly, trailing off as now both Applejack and Rainbow Dash began whooping with laughter.  He gave them confused looks.  “What's so funny, you two?” 
AJ was the first to stop laughing, wiping her eyes with a hoof.  “That was priceless,” she exclaimed, a wide smile splitting her face.  “On th’ way up here, Rarity, Rainbow, an’ I were all discussin’ how much luggage you’d have on ya, an’ she was, arguin’ that, with you bein’ taller, you’d have at least a fair bit on ya.  Rainbow an’ I were sayin’ that you didn’t even have any extra clothin’ on ya, seein’ as how you’d just arrived.  She bragged -sorry- stated, that she’d made ya some clothin’, and that you’d surely pack more than just a pair a' clothes.  And here ya are, lyin’ back with narry th’ clothes on ya!”
Even Spike snickered at that, but Rarity simply huffed and rolled her eyes, looking defeated, if not somewhat amused.  Ray smiled and confessed, “I don’t even have a suitcase or anything to pack anything in.  I doubt it’d be very comely to show up to a castle with a huge armful of clothing.  Besides, it shouldn’t take that long, right?”
“Yes, yes I suppose it won’t take too long,” Rarity said thoughtfully, looking out to where the tracks were laid.  Ray stood and decided to look in that direction too, but found nothing in the distance.  Hm.  He looked over to the clock.  The larger hand was one mark from six, the little hand halfway between ten and eleven.  Almost time for the train to arrive.  Why weren’t Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy here yet?  As far as he knew, which wasn’t very far now that he thought about it, they were supposed to be going with them.
As if the thought were a summoning spell, Fluttershy zapped into existence right beside Spike, causing the dragon to yelp in surprise.  Ray started at the sudden appearance of the pink pegasus, hitting his head on the sturdy hardwood roof over the train station.  He winced, rubbing the back of his head as the pain began subsiding.  Fluttershy seemed flustered by her own sudden teleportation, and looked around with widened eyes.  She carried her own green saddlebag, though it seemed to be even less full than Rainbow’s.  
“Hello, everypony,” a new voice greeted loudly to his left.  Ray jumped, once again, whacking his head against the hardwood roofing, barely containing a line of obscenities that ran through his head.  He turned and gave Discord a sour look, but the draconequus merely gave him a disarming smile.  “I thought that I might as well wish you all well on your trip!  Mostly Fluttershy, but you guys are all great too!”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Rainbow waved the talk off with a hoof, looking uncomfortable with the rather unsubtle affection.  Her eyes brightened as she pointed in the distance.  “Hey, there’s the train!”
Everyone looked in the direction Rainbow was pointing, and indeed, in the distance, a small train was approaching.  It had twelve, maybe thirteen cars on it, and that seemed to be it, no cars with any form of cargo holding.  Or maybe the supply cars were the same as the civilian use cars, not the tin boxes back on Earth.  A steady flow of white clouds floated from the smokestack, trailing behind the train as it moved.  
“Right on time, no less,” Rarity added, looking over to the clock to check.  Ray did too, finding the minute had passed away.  Ten thirty exactly.  It arrived within the remaining ten seconds of ten thirty one, screeching to a halt right in front of them.  Before it had even finished stopping, a pony in a black and white striped hat and grease stained brown overcoat.  He looked tired from constantly shoveling, but he still wore a smile that reached his eyes, something unexpected by Ray.  
“All aboard,” he roared, signaling the start of the journey to Canterlot and the forsaken Castle.  Ray noticed now that there were other ponies on the platform, and saw others still getting off the train.  More than a few gave him sidelong glances that said they were deciding whether to run calling for help, or walk up and say hi.  He only elicited one scream, and that was from a little filly probably a fourth Apple Bloom’s age.  Mostly, he gave them the best attempt at a welcoming and warm smile he could.  
It was then that the thought hit him.  These ponies, no matter who they were or how they treated him, were now his responsibility.  Their deaths would be his responsibility.  His smile died so quickly that the pony he was smiling at dropped theirs too, eyes widening in fear.  He winced as the mare ran off.  What a protectorate he was, causing those he was protecting fear.
He turned and began following Fluttershy into the train, Otolo landing soundlessly on his shoulder.
“Aduwa,” Discord called, waving a handkerchief at them.  He feigned teary eyes and gave a long sniff, crying out, “Please be safe, my dear!”
Ray watched with a pang of jealousy as Fluttershy shot Discord back a small, warm smile over her shoulder.  He tried to keep his eyebrows from falling as he strode past the cream pegasus.  He ducked under the door to the train compartment, before he realized he hadn’t grabbed a ticket.  Huffing slightly, he went back out onto the platform and to the ticket seller.  He asked for a ticket to Canterlot, and had to resist laughing as he watched the pony’s dreary, tired face change to one of surprise and amazement at the sight of a strange creature with a bird on its shoulder.  Well, that was a first.
He ducked back into the train behind Spike, who looked as relieved to have given away his load as any man Ray had seen.  Spike only carried three bags now, and was dutifully following Rarity, who was following AJ, Rainbow, and Fluttershy.  Who suddenly stopped, nearly causing their body chain to collide into each other.  Ray was still crouching, as the roof of the train was about three inches too low for him to stand straight-backed, and nearly doubled onto Spike.  The dragon seemed to notice the human unintentionally towering over him and looked up at Ray, giving him a wry smile that bespoke of his own claustrophobic situation.  Ray returned it before looking back over the heads of the ponies.
He needn’t have done it however, as he heard clearly who was causing the block.  So did anything alive within a mile of the train station.  Pinkie Pie seemed to have that sort of effect.
“HEEEEEEEY, EVERYPONY,” she called from the car on the right side of the train she had been… hiding in?  The noise echoed down the train's halls, causing everypony to wince and glare at the head of the excitable pink pony sticking from the car.  Otolo fluttered briefly, twittering an annoyance that Ray shared.  “I’ve got the bestest, greatest, awesomest, most fabulously amazing news in the history of Equestria,” she yelled, slightly quieter than before.  Still loud enough for Ray to be covering his ears and wincing in pain, but not enough to cause any bleeding.
“Pinkie, darling, I’m sure it is wonderfully exciting news,” Rarity agreed, the remains of a wince on her face, “but we won’t be able to hear it if you destroy our ears!”
“Sorryeee,” Pinkie apologized, though she looked more sorry that she hadn’t said anything earlier than she was for nearly taking away their hearing.  “It’s just that I’m so super duper ooper looper excited to tell you the news!”
“Pinkie, I’m sure we’ll all be just as excited as you fer whatever it is,” Applejack chimed in, “but we can’t just discuss it in the halls blockin’ ev’ryponies path.  We also can’t get into th’ car with ya standing in th’ entrance like a tree on a road!”
Pinkie opened her mouth, but then decided better of it, stepping into the car to allow Fluttershy and the others in.  As Ray entered, he noticed a slight problem with the seating arrangements.  The seats themselves were fine, pink cushioned benches with wide lengths to allow any four-legged creature the room to lay out comfortably.  No, the main problem was that the only seat left was a window seat, right next to Fluttershy.  The one pony in all of Equestria that he didn’t need close when he was trying to think, and he would be trapped between her and a sheet of glass and metal for the train ride.  Oh joy.
He tried to erase any signs of his true emotions as he took his seat, instead eyeing the peculiar pink pony across from him.  Pinkie was buzzing off of the seat with excitement for whatever she was about to tell them, a habit, he presumed.  Her mouth was bulging too, as if all of the words she was containing were pushing at her lips, attempting to escape.  The other four mares and dragon exchanged knowing glances, glances that bespoke of fear for asking Pinkie to talk but also intrigue for what news their friend had to tell them.  An unsaid agreement was made between the five of them, an unseen determined nod that they all made simultaneously.
Rainbow Dash and Applejack, who sat on either side of Pinkie, began to discreetly lean away from the pink sugarball.  Even Spike, who sat against the window and across from Ray, seemed to lean as far onto it as he could.  Fluttershy’s ears flattened against her head and she leaned back and away from Pinkie too, onto his arm…  He looked away from the demure pegasus before his thoughts became known by the color of his face.  Nopony noticed; they were all too busy gauging Pinkie and Rarity, who seemed to have been silently nominated the group's spokesmare. 
“Well darling, we’re all here and settled, so you might as well tell us…” Rarity trailed off, and Ray could practically hear the wince in her voice.
“Well, okie dokie loki, then,” Pinkie exploded, taking a deep breath in preparation for what she was about to say.  “I know I Pinkie Promised Cheesy that I wouldn’t tell anypony, but you girls are the bestest friends in the entire universe, and Spike’s like that cute little brother I never had, so I will tell you!  So anyways, on Tuesday, me and Cheesy went up to visit his family in Canterlot, and that was when he started pointing out something weird to me.  He told me that it had been almost eleven months since we’ve been married, and he said I was having “weird cravings”.  I wasn’t really sure what he was talking about, but he suggested we take a trip to the hospital to check to see if the bun was in the oven.  I was really kinda doubtful, because it’s only been eleven months, but he really insisted that we needed to check in just in case, so I agreed.”
“Wait a minute,” Fluttershy said, leaning in towards Pinkie.  Ray noticed that the others were too.  He personally had no idea what they were talking about, as it seemed to be some sort of pony speak.  That, and the fact that half of the words coming out of Pinkie’s mouth were being spoken quicker than bullets out of a gun.  
“Are you saying what I think you are?”  Rarity had an astonished look on her face.  
Pinkie gave her a happy glare, if such a thing were possible, and cried, “I’m not done with the story yet!  The doctors there had me do a whole buncha things, but then I piddled on the paddle, and you know what it said?  It said I WAS PREGGERS!!”
Ray’s eyebrows shot up at the loud exclamation, accented by Pinkie throwing out hooffulls of confetti, and he had to fight to keep his jaw from dropping.  Rarity and Fluttershy shared a loud squee while Rainbow seemed too shell shocked to respond properly, instead just sat with her jaw unhinged.  Applejack tipped her hat to Pinkie, and muttered a congratulations that was drowned out in the noise of celebration.  Otolo flew over sideways and did a loop around Pinkie’s head, chirping cheerfully; some sort of bird way to celebrate new life, he guessed.  Spike was grinning broadly, though noticeably shooting glances at Rarity.  When he noticed Ray was watching, he gave a sheepish grin, to which Ray quirked an eyebrow. 
When some of the noise died down enough for Ray to speak without shouting, he asked, “Wait, you’re married?”
“Well, duh, silly,” Pinkie said, twirling her hoof around as if it was a well known fact.  Actually, it probably was.  “My full name is Pinkamena Diane Sandwich-Pie.  My husband’s Cheesy, or Cheese Sandwich if you wanna be boring, and we’ve been married for ten months, fourteen days, and twenty one hours, forty seven minutes, and thirty seconds.  Thirty one, thirty two, thirty three.  Caught up yet?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Ray said, slightly disturbed.  “Just never thought that… you know what, never mind.”
“Okay, I was married first,” Pinkie answered the unsaid question defensively.  “So what?  I’m a grown mare and I was the first to get married because I found my special somepony and wasn’t too chicken to chicken out!  Just cuz I act like I’m still a filly, doesn’t mean I am!”
“Sorry,” Ray muttered, avoiding Pinkie’s glare.  He hadn’t meant to strike her nerve, but looking back, it probably would’ve been better to just stay silent and accept the strangeness.  Pinkie just returned to her usual cheery self, giving him a grin.
“It’s alright,” she comforted.  “Honestly, I’m kinda surprised that I was the first to bag my somepony.  I mean, Fluttershy’s got Discord and she’s a year older than me, and Rainbow-”
“Don’t,” Rainbow sharply interrupted, face hard.
“Right, sorry.  Even Twilight had a swing going with somepony.  I don’t know who, just that Twilight was reeeeally distracted during that time, and she avoided any conversation about them.  All I’m saying is, I think Cheesy and I just couldn’t wait for the be-”
“Ahem,” a masculine voice interrupted from the car’s doorway, drawing everyone’s attention to him.  The same stallion who had called them aboard the train was now standing there, looking slightly flustered by the conversation he had walked in on.  “Tickets, please,” he murmured through a ticket puncher held between his teeth.  They all extended their tickets out to the pony, who punched them from back to front.  “Thank you.  Have a comfortable trip.”
The talk died down after he left, Rarity and Fluttershy whispering amongst themselves and AJ pulled her hat over her eyes, leaning back in the seat.  Otolo flew up into one of the overhead compartments, nestling down for a nap.  Ray glanced out of the window, but found his gaze fixated on the distant mountain, Canterlot hanging onto its side.  The Castle was barely visible from this distance, and certainly not discernible enough to be recognized easily.  A few low clouds hung around it, giving the impression that it might be floating on one.  He smiled at the thought.
The train suddenly lurched, and for the second time that day, he nearly fell onto Spike.  There was a moment of quiet apology as Ray got back onto his seat, and then the train slowly began to move forward.  The tempo of the wheels on the tracks began to quicken and scenery began to blur.  Ray didn’t attempt to focus his gaze, just stared out the window at the blur of green, blue, and brown.  The beat quickened, and with it the blurring of the scenery and the muddling of his thoughts.  Before Ray realized it, he was asleep.

********************************************************************************************************

Fluttershy gave Ray a glance, trying to decide if he was asleep.  His breathing had deepened, and he had been relatively unresponsive, but she couldn’t tell if that was because he was lost in thought again or not.  Gently, she poked his side with a tentative hoof, earning nothing more than a slightly deeper intake of breath from him.  She sighed.  He was out cold.
“Applejack,” she whisper-yelled to her friend.  “Are you awake?”
“Sure am, sugarcube,” she whispered in return, pulling her hat back over her head.  She looked around at the others, all of whom had fallen asleep too.  It seemed to be a rather late night for everypony, and that included her, but she wasn’t tired even after not drifting to sleep in the early morning.  Applejack was looking around at the others too, a small, wry smile on her face.  “Guess they all are a tad sleepy.  Not too su’prised, th’ train usually makes me sleepy too.  Just didn’t think they’d all go out so quickly, like a herd o’ sheep on a hot summer’s day.”
Fluttershy smiled at her friend, before glancing to her side, where the only human in Equestria sat, asleep.  It was a strange thought, actually, that somepony like Ray was so special.  She was pretty sure that for a human, he looked like everyone else with his shaggy brown hair and slightly tanned skin.  Yet here, he was something strange, the only one like him in all of Equestria and beyond.  Even stranger was the thought that he was the decider of every pony in Equestria’s fate, though so few knew his actual purpose.  That terrible thing he had to do to protect everything that everypony held dear.  It made her skin crawl.  Once again, she found herself pitying him, worse than any injured animal she’d ever cared for.
He had to have incredible strength, both in mind and body, to keep himself from going crazy with worry and impatience.  At least, that was what she supposed he must feel, being in a situation such as his.  If their places were swapped, she would be gnawing her lips off with worry, while simultaneously wishing it would all just be over with.  She wanted to help him beyond any power in Equestria, whether it was helping him survive the stress or enjoy the last bit of life he had.  How, she didn’t know, but she would find a way, Celestia help her.
“He’s a special one, ain’t he,” Applejack asked softly, voicing her own thoughts exactly.  “He’s an Apple now, ya know?”  Fluttershy nodded, very aware of one of the reasons why she’d been so late to sleep.  “Thought ya might.  I don’t know what about ‘im made Apple Bloom so insistent fer us to adopt him into th’ family, but I’m glad she was.  I really like th’ guy.  Just somethin’ about ‘im, his hardworkin’ personality, his dedication to us all, and, well, the other stuff he’s doing for us…”
Applejack trailed off, her gaze still on the human.  Worry laced her the gaze, worry and faintest tints of a motherly sadness.  Fluttershy knew that Applejack had always viewed Apple Bloom, and even at times her younger friends, more like her children.  It was strange at times, nice at others.  
Fluttershy looked back to the sleeping form of Ray, frowning.  She had always held the belief that every creature looked peaceful when they slept, but even subconscious, Ray’s muscles were tensed and his body drawn in on itself.  He looked almost as if he was sleeping while expecting something to grab him at any moment.  It was almost scary to think of what might have transpired to make him that way, but she knew better than to delve into her mind’s darker thoughts.  
“Ya like him, don'cha,” Applejack suddenly asked, softly as ever.  Fluttershy didn’t turn back to her friend, instead dropping her head slightly as she sighed.  She had felt this coming, coming at her like a bird would for winter.  It was inevitable, and she knew she had to measure her words carefully.  While Rainbow was the one who could convince her to do anything through bribing, pestering, and straight out bullying, it was Applejack she couldn't lie to.
Solemnly, she nodded.  “I do,” she admitted. “I don’t know why, if it’s simply pity or something more.  I know he has at least some form of feelings for me, too, but he’s too much of a gentlestallion to make a move.  Besides, I already have Discord.  I don’t think it’d be appropriate to engage in a relationship with him, at least more than as friends.”
AJ said nothing, and Fluttershy could feel the orange Earth pony’s stare on her now.  She knew she was being measured up, assessed, by her friend.  Finally, AJ spoke up.
“I never really thought you’d end up with anypony ‘sides Discord, but I can see now.  Discord, he believes he has an eternity to prove himself worth your love and make the choice ta tie th’ knot.  He’ll do what he’s been doin’ with you for the past two years for at least twice as long before anything real happens beyond dates and flirts.  Ray’s a good one, whatever he is.  He would care for ya more than anything else.  Discord though, he would love you and nothing else, ‘till the end of the world, by my reckoning.  
“You have a tough choice ta make, and either would suit you well.  However, I need ta tell ya somethin’ that’ll be hard ta hear, and even harder fer me ta say.  Ray- Ray is th’ defender of us all.  Unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies, all of us.  He knows this, and his choices will all be made offa that base.  He-” AJ sighed, pain filling it to the brim “-He might not make it through the fightin’.  As hard as that is ta think about… it’s a possibility, as much as any other.”  Fluttershy turned to her friend, tears in her eyes.  She knew what Applejack was about to say, and it hurt her worse than anything physical could.  
“Choose th’ one that will keep you you.  Choose th’ one that won’t break your heart, intentionally or not.”  AJ’s face shared the same sadness Fluttershy felt, but the farmer pony didn’t have tears in her eyes.  That didn’t comfort the pegasus at all.  She knew that inside, she was pouring.
Fluttershy nodded, too emotional for words.  Applejack gestured for her to come closer for a hug, and she complied, very much needing one.  Her grip was firm, yet comforting, like being tightly wrapped up in a blanket.  Fluttershy sniffed, signalling the start of silent tears as she tucked her head into Applejack’s neck.  Her friend gently stroked her mane, softly shushing her while Fluttershy began to crumble.   A soft nustling on her cheek made her realize that Otolo had flown down to comfort her.  Another piece of Ray.  She made a deep shuddering sob, but tried to cut it off, afraid of waking up anypony else.  She continued to sob into Applejack’s chest for the next half an hour.

********************************************************************************************************

Ray awoke to the sound of loud screeching.  Nothing in comparison to Pinkie Pie, but still enough to wake him up from his dreamless sleep.  He sat up, already almost completely alert, and watched as the city of Canterlot came into focus.  He was distracted from the scenery as he became aware of something soft and warm, and slightly damp, on his arm.  
He looked down and found Fluttershy laying against his arm, her peaceful muzzle laying sideways across it.  He smiled a little as the pegasus sleepily awoke, but quickly hid it as the others began to blink awake.  When Fluttershy looked sleepily up at him, he noticed that her eyes were red, and there seemed to be tear streaks down her face.  He began wiping them off as he softly asked, “What happened?”
Her eyes widened quickly, causing Ray’s brow to furrow in concern.  “N-n-nothing,” she stammered, tucking her face behind her pink mane, ears tucking against her head as she glanced away.  “Just got some… coal dust in my eyes when I went up to ask the conductor something.”
“Yeah,” he agreed unsteadily, almost questioningly.  Coal dust.
The train slowed to a complete stop, screeching and shaking filling the entire compartment.  Otolo flew down from the compartment to sit on his shoulder, giving a chirp that sounded more like a grumble at being awakened.  He smiled a little, looking back outside the train window, watching the majestic city.  Tiny streams ran under elaborately designed bridges, all sources by thin waterfalls that fall elegantly from green slopes.  Spires and towers loomed over the city, smaller buildings nestled underneath the shadows of the larger buildings.  They were just as exquisite, white, sky blue, pale brown, pink, cream, all lined the street, the houses they colored standing proudly.  
Ponies, mostly unicorns, walked the street in suits and dresses, a noble, almost posh air about them as they strolled their dignified city.  He received many looks as he departed from the train, some gawking, others raising their eyebrows at the sight of him.  He received welcoming smiles from some, hostile glares from others, but overall, he received calculating looks at him and his companions.  The worst he got was a disgusted look from a sour looking old stallion, his mane a faded blue and his coat a rough brown.  He simply smiled at everypony, hoping to seem less like a leering predator and more like a friendly giant.  
There was a group of ponies in formal looking attire standing near the train station, staring stone faced at them.  At first, Ray felt slightly perturbed with the way they just stood and stared, but then he realized that the others were walking towards them and followed suit.  A stallion dragged a large metal trolley full of Rarity’s bags out of another car of the train, struggling against the weight of the bags.  He realized that the ponies must have been some sort of contourage to take them to the castle, sent by Twilight.  
There were words exchanged between the leader of the little group and Rarity, but soon enough they were off, the unicorns carrying the bags Rarity and Spike didn’t.  Ray couldn’t help but take in the sights of the majestic city, the paved white stones that made up the main streets.  The towers that soared above the city were large enough to be considered skyscrapers in human terms.  The whole city seemed to be built on the thought of beauty, even in the design of the roads, he saw, as they came to a crossroads.  The road they were on curved into another one, and from there two more roads curved outwards.  He was sure that if he were to see a bird’s-eye view of the city, he would see an intricate pattern of roads and buildings.  He looked over at Otolo, who was staring around at the city in the same wonder he felt.
He had almost assumed that the ponies were more primitive, a fool thought he now realized.  Their technology might still have been more steampunky, but with magic to replace it, they may just have been more advanced than humans.  Elegant carriages lined filled the street, the well carved and polished wood a shining example of beauty with  purpose.  Even the alleyways seemed to be… seemed to…
His mind blanked.  Snow drifted around him, he looked around.  Why was it snowing in Canterlot?  His shoe felt wet.  Wet and cold.  He looked down.  Nothing.  He lifted his shoe.  It felt wet to his foot.  To his hand it wasn’t.  Why?  
A sharp pain in his cheek woke him from his visioning.  He twisted his head over to where Otolo stood on his shoulder.  Even in the bird's black eyes, he could see concern.  He frowned, quickly glancing back at the alleyway.  It was paved with the same white stone as the main roads, and was well lit, doors and back entrances to shops lining it.  He shook his head.
“Thanks, Ohs,” he said to the bird.  She gave a quick chirp, an almost kind one.
“C’mon now, Ray,” a voice suddenly urged from below.  He looked down and found Applejack gently pushing against the back of his leg, trying to get him to move.  Ahead by nearly twenty paces, the rest of the group was moving on, not noticing thor largest companion had lagged behind.  “We need ta catch up with th’ others.”
Ray nodded, not trusting his mouth to more than a few words.  He was still shaky, though his strides showed it not.  Only one pony other seemed to notice his slowing, and it was that same older stallion before, scowling at him like he was nothing more than filth on his fancy suit.  He gave the stallion no second thoughts as he sharply turned away, following after the group with AJ.  
Another turn, and suddenly the pathway to the castle was stretching before them.  Green-leafed trees lined the road, unkept flower bushes dotting the grasses around it.  The road led to a drawbridge, less spectacular than any Ponyville bridge, which lay above a small stream.  A larger waterfall flowed down to fuel the stream, which was topped with lily pads and laced with reeds and cattails.  
At the entrance to the drawbridge waited Twilight.  Her face was welcoming, her smile genuine at seeing her friends again, though they gained a sense of worry when they reached Ray’s face.  He kept it blank, not allowing any form of any emotion to exist in his mind or on his face.  She nodded to him, her smile unwavering, her eyes on his, and his on hers.  She looked back to her friends.
“It’s good to see you all again.  Please, come in.”
> Vows
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight had been nervous about this day from the moment she had teleported Raymond from the castle only four day ago.  That night, she had cried herself to sleep, hating herself for what had to be done to save her ponies and friends.  She knew the words Ray had said about her were true, but just because they were true, didn’t mean they didn’t hurt.  Moreso, actually.  The second night she spent trying to foresee the future with the human now in it, but as she had predicted, he was a variable too wild for anything to be seen.  The third night she spent sleeping after spending the first two nights dealing with no sleep and horrible sleep, along with the stresses of both raising the sun and moon.  Then, last night, she had stayed up all night, praying to whatever being was above Celestia, and even to Celestia herself, that Raymond would fight for them.
Now she was walking through the palace, mindlessly discussing the more trivial things of their agenda with her best friends.  While it was true that they were only from Ponyville, they were able to discuss the progress of friendship in general throughout Equestria and beyond.  She bore the good news that the griffons had resolved a minor misdemeanor with the yaks, and that a reformation amongst the dragons eliminated all forms of raiding other species.  Spike, of course, already knew of this, but the others, except Raymond, celebrated the news slightly.  
Raymond stood there, silently watching them with a calculated, but otherwise unreadable face, a thing he’d mastered at an age far too young to be deemed appropriate.  It was something she didn’t want to focus on, his past.  The very thing that destroyed the kid was what made the man the best candidate for their survival.  It was ironic, sickening, and depressingly fitting, like a wrong note that made the symphony complete.  She wished that there was something, anything she could do to relieve the sickened feeling she had twisting her stomach every time she thought of him.  She stopped herself from sighing, still somehow engaged in conversation with Rarity about something or other in Seaquestria.  
Suddenly they were in the main dining hall and she was telling everypony to take a seat, as tea and refreshments would be brought out.  She had to remind herself for a second that these were her friends, fighting to relax around them so as to not concern them.  Life in Canterlot alone had taught her to use the correct words with the correct ponies, and becoming Princess of Equestria had only sharpened that skill.  For some, it was “beverages”, for others “drinks”.  Canterlot, while a lovely city with magnificent citizens most of the time, was a jungle of words, proprieties, and schemes.  None of them threatening to anypony particularly, mostly just a game to become the most recognizable name from Appleoosa to Whinnyapolis.  And her being the Princess made her centripetal to all of their plots.  And then there was Blueblood.  The sigh came.
She pulled out her own chair with her magic before a waiter could.  No matter how many times she told the castle staff, they would try to open doors and pull out chairs for her as if she weren’t also a unicorn.  Sitting down, she pulled herself in, giving the waiter who had attempted to help her a grateful, but sharp glance.  He bowed his head respectfully and stepped back as the double doors to the dining room opened.  Mares and stallions pushed in small carts of individual plates with silver coverings, and a large cart with an exquisite china plate topped with cookies and smaller dishes of biscuits, tea cakes, and sugarcubes.  They served Raymond without question or second glance as they were used to serving other species without knowing exactly why they were there.   She did catch his mask fall slightly as the faintest hint of gratitude snuck into his watching eyes.
As soon as all of the servants had left, Twilight dropped all of her smiling and cheer.  Despite being ecstatic about seeing her best friends again, she needed to get down to the point, and the quickest way to do that was to get it across to them how serious she was.  Immediately, her friends all realized what the deal was, and they stopped grabbing refreshments, sitting back and staring back at her.  She took a deep breath before speaking.
“I know it's wonderful to see you all again, even though it has hardly been four days, but there are matters too important for Equestria’s sake to share pleasantries,” she spoke quickly and deliberately.  “There is the main matter in the room.  Or rather, human.”  All eyes turned to Raymond, whose eyes locked with her own.  She attempted to see past them, but was only met with a cold, hard wall built of stone and mortar.  “Raymond, we all know your importance to Equestria’s fate, and the real reason why you are here with us.
“Despite the selfish and immoral means by which you were brought here, I ask you to fight, to defend Equestria against a force with the potential to destroy all life here.  I swear from now on to the time that you stop breathing, your choices are your own and can be forced by any creature in Equestria or beyond.  Here, in front of you and my closest of friends, I give you freedom unquestioned by anypony, griffon, yak, hippogriff, changeling, dragon, or bison.  Under our laws you will live, but not under our order, no matter what choice you make today.
“Which brings me to my next point.  You have two choices to make.  Defend Equestria, fight for it with your full effort, or live your remaining life here and share the fate of everypony.  You don’t have to tell anypony you don’t want to, but me, I must know so I can decide the best course of action to defend my ponies.”
Raymond nodded solemnly, glancing around at each of the ponies in the room, though she noticed it softened as it lingered on Fluttershy.  Finally, his stony gaze returned to her, and he stood.  
“I will not fight for you,” he spoke.  “I will not fight under the law and rule of you, or any Equestrian ruler.  I am a human, and while I subjugate myself to their laws, I will not fight under the dictation of the ruler who brought me here.  
“You’ve granted me freedom to choose, and I’ll use that freedom to choose to fight this war, but on my terms.  I’ll accept any help and training you offer, though I won’t follow any orders you give me concerning this war.  I fight to defend this land, not for its government, but for the ponies and other species that live here.  I’ll defend it and my friends until my last breath, not for the pride of its ruler, but to preserve the life that resides here, and the love and friendship that it prides itself in spreading.  I promise you that, while I’m alive, no enemy will ever set foot, hoof, or paw on these shores, and no pony will fall by the hand of any enemy.
“I promise you, Twilight Sparkle, here in front of you and my closest friends, on the blood that flows in my veins, that your ponies will be unharmed while my heart still beats.  To do otherwise would fail both of my families, and fail the entirety of this land for what it is, what it stands for, and what it may become.  There is life here, an actual purpose.  That I didn’t have on Earth.  I want to fulfill my purpose here, whether that was designed by fate or a pony.  Given, that pony had a need, and that need is the need of a species that hasn't failed through many struggles.  Nor will it.
“I… I don’t know exactly how to help, not really at all, actually.  On Earth I was just a kid, a kid with many problems and few answers.  I was eaten there, chewed by the constant strain of a life of work and meaningless struggle.  I had no life there, no purpose, and, ultimately, never would have.  Here, it’s different.  While I absolutely despise what Twilight did to me-” Raymond accented it with a flaming glare, though it softened as he turned to the others. “-I am grateful that I have the chance to actually live, even if it is only for a year or so.  I’m glad I got to meet you all, and I’m glad that I at least know what it’s like to have friends, to feel love like this and love… I couldn’t thank you six enough -yes, you too, Spike- for the experiences that I’m able to partake in when I otherwise couldn’t.
“Life is about to get harder on all of us; that’s a hard truth.  We’ll all have times of doubt at whether we want to know the outcome of all of our struggles, and it’s then when we need each other the most.  There is something about this place that tells me there will always be a hope, even if it’s only a pinprick of it.  No matter how dreary and desperate a situation is, there will be some way to make it back to life as it was.  Earth didn’t have that, and I think that’s why even though I’m only one kid from Pittsburg, we’ll defeat these monsters.  Through hard times, we will prevail.  We need to.  For Equestria.”
Raymond sat down as the room rang with the silent thoughts of the ponies and dragon as they contemplated his words.  Twilight felt like celebrating, like jumping onto the table to do some sort of happy dance, but she knew that the reason for celebration was too somber for something like that.  Instead, she stared intently at the human, and he stared back.  
An understanding passed between them in that glance.  They didn’t like each other, not yet, maybe never, but they had a common purpose.  That was all she needed.  She didn’t need to be loved by him, she just needed him to help her save her ponies, and he just needed her to help him do just that.  She nodded subtly, and he returned, looking back over their friends.  They had concluded their discussion for now, and so she too looked over her friends.  
Fluttershy’s eyes glimmered as she smiled up at Raymond from across the table, but Twilight got the feeling if they were closer, she’d have her hoof in his hand.  Instead, Rarity was hugging him, and him her, softly crying, while Applejack had a hoof on his arm, a smile bigger than she’d ever seen splitting her face.  Spike was leaning back in his seat, panting as if he’d been holding his breath through Raymond’s entire oath.  Twilight couldn’t blame him, as she had found herself almost doing the same.  Pinkie Pie was surprisingly silent, looking at and rubbing her stomach, muttering under her breath.  Beside Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash seemed to be the only one not doing something in a celebratory manner.  She simply stared contemplatively at Raymond.  Twilight took a deep reassuring breath before she attempted to speak again, not wanting her voice to crack.
“Thank you,”  she told Raymond, gaining his attention.  His look hardened slightly when their eyes met, but this time he was the first to look away.  She knew he was rather timid with compliments, especially when they were most deserved.  Another product of the streets.  His smile returned as the little bird on his shoulder chirped at him, earning a small rub on its head.  She hadn’t a clue as to how he understood the little creature, but they seemed to have some sort of connection.  
“Now that we’re all done celebrating maybe not being whacked by a bunch of meanies from overseas,” Pinkie began, gaining everypony’s attention.  “I think we have some news to break to Twilight.  Applejack, Ray, I think you two should go first, because the new I have can wait just three and a half more minutes.  Oh, also, that time starts about… now!”
“Wait, what’re ya- Oh!”  Applejack looked as if she’d been hit by a lightning bolt as realization dashed across her face.  It quickly transitioned to a smile as she looked up to Raymond, who still seemed to be contemplating Pinkie’s reference to him.  Suddenly, he too smiled, a glint in his eyes as his walls crumbled, remembering something that seemed to ease his worries momentarily.  
“What’s going on,” Twilight asked unsurely, looking between the orange Earth pony and the human.
“Well, you see, the Apple’s kinda adopted me,” Raymond said, refusing to look away from Applejack, though his smile remained soft.  
“Well, it was mostly Apple Bloom gettin’ th’ idea and all, but Big Mac, Sugar, and I all had a little chat and knew that he would be th’ perfect Apple,” the farmer pony added, smiling.  “We all went on down to th’ Town Hall ta get th’ papers signed.  He’s an Apple now, sure as I am!”
Twilight, too, smiled at the news.  She truly hadn’t expected anything of the sort when she had sent him to Ponyville.  She had honestly only sent him there because she knew that he had to be held at a hoof's length, but also be free to do whatever he needed to recuperate.  Ponyville wasn’t the first place she had thought of, but knowing that there of all places was where he would be the best accepted, whether by her own friends or not.  She had originally thought of sending him to Phillydelphia, as it was the most similar to his home on Earth, but she had realized that it probably wasn’t wise to constantly remind him of his home.  Especially when winter came around.
Now he seemed to have found a nice home and new family on his own, and if her suspicions were true, love too.  It wasn’t the most unexpected thing to take place, but definitely something Pinkie would have branded super uper duper unlikely but possible.  Speaking of Pinkie, the excitable pony was now bouncing in her seat, tapping on her stomach ever so softly as she looked from pony to dragon to human.  When their eyes met, she had an almost pleading glint to them, something she rarely saw on her except for the most important things.
“What is it, Pinkie,” she asked calmly, hoping the tone would rub off on her friend.  It didn’t.
“Oh, it’s just the most super duper, most amazing, best news in my life,” she exclaimed, shooting up onto the table.  “So on Tuesday, me and Cheesy went up to visit his family in Canterlot, and that was when he started pointing out some weird things to me. He told me that it had been almost eleven months since we’ve been married, and he said I was having “weird cravings” and emotion flips and what not.  I think he was about to say something about weight too, but decided he’d rather live.  Anyways, we went to Canterlot General, and that was when I took the test, and kablamo!  
I’M PREGGERS!!”
Twilight froze up for a moment.  Pinkie was… pregnant.  Not the biggest news she’d ever heard, no not at all, but that didn’t make it any less shocking.  Really, she’d always expected her or Rarity, but her relationship with Steel Hooves had broken down and she was with Spike, currently.  Maybe it was just because she’d always thought of Pinkie as a more playful pony, but she thought that even with the two party ponies wed, they would take quite a bit of time to make a third.  Apparently they were rather quick with it.  Which also meant...
“I’m gonna be an auntie again,” she softly realized, and Pinkie zoomed over to squeeze her tightly.  Twilight gasped for air and tapped Pinkie on the head with a hoof to communicate that she didn’t want to accidentally die from hug constriction.  Pinkie got the message and backed up a little, but she still held her shoulders with her hooves, shaking her.
“I’m so excited,” shouted the cotton candy pony.  She released her grip on Twilight and settled on her back legs, waving her hooves around her head.  “I already know what I’m gonna name it!  If they’re a boy, Chocolate Pie!  If they’re a girl, Cocoa Pie!  It’s perfect!”
“Yes, yes it is,” Twilight agreed, gently hugging her friend.  “Congratulations.  To you and Cheese Sandwich both.”
“I feel like life is finally coming together,” Pinkie said wistfully as she reciprocated the hug softly, nuzzling her friend.
Pulling apart, Twilight could see that a small conversation had broken out between Fluttershy, AJ, Rarity, and Rainbow.  Ray sat silently, listening.  Perfect.
“If you’ll excuse us, girls,” Twilight spoke up, grabbing everypony’ attention once again.  They all turned to her, inquiry written in their features.  “There are things that Raymond and I need to discuss, privately.”  Everypony but Raymond and Spike stood to leave, nods of understanding from each of them.  Reluctantly, she added, “You too, Spike.”  The dragon gave her a single raised eyebrow, but a slight sharpening of her gaze made him leave his seat and follow the others.  
“If I don’t see you all later today, I just want you to know that it really  was lovely to see you again,” she called after them, earning several warm smiles of gratitude.  “Feel free to stay in the Castle, I’ve had rooms prepared for each of you if you wanted to stay.”
Spike was the last to leave, reluctantly glancing back before pulling the double doors shut.  When they had left, she let out a long sigh she’d been holding in since she’d seen the train arrive, letting Ray know exactly how exhausted she was from the whole ordeal.  Raymond raised his eyebrows, seemingly surprised by the way she dropped her mask in front of him.  Given their current relationship, he probably figured she would try to be vague and nondescript about things, but that wouldn’t be fair to him at all.  She had brought him here, so the least she could do is show and tell him everything in its truest form.  
“So…” Raymond began, trailing off questioningly.  “You needed to… talk.”
“Yes,” she said wearily, her eyes to the ground.  “Yes we need to.  First, say everything you want about me.  Shout, scream, yell, curse, I’ll take it.  I deserve no less after what I’ve done to you.  I’ve cast a spell to soundproof the room, so nopony but me will  hear what you say.”
Raymond was staring at her, trying to reach her eyes.  She could feel his gaze.  It had a certain power to it, one that even Celestia would find intimidating.  After several seconds, he finally spoke.
“I forgive you.”  Twilight’s eyes shot up to his own, the gray steel eyes only giving her the slightest bit of sympathy.  “I don’t like you at all, and I don’t think I will for a long time.  But I can see your reasoning now.  I’ve been here for what, four days, and already I don’t think my life could go on happily -if it can go happily at all- if any of the ponies I’ve become friends with weren’t in it.  Here I am, the only human in Equestria, the only thing that can save it, really, and I’m still only fourteen.  I’ll be fifteen soon, if time makes any sense here in relation to Earth, but that’s still not even old enough to drive legally.
“What I think I’m thankful for most is that you sent me to where you did.  You had to have planned for me to go there: you had a house ready and stocked for me, but I don’t care.  I believe that when it comes to fate, it doesn’t matter if it’s planned or not, if it’s true, then it’s undeniable.  If that makes any sense.  You know who exactly I am, the… the monster I am... and still somehow trusted me to your friends.”
“Raymond, Ray, stop,” Twilight commanded, giving him a hard stare.  “What you did was nothing wrong.  You were defending yourself and your family, trying to provide for them in the only way you could.  I would have done the same in your situation, honestly.  Your main problem is that you hate yourself.  Admit it.  You despise yourself, hate yourself for what you’ve had to do.  You need to admit it to finally stop doing it.  Your life was valuable to your family, and now it is to both our friends and your new family.
“I’m truly sorry what I’ve had to do to you, and honestly don’t deserve your forgiveness, but we both need level heads for what’s to come.  I couldn't live with myself for what I’ve done to you, taking from your home and family, and sending into this cursed war, if it weren’t for the fact that it was necessary for the survival of every pony.  I still won’t forgive myself, and… and if you… don’t make it back, I don’t think I’d ever be able to show my face to any good pony again.”  
Twilight sniffed, trying not to cry.  Raymond was looking down at the table now, beaten by her words.  She took a deep breath, blinking back tears, when suddenly he looked up, a sad smile on his face.  
“Don’t cry now,” he jested halfheartedly.  “We need to keep level heads.”
Twilight returned the sad smile, the smile of those who bore the weight of the world on their shoulders.  He chuckled sadly, looking back down, and their smiles faded within the second, solemn silence taking over.  
Clearing her throat to regain some of her composure, sitting up stiff backed against the chair she sat in. Raymond looked back up at her, his face once again becoming masked.  He had shown her all he was comfortable with showing her, and was time to be brave again.  She felt sorry for him, for the reasoning he was such an expert with his expressions.  Wishing it were something else was useless though, and she knew as much as anypony.  Time to move on.
“There’s something I need to show you,” she said.  “Something I was hoping to show you earlier, but you didn’t allow me to.”
“What,” he asked, trying to read her face.  Twilight considered the best way to explain it, but quickly realized that it truly was better to just show him.
“Something to help you,” she responded easily.  “It will require some form of teleportation, so brace yourself.”
“Eh,” he shrugged, eyes still glued to her.  “I’ve been teleported all over the place in the last few days.  I think I can handle wherever we’re going now.”
“Yes, maybe.  We’ll be going through a magical barrier, so it may be… rougher.  Ready to go?”
“Sure, why not.”
Twilight nodded, focusing on herself and the energy in her horn, the buzzing warm that flowed from it to her core.  She focused that energy to surround her and Raymond both, to flow into them and as them.  Thinking hard of where she intended to go, she forced the flow of energy into the area where they were to the area where they would be.  In a flash of magic, they were there, standing on the thin stone road right outside of the gates of Tartarus.  
She stared at the doors, trying not to shiver the emblazoned symbol of the red sun glaring down on them.  The black stone gates barred their path, unscathed by anything save for a single hole where the Key of Infedered Entrance would go, if it still existed.  Raymond stood from where he lay on the ground, having forgotten to stand before the teleportation.  He was too busy taking in the doors to be even slightly flustered by his blunder.  She, too, was quite taken with the door, but forced herself to look away.  She hadn’t had any reason to fear the worst prison in Equestria until Cozy Glow and Tirek had proved to her how terrible the place was.
She peeled her eyes away, looking around at the surrounding scenery, which wasn’t much better.  The sky was gray and bleak here, a smog of the evil that had and still resided in the prison.  The trees were crooked and looked as gray as the sky, half as tall as their cousins in better lands, as if they had been drained of ife.  She actually wasn’t surprised if there was some life sucking monster in one of the many cages on one of the many levels of Tartarus.  The mountains that bordered the one that housed the evil prison looked just as lifeless and abandoned as the sky, and it made Twilight shudder.  Evil resided in these mountains, too, but even it was too fearful of what lived amongst the cages of Tartarus to go near it.rh
Raymond seemed to sense her uneasiness and looked around at the surrounding thickets and trees for any sign of danger, but found none.  He glanced back to Twilight, then at the door, before quietly asking, “How do we get in?”
Twilight well understood the want for silence, and whispered back, “We use magic.”
She lit her horn, then tapped it to where the key hole was.  Light began expanding up and down the seam that marked where the door opened.  The doors groaned loudly as they began to swing outwardly, disturbing the silence of the cursed land.  Darkness extended beyond, though lights from dim crystals began to glow to bid the visitors welcome.  A narrow path of storm gray stone stretched from the double doors to the infinite darkness beyond.  Raymond followed Twilight as she entered, the double doors slamming behind them to mark their entrance, echoing through the empty dark.
Twilight set her jaw as she walked, refusing to be scared of what was to come in the darkness.  She had to be brave.  For Equestria, at least.  Besides, what she was here for was to be pitied, not feared.  Or rather, whom she was here for.
They passed by Cerberus without trouble, the large, three-headed dog paying no mind to the pony who cared for him and the strange creature she was escorting.  They began coming on a slightly brighter spot, a spot she was well acquainted with from her time locked here by Cozy with Tirek.  Cages lay about, some stacked on each other, each inhabited by one dangerous animal or another.  A manticore that even Fluttershy had been unable to tame snared wildly, a blindfolded cockatrice was clucking while pecking away at it’s pile of dried corn.  Even a Timberwolf that had savagely attacked the ponies in Vanhoover was here, it’s glowing green eyes watching the two hungrily.  The pedestal where Tirek had been kept was empty, though memories of who the cell had held lingered like a rotten smell.
Raymond looked around with narrowed eyes and furrowed brows, hands clenched into fists as if expecting an attack from one of the caged animals.  Twilight almost did too, but knew better.  The cages were, of course, magically strengthened, and could resist anything from biting to magical blasts.  
They stopped in front of Tirek’s old prison cell, and Twilight looked away, instead searching the ground for… Aha!  With a press of her hoof, a piece of cracked looking ground pressed down, causing another piece of stone ground to stick up at knee level.  The piece had been placed so seamlessly that if anypony were to be looking for it, it would have been nigh on invisible.  It was also oddly shaped, so if somepony did indeed see it, they would presume it to be nothing more than a simple fissure.  However, on the face of it were little knobs and dials, dictating which level you were going and which side of the walkway you were on.  She turned it all the way down, to level seven, on the left side.
A grinding sound of stone on stone echoed in the darkness, distressing some of the animals.  Howling, squawking, and growling joined the noise until it died down.  A rather large stone slab now stuck out on the left side, large enough to hold her and her friends with room for a picnic.  The absurd thought nearly made her snort.  A picnic on the way to the bottom level of Tartarus!  Make her mane pink and poofy and call her Pinkie Pie!
They stepped onto the stone slab, and immediately it began silently sliding down into the darkness below.  After only a few minutes, the only source of light was a small crystal, barely bigger than a hoof.  Twilight wanted to fly off of the platform to see what it looked like in the darkness, but decided she’d rather not have the visual of it in her head for the rest of the trip down.  She knew how long it would take to travel, at least, she had a guess, thanks to the way the elevator worked.  There were two carved lines in the wall, an inch wide and a span deep in which two smoothed stone rods sticking into it on either side.  The rods were thick enough that the thin slits that ran all the way up and down Tartarus slowed their descent to a fraction of the regular speed gravity would take.  The more weight on board, the quicker.
They descended in silence, too fearful and too respectful of the solemnity to break the creeping darkness.  Minutes passed, and Twilight found herself shivering slightly, chilled by the deep and feeling of being watched.  She was sure that something was watching her, somewhere a creature or even pony behind bars in a deeper level of Tartarus watching the light descend with malcontent.  Suddenly, the slab rocked slightly and the light of the gem revealed more stone.  In the dark, she could faintly see the outline of two large ovals.  Eyes. 
“What is that,” Raymond asked, his voice holding stronger than Twilight’s would have.  
Twilight let out a breath and whispered, “The cavalry.”
> The Fallen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Multiple thoughts ran through Ray’s head as he watched the figure walk from the shadows and into the dim light of the crystal.  The first thing he found were the eyes of the creature, cloudy ovals with the faintest taint of blue, whether from the light or naturally, he had no clue.  The face revealed itself then, the same cloudy white-blue as the eyes, though slightly dimmed.  He realized that the being was almost translucent, and he was able to see the barest outline of the skull.  It’s face was equine, and he was even able to derive that the being was a stallion.  A horn stuck out of its head, meaning that whatever it was, pony or otherwise, it was something more magical.
The body of the stallion emerged from the shadow next, revealing a luminescent  smaller chest than an Earth pony, but broader than most unicorns he’d seen.  The ribs stuck out of the side ever so little, almost as if the pony hadn’t eaten in weeks, which considering the place they were in, wasn’t very hard to imagine.  There was a slight glimmer to his body, probably from the dampness of the deepest level of where they were.  The stallion’s legs were as thick as Big Mac’s, the bones unseen from the amount of muscles covering them.  He assumed that the glow came from the flow of blood the creature had, that or just something only magic could explain.
The stallion didn’t start the rest of the way out of the shadow, instead he searched Ray.  The gaze had an intensity to it that he wasn’t able to understand possible from a pupilless creature.  It pierced him, searched him like an artist searching a painting, but he held the gaze strongly, not even daring to blink.  It seemed to the spectral looking pony that it didn’t matter as to how intimidating Ray tried to seem, as he simply blinked, as if doing such was no weakness in mental conversation. The stallion, despite being well smaller than Ray and well outranked by the Princess, was in complete control here.  There was a doubt in Raymond’s mind, a doubt as to why and how exactly a stallion of this magnitude could be in equine hell, but it vanished as the pony spoke.
“Lordling, I am honored by your descendance to our forbidden reaches.”  The pony’s voice was deep, but not Big Mac deep, and as soft as Fluttershy’s.  His intense gaze continued to search him as he spoke.  “My name is Skalos, General-in-Chief of the Fallen, but I will presume Twilight has not told you of us.  I wouldn’t be surprised, listening ears would find no fondness for the armies of Inner Plate and Hero Gauntlet.”
Ray shot an expectant look to Twilight, who spoke up even before it reached her. “Raymond -er, Ray- this is Harbor Point, the current leader of the Redeemed, as we ponies call them.  At least, Celestia, Cadance, Luna, and I, since we’re really the only ones that do know them.  Anyways, he and his ponies will be training you.  They have had much more experience with the blade, and would help you better.  They’ll also be fighting by your side against the minotaurs.”
“Wait, how many of them are there?”
“Seventeen thousand and twenty two,” the luminescent stallion, Skalos, answered immediately.  
“What,” he shouted, turning back to the alicorn.  
“Let me explain,” she interrupted, before Skalos quietly spoke up.
“No, I think I should.”  Ray turned to him, his glare faltering under the unbreaking stare of the pony.  He turned and began walking away, before looking back and saying, “Walk.  Any form of physical activity will calm you, but the slower you are, the slower your heartbeat, and thus the slower actions come.”  Looking at Twilight, he said, “Stay with the lift, if you will.  The Harkening is no place for any decent creature, especially a Princess.”  Twilight nodded affirmation.
As they continued on into darkness, Ray’s eyes began to adjust so that the only thing he saw was the glowing form of Skalos.  The ground was smooth as glass though, and firm as the stone it was, giving him no reason to fear falling to the ground.  It was in the true darkness that he noticed that Skalos had no fur, mane, or tail, as if they had been shaved completely off and replaced with the glowing that seemed to fuzz his figure.  A solemn, uneasy silence filled the void of the dark, pressure forming from the press of Ray wanting to ask why he was here if there was an army to fight the minotaurs against the silent will of Skalos.  Skalos’s will for silence held, and Ray trudged on in abject quiet.
In the distance, something glowing caught his attention, something they were heading towards, but it was then that Skalos spoke.
“The Princess was being too kind to us.  My kind are not the Redeemed, but the Fallen.  She is a good Princess, and I won’t hear anything ill of her, even if it means standing against one who isn’t cursed as one of us.  Though, you may say that, you, too, are doomed to fight, for your life and those you love dearly.  Tell me, lordling, for whom do you fight?  Under whose banner and authority will you battle?”  Skalos once again looked over his shoulder to the human as he questioned him.
“Myself.  I fight under my own will and fight not in the name of Equestria, but for Equestria,” Ray answered after a brief pause.  “I don’t blame Twilight for what she did to me, especially after meeting some of the ponies, but it doesn’t mean bygones are bygones.  I’m presuming you know exactly what she did, given how you know why I’m here better than I do.  What is it, exactly, anyways?”
“We, lordling, will fight under you and by your side when the time for war comes.”  Skalos looked back forwards suddenly, cutting off as the glowing from before was suddenly in front of them.  “We are here, lordling.  Welcome to the homeland of the Fallen.”
Skalos’s voice betrayed disappointment, though there seemed no reason to be, unless it was in the fact that they were there at all.  The luminescent pony continued under the crescent of glowing blue, an entrance to something, he was sure.  The gateway was big enough that Ray didn’t need to duck underneath the glowing arch.  When they came to the other side, all he could see was the continual darkness, the dampness of the murky black wetting his skin as much as ever.
However, in the farthest distance, he thought he could see something, some form of light in the dark.  They looked almost like stars from this distance, light blue in color like the archway they had just passed under.  There was a sense of misery here, different from the usual solemn and forlorn gloom that usually clung.  Well, as usual as he had seen in the place after fifteen or so minutes.  
The steady clopping of Skalos’s hooves on the stone ground began to make Ray uneasy.  The sound echoed in the blackness, easily the loudest sound he’d heard in the gloom since leaving the first level.  The pony himself seemed to glow brighter, another source of anxiety as they made their way to an unknown destination.  He was now like a beacon in the dark, glowing brighter than the sun, or so it seemed, at least in the darkened area they traversed.  He tried to force a chuckle at his foolishness, but found his throat had tightened like a vice, muscles steel hard.  He forced a swallow, nervously looking around.  Nothing.  Visible, another voice added in his head.  
Skalos began to slow, however, not too far from the lights, but also not so close either, maybe less than halfway.  He turned completely to Ray, face grim, as he spoke.
“It is probably best to tell you exactly what and whom you are about to walk into and with.  If you were to ever ask Twilight about who we were, she would give you a vague, nondescript history of us.  What I’m about to tell you is the history of the Fallen, and the reason they are among the lowest in Tartarus.”
The unicorn stallion’s horn lit, and suddenly, Ray could see it all.  There was a vast length of ponies, mostly pegasi and Earth ponies, as far as the eye could see in any direction.  They stood at the crest of a browning hill, a solid line of spears, swords, and bows, held in hoof, teeth, or by magic.  Determination, hatred, and no small amount of fear filled the eyes of the ponies, their lines firm but shifting from hoof to hoof.  A roar sounded behind him, causing him to turn and face another force, this one charging the group on the hill.
A volley of arrows filled the blue sky, shadows passing over the charging force of ponies.  The original force broke as hundreds of arrows slammed into their ranks, felling those who had no shield or magic.  Bones crunched, ponies screamed in pain and agony, and steel clashed on steel.  The few unicorns or lucky Earth ponies who hadn’t been struck were trampled through by the wave of charging ponies.  They went down almost without a fight, too caught between the still falling arrows and charging ponies to block both.  The same was playing out across the brown field and along the hill’s crest, ponies killing each other for a reason unexplained to Ray.
The vision began to focus on a particular pony in the mess, one that looked to be no older than Rainbow Dash, and no younger than him.  He had shocking purple fur with a yellow mane, a purple horn sticking out from the tangle.  Skalos, he presumed.  The pony charged through with a determination, like one fighting not to win, but not to die.  He had a spear strapped to his right side, ramming it through his adversaries before pulling back and charging again.  The processes repeated twice, before finally the last of the ponies crumbled and retreated or were killed.  
Scene flashed, and Ray could see the same lines of ponies leaving a burning village.  Skalos was one of the last to leave, stepping over and around the bodies of stallions, mares, and foals.  Arrows, spears, and swords, all broken or abandoned scattered the battleground or stayed stuck in the bodies of those who had opposed them.  He had a grim but satisfied look on his face, as he and the rest of the large wave of ponies left the burning and bloody village.  Smoke was the only thing to bid them on their way.
The scene flashed again, this time to the crowd of thousands not marching, but kneeling.  Before them stood a certain Princess of the Night, shouting at them in the loudest voice Ray had ever heard.  She scorned them, drove them down for their misdeeds.  At first, he wondered if the ponies had failed her in their service, but then he heard the words that broke many of the stallion’s resolve.  Traitors.  Thieves.  Liars, brutes, cowards.  Murderers.
Ray placed a hand over his mouth to stop him from dropping his jaw as the vision ended.  The darkness returned, but the visions of the dead ponies remained his eyes.  Those ponies lay dead in nearly the same manner as the minotaurs had left them in Ray’s nightmares.  So many.  Hundreds at least.  Killed in the village streets, their homes, or running from a terror that would end their life without second thought.  Exactly like the dreams.  
Slowly his eyes went down to a firm standing Skalos, his eyes searching Ray’s.  He glared silently at the stallion, but saw something in his eyes.  A glint of something, something that Ray was very familiar with.  Self loathing.  A hatred worse than any Ray had ever seen, worse than his hate for Twilight had been.  The hatred reserved for the worse of misdeeds and most terrible of sinners,.  There was no denying that Skalos had participated in such atrocious deeds, he could see it as clear as crystal in the glowing pony’s eyes.  
“I have many questions, the most pressing, though, is why,” Ray said, voice harder than his face gave away.  
Skalos gave a long, drawn out sigh that bore the self loathing and tiredness of a hundred years.  “I don’t even remember exactly what we were promised, other than that we all -and I mean all of us- thought it was the only way to avoid absolute destruction,”  Skalos answered, his voice feeling as tired as his sigh.  “We may have been promised glory, fortune, fame, it really wouldn't have mattered, I don’t think, as long as it meant never meeting the wrath of Sombra in battle.  We were selfish beings then, a young, easily convinced group of stallions who had come for an adventure, but found war was as war is.  Terrible, bloody, and depressing.  We lost hundreds, and all of us had seen the many terrible ways to go.  
“We wanted to be spared from that, so we deduced that, if Sombra was already winning and we were already losing, why fight to die?  We turned sides, and were sent to destroy the villages of the Opotimare Valley.  You now know it as Ponyville, but fifteen hundred years ago, it was a growing, abundant land of greens, blues, and yellows.  Oh, destroy it we did, down to the last foal, and burned to the last strand of wheat, until the only living things were the field animals.
“Luna herself hunted us with her portion of the army, encircled us and starved us to the point of surrender.  Once again, we took the cowards route.  Instead of the gallows, like that of all traitors, we were sentenced to fight again, cursed to the deepest level of Tartarus for whenever, if ever, Equestria needed us again.  We were cursed to live with our deeds, and slowly, we all died off from our bodies of flesh.  Luna’s Curse was not so easily availed, however, and we shed our bodies for our physical spectral forms.”
Skalos paused after that, looking keenly to Ray, who was now using his hand to rub his chin.  The part about spectral bodies he had no idea on, other than the fact that it meant the unicorn in front of him was glowing and partly translucent.  No, what he did understand was that this pony in front of him had seen war, and was at least fifteen hundred years old, by his account.  He had been born and died before the mental blocking, the last of the ponies that could fight preserved for a time like this.  
“So why does Twilight need me,” he wondered out loud.
Skalos chuckled dryly, a pitiful sound.  “We Fallen aren’t at all the best tacticians in the world.  The smartest of us hasn’t been able to even challenge Twilight in a battle of chess, and the strongest of us are too eager to get out there again to consider all factors.  When it comes to war, lordling, you will find that we are the fighters of it, not the planners.  If we were to go against the minotaurs in battle, our full might against theirs, I’m sure we would lose as easily as a foal against a stallion.”
“So I’m here for my intelligence,” Ray questioned.  It wasn’t that he wasn’t smart, two grades ahead when he had quit school to make money, it was more that he wasn’t smart enough.  Sophomores were smart in comparison to middle schoolers, but they weren’t even old enough to drive, some of them.  How was he, two years younger, supposed to fight against the mettle of a completely foreign race and their battle strategy?
“You’ll find, lordling, that in the heat of battle and the cold before, you can become something nopony but a princess could comprehend,” the Fallen suddenly spoke, answering his question.  Despite the solemness of his tone, a silly thought entered his head, one he didn’t have time to block before it crept out of his mouth.
“Are you psychic?”
The spectral pony let out a coarse, but true, scoff, chuckling a little afterwards.  “No, no I don’t think I am, lordling,” he answered.  “Just good at reading feelings.  You see, I’ve had to learn to read feelings, ever since I became the leader of the Fallen.  It’s a very precarious job, being a leader, especially when those you lead, including yourself, don’t think they deserve their new life.  Oh yes it is life, Princess Celestia made sure of that.  We have food, and water and some varying forms of entertainment, but, alas, the most common -of which I am guilty- is brooding.”
“So wait, I figured you might be the leader of… you guys, but what I want to know is why?”
“I took both of Twilight’s castles and a knight,” the spectral stated simply.  “That and the fact that I’m rather good at making ponies not stick themselves on their own spear.”
“Ah.  Makes sense.  Wait, you guys have weapons?  In the bottom of pony hell?”
“Well yes.  If Twilight or Celestia had needed us urgently and immediately, we would be quicker to the fight already stocked than not at all.  There’s no fear of fight breaking out between us, nor us rebelling.  We may all be cowards and traitors, but we all made an oath to each other before our betrayal that we were brothers and sisters in war to the day we fall.  As for rebellion, the Princesses -or Princess now- is the only one that travels down here, and she would easily escape.  Besides, we’ve tasted treachery before, and it isn’t a dish we would favor to taste again.”
Skalos turned once again, moving towards the clustered light in the near distance.  “Come, lordling.  I believe you should meet your fellow soldiers.”
Ray nodded in agreement, a note of sadness in Skalos’s voice causing him to feel a sort of pity for the pony.  True, he and his kin had betrayed their own, but there seemed to be more to them then their treachery.  They had been at the bottom of a dark, damp, cold hole for almost fifteen hundred years, and that seemed to have seeped in more self loathing and regret than anything else Raymond had seen on the streets.   Apparently, they were unworthy of anything for centuries old sins, but as far as he’d seen thus far, there was nothing incriminating them of their deeds other than Skalos’s words.
A thick silence blanketed his thoughts as the blue lights came closer into view, receiving rough dimensions of the shapes around him.  He was surprised to find that the ceiling was merely a foot above his head, and reaching up, he was even more surprised to find it soft and wet.  Moss, he thought, and confirmed as he took a clump off and felt it better in his hands.  The moisture stored inside seeped out at the slightest touch, and curiously, the cool water tasted sweet, like sugar had been instilled in it.  A small smile crossed his face.  Mags and the others would have gone crazy here, especially the twins.
The lights came from stalactites that hung low enough to the ground that even the smallest foal wouldn’t have been able to cross under it.  The stalactites hung almost exactly the same distance apart, though the levels of light emitted from them varied.  Though what they lit, he had no clue, as the blue light only covered the expanse of empty ground in all directions.  There seemed to be no visible barriers beyond the cavern’s ceiling and the smooth floor.  Here and there, a patch of drooping plant sprouted or a mound of moss dotted the floor, but otherwise stone colored blue by the light was all to be seen in any direction.  It was the look of sorrow, he realized, designed to make the inhabitants feel weary and forlorn, whilst also reminding them of the color of tears they shed.
Finally, after more silent walking, he saw a lighter hole in the blue darkness, like an uneven spot in a canvas of darker light blue.  As they came closer, he could hear the sounds of clopping, the ringing of hooves on stone.  Others, he thought excitedly.  Others who were to be like him, weapons in a war against the steelmakers themselves.  He gulped, wondering briefly about his reasoning to be here.  He was to lead these ponies into battle, wasn’t he, but was he worthy to command them?  Who was he to claim their banners as his own, and lead their lives to be spent in battle?  Then again, Twilight wouldn’t have brought him here if she hadn’t deemed him worthy.
They neared close enough to the hole that he could see through it, into another bleakly lit room, although this one seemed different.  The lighting was more to the violet side of the color spectrum, not the usual pale blue he’d become to guess was the standard here.  The second thing that caught his eye was that, save for a short distance out of the hole, the ground was nonexistent.  It ended jaggedly with only telltale signs of pace below, mostly from the clopping of hooves on stone and the dull whispering hum of voices.  Not enough to elaborate detail on what was out there, but enough to give him the picture.  A balcony, overlooking hundreds, no thousands of ponies, if he was correct.
He took a deep breath, making his face stony.  He remembered something he’d read once, about creating a fire in his heart and burning away everything that was swirling around there.  He closed his eyes, imagining a small, wicker of flame barely knee-high, and fed his nervousness, his fear, his uncertainty, and his confusion into the fiery void.  They burned away, and left his chest feeling light, like it was full of air.  A slow, cooled mask of sureness covered his face, and he drew himself up, a new sense of steady confidence pressing him on.  
He looked down to Skalos, who seemed to know what he was doing.  The Fallen simply nodded to him, encouraging him on.  He had to ask, though.
“Are they out there?”  A nod.  “All of them?”  Another nod.  
Ray took a deep breath, stepping towards the hole, before stopping once more.  Turning, he asked, “Well, are you coming too?  This isn’t a one man -er, creature job.  You’re their leader right?”
“No, I was their leader,” Skalos answered swiftly.  “You’re their leader now.  Only those ordained by the Princess can lead them into battle.” 
“And what about when there’s no battle to fight?  They’ll need one of their own, one who understands them.”
“Aye, that is true,” the spectral agreed, looking to the hole again.  A wry grin broke his somber tone, and he looked back over to Ray.  “You know, they’ve been waiting for you three hours now.  Might want to get out there before they get restless.”
“Alright then, let’s go,” Ray said, turning to the hole and began walking out to greet the crowd, the steady clopping of hooves on stone accompanying him from behind.  He had to duck through the hole slightly, but not enough to obscure his view any.
He had entered onto an open balcony of stone, stairsteps on either side leading down into the crowded amphitheater before him.  As soon as his head was out, he could see this room was very different from the chamber from which he’d come.  For one, the open area’s ceiling was not only at least thirty feet above, but also visible.  The entire space was well lit by beaming blue and white crystals, all as tall as him and twice as thick.  The ceiling was not the only thing visible, as the far walls of the cave were seen despite being at least a mile away in either direction.  
On the distant walls, homes and streets were carved into them, inspiring a very cluttered feeling.  They weren’t anything fancy or impressive, just stone boxes with windows and doors facing the amphitheater.  Roads, narrow and gray, zig-zagged along the houses, leading away from one cluster of houses to another, all carved into the wall.  The far walls were circular almost, slightly more angular, but still in the general shape.  More crystals lit them, some on stone poles like lanterns and others on the ground, all without seeming pattern to it.  Houses lined every surface and level of the walls, from the base to the ceiling, all looking similar to each other but placed unevenly so that in some parts it looked clumped together chaotically, while in others there were sparsely any for a hundred feet.
From the large town, the winding roads lead down to a large, open courtyard.  Glowing cave plants grew along the side of the road, and small, glowing tree-like plants growing only three to four feet tall. Empty stone buildings with open sides and wide entrances dotted the plain, empty roads leading to and from them.  Here and there, where the glowing plants thinned out, a pole with a crystal glowing on top was posted, lighting the otherwise dim area.
Ray took a breath as he took several steps forward, to the edge of the borderless balcony..  Silence had taken hold of the entire amphitheater, save for (once again) the sharp sound of hooves on stone.  They could see him, he could feel it.  Thousands of eyes peering up at him, searching him, taking in the sight of a human.  He didn’t look down at them, not initially.  It wasn’t out of fear or self consciousness, no, moreso out of a thought that he should be known first before he knew them.  Finally, after several strained seconds that not even the slightest murmur broke, he looked down at them.
Hundreds upon thousands of eyes stared back, a horde of glowing spectral ponies.  They all shared the same type of eyes as Skalos, milky, with the slightest coloration to it.  Unlike Skalos, however, they were all different colors.  A faint gray with white, a fainter blue with white, it was always the lightest versions of different colors, like the color of the ponies’s coat was now in the glow they gave.  Some had horns, others had wings, but most common among them were Earth ponies, featureless save for a larger build than their comrades.  All and the same, they stared up at him, and he stared back, giving them more time to assess him.
There was a mood among them, one he could feel in the air as much as see in their eyes.  They were broken, battered, beaten by centuries of life in a cave with only themselves and their memories of treachery.  They seemed hopeless, like they had no purpose now but to die fighting for a country they didn’t deserve to call their own.  He could understand them, as easily as reading a book.  And he needed to fix that, somehow.
“Breath, lordling,” Skalos whispered softly from his left side.
He did so, taking low, shallow breaths that barely raised his chest, but calmed his hammering heart.  Where was that fire he’d used so shortly?  He redid it, his slowing heart allowing the fire to thrive, but not grow.  It consumed his worry, his stress, and untightened his throat, allowing him to speak if he wished.  Which he didn’t, but he knew he had to.
“Fallen,” he called out, as if they hadn’t already had their attention drawn to him already.  “I want to introduce myself.  My name is Raymond Deang, though you can all call me Raymond, or if nothing else, Ray.  We all know why I’m here, and why you’re now preparing for war.  We all have a duty here, whether by our design or not, and we need to fulfill it.
“Your leader, Skalos, has told me of your past, your treachery almost fifteen hundred years ago.  You have a chance now, a chance to become not the Fallen, but the Redeemed, serving a new and just cause, to protect those that can’t protect themselves.  You have a new beginning at hand -er, hoof, and you must take that to finally rid yourselves of your guilt.
“I was like you once.  I… I did things that were bad, worse than that, terrible things.  I had no life where I came from, no friends, and no purpose.  Now I’m here with you, to lead you, to fight with you, and die with you, if it comes to that.  I want your trust, no, I need your trust in order for us to fight in unity.  There are some, what, seventeen thousand of you in here, aren’t there?  You are a force to be reckoned with, from what I’ve seen.  You call yourselves cowards, but you took the brunt of a Princesses might face up, and those of you still here have taken it for a millennia and a half.  You call yourselves weak, but you had enough strength in you to cause a -a Princess to come to stop you.  I don’t know how many other armies were so strong as to take a Princess to defeat them, but it can't be many.
“Finally, I’m more than your leader, I’m your support.  I wouldn’t feel safe fighting with you if I didn't know you.  I want to know each of you, at least by name, until I can call out each and every one of you like a sibling, or friend.  It may sound self righteous, it probably is, but I do want to know who I’ll fight with, and at whose side I’ll be buried when I die, if it’s in the field, that is.  There is hope for Equestria, a small glimmer, but it is hope.  That hope is you.  You will be the army to save Equestria.  Not me.  I’m just some kid with some brains, nothing too special.  I will fight with you and try my best, but it’s you who will decide our fate.”
He finished his stumbling speech, but having nothing else to say, he yelled, “For Equestria,” raising his fist as he did so in a sort of salute.
Apparently that was the right thing to say, as the amphitheater erupted with the thunder of voices cheering and hooves stamping on the ground.  Within seconds, the whole crowd was on their feet, yelling and shouting indiscernible things over each other.  How had this crowd, who had looked so broken and worn by the tests of time and the battle of the mind, turned to a cheering, courageous…
He could see it suddenly.  There was a solemnness to their cheering, like they were cheering at the end of the world.  For them, it was actually.  Their world had been living amongst the shadows and in the rocks, with only plants to give them light.  Now, they had something to look forward to.  Victory, or the sweet release of death.  Ironic how before they were the Fallen, they had yearned to lengthen their life with their treachery, and now that they were, they wished it to be over.  He knew he had to do something for these ponies, something to encourage them not to just run up to the enemy for a quick death.
A thought struck him, through the continued cheering and celebrating that the Fallen’s lives were now more than dull existence and memories, reaching into the depths of his mind.  The probability that Twilight would follow up with it and even the question of its possibility were in question, but it would be the perfect thing to motivate them.  It would also help them reintegrate into pony society, if they all got through the war, that is.  A sentimental and foolish thought, a voice in the back of his mind said.  Screw off, he responded without a second thought.
A tapping on his knee brought him back to the amphitheater, the cheers dying down at last.  He looked down to find a smiling Skalos.
“Inspiring words, lordling, but a bit stammered,” the spectral said.
“Eh,” Ray responded with a shrug.  “That’s the second speech I’ve given today.  I’d say I was pretty good.”
“Oh, I wasn’t saying you weren’t, it was just a bit, sudden,” Skalos abridged.  
Ray’s brow furrowed in confusion.  “Well, whaddya mean?”
“Nothing, just that they weren’t expecting you to care about them.  They were sitting by rank, you know, presenting themselves professionally, and then you go in with a speech on hope and redemption.  It’s no wonder that Twilight chose you for this task.  You seem to be a general without training.”
A hint of bitterness snuck into Ray’s mind at the mention of being chosen by Twilight, but he purged it out with fire.  It was still burning, actually, and slowly, he suffocated it.  He smiled and asked, “So, are you the one that’s gonna train me?”
“Yes, me and a few others.,” Skalos answered.  “We’ll start next Thursday, in the open fields outside of Ponyville, somewhere near where Twilight said your house is.  Until then, enjoy the fact that you now have the dedication and devotion of seventeen thousand dead ponies.  Me included.”
He turned away to the hole again, and Ray followed.
“What’re we doing now,” he inquired after the Fallen.  
“Returning you to the Princess,” he responded, continuing to walk into the noticeably smaller looking cavern.  
“That doesn’t sound like getting to know the others to me,” Ray said, stopping halfway through the hole.  
Skalos stopped, peering back over to Ray with a raised eyebrow.  “Are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?”
Ray returned the look with a sly grin.  “Yes, I do believe I am.”
> Lordling
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ray slowly descended down the stairs from the platform on which he had introduced himself.  There were noises of surprise from the Fallen, who hadn’t moved an inch after he’d finished his speech, as if they hadn’t been expecting his staying.  He wanted to snort at the thought.  One didn’t simply say hi to someone who was going to die beside them, and then leave.  Those that did didn’t deserve to be leaders, he concluded.  If he was to be their leader, whether by his will or Twilight’s, he would have to at least know who was who, and what was why with them.
As he finished descending, one of the Fallen stood up from their seat, approaching him with a raised head.  Before Ray could say anything, the Fallen went to its knees and stated loudly, “If the lordling has honored us in a second chance for redemption and has deemed us worthy of visitation, he is truly choice for we cursed Fallen.”
Ray stood awkwardly as the other Fallen, some with the same formality as the one before him, others with the same awkwardness he felt, bowed.  Despite having just spoken to the thousands of them, he found himself feeling a blush creep across his face.  With a wave of his hand, he cried, “Don’t bow, please!  We’re all equals until we prove otherwise!”
Standing up sharply, the Fallen responded, “Aye, but you have already proven yourself more than us.  If you wish though, I will not bow.  My name is Rohan, captain of the Third Spear Legion.  I am truly honored to serve under you, sir.”
“Seriously, none of that sir or lordling stuff, please.  It’s strange enough being an entirely different race while leading an army of undead ponies.”  The adrenaline rush that had been keeping Ray from realizing his situation to its fullest was fading fast, making him consider regretting staying.  He shook the thought away mentally.  He’d managed to survive being teleported from one world to another.  He would have to stay his strength now to focus not on what should make sense, but on what reality was.  
“I will have to disobey that order, sir,” the captain responded.  He turned and gestured to the entirety of the chamber, saying, “These ponies have lived almost five hundred generations in these caves, training for the day when they should be called upon to complete their eternal duty.  Part of that training was to respect the traditions of the military and the art of war, and trying to beat out a thousand years of training would be like trying to clean dirt.  Impossible.  With all due respect, sir, it would be better of you to just… adapt.”
“If you say so, Rohan,” Ray said dully, pressing a hand against his temple.  Even as he stood strong, his vision seemed to waver, and he felt unsteady.
“Of course, lordling,” a distant voice answered.
“Breathe,” a much quieter, clearer voice spoke.  
Despite only having his own ears, he could tell no one else had heard Skalos’ insistence.  He took a slow, simple breath, feeling  his head clear as oxygen filled his lungs and his blood began to pump normally.  He subtly nodded to Skalos, unseen by Rohan, who had turned to stare at the crowd of thousands.
“Come now,” he shouted almost scornfully to them.  “Have we forgotten hospitality in our years?  Come and greet our guest.  There is no reason to delay him like a private in waiting!”
Despite his nervousness, he smiled at the light mocking of the soldiers.  From what he saw, the captain took his duties as a responsibility to the extreme.  He wondered how ponies like him had been inspired to betray their own, but the thought was overturned by the realization that that had taken place well over a thousand years ago.  If anypony here was the same as they were fifteen hundred years ago, they were either insane or dead.  Still, the way the captain conducted himself, like he was under the rule and thumb of the word honor, was admirable.  He took notes mentally.
“Relax, Rohan,” Skalos muttered to his comrade.  The other simply gave him a slightly unamused over-the-shoulder look.  More Fallen strode up to him, and suddenly the stone seats were alive with movement, crawling like a snake pit.  Some cried out their names, some stood silently as they watched their companions rise and go to greet, and some simply turned and walked away towards the distant town on the walls.  They walked away shamefully, not disrespectfully, towards the tombs of their despair, looking over their shoulder regretfully.  They’re sorry, he realized, sorry that I have been brought to their level.  Have I?
The thoughts were clouded out by the din of ponies rising and talking.  He found that the ponies in the first row all came to him, and were all ranked of some sort.  The Sixth Spear.  The Second Archery Division.  General of the Second Division.  They all sounded similar, yet different.  Some said only their rank, stating there was no reason to know a dead stallion’s name.  Others stated both their name and rank, such as Pelvis, General of the Second Division.  That was the highest ranking he heard, though he had no doubt that Skalos held the highest rank among them. 
The cacophony of noise seemed to only grow as the ranked subsided and the unranked, the standard soldiers, began introducing themselves.  Some spoke with the same dignity and honorific tone as Rohan, while others spoke as nervous as young children to adults.  Funny, he thought, seeing as how they, even without the fifteen hundred years, were older than him.  But he could understand.  He was still taller than three of them standing on each other’s backs, and it was probably hard to discern exactly what he was and his aging.  He had no clue as to how much Twilight had told them about him, something he really wished he had thought through.  
Still, there was a sense of determination in each of them, no matter how they introduced themselves or upheld their demeanor.  Their eyes always held the same familiar self hatred.  He could see exactly how they felt about themselves, the result of a Princess’ curse and years with only themselves and others of the same sin.  He couldn't conceivably think of how long fifteen hundred years was, to them or himself, but it was tortuous to think that one could be cursed to only their sins for so long.  
Hundreds of names were spoken to him, thousands most likely, as the massive crowd that converged in front of him began to depart.  For the most part, he found that they would say their names and leave, allowing the next batch of ponies to do the same.  The process was quick, but also rather slow.  There were thirty, forty names every few seconds, but in a group of thousands, there was no time to hear, let alone remember them all.  He regretted it, but he did what he could.  He easily remembered the first female he spoke to, as it had surprised him slightly.  Coronet, a faded sunflower yellow mare, Captain of the Fifth Archer Division.  Well, more like she had spoken her name and rank stiffly, then had turned away.
As they introduced themselves, he began to realize things about these Fallen.  They had no coats, no fur at all.  Their heads were bare and smooth, without a mane or tail even.  It was strange, but at the same time, felt fitting, life a stain on a tie dye shirt.  They seemed not to even notice, but then again that made sense too, with time being the main factor.  Although, he couldn’t ever imagine getting used to seeing a bald pony that wasn’t semi-translucent in nature.
A breath, long and drawn out, came from his side, causing him to turn his head to the Fallen behind him.  Skalos, while attempting to hide his emotions, was glancing at the crowd and back to him.  When he saw that Ray had caught him, a frown overtook his face and he gestured subtly back to the balcony.  After a moment of confusion and three names he forgot in the moment, the Fallen whispered, “It’s been three hours, at the least.”
Ray’s eyebrows shot up.  He knew that the introduction of himself to them and them to him was taking a while, but the amount of time passed amazed him.  While he couldn’t say that he had thoroughly enjoyed the time, at least now he knew maybe a hundred of their names, and had spoken to at least a fourth of them.  It was hard to think about, really, considering that his high school had only a triple digit attendance, and he’d spoken to less than twenty of them in his two years of attendance.  He cocked his head slightly in refound confusion.  Sure, it may be taking a while to get through it all, but he didn’t know why it really mattered.  
With a flash he remembered Twilight, and for the first time among his soldiers, he laughed.  A very confused group of Fallen stared at him with cocked heads, quirked eyebrows, and confused frowns.
“Sorry sir,” the one immediately in front of him apologized.  “I didn’t realize that my name was so... strange.”  The masculine unicorn bowed before him, the faintest signs of embarrassment in his downcast eyes.
“Oh no no no,” Ray said, shaking his head and shooting straight up.  “I didn’t, and don’t, mean to offend.  I just was reminded of something by Skalos.  Please, I wasn’t paying attention.  What’s your name again?”
The Fallen stood up, relief in his eyes.  “My name is Pelios, commander of the Ninth Spear, sir.”
“Wait, I thought all of the ranked ponies were the first to greet me,” Ray remembered, confused.
Another shameful expression bespoke of his humiliation.  “We… were supposed to,” he muttered obviously uncomfortable about it.  “I was carried away though, with... something else.”
“What exactly,” Ray inquired.  As far as he’d seen, while the Fallen ranged from shameful to self loathing, they all shared a general sense of loyalty to their fate.  This was the first sign of something otherwise, and it genuinely interested him. 
The stallion gulped visibly and audibly, ducking his head in even further as he answered, “A mare.”  Ray resisted laughing, merely snorting.  Pelios shot back up defensively, declaring, “It won’t happen again, sir.”  Though it was spoken to Ray, he could see his eyes shoot to the only ambient being behind him.
“I won’t hold it against you,” Ray said with a dismissive, and rather easing wave of his hand.  His brows furrowed though as he remembered that indeed they had left the god of the land in perpetual darkness in pony hell.  Probably not the best move to make, especially considering that he was now supposed to be gaining her trust, and her his.  Hard to do with somebody who you just left alone in the dark to walk with some strange glowing pony.
Oh well,  what’s done is done, he reasoned, standing up from his sitting position on the stone steps of the amphitheater.  Surprisingly, his rear end wasn’t numb from hours of sitting on the smooth stone.  It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but it did make him wonder if the stone here was a softer version, one that didn’t scuff up the ponies’ hooves.  It would make sense, he figured, seeing as how having a constant flow of horse shoes.  
That brought up a question, though, one that nearly derailed the entire point of getting up.  Were horse shoes called horse shoes here, or were they called pony shoes, and horse was some sort of derogatory term?  He shook his head unconsciously, ridding himself of the ridiculous thought, moving back on the steps.  
Looking out over the Fallen, those few thousand that still remained, and called, “I do believe I must go now.  Twilight has been waiting for me for something like three hours, alone in the dark beyond here, and I don’t think she’ll have half the mind to forgive me for that.  I thank you all for your friendliness, and look forward to the next time we meet.”
He received various forms of response as he turned away, from agreements to light hoof stomping.  The clicking of Skalos’ hooves on the stone behind him foretold of him following him.  That was good, because he still had questions, and they would probably be asked in private.  He climbed back up the stairs swiftly, desperate to leave the room not for want to leave or want to get to Twilight, but to avoid any more awkward situations.  As much as these ponies were sure of him, and as much as he didn’t doubt their good, he still felt a need to enact the leave part of “goodbye”.
As he ducked under the entrance back to the now claustrophobic feeling section of the cavern, he felt his breathing finally become less compressed, and more loose.  His chest finally pulled itself off of his lungs, his ribs recurving to give the organ the space it needed to fill with oxygen.  He took silent deep breaths, ever careful to at least try to stay strong in Skalos’ presence.  He could still feel the pony’s gaze in him as they wove their way between the floor to ceiling stalactites.  The glowing blue seemed dimmer now, though that might just have been a side effect from staring at a crowd of slightly brighter ponies.
They walked in silence until he asked, stiffer than he meant, “When and where will we be doing training?”
Skalos scoffed lightly.  “That unsatisfied with them?  They’re trying to impress you, lordling.”
“Uh, no- no I didn’t mean to be so… stiff.  It’s just, I don’t think- you know what, it’s too hard to put in words.  I just feel… betrayed almost, but at the same time, what evidence do I have otherwise!”  Ray paused briefly, realizing nothing he’d said was going to help Skalos understand him.  “Sorry, let me explain,” he revised, trying to filter his confused and jumbled thoughts into a comprehensible explanation.
“I feel cheated.  I mean, the only reason I’m standing here and not laying six below is because Twilight needs me to fight a war she cannot, but she actually kinda can.  I mean, your entire purpose now is to fight this war too, so doesn’t it seem unnecessary for me to be here?  And I get it, you want an intelligent leader to make sure there’s better victories and easier defeats, if any, but don’t you think it excessive to bring me from another universe to do it?  I mean, you might not be an extreme intellectual like Twilight, but you’re better than a walking cow with an axe, right?
“I mean, I guess I won’t complain about being alive still, without being a burden to any of my family, but I thought I actually had a place here.”  Ray turned to face the commander of the Fallen, his face void of any emotion except pained confusion.  Skalos stopped and eyed his general, milky eyes emotionless, but ears twitching to better listen.  Ray took a deep breath as he continued.
“I thought that here, even if it was only to fight and quite easily die, I had a purpose to live longer than to ensure another’s survival.  I haven’t had time to tell you, but I have a new family already.  Not even a week in this… strange land.  Things have been moving so fast.  I have a home and a job already, one that pays better than what I’m used to, and actual friends.  At least they care about me, for me sometimes already.  I just thought that this all was to at least give me something to live for while I waited for war, but no, there’s already an army.
“What’s my purpose here, Skalos?  Twilight, you, all of the Fallen, you all take me for a hero and general that will save this land from destruction, but I don’t see it.  You could just as well lead this army better than me, I know it.  You know war a hundred times better than me, and I haven’t even lived through one yet.  The best I can do is swing a sword or whatever around and use chess tactics to beat them.  That’s not adequate in a war, though!  
“Don’t you see.  I’m more useless here than even as a soldier on the front lines.  What do you think will happen when we come face to face with the minotaurs, hm?  I’ll lead us to ruin.  I’ll get you all killed, get the last hope for Equestria and half the world destroyed because Twilight thought I, of anybody, could save you.  It’s ridiculous, a-”
“Quite frankly, lordling, your yelling has only proven to give me a headache,” Skalos interrupted.  Ray shot him a look, but received only an unamused expression.  Skalos looked briefly to the ground before stepping closer to him, craning his neck to keep eye contact with him.  “Sir, you don’t realize your own worth much, do you?  You talk of your uselessness, say it’d be better if you weren’t here at all, but have you actually considered the implications.  If you weren’t here and dead instead, that would simply mean Twilight would have brought someone else slightly less capable in, and not you.
“This isn’t a matter of if you have purpose here or not, because the answer is obvious.  No, this is a matter of taking your worth and making it the reason why we win, taking the iron in your blood and turning it into the spear that we drive through our enemies.  Here, you lead us not only because we need a leader that’s intelligent, but cunning, brave, and downright foolish.  You aren’t some regular specimen, not of your own species or ours.  You’re a warrior, one who’s been fighting since the moment you saw the danger of your life.”
“Even if that may be true, about me being a warrior, it doesn’t mean I’m a particular good one, and especially not an intelligent one,” he retorted, painful memories testifying his truth.
“No, no sir,” Skalos spoke softly.  “You’re intelligent and you know it.  Why did you drop out of your junior year of high school?”
“Because I was stupid,” Ray snapped, turning his head away.  Liar.
“No sir.  You were three grades ahead.  One doesn’t simply drop out of school after doing so much.  You knew there were people watching you, people interested in where your career was heading.  You were advanced in intellect in every subject, especially in history.  You knew well of your family’s situation, and instead of hoping it would get better, you gave up a life of success to ensure your siblings, and even parents, had a chance.  That is a move few would make, especially for so tough a fight.”
Ray took a step backwards, striking his head against a stalactite, but care for the pain was beyond him.  He was still too shocked by what Skalos was saying to care, too perplexed by the notion that this pony knew everything about him.  He stared at the pony, who met his gaze steadily, with only the hint of satisfaction in his eyes.  
“H-how do you know about… that?”
“Twilight told me everything about you.  I do trust that you understand why.  One cannot and should not follow someone unknown to them.  It also helps the other Fallen to believe you.  If they see that their former leader has found someone trustworthy both by the Princess to lead the army and himself, they will follow you to the end of the world.  And I will be by your side if and when you do.
“A wise pony once told me that fear is a stallion’s companion in war.  If you push it away, you will fall to reckless abandon, a sinister mood of killing without care.  If you embrace it, you will become a coward, one who hides in the light because they are too afraid of shadow.  You need to keep it at hooves length, sir, lest you become either.
“That’s one of the many differences, but definitely the most important, between you, and the rest of us.  We’ve tasted the stale and bitter cup of cowardice, and none of us will try at it again, even to death by our own hooves.  Now, however, so few of even the best of commanders and generals in our army can resist the bloodlust we’ve turned to.  Especially me.  You are here to keep us from it, from becoming like the brutes we are destined to destroy.  Not for the sake of morality, but for the sake of keeping to our purpose.  One can easily be lost in battle, among the screams, and the crunching bones, and the spraying blood.  Humans, you aren’t so different, but your will is stronger than you know.  I don’t think even Twilight realized how perfect you are for us.
“We need you now, not only because you are an intelligent, strong warrior, but because you are everything we need to strive to be in order to win this war.  There isn’t any back up, no reinforcements, just seventeen thousand and twenty three of us against them, tens of thousands, quite possibly hundreds of thousands.  A long ways from victory, if it’s possible.  Across the sea and over the hills, mountains, valleys, forests, and plains, by my reckoning, but still there.  We just can’t reach there without you.”
Ray was silent, staring to the side of Skalos, unable to meet the Fallen’s eyes.  His mind was firmly wrapped around every word he’d just had shoved into him, still trying to pull apart everything said in the last few minutes just to try to understand the pieces.  He was leaning against the stalactite behind him not leisurely, but breathlessly, as if he’d ran through a blizzard.  He certainly felt like it, the way his chest was once again suffocating him, but it wasn’t of stress this time.  This time, it was of reverence.
“Come along, lordling,” Skalos encouraged softly, respectfully.  He began trotting silently, save for his hoofsteps.  Ray picked himself up, striding unsteadily behind the stallion.  There wasn’t anything he could say, no defence he could use against the words forced into his ears.  None that came to mind anyways.  It made no sense, him the perfect choice for the Fallen, but then again, there was no denying that Skalos was correct.  
Maybe that was the thing.  In the stories of heroes on Earth, they would never be able to understand that they were meant to be, but here, now, he could feel why.  There was just a sense of unease, of shock, that came with being in any situation like his.  But at the same time, he realized that his was the situation of heroes.  He felt suddenly very self aware.  There was no denying.  This was his life now.  The life of a hero, whether he wanted it or not.  There would be histories written of him if success or defeat befell him and the Fallen, if there were even ponies to even write those histories.  Maybe minotaurs kept history books?
He scoffed at the thought, earning a look over the shoulder of Skalos.  It wasn’t one of question though, just mute observation as they weaved in between stalactites and stalagmites. Ray met his gaze, but they held it for less than a second as Skalos turned back to the spread of blue-lit stone.  He kept pace with the Fallen easily, never breaking stride or thought afterward.  
They came upon the exit of the cave soon enough, or at least, the exit of the chamber into the larger, darker section of the cave.  As they exited into the hazy darkness, Ray felt his skin dampen with cool droplets of water.  He let out a short, quick breath at the sudden transition of temperature, a shiver taking him as goosebumps rippled across his arms.  A question popped into his head, one he’d meant to ask sooner than this.
“Um, Skalos,” he began, taking two longer strides to be right beside him.  ”When exactly are we training, and more importantly, where?  I can’t imagine it’d be here.  As much as I’d like to see and meet you all daily, it seems kinda inconvenient that it’d take an hour or so to get here.”
“Ah, yes sir, it would be.  Which is why I’ll be meeting you in the outskirts of the plains west of Apple Acres.  Nopony has, even the Apples, go that far.  The little stretch of land in between the Acres and the Everfree will do nicely.  Just make sure you don’t allow yourself to be followed by anybody except Twilight.  The rest of the world has forgotten my kind, and that’s what we want.”
Ray nodded, looking out across the distance of misty blackness.  No light save for Skalos’ illuminating skin shone, like before.  They traveled the long distance in relative silence, not having reason or need to speak.  After unknown minutes of walking, they saw a distant light, though not the faint blue of the crystals, but a sparkling purple aura.  Ray’s pace quickened, as did Skalos’, tension rising as they feared what caused the magical glow.  
As they began racing, they noticed something about the glowing.  It wasn’t moving, wasn’t making any noise actually, just staying in place.  He began to slow down as soon as he saw the form of a pony in the center of it.  Much closer up, the light was brighter, enough that he had to squint to see Twilight in the center of it all.  She seemed to be in some sort of meditation, her hind legs crossed in front of her lap, her forelegs in the little gap formed by the crossing.  Her eyes were closed, firmly but relaxed.
“Excuse me, my Princess,” Skalos said loudly.  Twilight’s eyes opened slowly, but in surprise.  She opened her mouth, looking as if to yell, but instead, a large yawn escaped, almost startlingly loud for the size of creature that made it.  She smacked her lips a few times, eyes drooping slightly, before finally speaking.  “It’s about time,” she mumbled, giving the both the medium between a glare and neutral look.  “I’ve been waiting here for over three hours now.  I thought we agreed that Ray needed to meet the soldiers, but to keep it quick.”
“We did meet the soldiers, Princess, and I have to say, three hours is rather quick for meeting with over seven thousand of them.  Wouldn’t you agree?” Skalos’ question was passive, but had a trace of snark to it, but barely detectable.
“I suppose,” Twilight mumbled, rolling her eyes.  “It does take me three hours to introduce myself to a hundred nobles, so I’ll have to commend you for making it quick.  Now, if you’ll excuse the two of us, we must be getting back.  It’s lucky that I planned nothing until roughly six, but that only gives me an hour and a half to prepare.”  
“Of course, Princess,” he agreed respectfully.  Turning to Ray, he met his eyes, saying solemnly, “I’ll see you tomorrow, lordling.  Six in the morning.”
He turned, his sharp hoofsteps echoing as he succumbed himself to the misty darkness.  Twilight watched him go with Ray, before mutely turning to the wall behind them.  He turned too, and found Twilight lighting her horn slightly to illuminate a lever almost hidden on the stone face.  She pulled it down, a mechanical clicking sound following.  The platform shook a little, threatening to topple Twilight, but she caught herself against the now moving wall.  
They ascended out of the darkness, slower than they had descended due to the weight of them and gravity’s pull.  They were silent for a little while, but Twilight quickly spoke up as they were once again hovering in darkness.  
“What did you think of them?  Them of you?”  She asked these calmly, but an undercurrent of urgency and worry easily caught Ray’s ears.  
“Well, I find them a rather charming group,” he said.  He gave the princess a sidelong glance as he added.  “Just like me, I would say.”
The words emancipated a wince from Twilight as she glanced upwards to him.  Yep, played like a trumpet.  And he’d caught her off note.  
“Twilight, why do you feel like you need to manipulate me?” he asked, refusing to glare, but allowing a bit of his resentment to slip through.  “First you send me to Ponyville, the home of your best friends where I conveniently become fast friends, and even family, with all of them.  Next, you refuse to speak honestly until I drag it out of you, even after I said that I’d fight for Equestria.  That should’ve been it, but no, you then decided to have the soldier of your army personally relate to me and call me things like ‘lordling’ and ‘sir’, and I’m questioning why?  It’s not like I’ll change my mind, I can’t now, but you feel I will, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Twilight said, meeting his eyes with surprising hardness.  “Yes, they do personally relate to you, but you know what, that was unplanned and was gonna work to my benefit if you had decided to not.  You becoming friends with my best friends, my sisters, that was something unplanned.  I thought I told you that already, but maybe you don’t remember it or there are just too many things to say that that wasn’t on the list of necessary things to say.  In fact, it hurts seeing them become friends with you, because neither you nor I know if any of us, especially you, will survive this.  I would do anything to protect them, but as the Princess of Friendship and as a friend, I have no right to take you from them.  Either way, there may be pain.
“I refused to say things you didn’t ask about.  I told you that I’d be honest with you, that I wouldn’t lie, and I didn’t.  I want to protect at least a part of you, because even if you’re protecting Equestria from an unpredictable force, you may have a life afterward.  Who knows?  You may survive, end up marrying or something, raising some sort of family, despite you not being able to with a pony.  You’ll make more friends, live a happy life, all of it if war or perfect knowledge doesn’t ruin it.  Because, trust me, perfect knowledge will ruin any chance at a relationship.  It has for me.”
Twilight was yelling now, an angry curve to her eyebrows.  “And finally, have you ever wondered how time works here?  Have you been too busy thinking about wringing my neck and the war business to actually consider technical properties of this world?  Of course you haven’t, because you’re too busy with the rest of your new life to, so let me spell it out for you.
“Have you noticed how Discord is the Lord of Chaos.  Not the Prince, like the Princess of Friendship, Lord.  A ‘ling’ is something younger, or underdeveloped.  The Fallen call you lordling not because I ordered them to, but because that is their name for infinites.  Sombra was an infinite, and they called him lorling, because even though he was one, he wasn’t a Lord, like Discord.  They call you lordling because you, Raymond, are an infinite.  You will live for an unknown amount of time, maybe forever, because you don’t belong here.
“I checked.  Transdimensional travel with magic has many side effects, one of which is displacement of the body.  In every dimension, there is some form of difference in every element.  Thicker oxygen, softer stone, harder wood, it all adds together to be a new and complete world.  Your cells are displaced and slightly dysfunctional.  Not in a way that will harm you, but they’re trying to deal with a better atmosphere.  They’re working at max capacity, reproducing and producing new cells quicker, you’re brain working at about twelve percent, and your body in general is at a level dangerous on Earth.  Your heartbeat right now represents a heart attack, but it’s completely fine.”
“You wanna know what all of that means?  It means that you're infinite.  With your body working so well, it’s going to be on a perpetual high, like mine, allowing you to be at the best it can right now always.  You’re not just superhuman now, but amplified to another field of mortality.  Immortality.”
> Dead
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was a silence immediately after Twilight spoke, at least, silence from Ray.  Twilight was panting, still glaring at him from her exhausting rant.  She pulled herself together quickly though, standing up straight and staring steadily into Ray’s shocked eyes.  Ray knew she wouldn’t back down now, wouldn’t balk at anything he said or did, and if he was being honest, it impressed him.  This was a different Twilight for some reason, different than the nervous, uninspiring empress he’d supposed her to be on first meeting.  This time too, she was being honest, doing exactly what he’d asked her.  And now he regretted it.
Ray steadied himself too, not wishing to drop himself into the pitiful rage he’d done before.  Pushing all emotion into a fire in the pit of his stomach, he returned the hard stare she was giving him.  A prideful part of him wanted to stare her down until she apologized, but another logical part of him told him that this was exactly what he had asked for.  All of the information she knew about him and his enemies, and everything she could gather about what he had to do exactly.  And she’d certainly delivered.  
With a tired, broken sigh, he slumped into a sitting position on the moving slab.  Twilight’s face softened slightly as she joined him in sitting, a concerned frown outlining her features.  Before Ray could muster the strength to say anything, the alicorn reached out to his knee, a glint of understanding in her eyes.  For the first time, Ray understood why Twilight would retain information from him, especially this.  She had to suffer immortality too.  She too would have to watch everyone she knew and loved grow old and wither to dust.  There was no escape save death, inflicted by others or themselves.
Already, Ray could feel the immense weight of realism striking him bluntly in the back of his head.  He had an even stronger tie into this land now that age literally wouldn’t break, a rope of steel tying him to the world of ponies.  There was no escape from them except at the end of a spear or strike of the sword, and that was that.  A final, unyielding note in his life.  Really, he died right there and then, died and was reborn in the moment as someone new.  Still Ray, but also something new.  Something that knew there was no life for him but as a protector, something who had no purpose beyond that as an unbreakable sword.
He looked up at Twilight, his jaw setting in determination.  He refused to even think of it now.  It was fact, undeniable and unquestionable, so there was no reason to press it.  He could see Twilight’s confusion, then understanding in the moments immediately afterward.  She nodded subtly.  This was their path, their purpose.  Protect and defend now, and anything extra was simply to be taken as luck and nothing beyond.  
Ray took a deep breath, looking out into the dark, shutting his mind off from the events of the day.  He wished to lean on the wall, but given that it was moving, he figured it would be better to leave his shirt intact.  Instead, he closed his eyes, relaxing his figure into a more comfortable position.  Or, at least, he attempted to.  For some reason, his shoulders stayed tensed up, his jaw clenched in a fixed position, and no matter how hard he tried to loosen them, they stayed that way through the ride out of the black.
As they finally were raised into the better lit part of Tartarus, near the top of it, Ray broke the silence.  “I want to ask you something.”
“Go ahead,” Twilight said, looking curiously at the human.
“If we live through this, what are you gonna do?”
Twilight let out a deep sigh, a thoughtful, tired sigh, one he’d heard far too many times from his own mouth and parents.  “Lead,” she answered simply.  “You?”
“I don’t know,” he muttered unsurely.  “I think… maybe I’ll just... disappear.  Hide away in Ponyville, with the Apples and whatnot, but, who knows, maybe I’ll find something.  Out there.  You know?”
“Yeah,” Twilight muttered.  “Yeah...” 
Taking a deep breath, he looked down to the alicorn.  “I want to ask you something else too,” he began.
“Yes…” Twilight encouraged slowly, sounding slightly concerned, looking up to him.
“What do you plan to do with the Fallen if they survive this?  It’s not like you could suddenly reintroduce seventeen thousand ponies, especially dead ones, into society.  Even if the main populace knew, there wouldn’t really be any place for them.”
Twilight looked away as she answered.  “Well, assuming we actually have a war and have a big fight ahead of us, a lot of them will die.  It goes without saying why, and really, there won’t be many that survive with victory.  At most, maybe six thousand?  At worst, three thousand.  Still, room can be made for them, especially in the less densely populated area where farms, railway stops, and breaks between cities can be used.  Also, if -no- when we get through this, I’ll find a way to restore them to their regular bodies.  After all they’re about to go through, it’s the least I can do.”
Ray’s eyebrows raised in surprise at the gracious motion by the monarch.  He hadn’t considered it a possibility yet, but he knew his train of thought would have eventually arrived at that junction.  A nod of appreciation and silent second later they were suddenly jerked to a stop, reaching the top.  Ray stepped off the slab and looked over the edge towards the great, deep blackness they had ascended from.  He knew what was down there now.  An army of the dead.  The army of all great kings, he mused, turning away, not wishing to linger on the edge of the light.  
Twilight had already begun hastily moving on.  He didn’t blame her.  Staying in the darkness, alone nonetheless, was a struggle to think about in of itself, but actually being in that situation for so long and still being sane was something to admire.  A rather forgotten moment passed as he followed her, his thoughts consumed by the Fallen, immortality, and everything in between.  It wasn’t particularly thrilling, any of it.  
The only general he’d ever been was the lord of goblins and orcs and evil things to steal his siblings, or their possessions.  And it wasn’t very encouraging that all of his plans had “failed” miserably.  Then again, that was part of it all, wasn’t it.  He had planned to fail, had whispered to his siblings the weakness of his armies and the fear of how they would lose.  In the end, it would be his siblings’ saving grace.  Maybe his would also be whispered to him from the enemies’ own mouth, into the wind to be carried to him?  
Oh, but here he was thinking things of the unusual sort now, with only the things he’d read and been told as his hopes.  He was no Aragorn, no William the Conqueror.  He couldn’t even call himself a Peter.  He was just Ray, no secret prophecy, no adoring populace, not even a bloodline of heroes to call on from the past.  Just his own hands, and seventeen thousand soldiers.
He smacked himself, loudly enough that Twilight looked behind her in confusion, but he gave her no mind.  He was being downright pessimistic now, not what anybody needed.  If failure was what he thought would happen, then it would, and thus doom everyone else.  He could be pessimistic on his own time, but right now he was on stolen time, time Twilight had given him, and he had a job worth doing to do.  He would complain only if he died, he resolved in that moment.  And if he failed, he vowed he wouldn’t live to regret it.
As they reached the doors, Twilight lit her horn as a small item appeared by her head.  Swiping it down the crack in the doors much like a credit card, a loud creaking sound overtook the chambers.  The crack began to glow, the sunbeam engraving on the inner doors becoming ghostly white as the double doors slowly swung open.  The creatures on the top level began screeching and growling as the dull, brighter light of the outdoors lazily entered.
The duo stepped out from Tartarus and into the wasted land beyond.  Ray shivered involuntarily as a cold night wind blew over them, tossing Twilight’s mane and Ray’s hair astray.  The moon hung solemnly above them, the waning form glaring at them with marble malice.  One of the bramble bushes closer to the entrance caught onto his hand, causing him to curse in surprise and mild pain.  An annoyed grunt and short struggle later, the thorn was pulled from the back of his hand, blood trickling down the back of his hand slowly.  He ignored it, walking up to Twilight, who was staring distantly at the gray mountains, barely visible in the moonlight. She jumped slightly when he arrived by her side, but nodded in unspoken agreement.
They vanished from the closing gates of Tartarus in a flash of purple.
> Heroes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was a certain air about the castle that night, one usually felt when there was a secret being held in plain sight.  He kept finding himself looking over his shoulder that night, even as he was being led to his guest room by a young stallion maid.  The purple unicorn kept assuring him that he was completely safe from any harm there, and while it wasn’t harm Ray feared, it was something else.
It seemed that half of the time he looked at somepony, he saw a bloodied corpse.  It was beginning to drive him partway mental, but there wasn’t any real cure to it, simply solidifying to himself that there was no reason to fear that fate yet.  Instead, he focused on the fact that he had an army now, be them undead or otherwise, and that they could do more than talk.  He caught himself muttering such things under his breath, earning odd looks from the maid.  They would be horrified looks if they understood, he thought morbidly to himself, almost smiling.  Another strange look.
The pony didn’t ask any questions as they went along their way, just observed.  That seemed to be the other part of his job, observing him as if he were a timid animal that would run away at the first opportunity.  While he knew it wasn’t Twilight’s intention, it did annoy him to a degree.  
To distract himself from such thoughts, he made jokes to himself mentally, something he’d picked up during long work hours late into the night.  They weren’t necessarily funny, in fact, that was half of the point.  If he was distracted by his own terrible sense of humor, then how could he be mad at anyone during the workday?  Then, there were the occasional times they were actually humorous, and he’d end up laughing at seemingly nothing, causing him to look foolish.  Those times, though, were probably the best times, because it meant someone was actually questioning what they’d missed.  
Or my sanity, he thought, which caused him to smile roughly.  That was one of many perks of not being completely sure himself.  It was a dark joke, yes, but an especially funny one, considering the context.  
The maid was outright staring now, obviously concerned as to exactly what his humor was about and where it was coming from.  That was fine.  There were many times he forgot that he was the only human in this world, from both the ponies’ reactions to him and the lack of much definition in this world.  Well, until the most recent hours.  Most likely though, he would eventually forget he was even human, given how many times already he’d forgotten.  Then again, constant reminders of his diet and physique were there to keep him human.
They had arrived at his room suddenly, the maid holding the door open dutifully for him.  He nodded in appreciation, entering.  Before he could vocally give his thanks, the door had closed, leaving him alone.  Pursing his lips, he once again nodded, this time though in acknowledgement to his situation.
He looked around the room, which was large even for human proportions.  Well wrought white marble made up the room, much like the entirety of the castle, realistic engravings of vines lining the inner walls.  A large bed, big enough for him twice over, lay in the center of the lefternmost wall, facing out to great double door-windows.  It faced not towards where the sun would rise in the morning, but where the sun had set not long ago.  Great scarlet curtains were drawn, allowing what little light the night sky had to offer into the room and across the bed.  A balcony lay out of the windows, allowing him view of the city beyond. 
Inside of the room, a large, full body mirror stood, and despite being designed for pony use, was big enough for him.  Beside it was an intricate desk, though its size wasn’t increased enough for him to actually use it.  On top lay a tri-handed clock, reading the time as nearly nine in the afternoon.  Large candelabras chiseled into the wall lit the room now, spaced out evenly from each other enough for them to be both practical and stylish.  In between them, great bouquets of tiny, soft blue flowers hung.  For some reason they called out to him, asking him to give them a sniff, as weird as the thought was.  
He walked across the foot-thick red rug to the nearest bouquet.  Taking a few of the flowers between his fingers, he held them up to his nose.  Inhaling deeply, he smelled near nothing.  However, on a second intake, he found there was a faint, almost milky, scent to it, like a creamery across the street.  Instantly, he felt a drowsiness come over him, weighing down his eyes.  He felt an involuntary yawn force his mouth open, and lazily he began to move to the bed.  Stripping off his shirt, he fell onto the bed, and before he even had finished pulling the blue satin coverings over him, he had fallen asleep.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ray’s sleep was dreamless, completely devoid of anything resembling thought or coherency, and it stayed so until the early hours of the morning.  He rubbed his eyes wearily, staring out of the window and at the moon, still to have set.  Glancing to the desktop clock, he saw that it was almost three in the morning.  Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he sat up, looking around the room.  It was dark, but the moonlight flowed onto him and the path to the window, where his discarded shirt lay.  
He pulled it on lazily, too tired still to care much, but too awake to go back to sleep.  He walked over to the balcony exit, staring out the window doors and into the great city beyond.  There were virtually no lights on at this late in the night.  Or this early in the morning, depending on how you think of it, Ray thought to himself nonchalantly.  He rubbed a hand through his hair, still rubbing his face with the other one.
He found a wonderful cowlick on the back of his, the result of the soft pillows and night of restless sleep.  It was sleep nonetheless, and it left him with enough energy in the morning to get started.  Given, he’d probably need some sort of assistance in the form of light or natural sugar to keep him going, but a start was a start.  
Backing up to the bed, he looked around the room, trying to decide what to do next.  A shower sounded like a good idea, but there was the problem that from where he stood, he could see into the bathroom and to the shower.  It was large for a pony, to be sure, but it seemed like it’d only fit him if he were kneeling and crouched.  He smiled at the imagined image, almost scoffingly so.  He went into the restroom anyways and did about his business.  
As he washed his hands, he looked back over to the clock.  With it being so early in the morning, he doubted many, if any, of the staff were awake at this point in the day.  If they were, he hoped that there were no regulations on guests wandering their way out.  He looked around, trying to see if there was anything he might’ve forgotten, but instantly smacked himself over the head.  He purposely hadn’t packed anything so that he wouldn’t have to stay the night here.  Well look at how that worked out, he scolded himself.  
Turning to the double doors, he saw that the candelabras were devoid of flame.  It was easy enough to assume so since the room was dark, but something else caught his attention.  The flowers beside the door were missing.  Spinning a full one-eighty he saw that every other flower holder was full, not even wilted the slightest from their overnight placement.  His brows furrowed.  He had fallen asleep near instantly after catching the scent of one of them.  They had to be some sort of medicinal type.  So why would someone, staff or otherwise, take one, and only the one closest to the door.
It was a sign, he realized.  Somepony wanted his attention, and they wanted it subtly.  Frowning, he scoured the ground, finding a singular flower on the ground right in front of the mahogany door.  He picked it up, checking the tiny bit of stem remaining on it.  It was still wet from the water within its core.  Ray’s frown deepened.  This was a fresh occurrence.  
Standing straight up, he opened the door, ducking under its frame as he exited his room.  There wasn’t a flower immediately out of his room, but several feet down the hall, one lay in the center of a shining white tile, a speck of blue on a golden veined sea of pristine white.  He walked to it slowly, looking down the wide hallway.  The tile was in the middle of an interval leading both left and right.  An easy place for an ambush.  Curling his fists, he slowly proceeded to the edge of the passageway.  
He pressed himself against the wall to his right, creeping forward slowly as he stared in the direction of the left passage.  As it crawled into his field of view, he saw nothing and no one in the hallway, and no incriminating flowers.  He hadn’t crept all the way to the edge of the hall, only a foot or so away so as to not let his messy hair give him away should the one behind all of this be in the other side of the hallway.  Seeing nothing, he silently crept back a ways, only a couple feet away from the door to his room, before proceeding to press himself against the other wall.  
He continued with the same process as he had with the other hallway, silently stepping along the polished tile ground.  As he came into view of the right hallway, he instantly saw the tiny, soft blue flower, also in the center of the tile it was stationed on.  Taking a deep breath, he rushed out to the center of the interval, right to the tile where the other flower from earlier was.  Looking both left and right quickly, he saw nothing and no one, until at the next turn of the hallway.  
There was another flower there, in the very center of the turn.  Luckily, this was a singular turn to the left, and not a two-way like the one in which he stood.  Taking another deep, steadying breath, he began down the hallway, ensuring his footsteps were silent.  He sped up his pace, crouching down slightly as he did so, until he approached the edge of the left wall.  As before, he pressed himself against it, only about a foot away from the turn, before suddenly whipping around the corner.
Nothing.  Relaxing his shoulders slightly, he looked down the corridor.  Another flower in it, not at the end, but at the first turn in.  The hall continued after it, but no flower, only another one-way turn inwards, just windows slightly lighting up this hall.  He distinctly remembered that he had come from that hallway, and that the maid that had escorted him to this room had sped up ever so slightly passing by it.  Of course that was where whoever wanted to meet him would be.  The one place that the maid staff was scared of, or at least, wanted to avoid.  
Chewing his lip, he walked towards it.  He continued with his cautious routine, pressing himself against the cool marble.  He hadn’t seen into this corridor passing by it on his way to his room, so he had no clue what to expect when he abruptly turned the corner, fists ready.  
In his path, instead of a corridor, was a door.  Muttering a curse under his breath, he studied it.  It wasn’t old or unkempt, which meant that at least somebody was taking good care of even this avoided part of the castle.  Either someone was really dedicated to their job, or whoever was beyond wished to save face.  Or more likely, this was a commonly used place with some other purpose that would make a maid rush past.  No matter, it was where Ray needed to enter it.
Inhaling slowly, he grasped the door handle, turning it slowly.  Putting his foot against the hinge-side of the door, he jerked it open.  His foot kept it from slamming against the wall and creating disruption, but also meant slight pain.  It didn’t matter to him though, as his eyes searched the scene in front of him.  
At first, he was slightly confused at the sight, but quickly came to the realization that he was staring at a circular stairwell.  Muttering an even fouler curse as his eyes landed on the stair at eye level.  A single, threatening blue flower lay on it.  Grimacing at the thought of what might lay beyond, he picked the tiny flower up, and crushed it.  
Taking the first step up the stairs, he slowly crept forward, steadily making his way up the bland stone steps.  At first he took no notice, but soon he came to realize a creeping cold across his neck, the same kind he got when his scarf slipped too low during a blizzard.  His teeth clenched.  This was obviously no good sign.  For once, he felt that some of that bullcrap at home about feeling the air might actually be true.
His fists became tighter, whitening at the knuckles.  He kept count of how many stairs he had traversed, becoming slightly more concerned as ten became twenty, and twenty forty.  This portion of the castle was high up, one of the towers he’d seen as he had walked to the castle.  The stairs he were climbing also had to be some sort of lesser used passage too, as all of the towers had outdoor stairs leading up to them.  That and the fact that despite his earlier assessment of how used the passage had to be, there was still a thin layer of dust on the steps.
Dust, he realized suddenly.  He stooped down to the steps, scouring the ground in the pitch darkness, but was unable to see anything that low.  There was a window every fifteen steps that provided the only light, but in the stairs in between, there was too little light to actually see the steps.  He was able to find the pattern of the steps easily.  The designers of this stairwell were some sort of perfectionists, every step as even in dimension as the next, which allowed him to walk them without tripping.  
As he came to the next window, though, he found not a disturbance in the dust, but another flower.  Shaking his head in disappointment, he checked the next few stairs up, which were still within the soft stream of dim night light.  There was nothing, not even a slight distortion caused by the air moving, just the same thick dust as every other stairstep.  Muttering an angry curse under his breath, he began rushing up the stairs two at a time, tensed up in case of ambush.  Although at this point, he was doubting ambush.
It just seemed illogical at this point.  There had been several decent, if not adequate points for him to be ambushed, even with his precautions, but there hadn’t been someone there.  This was an attempt to communicate with him, to get him where nobody would find him -no- them.  This wasn’t Twilight’s work, that much he could deduce.  She was subtle at some points, and while he had reason to doubt the integrity of her word, he didn’t.  There was just too much at stake for either of them to not trust each other.
So this was the work of somebody else.  Discord maybe?  No, not chaotic enough, at least as far as he thought.  Not enough… pizzazz to fit the draconequus.  So who?  
“Only one way to find out,” he muttered.  He stood to his full height and began rushing up the stairs.  There wasn’t reason to fear the person or pony behind this, not yet at least.  So, as he passed over stair ninety, he disregarded the blue flower as he ran up the stairwell.  He kept his pace constant and hurried, until at stair ninety six, he saw the vague form of the door.  The perfectionist designer had kept to whatever self possessed neat nature.  Ray came to a halt right in front of another mahogany door on step one hundred.
There was an old brass door handle on it, the polished wood grainy from years of abandonment and rare cleansings.  Ray figured that knocking was pointless, and simply shoved the door open, revealing a clean room beyond.  It seemed to be in some sort of use, and likely was, as he heard movement from somewhere in the corners of the room.  Glancing around, he found he was in a relatively small room, the same chiseled marble making up every surface of it.  It was bare, but shining in splendor.  
He looked to the corner where the noise had come from suspiciously, glaring at the opening there.  After waiting several seconds for something, anything to emerge, he began slowly approaching it.  There was nothing coming to him, so whatever was making the noise wanted him to come to it.  Involuntarily, he clenched his fists again, preparing to enact his fight or flight instincts.
As he exited the room and into the bigger one, he heard a voice calling out jovially, “Ah, the Hero of Equestria comes at last!”  
Ray nearly embarrassed himself by jumping at the sudden calling, but was able to keep himself in control of his nerves.  Moving deeper into the room, he saw a dark, near formless shape in the center of the room.  It was then that he realized the room was lit not by the waning night sky, but by candelabras placed about much like in his own room.  They lit up even the very center of the room, where the figure stood.
Staring hard at it, he found that indeed, the figure, which was waist high, was not formless, but in fact, shaped much like a pony.  It was dressed in a deep blue cloak which furrowed at the sides and back.  Underneath the coat was a thin, tight layer of paler blue, not quite light, but certainly not deep.  It covered the rest of the body, including the face.  That was, except for where the blue fedora lay on its head, which was marked with an uneven splatter of blue resembling something… obscure.  Tipping it up, the pony revealed that even their eyes were covered by satin, though this satin was light blue and thin enough to practically see through the threading.  
The pony -a stallion, he deduced through the voice and general build- held out a hoof with a sort of cheeriness he wouldn’t expect from one so mysteriously kept.  “I’ve been waiting quite a while to meet you, Ray.  you’ve caused quite a stir within the pony community, though I guess you could suppose so much by how alien you are.”
Every word the stallion stated was jovial, as if they were friends chatting over dinner, and not newly acquainted.  
“Excuse me,” Ray began in confusion, “but who are you, exactly?”
The stallion tipped his head back in a short, happy laugh.  “You probably haven’t heard of me much,” the stallion said, leveling a gaze to him.  Ray felt as if the stallion were both smiling at him welcomingly, and observing him steadily, even though the mask remained neutrally expressionless.  Well, he could very much return the gesture.  “I haven’t done many great feats of wonder as of late, but if you should know, which you should, I am the Blue Knight, the Hero of Canterlot.”
“I’m sorry, who,” Ray asked, still not entirely caught up with this character.  He was cheery and easy-going looking, severely contrasting the dark and vague appearance he took.  He also couldn’t quite deduce whether this stallion was quite honest in his statements, seeing as how, well, descriptive he was acting.  
“Sorry, this is fast for you.  I had years, you only have one.  My name isn’t to be heard, but you can call me whatever you can think of, or if needs be, the Blue Knight,” the stallion started, still holding out his hoof.  Ray took it and began to shake it with him while he continued.  “I’ve been around for over five years, keeping this city, and as of late, Equestria, safe.”
“Okay, cool, but um, why,” Ray asked again, feeling slightly duped.  
“Well, why what?” the Blue Knight countered with an unseen raise of the eyebrow.  “Why am I the Hero of Canterlot?  Why does this concern you?  Why am I able to fight?  Why what?”
“Um, yes,” Ray responded, still unsure.
Chuckling at his confused manner, the cryptic stallion spoke as cheerfully, and softly, as if he were speaking to a child.  Might as well be, because I don’t understand crap right now, Ray thought dumbfoundedly to himself.  This seemed anything like the hero type.  Cheerful, definitely easygoing, and all around relatable to a teddy bear, this was not somepony he would figure for a hero.  Then again, Equestria.
“Well, you see, I’m not your average stallion, not at all.  Being here for the reason that you are, you surely know about Celestia’s mental block: the great peacekeeper of Equestria.  Well, unfortunately for me, I was born without it.  It’s a rare thing, nigh on one in two hundred thousand, but alas, I was born without it.  In order to hone in my violence to keep from exploding, Celestia took me under her wing and helped me find a way to control it.  
“Turns out, I wasn’t the only poor soul born without her blessing.  There are several dozen others, and a good number of them in Canterlot.  Which means that I had a purpose, some way to use my violence for something good.  I stop them, and the regulars; the robbers, con artists, and foalnappers.  That's how I became the Hero of Canterlot.  Violence, and a good deal of bruises.”
The stallion chuckled at the morbid joke as if it were another common street joke, signifying very clearly that this stallion was, indeed, no stranger to violence.  In fact, he seemed to have accepted that that was that, and there was no way about it.  Ray smiled earnestly with the joke, kneeling down to the ground to be face level with the pony.
“Ah, now isn’t that humbling, the Hero of Equestria kneeling down to be face level with me,” the stallion muttered, giving Ray a pointed tip of the hat.  Taking a deep, almost sighing breath, he continued.  “Now, as to how it concerns you exactly, well, that’s a more complicated story.  The base of it is, this place, Equestria, it isn’t perfect.  There aren’t as many problems as there are in your world, or so I’ve been told by Twilight, but there are still big ones.  The main ones; corruption and anarchy.
“We’ll start with the simpler ones.  The nobility, for the most part, are a respectable, if not snobbish class of ponies that are the spine of Equestria.  A good deal of them are good, or at least, okay ponies.  They follow the laws, keep in touch with their ponies, and contribute well to each class of ponies.  Now, there are a small percentage of them that, like with any position of power, take advantage of their work, and the ponies with them.  Now, the majority of them are taken care of and out of power, but there are still a few remaining that I can’t seem to pin down.
“Now, the anarchy, and its founder, on the other hoof, that’s a whole other matter.  You see, that started a while back, but on a smaller scale.  What was going on then was only a… a shadow of the threat to come.  There wasn’t any warning, wasn’t any rhyme or reason, just a sudden… snap.  And then that was that.  It was started.  Whatever this is, it isn’t pretty, and it isn’t your concern.  That’s why I’m telling you all of this.  
“Take this as you will Ray, but I don’t believe you to be the type that needlessly rushes into the heat of a fire.  Well, while you're in Ponyville, if you ever glance at the news, you’ll see and hear all about the fires burning through Baltimare, Whinneapolis, and Manehattan.  Don’t bother with those.” The Blue Knight’s cheerfulness had dropped, as had his pitch.  He seemed to be staring down Ray now, staring at him and daring him to oppose what he was saying.  “That’s my forte.  I fight in Equestria, but you, you fight abroad.  Together we make up a complete defense of Equestria.  Me from interior threats, you from exterior threats.  That is how we will save this land, right?  Together, but apart.”
Ray licked his lips, staring at the ground now.  The Blue Knight was still expectantly waiting on his response, but he was too deep in thought to bother at the moment.  This pony seemed smart.  He seemed like he could handle the army, the whole of the war, so why not use him for it, rather than him, a kid out of Pittsburg.  The answer, of course, was right in front of him.
This pony was the interior protector.  He was the one that kept the country from collapsing on itself, that much he had made clear to Ray.  But there was something more to it.  This pony seemed to be exactly who Ray had assumed on first sight, but different too.  There was too much at stake for him to leave his position, and for somepony else to take it over.  He wasn’t a police officer or something, no, he seemed to be something else entirely for Equestria, a certain thing.  He was the one, Ray now knew, who had to kill whoever or whatever was behind what was going on in those other places.  
And thus, the need for Ray.  Taking a breath, he nodded at the Knight.  “I understand completely.”
“Good,” he responded, a sort of tight cheeriness returning to his voice.  He turned to a window, much like the one in Ray’s own room.  “It’s time I go,” the Knight said, almost regretfully.  Turning back to Ray, he spoke softly, “I hope this isn’t the last time we talk, but who knows?  Our duty is a dangerous one.”
With that, the Knight silently turned to the window, walked over, and pushed it open.  The cool night’s air blew in, causing his cloak to flap lightly in the wind.  “Go back the way you came.  Make sure to shut the door completely.  If you’re lucky, you can still get a few more hours of sleep.”  
Ray was unable to respond as the Blue Knight ran up to the edge of the balcony and leapt off.  Chuckling slightly, Ray turned away from the sight of it, knowing full well that the mysterious stallion would be alright.  He walked back into the room where he had come from, opened up the door, and quickly began his descent down the stairs.  He pondered briefly the words of the Blue Knight, but put them aside quickly as he remembered something suddenly.
Today he was supposed to be receiving training from Skalos.  At six.  And it was currently almost four, if his estimations were right.  He began flying down the stairs, and within only a couple of minutes, he had reached the bottom of the steps.  Carefully opening the door, he rushed out of the stairwell.  Hastily shutting the door behind him, he rushed further down the hallway.  
He began running through the castle, hoping blindly that his memory of the route he had taken from the dining room to his room was correct.  If not, he hoped that one of the staff was going to be out wandering late in the night, and would be willing to lead him to the train station.  
With a sudden realization, and curse, he remembered the train ticket fee.  He reached into his pockets after stumbling to a halt, hoping to find a coin or two.  Instead, his fingers brushed against something stiff and papery.  Pulling it out of his pocket, he inspected it.  
It was his train ticket from the day previously.  Reading it quickly, he saw the words “round trip” and gave a sigh of relief at his obliviousness of this world.  He hadn’t meant to buy a  round trip ticket yesterday, and hadn’t even known that he had, but now that he did, he felt a slight bit better about his situation.  Only slightly, though, as he still had to rush out of the castle and to the train station and hope that it left and arrived in time for him to reach the meeting point with Skalos.  What a look, to be late on the very first day of training, after everything he’d said to the Fallen. 
He continued to run down hallway after hallway, until suddenly, at one turn, he practically ran over a mare.  Giving a yelp of surprise, he leapt over her before sliding on the slick, polished marble tiles and landing on his back.  Grimacing as the wind was knocked out of him, he laid still for several seconds before trying to push himself up.  His hands found grip on the slick tile, but he was still too sore from the sudden slip to actually rise.  
“Are you okay, mister?”  
The sudden question from behind his head reminded him that he wasn’t alone.  A pink muzzle leaned over his face, concerned etching her features, lips thin.  Rolling over and pushing himself into a sitting position, he answered with a tight voice, “Yeah, yeah I’m fine.  That was… just a fall.”
The mare seemed satisfied with his answer and his actions, and held out a friendly hoof.  “Alright then, mister.  Pleasure to meet you!  My name’s River Lily, but you can just call me Lily.”
“I’m Ray,” he said, getting up off of the ground slowly.  
“Well, hi then, Ray.  You gave me quite a scare, y’know.  Nearly dropped my flowers.”  The mare spoke with a friendly manner, her head steadily rising to keep eye contact with him.  
“I don’t  mean to offend by asking, but are you a, uh, member of the maid staff here?”
“Oh no, though I might as well be.  I’m here all of the time,” the mare answered with slight exasperation.  She tipped her head in curiosity at his question.  “Why do you ask?”
“I’m a guest here, and, well, I need help getting out and to the train station,” Ray muttered in slight embarrassment.  He was like a child again, lost in the supermarket and looking for the parking lot.  Only he didn’t have the age excuse.  It didn’t seem to be so with the mare though, as she stood thoughtfully for a moment, chewing a hoof and looking back the way she was going.
“Yeah, I guess I can.  Prince Blueblood’s flowers can wait a while longer,” Lily admitted slowly.  She turned back to him and gave him a  bright smile, gesturing with a hoof for him to follow her.  “So, why are you here?  I can’t imagine you're from any of the other nations.  I don’t know, you might be a scaleless dragon, but that seems too much of a stretch, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Ray responded with a short chuckle.  “I don’t breathe fire or anything.  Um, I guess I’m here on business with Twilight.”
“I see,” she said without turning around.  They turned a corridor as she asked, “So where do you live currently?  I mean, Canterlot’s a big city, but I think the news would have covered a strange creature in Equestria.”
“Well, I live in Ponyville currently, but probably not the case in a year or so,” Ray answered cautiously.  “I mean, I’ll move on to my old home hopefully, or if not, find a new place somewhere to live.  I like it here, but… it just isn’t my place.”
“Ah, so you’re a loner,” she commented, looking back at him with a smile.  For a moment, her look and smile became forlorn, as she stated, “I think I know someone who would understand.”  She glanced somewhere behind him briefly, before letting out a sigh and continuing on.
Soon enough, they came upon a set of large double doors.
“Wait a minute,” Ray said in confusion.  “Aren’t these the doors out of the castle?”
“Why yes they are,” Lily affirmed confidently.  Looking at him as she pushed it open, she asked, “Why?”
“It’s just… oh nevermind.  It was a bit odd to me, but… nevermind.”
Chuckling lightly at Ray’s confusion, she continued to hold the door open for him as he passed through and into the chilled early morning air.  He shivered slightly at the cold, but kept moving with purpose.  The doors shut soundly behind Lily, as she caught up with him, silently observing the cool night.  He looked up from the cobbled path and to the sky, watching the multitude of blinking stars candidly.  There wasn’t much out of the usual, other than the fact that they were slightly brighter than in Pittsburg.  The result of less light pollution, he guessed.
Before he knew it, Ray was following Lily through the abandoned streets of Canterlot.  Nopony was out in the early hours of the morning, leaving the streets bare and hardly lit.  Even empty, though, they had a sort of haunting magnificence to it, the eloquent streetside houses and businesses empty but living, in their own way.  Even the lampposts, which were slightly more than two feet taller than Ray, seemed to give the city life in the dark, taking the place of the usual city-goers.  Every other one was lit, presumably to conserve oil and labor.  Whatever the reason, the lighting gave the street a ghostly affect, the light spreading out evenly, but not really brightening anywhere.  
As they came to a fork, he recognized it as the area where he had come from so much earlier today.  Looking hard in the distance, he saw a lamp lighting up the station, and in the ghostly light, he could see the shadow of the train.  A they turned wordlessly down the street and approached the train station, he could see the dimly lit windows, and even a shadow here and there in them.  The smokestack had a small trickle coming from the top, signifying that the engine was starting up to leave.  
The two companions came to a halt in front of the wooden platform to the station, looking to each other silently for a moment before Ray spoke up again.  
“Thanks for the help, especially as late as it was,” he said, looking down to the pink gardener pony.  
“Oh, no problem,” she responded with a short, dismissive wave of the hoof.  “Canterlot’s a big city, like I said.  Sometimes you just need a good guide and friend to get you through it!”  The whistle to the train blew quickly, piercing the otherwise still night air.  “Well, I guess that’s your signal to go, isn’t it?  You don’t need any bits or anything, do you?”
“Uh, no,” Ray answered after a moment of recollection.  “I think I’m good.  Thanks again for the help.”
“Yeah, no problem.  Hope to see you soon, but if not, I hope you find that good place to live,” she cheerfully encouraged.  The conductor’s call of “All aboard” cut their goodbyes short, leaving Ray to nod curtly to her before running up to the train car door.  
Showing his ticket, the conductor nodded him in.  Traveling three cars down to an empty one, he took a seat by the Canterlot side windows.  Looking out, he could see the figure of Lily waving the train off as it jerked forward, initiating the start of the journey back to Ponyville.  Resting his head against the glass pane and settling back into the cushion of the seats, Ray allowed sleep to overtake him once again.
> Knives
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ray was awoken from his sleep by the screeching of the train’s wheels as it jerked to a halt.  After a brief second to recollect where he was exactly, he found himself smiling at the slowly rising sun.  It was most likely sometime near six, which meant that as soon as he was off of the train, he had to be running.  He stood up as the train fully stopped, the jerking slightly breaking up his stride.  The conductor had come around some time while he was asleep, he saw, as the other side to his ticket had been punched.  
Opening up the car door, he exited onto the platform.  Suddenly remembering the station’s clock, he glanced up to it.  The minute hand was dangerously close to the tenth mark, the hour hand crawling towards the sixth mark.  Taking a deep breath, he sprinted off.  
Running through the streets and towards the center of town, he crossed over the familiar bridge and into the awakening heart of the town.  Vendors were beginning to set up their stalls along the side of the main street, the mayor’s office looking over them like a gentle giant.  The slowly rising sun lit up the streets as its golden rays flushed the gloom from the cobble streets.  The haytop houses’ tops glowed golden as the early morning sun lit them, reflecting a bright turn for the day.  Even the chirping of birds in trees alongside the road were more cheerful than usual, though Ray had no clue as to why.  
Suddenly one of the chirping birds flew up to him, landing on his shoulder with a mocking chirp.  Keeping his stride steady as he ran, he greeted Otolo. “Hey, Ohs, nice to see you again.  Sorry that we kinda, left without you.”
Receiving a sharp peck on his earlobe for the light apology, Ray gave her a quick glare before turning back to the road.  “So what, you got back here anyways,” he attested.  “Before me too!  What’d you do, anyways?  Fly all the way back from Canterlot?”  The little brown bird gave him a cocky chirp, affirming his hypothesis.  “Well, good job then.  I was kinda wondering where you’d gone, but really I’m not too scared for you.  I mean, you’re a pretty tough little thing.”  Once again he received an affirming, cocky chirp.  
“Well let’s not get too brazen, huh?  We have somewhere to be soon,” he continued, dodging past a lonely cart before entering the road to Sweet Apple Acres.  “Have I told you why I’m here yet?”
The bird gave a short twitter that Ray wasn’t quite able to discern as a yes or no, so he took it as not.  Slowly, the story of why and how he’d come to Equestria spilled out of his mouth, and for once, Otolo didn’t interrupt him with any quirky or jeering remarks of her own.  He wasn’t quite finished as he ducked under the gateway to the farm, or even as he took the road down towards the lake Skalos had mentioned.
As the road, and them, turned around the bend of a hill, a single, pony figure stood out next to the morning lit lake.  Skalos stood among the greenery beside the lake, staring carefully in the direction Ray had come from.  As Ray neared, he slowed his stride to a walk, so that by the time that he approached the intimidating figure, he was done panting.  
“Almost late there, lordling,” the Fallen stated tonelessly.
“Yeah,” Ray agreed.  Pointing to the little bird perched on his shoulder, he said, “Mostly due to this one.”
Otolo chirped with offense, pecking his ear yet again.  Skalos smiled lightly at the bird, asking Ray, “Now who is this little fellow?”
“The little pain is Otolo,” he responded, rubbing his tender ear.  
Skalos chuckled at the statement, before letting his smile casually slide as he walked over to a tarp laying on the ground.  On it lay several different sized knives, ranging from two inch long blades to two feet long blades.  They all laid within their own unique sheaths, thought they seemed to be made of something other than leather.  It made sense, considering the species supplying him with the weapons.  Skalos presented them with a wave of a hoof. 
“Today, lordling, we will be learning knifeplay, but keyly, sheathing and unsheathing a blade,” the Fallen presented with a neutral tone, though underlying it was a hint of amusement, as Ray’s face fell at the mention of sheathing and unsheathing.  “Well, take your blade.”
Looking over them carefully, he bent down and picked up one that was about half a foot long.  
His breath caught as he began to unsheath the blade.  His heart began to pound.  Breathing picked up.  His mind fuzzed.  
He looked around in confusion, and suddenly, it was Pittsburgh in December.
> Pittsburgh in December
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Raymond spun around in confusion, snow slightly blurring at the movement.  It couldn’t be.  There was no way he’d been followed, this far across town, to this late in the night.  But there they were, two figures, trudging through the light snow and across the empty street towards him.  It was too dark on that side of the road to see any faces, but he knew for sure that it was Jackson and Kaleb.  Still them, and always them.
Looking behind his back, he saw an empty alleyway between a wall splitting a house and a 7-11 gas station.  He turned intentionally and trudged towards the space.  Perhaps if he could circle around the building, he could sprint away from the two looming beings and get back home quickly, before they noticed.  
Swallowing a lump in his throat, he practically ran through the falling snow towards the safety of the alleyway.  Slush splashed as he stepped over the curb and onto the simple gravel sidewalk, the wetness seeping through his shoes.  He still wore sneakers, despite single digit weather.  There was no money for boots, and as such, he went without.  Now he was chilled to the bone, his too small coat unable to keep him completely warm through the chill.  He puffed a breath into his gloveless hands, rubbing them to maintain heat.  He might need them if things went south, he thought grimly.
A more sensible part of him told him that there was no way he would be able to square off with two fourteen year olds and survive, but the part of him that wanted to survive the ordeal encouraged him.  He continued to puff breaths into them as he turned the corner.  Glancing back quickly, he saw the two rushing across the street as a blue suburban van honked at them.  Picking up his pace, he looked back to the alleyway, only to draw a sharp, strained breath of fear.  
There, at least ten feet tall, was a solid concrete wall barring his path.  It was covered with all sorts of graffiti; curses, symbols, and more than one nude figure all screamed at him.  He ran up to it, pressing his hands against it to make sure it was real.  The frigid, solid, grainy concrete met his hands, slick solidified spray paint staining it here and there with urban disorder.  He looked around the alley, only seeing a metal door in the side of the building as a possible exit.  That, and the now blocked entrance to the alleyway.  
The two older boys were walking down the alleyway quickly now, rushing towards him at a frightening pace.  They were now close enough to distinguish one from another.
Jackson was the slightly taller one, standing a good foot taller than Raymond.  He wore a checkered wool coat, the red and black a seeming promise to Raymond.  His black plastic-fabric snow pants made a crinkling sound as it moved in sync with its wearer’s steps.  He was glaring dangerously behind thick eyebrows, his green eyes feeling like sharp pine needles pressed against Raymond skin.  Unlike the usual, he was frowning to go with his glare, instead of a menacing and sneering smirk. 
Raymond was in deeper trouble than usual.
Beside him, Kaleb glared too.  The same height as Raymond, he wore a thicker coat.  He was one of the few rich kids in the ring, and his golden earrings flashed it like a prostitute in Hill District.  There was a running joke that whoever could best him in a fistfight would have the pleasure of ripping out those earrings and selling them.  They still jingled there, unclaimed after six months.  His own black snow pants were glistening with water from slush and snow, his snowcap moist from some of the splash that must have occurred when the van had passed by them.
Taking a deep breath, he gulped down another lump in his throat.  
“Hey,” Kaleb called angrily.  “Mind tellin’ me why ya led us halfway across town?”  He followed the question with angrier curse.  “We’re soaked now, along with bein’ pissed, so congratulations, ya’ve screwed yaself ova’.  Anything ya want us t’ tell ya family when they’re buryin’ ya?”
“Woah woah woah woah,” Raymond cried defensively, holding up his hands.  “What’d I do wrong?”
“Don’t play dumb with me, Deang,” he shouted getting up in Raymond’s face, their eyes meeting in a flash.  “Ya di’n’t show up t’ the meetin’ with Diggs, and then ya’ off by ya lonesome when ya’s supposed t’ do a job with Sam.  Whaddya mean, ‘What’d I do?’  Ya done screwed up, that’s what.”
“I told you, like I said last time, that I was doing school crap,” Raymond protested.  “You can’t blame me for wanting to make sure I keep good grades!”
“Yeah, but this time, we had folks watchin’, and low and behold, ya weren’t out,” Kaleb produced, punctuating the last three words with heavy pokes in the chest that set Raymond slightly off balance.  “Whatcha gotta say ‘bout that, huh?”
“I was at the school,” he continued to defend.  “Ask Ms. Breden!” 
“Oh I will,” he assured, rubbing his chin for a moment, looking down as he nodded his head in understanding.  Suddenly he grabbed the collar of Raymond’s jacket and shoved him against the heavy wall of concrete behind him.  “I’ll ask her why ya’ such a lyin’ little bastard.”
Knowing that he’d been caught, he began to fight back with the first insult he thought of.  “Taller than you,” he spat, grabbing onto the bully’s wrists with his own hands.  
Kaleb threw his head back in bitter laughter, before looking over to his companion and asking, “He is a bit taller than me, ain’t he?”  As he asked Jackson, he had begun to raise Raymond off of the ground, until he was a good head higher than Kaleb.  “Why don’tcha help me shorten him a bit fer me, eh?”
 Laughing with his leader, Jackson strode up to Raymond.  Scruffing up his hair almost playfully, he suddenly made a fist and slammed it against Raymond’s head.  Kaleb’s grip held steady, but the force of the hit on his head knocked him to the ground otherwise.  Raymond cried out in pain as his feet hit the ground hard, sending shock into his ankles.  Instantly he knew that his left leg’s ankle was sprained.  He was lifted up against the wall again, which unintentionally allowed his feet to be in the perfect position for a counter attack.  
Using his right foot out of fear for further damaging his left ankle, he rammed his foot into the older boy’s groin.  The young man cried out in pain, letting go of Raymond as he stumbled backwards.  Jackson glanced over to his cursing partner in confusion.  Landing on his bad ankle primarily, Raymond crumpled to the ground with another cry of pain.  Racing to get back up, he saw the two were now standing a good few feet away, seeming to recuperate from his sudden strike back.  
“Get the knife, ya idiot,” Kaleb yelled furiously, still slightly bent over from the impact of Raymond’s kick.  Growling in response, Jackson threw up the left side of his coat, and before Raymond could try to talk his way out of an even worse situation, stainless steel flashed in the night air.  
However, despite the aggressive motion, Jackson seemed to doubt for a moment.  “Kaleb, we ain’t gonna knife him, are we?  He’s just a stupid kid.”
“Yes we are, ya idiot,” he yelled.  Raymond wanted to try to make a run for it, but he knew that if he did, that knife would end up somewhere bad.  Instead, he made sure that he had moved slightly to the side of the wall, and more towards the metal door.  “Or if ya don’t, I will.”
Hardening his gaze, Raymond shouted, “Hey, idiots, I can hear you both.”  Getting into a defensive stance, he gestured towards himself.  “Come on, come and get me.”
Sneering at the tinier opponent, Jackson succumbed to the taunting. “A screw it.” 
That seemed to signal the fight had begun.  Jackson slowly began walking towards him from the front, quickly swinging out his knife to both probe Raymond and keep him back.  From his right, Kaleb had begun to slowly flank him, keeping his hands in semicircle fists.  Keeping his gaze steady on the knife that was occasionally flashing here and there, he began circling sideways.  Always, he kept vision on the feet of the knife’s possessor, making sure he wasn’t caught off guard by a sudden rush.  There was no real movement of aggression from either side, only slow paced circling, until suddenly, Kaleb rushed him.
Cursing, Raymond threw out a quick punch, twisting his hand as it connected.  Unfortunately it missed its originally intended mark, striking the other boy’s shoulder instead of his face.  It still slowed him and made him back up for a moment to reconsider his strategy.  After all, despite their constant estrangement, he’d been the one to teach Raymond about fist fighting in groups and against knives.  So, naturally, he knew what Raymond was thinking, and Raymond knew it.  
Attempting to force Raymond into a corner, the two began pressing in closer in from his front, squeezing him away.  At first, he refused to give them ground, instead cautiously swinging out hooks and the occasional punch, but it wasn’t until the knife grazed one of his knuckles that he realized how futile the attempt was.  Begrudgingly, he began giving up ground, trying to delay the inevitable death match fight just long enough to figure out how exactly he would win it.  He could always try to run, but that seemed about as likely of succeeding as it would if he engaged in a fair fight with them.  
Blood pumped in his ears, adrenaline rushing through his veins as he tried to figure out how exactly he was going to even survive this fight.  No one knew he was here, no one knew what he’d been doing to get him into this situation.  He was completely alone in this situation, and he had to get back home.  Taking quick, deep breaths, he continued his backpedaling, until suddenly something barred his path.  Something small and cold pressed against the middle of his back.  The door handle.  
The delay was brief, deadly.  As soon as his pace faltered, the two charged him in near unison.  He ducked under Jackson’s knife swing, but right into Kaleb’s kick.  He pressed forward, though, shoving Kaleb.  The older boy stumbled back before suddenly slipping in some slush and falling backwards.  He landed with a loud, wet smack, that left him immobile for several seconds.  Not wasting a second on watching him, he turned and jumped backwards, just out of reach of Jackson’s knife.  He rushed into Jackson, grabbing his knife hand with both of his,  trying to wrench it out of his grip.  After several more seconds of struggle, he managed to pull his hands down low enough to knee it, which knocked the knife right out of Jackson’s grip. 
Jackson instantly bent down to grab it, but Raymond was ready for it, gripping his coat collar and slamming a knee into his gut.  A loud whoosh of air escaped the taller boy as the wind was knocked out of him.  Not finished, Raymond rammed an uppercut into his gut before pushing him away.  Too weakened in the moment by the strikes, the boy fell backwards and into a puddle of slush.  Seemingly in the clear, Raymond now hurriedly bent down to grab the knife himself.  Suddenly, a foot was shoved against his chest, hard enough to cause mild pain and shove him to the side.  
Landing in a puddle of dirty water of snowmelt, Raymond used the momentum to continue a roll that led him to his feet.  Looking around, he saw a snarling Kaleb holding the wet knife now, blade flashing as his hand shook in anger.  Behind him, Jackson was standing up, glaring at Raymond hard.  Brushing a bit of the remaining slush off of his coat, Kaleb continued to approach him, the knife now pointed towards him.  All three seemed to stop in a unanimous agreement for a breath.  Raymond stared the two of them down,  and they him, measuring each other up before they engaged again.  
This fight was obviously not what the older boys had expected from Raymond, by their confused cursing and anger.  Raymond, on the other hand, had been expecting to be bleeding out of his stomach at this point, and was pleasantly surprised not to be yet.  That didn’t mean he could keep this up though.  His breathing was already quick and short from the exhaustion of the fight that had taken place.  He didn’t have any experience with lengthened fights against one opponent, but against two, he knew there was no fair way to win.
Once again, Kaleb suddenly jumped towards Raymond, a daring move that brought no purchase but a heavy kick to his knee that nearly extended it backwards.  Shouting an angry curse, the boy continued his attack, slashing the knife downward.  Catching his wrist, Raymond began struggling to wrestle the knife away from his older opponent.  This time, however, he hadn’t disabled the other one, which allowed him to circle from the side.
As Raymond continued to struggle for possession of the valuable weapon, Jackson had come from his left.  Keeping his eyes still on the knife and the four hands enclosed around its hilt, he saw Jackson lay out a hook into Raymond’s floating ribs in his peripheral vision.  Raymond let out a pained yell, but continued to hold the knife strong at face level.  Forcing himself to tense up, he braced for the next hit, which came with vicious speed and intent.  Yelling in pain again, he suddenly found a strength in him, something that hadn’t been there before in his chest.  
He pushed against the hands of the opponent in front of him, releasing his grip.  This set Kaleb off balance, and yet again he tumbled to the wet alley floor, head smacking heavily against the stone.  Making a fist with his right hand, he turned before the next hit came, instead landing the tight fist square into the older, taller boy’s stomach.  This forced a cough from Jackson and he heaved with the force of the strike.  Before Raymond allowed him the chance to react, though, he swung his other hand into the boy’s stomach, landing yet another heavy hit.  This one also caused Jackson to cough, but this time, a bit of blood joined the spittle.  
Swinging his right hand again to smack into his stomach, Raymond suddenly felt it caught by the boy.  It was desperate, but weak, allowing Raymond to rip his hand from the boy’s grip.  With both hands, he grabbed the boy’s head, and with all of the force he could muster, he threw it to his right.  Time seemed to slow as Jackson flew sideways, his feet dragging across the slush covered ground, and into the metal doorknob.  There was a sickening crack as his skull smacked into the doorknob, which was suddenly painted red by the older boy’s split skull.  
Jackson crumpled lifelessly to the ground, slumping into the slush.  Red tickled into the darkened water of the alleyway.  It stained the little snow, and made it look strangely like the tiger’s blood snow cones they sold in the summer.  Dazed, Raymond barely noticed as a blurry figure rushed up to him, and it wasn’t until he felt something collide with his stomach that he realized who it was.
Raymond looked downwards, to his stomach, staring at the knife now embedded in it.  Slowly, pain crept through him, though it seemed distant, like a faint burning, or like the feeling immediately after he cut himself.  He knew there should be pain, and that it would come, but it wasn’t there yet.  And slowly, it came.  It felt like the fires of hell itself were burning his stomach.  He looked up from Kaleb’s bloodied hand to his face.  
Raymond’s response was immediate.  He shot both hands up to the older boy’s face, one on his temple and one on his chin.  Without a second thought, and before Kaleb could realize what was happening, he jerked his head sideways.  
A series of wet pops and cracks echoed in the alleyway as Raymond broke his adversary’s neck.  The body of Kaleb fell silently into the muck before him, his head angled in a sick fashion to the side.  
The pain suddenly hit him, and hard.  He gasped at the sheer force of it.  It felt like lava burned his stomach where he’d been stabbed.  It wracked his whole body, causing him to shake.  Instantly, he went to the ground.  
He could feel the blood trickling down his stomach, the knife still jutting out of where the pain was concentrated.  He held as still as he could while he looked around for anything to help him.  His mind was blurred by the shock of the whole occurrence, but a sharp thought pierced through the confusion and pain.  
The police could help him.  
Scrambling, he searched Kaleb’s pants, which had a squarish bulge in the pocket he could see.  Wallet, not a phone.  Groaning in pain, he resolved to push the body over.  He practically shrieked in pain as he put all of his life into pushing the body over.  As soon as the body was over enough, he ripped the coat up, revealing the pocket, which gratuitously held a rectangular shape in it.  
He pulled out the phone.  As he did so, he felt more of his blood leak out.  Groaning loudly, his hand flashed to the wound.  It came back sticky red.  
Turning the device on, he scrambled across its screen to open up the emergency call option.  His fingers left bloody prints on the glowing glass screen, but he didn’t care.  Rapidly tapping in 9-1-1 on the dial, he held it to his ear.  
The ringing lasted only a few seconds, but it was seconds that Raymond wasn’t able to afford.  Already, a combination of pain, shock, and cold was threatening to shut down his system, and he was too weak to resist.
“Nine one one, what’s your emergency,” the operator’s answer came.  T was a masculine voice that sounded lazy and too marred by liquor to be bothered, but it might as well have been an angel’s voice as Raymond responded.
“Stabbing in the alleyway,” he murmured, horrified to find his voice so gurgly and slow.  “By 7-11… off of Brooklyn and Edgebrook… send help… please.”
The operator responded with something that sounded panicked, but the fuzzing of Raymond’s mind overtook all sight and sound.  He slouched against the side of the alleyway, the cold slush seeping through his thick jeans and into his very bones.  The phone fell haplessly into a puddle, but Raymond gave it no heed.  His head fell back against the metal door behind him, bouncing several times on the cool surface.  He didn’t feel it, couldn’t feel it past the burning pain in his stomach and freezing cold body.  His gaze remained unfocused as he stared up at the cloudy, glowing sky above, blurs of white drifting past and onto him, clinging to his eyelashes.  
Helplessly, he pressed a hand against the wound in his stomach, attempting to keep pressure on it, but it did nothing more than increase his pain.  Time seemed slower than it should have been, and more than once his eyes threatened to close, but some part of him that still had self preservation woven into it forced him to stay awake.  There was a noise somewhere to his right, but he simply didn’t have the strength to look over.  A masculine voice cried out a muffled word, but Raymond was unable to discern it, and only continued to stare up into the sky.  
Suddenly, dully, he realized there was a slight discoloration to the yellow clouds, a faint flashing of red and blue.  He willed himself to turn to the end of the, but his body was too drained.  Even though he felt like crying out with rage and pain, he found he didn’t even have strength enough to do that either.  There was simply nothing left in him.  Tears were frozen to his face, tears he couldn’t feel, and with a startled moment, he realized he couldn’t feel at all. 
Out of the blurred darkness came voices.  When had there been darkness?  Wasn’t he staring into the sky still?  But then, what happened to the clouds?  Raymond peeled his eyes open, the one thing he still seemed to be able to bodily do other than breath, blessedly.  
As sight returned to him, he could faintly make out the image of a man in a black suit with something shiny on his chest.  Faintly, his mind recognized the image of the policeman’s badge, and suit he wore.  His mouth was moving, but Raymond could not hear, let alone understand what it was he was saying.  Concerning, to be sure, but slightly funny.  He’d been told he had perfect hearing by the school nurses.  Why didn’t he have it now then?  Liars.
Raymond smiled, and then passed out.
> Too Many Memories
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I was told that the police officer who found me used the very same knife I’d been stabbed with to cauterize my stomach wound,” Ray told Skalos and Otolo tonelessly.  He chuckled darkly at the humor of it.  He kept turning the knife in his hand over, looking for any magical anomaly, a rune or strange glow or anything to give away why he’d suddenly remembered the night it had taken him two years to fully forget.  “Funny how the very same knife that killed me also technically saved me, don’t you think?”
Skalos gave him an investigative lookover, before responding. “You look alive to me, lordling.”
“Well, I am now,” he admitted dryly.  Leaning back slightly on the hillside, he continued, “But I wasn’t after arriving at the hospital.  I was clinically dead for over three minutes.  Three minutes and twenty three seconds, if I remember what they told me correctly.”
Skalos had a grim tightness to his thinned lips, his milky blue eyes staring solemnly forward.  He looked back over to Ray, asking quickly, “How did they bring you back from the dead, then?  As far as Twilight’s told me, there isn’t any magic or medicine to bring back the dead.  She didn’t go into great detail about your world’s technology, saying that it was more than what she understood too…”
“No, there isn’t any magic there, but there is electricity,” Ray responded candidly.  “They shocked me something like four times.  The burn scars faded a few months afterwards, but the stab wound will be there for the rest of my life.”  With a sudden wry grin, he joked, “It’s a shame, really.  The guys at the junkyard said that come summertime, my ‘chiseled bod’ would catch every girl’s eye from Northview to Overbrook…”
He trailed off as his grin faded, the memory of home bittering at his own situational awareness.  “I don’t think I’ll ever marry,” Ray noted sadly.  He didn’t know why he’d said it loud enough to hear, but then again, he was almost one hundred percent sure the Fallen could read lips, so it wouldn’t have mattered.  However, what he truly didn’t expect was Skalos’ sudden and humorous response.
“No, I expect we won’t,” the Fallen muttered towards his feet.  
Cocking his head in confusion at Skalos, he asked, “Whaddya mean?  You guys can be married?”
“Yes, we can,” Skalos answered with a wry grin, wryer than Ray’s own from earlier.  “You remember the stallion from earlier?  Pelios?  Well, the specific mare he’s talking about is Ambrosia.  They’ve been together for over two hundred years…”
Ray’s eyebrows shot up at the fact, surprised not only at the statement that it was allowed, but also the length of the relationship.  “How does that even work,” he exclaimed softly in bewilderment.  “Aren’t you all dead?”
Skalos bellowed out a hoarse laugh, shaking his smooth head from side to side.  Ray’s brows furrowed in further confusion, wondering what exactly was so funny about his presumption.  There seemed to be no apparent humor in it, so he presumed it was some sort of inside joke between the Fallen.
“We may be dead in appearance, and we may have lost our skin, but we still live, breath, eat, drink, and everything.  We lost our skin because it cannot survive hundreds of years of cold and malnourishment, so Luna’s Curse gave us new skin and new blood.  Spectral skin and spectral blood, the very same thing that cloaks the Windigos and pumps through their veins.”  The cryptic stallion explained this with a subtle smile on his face, as if knowing he wasn’t answering Ray’s question, but not caring as to elaborate.  Then, as if Ray’s mental questioning had been heard, he answered, “Our organs, all of them, are working, but not producing.  Nothing new is being introduced to the system.  No new blood, no new substances.  Everything we consume is used, nothing wasted.”
Ray’s eyes had widened slightly, but he remained silent as Skalos concluded his explanation, the same subtle smile remaining.  However, after a few more moments of silence, his smile dimmed and faded away.  
“The topic has actually caused quite a bit of controversy among we Fallen,” Skalos resumed somberly.  “You see, there are different minorities in our ranks.  They consist of the Grim, the Moderates, and the Foals.  The Foals think that this whole ordeal is a rebirth of some sort, a second chance at life in a place where we can only harm ourselves and whatever causes us to be called up.  They encourage things such as relationships, friendships, and, well, to put it lightly, engagements.  There are over six hundred married couples, all of which were married anytime in the last two hundred year, although this ideology has been pursued almost since the day we were hidden from the world.
“On the other hand, the Grims, which I am a part of, believe this as it is, a curse for our iniquities and a way to redeem ourselves before death.  We are very strict on unity and rank, which is why a great deal of us are in the higher ranking piece of the army.  We don’t think that any sort of entertainment, relationship, or enjoyment should be had among the soldiers, because we are still soldiers.  We number a large amount of the population, some seventy percent.  We chastise and work on policing the Foals, trying to keep them memorable of the reason they can still have their parties and liberties, and not the black trails of death.
“And then there are the Moderates, the so-called ‘yes-ponies’.  They are a small portion, perhaps seven or eight hundred Fallen, but they dictate that we neither ‘waste away in the mourning of our failures’, nor ‘languish in the fruits of mercy’.  They dictate that we should ‘accept the consequences and prepare for our purpose in a way that helps us physically, mentally, and emotionally.”  The light scoffing of Skalos was not missed by Ray, but he did find himself agreeing with these Moderates.  “They claim to support and disdain neither side, instead favoring the common ground between the two ideologies.”
“Well I agree with them,” Ray said, speaking his mind to his teacher.  The Fallen turned to him abruptly with widened eyes, as if not expecting a response from him, let alone that one.  
“Huh,” the stallion let, looking back to the grassy ground in front of them.  The early morning dew had long since faded in the cool sunlight, the coming fall weather having slowly begun to take effect already.  Even though it was nearing ten in the morning, the sun still hadn’t warmed the field they were in.  Otolo, ever faithfully perched on his shoulder in uncharacteristic silence and solemnity, kept ruffling her feathers in an attempt to find a warmer position against his neck.  Every time she did so, Ray could hear the distant sound of a shutting car door, the sound of feather smacking on feather so close to his ear chillingly resembling the noise.
“Well, I didn’t expect you to be a Moderate,” Skalos finally spoke, almost with an undertone of disappointment to it.  “Would you explain to me your views on the matter.”
Ray tightened his lips, mind running through a quick thesis, before he answered with calm confidence, “I may not be a soldier, or one of you even, but I know that in every army, you need to have strong moral.  I don’t think that that’s pursued well if you tell them they’re only here to die for their mistakes in a last ditch attempt at redemption.  They have something to fight for, sure, but they’ve been disconnected from it for over a thousand years, right?  Maybe something more… familiar to fight for, like friends in the ranks would help encourage better fighting in them?”
“Yes, the very same argument the Moderates use,” Skalos responded, almost sadly.  “And I will use the very same rebuttal that we Grims always use: the emotional connection will only get more killed. We cannot let our emotions dwell on anything but the task at hand, which is to keep you alive and as many as us alive every battle.  We aren’t a renewable army.  We have no reinforcements, no reproduction, and few of us as it is.  As such, we should keep preservation in our minds, preservation and perseverance, not philanthropy.”
“But wouldn’t you better persevere with a companion of some sort,” Ray countered evenly.  “And what about all those ponies you mentioned who had put themselves out, hm?  Would they have been more enticed to continue on if they weren’t forced to solely think on their past mistakes.  If the memory of failure is the only thing to drive somebody, wouldn’t that insight further failure?”
Skalos gave Ray a strange look as he finished his piece, one of almost… pride?  Ray didn’t understand it well, but he felt he had done well with his own argument.  Skalo nodded ever so slightly, speaking softly.  “This is most likely true.  Just another example of what you know that we ponies don’t.  You’ve lived rougher than us, and made less mistakes, as Twilight’s account goes.”  Concern etched into the dead pony’s expression after a moment, though.  “I don’t think Twilight anticipated this, because she certainly didn’t tell me about what was going on inside your head.  We might want to consider the possibility that this happens every time you see something familiar to that night in the city.”
Ray looked down at the knife with a frustrated glare before suddenly standing up straight and throwing the weapon towards the opposite hill.  It spun in the air, the glint of sunlight on its metal blade flickering into Ray’s eyes, causing him to lose sight of it.  He heard the soft thump of it hitting the nearby hill, but it was lost in the sea of rising green.  Otolo chirped at him sharply for his sudden movement, but Ray disregarded the little bird, turning to the stallion who had called him here.  For a moment they just stared at each other, before Ray spoke up.
“That night was a blank slate to me,” he began.  “I remember waking up that morning, knowing I’d screwed up.  Next thing I knew, I was staring in a mirror positioned over my sewed shut gut wound as a doctor explained how I’d barely survived.  I knew what happened, and who had done it too, but I didn’t really know.  The whole rest of the day is missing, some sort of mental black hole having enveloped the entirety of that night.  And then, today, you saw me pick up a knife, and disappear.  
“It was like I was there again, watching the whole thing as it was.  I was back in that moment, back to my twelve year old self.  I thought in the moment, but it was memory, and did everything I had done then, but now.  I felt it, felt the stab, the burning in my stomach.”  For some reason, Ray felt tears sliding down his cheeks even though he wasn’t sad or even upset about it.  He was just crying.  “I was back to calling the police.   Went back and killed those two guys, those two guys that tried to kill me.”
Skalos moved forward in an unprocessed gesture of condolence, but Ray didn’t see it.  He was slowly sinking to the grassy ground, his mind lost to the memory of his killings.  “I saw their bodies, I crawled through their blood.  I stole the phone of a dead kid I had killed so that I didn’t die.  Skalos, I killed two other boys that night, two other guys just like me.  They had lives and ambitions too, but I took that.”  
His hands wrapped tightly around the front of his face until he felt his nails imprinting themselves in the skin on his temples.  He could hear it all over again, the dull crack of Jackson’s skull splitting on the door knob, the echoing wet popping that Kaleb’s neck had made when he snapped it, and the ringing of the sirens in the night.  They all were there, all screeching at him in a symphony of unwashed and unbridled memory.   
And suddenly there was a firm, strong masculine voice in the midst of it all, something yelling at him, shouting at him.  For a moment, Ray didn’t comprehend it, but the second time it shouted, he heard it loud and clear.
“Get up, lordling.”
It wasn’t a question.  It wasn’t even an order.  It was a demand.  Squeezing his already closed eyes, Ray stood quickly, pulling his hands off of his face with a silent grimace.  
“Stay up, lordling.”
Another demand, this one harder than the last in both tone and performance.  He straightened his back and tilted his head back, resisting the shaking in his legs until it stopped.  
“Tell me you’re here, lordling.”
Forcing his eyes open, Ray looked back down at the ghostly stallion that was calling to him over the snapping and screaming.  With a determined grit in his teeth, Ray answered, “I’m here.  I’m here.”
The stallion’s face hardened ever so slightly as he asked, “What was that?”
“Raymond’s gone.  Ray’s here.  I’m here,” Ray spoke sharply, an intense and focused glare honing in on the stallion before him.  As he punctuated the last word, the noises, the screams and snaps and cracks and wailing sirens all died, shattered suddenly and leaving only Ray’s panting breath to be heard.  
Ray’s glare slowly diminished into a tired stare, fatigue causing him to go to the ground.  Instantly, Otolo was back on his shoulder, pressing her head against his left cheek firmly.  Skalos’ hoof took up the space of his other shoulder as the stallion stared deep into the human’s eyes.  The milky blue depths of his eyes consumed his fears and inner turmoil, leaving only the grim, determined, thin resolve he now had,
Slowly, ever creeping, a slim smile crossed across the Fallen’s face.  “Welcome back, lordling.”
“Good to be back,” Ray muttered with a short, exhausted pant.  
“Now then,” Skalos began, straightening himself up, “I believe that we have some training to do.  I don’t suppose you’d want to do much knife work today.  Usually I would make you, but you’re a strange case, and thus we must conduct with a different, unique session.  I didn’t anticipate for this to happen, but I supposed it wouldn’t be harmful to show you what you would eventually get to in your training.”
Walking briskly around the still kneeling, Skalos continued with, “We -Princess Twilight, Ringer, and I- all figured that since these beasts have thick skin and tough muscles, a sword like would be used against ponies would be inappropriate to use.  Instead, we concocted a new spear, specially designed for the use of a human and destruction of a minotaur.”
Ray had turned with the Fallen, standing up straight and following him with Otolo aloft, he found himself being led around the side of the hill.  On the side of the hill was a simple wooden door, much like a simplified version of the entrance to a hobbit-hole.  Ray was about to ask what it was exactly, but the squeaking of the door being jerked open cut him off.  Shutting his mouth silently, he raised an eyebrow in curiosity, walking up to the door.  Before he reached it, however, Skalos came lumbering back out, something long, large, and shiny laid across his back.
“Here you are, lordling,” the Fallen produced strangely, laying the object to rest on the ground.  “The weapon that you’ll lead us to battle with.”
For a moment, Ray’s mind didn’t quite process the weapon, its odd shape and gross geometry foreign to him.  But slowly, he began to recognize it as some sort of spear.  It had three separate blades, each curving gracefully into each other to form a precisely sharp, deadly tip.  Each of the blades were like their own elegant miniature axe heads, but much slimmer.  The center of it was devoid of any structure, presumably to allow him to catch his enemy’s weapons in it and disarm them.  A slim, tooth-like hook stuck out of the right side, looking like a metal shark tooth had been embedded into the handle.  
The handle itself was simple and practical.  It shone in the light, the entire rod metal, save for a portion covered up with a rough, leathery looking grip.  The end of the spear was slimmed and sharpened to a single point, making the weapon deadly on both ends.  There wasn’t a single dent, scratch, or engraving on the entirety of it, making the entire thing looking new.  Ray refrained himself from picking up the weapon until Skalos had gestured for him to do so.  Ray whistled softly in appreciation as he picked it up, Otolo joining in.
It was heavy, some ten to fifteen pounds.  He felt like he was lifting a lead pipe, but hours of work at the dump and the work he’d done only a few days ago with the Apples had prepared him for the weight, at least slightly.  His arm strained slightly, so he grasped it with both hands firmly around the grip.  He noticed silently that the grip was made from some sort of fibery substance that was equally soft and ridged, allowing him to hold it firmly.  It was at least an inch thick, and covered about a foot around the shaft, right in the middle.  It was strange, to say the least, but it worked well as he gave it a few false swings.
They were clumsy, his untrained hands unused to the weight and geometry of the spear, causing it to slip around in his grip.  However, even with the clumsiness of his movement, it seemed deadly, a fact that was not missed by the way Skalos had stepped back a few feet.  There was perpetual silence as Skalos allowed him to continue to test out the graceful weapon, glinting sunlight caught by the flashing metal.  Otolo had flown into the air once again, which gave him more room to move and less restrictions.  He briefly thought how strange it was that an eight ounce bird could be the difference between a thrust and a swing. 
“It seems you approve,” Skalos suddenly interjected through his movement.  Smiling, the stallion held up a hoof to cut off Ray’s oncoming response.  “I would advise you, lordling, to carry it with you.  Care not for what others think, including those you know.  During our war, we will always carry our weapons in our waking hours, maybe even in our sleep.  The best way to become acclimated to the weight is to always have it.”
Ray nodded in understanding, before asking, “Do I just hold it like this with my hands?”  He posed with it, his right hand around the grip while his other lay leisurely to the side, barely keeping the bottom from the ground.  “Or is there some sort of holster or something to carry it in?”
Shaking his head, Skalos explained, “You won’t have anything to hold it in until our woodworker knows how to make a correct scabbard for it.  It’s a complicated weapon, and requires a complicated holder.  So yes, for now, you will walk around with it on guard.”
Once again nodding in understanding, he looked back over the small lake, then to the little house in the side of the hill.  Slightly confused, he pointed at it, questioning, “How did that even get that there?  Is that some sort of property of the Apples that you’re using or did you just build that there for this purpose?”
“Oh no,” Skalos denied, “that isn’t the property of the Apples, or any resident in the area.  It’s illegal for the state and military to annex the property of private owners.  No, this is actually a piece of four straight acres squared that isn’t owned by anybody.  The lake is technically property of the Tops, but that doesn’t concern us.  We’re only close to it because of coincidence.  The house was built here long ago, by a friend of Celestia’s right after the war, and was his until his disappearance years afterwards.  But that doesn’t matter at all.  Instead, we must focus on the matter at hand.  You would have had to work on sheathing and unsheathing the knife for the majority of the next six hours, but since there seems to be a chink in our plan, you’ll spend the next six hours instead helping your family on the farm, all whilst keeping that spear from hitting the ground.  Another sort of training, I would say, one to train your physical and mental discipline.”
Ray nodded in understanding before turning to do as his mentor had told him.  Before he had reached the bend in the hill, though, he turned back and smiled gratefully to Skalos.  “Thank you.”
Skalos returned the smile, although his statement afterwards was not exactly motivational.  “You won’t be thanking me in three hours, and probably will be cursing my name in six.  But I’ll take the sentiment while it’s here.”
Laughing nervously at the Fallen’s response, he turned back to the Apple’s farm, setting out to complete his task, Otolo perched on his shoulder.

***********************************************************************************************************

The sound of feminine grunts and the heavy, dull thunking of hooves on wood alerted Fluttershy to her nearing Applejack.  Continuing down the row of great trees, she suddenly found herself staring at a rapidly shaking tree.  Squeaking in surprise an apple dropped from above, she flew to the side, avoiding the sudden barrage of apples.  She was suddenly glad for her nervous habit of shooting into the air instead of running, as if she had, she would’ve tripped over one of the many baskets surrounding the tree, collecting the raining fruit.  
“Fluttershy!”  The sudden exclamation of her name surprised the already jumpy mare, making her beat her wings a bit too hard, sending her head into an overhanging branch.  Grimacing and rubbing the top of her head tentatively, she looked over to where a surprised looking Applejack stood.  She held a hoof over her snout, attempting to hide a laugh.  
Fluttershy sighed and rolled her eyes at her own clumsiness as she landed, stumbling a bit and nearly careening into another of the apple laden baskets.  A snicker sneaked through AJ’s hoof, causing Fluttershy to simultaneously huff in frustration and blush in embarrassment.  The farmer mare saw, however, making her say, “I’m sorry, Fluttershy.  I didn’t mean anythin’ ‘bout it.  Just couldn’t help it any.”
“Oh, it’s fine Applejack,” the disgruntled pegasus muttered, staring at the ground.  “Sorry for disturbing you.”
“No problem with a friend droppin’ by,” Applejack responded brightly, approaching her friend for a hug in greeting.  “Now what can I do ya for?”
“Well, I was wondering if Ray was around,” Fluttershy asked.  “He told me that he was now a member of the Apple family now, so I figured he might be at the farm since he wasn’t at his room in Canterlot, on the train, or at his house.  I’m weighing the possibility that he was abducted by Pinkie or the Cutie Mark Crusaders, but I thought it’d be better to check with you first.”
“Well, glad ya did,” her friend gave heartily, pointing off to another part of the orchard.  “He’s right over there, kinda northeast of th’ barn.”  Applejack’s face suddenly scrunched up slightly in a sort of concerned frown, adding, “Ya might want ta know, though, that he’s been kinda distant.  I mean, he didn’t come ta eat lunch with us, or at all, I think, but he also has only been seen by me.  He’s workin’, ta be sure, and workin’ hard, but he’s been rather reclusive while he’s at it.  It’s hard ta say, but it prob’ly has something ta do with th’ spear he suddenly turned up with.”
“The what,” Fluttershy exclaimed with shock and horror, turning to her friend sharp enough that her neck popped slightly.  Applejack balked at her sudden explosion, pushing her hat back with a hoof as her widened eyes stared at the pink mare.  “Are you sure it was a spear,” Fluttershy asked quickly.
“Pretty darn sure, though it had a weird hook thing on it,” Applejack clarified.  “It was at least a weapon of some sort, and Ray seemed pretty nervous about it, or us finding it, anyways.”
“Thank you, Applejack,” Fluttershy hastily expressed, rushing into the air once again.  “I’d love to talk to you again,” she called behind her shoulder.  “Sugarcube Corner this Sunday?”
Fluttershy failed to hear her friend’s response as she rushed between trees towards the area indicated by Applejack where the only human in Equestria was working.  Wings beating furiously, she muttered heatedly, “Sweet Celestia, Twilight.  What did you get Ray into now?”
> Young Love
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ray had come to a conclusion about his situation.  After his chat with Skalos and he’d turned to work in the farm solitarily, he’d been pestered by a nagging thought in the form of a tiny brown bird on his shoulder.  Conveniently enough, Otolo resided on the shoulder that held his new spear, adding little weight on it, but a much larger weight on his thoughts.  He glanced at the little bird as he thought this, but for once, it wasn’t out of some sort of fear for her leaving or her pecking at him without warning.  This time, it was out of relief for what she stood for.  
She was Equestrian, but at the same time, she was no different from the little brown birds he would see hopping around the branches in the trees lining some neighborhoods in Pittsburgh.  In fact, she was no different at all, save maybe for a little more sentience than them in her attitudes and actions.  In fact, he was hesitant to call her an animal, much like the ponies around him nowadays.  It was one of the things on his mind.  What an animal was in this world, and what wasn’t.  He had always categorized animals as non-human beings, as living creatures, not speaking beings with sentience.  
Now, however, eight ounce birds and foot and a half foot tall ponies were completely shattering his philosophies.  The ponies were non-human, obviously, but they also spake, acted, and created buildings and a society.  They were a washed pure version of humans, put into the body of a miniature, multicolored horse.  They even spoke the same language he did, and he didn’t doubt that there had to be some sort of variants that were similar to other languages on Earth.  He had no concrete evidence, but it was clear enough that there was some similarity in the construct of Earth and Equestria.
The birds here too were as sentient as him, as he could tell through Otolo’s actions.  Although she could be some sort of outlier, Ray doubted it due to the basic nature of this world compared to Earth.  Otolo acted, and even spoke, in a manner, which was one of the basic signs of sentience, at least, according to human standards.  No, not even human standards, but Earth standards.  
It was then, with that thought, that he realized where he’d been wrong this entire time.  He was measuring this world up through the eyes of someone who thought they knew enough because they’d seen some somewhere else.  He had laughed at that, not bitterly, but at the actual humor of it.  Had he really been so stupid?  Apparently so, because he was just now realizing why everything these past few days had been destructive to him.  Besides the obvious reason of being displaced, he had resisted the change, even as he accepted the new environment.  He was an infant again, he realized, and that was where he had to start.  At the beginning of the end.  
Otolo had twittered at him confusedly, questioning his sanity.  He smiled at the little brown bird, holding the now extremely weighty spear up confidently.  
“I am completely insane, Ohs,” he told her cheerfully.  “No need to worry at all.”
Cocking her head to the side, she gave a short chirp, again asking him what exactly it was all about.  
Simply shaking his head as he bent over and picked up a half-log, he answered with as much cheer, “I just realized what an idiot I am, that’s all.”  Otolo gave a smart little chirp, insultingly calling out that she had already known that.  Mock scoffing, he retaliated, telling her, “Alright then, get off my shoulder.”
Giving him a sharp, cheeky chirp, she fluttered off his shoulder.  As she did so, however, he heard something else fluttering.  Turning towards the sound, he saw nothing but the neat rows of trees.  Confused he glanced around, but saw nothing through the trees.  
He was distracted when suddenly a weight landed on his head.  His vision was blocked when a little head bobbed down between his eyes, causing them to cross.  Otolo let out another chirp with at least an equal amount of chirp as the earlier, before giving him a peck between his eyes.  Yelping at the sharp, slight pain, he raised a hand to his head, dropping the half-log on his foot.  Luckily enough, the apple wood was less dense, and had been dropped from only thigh height, which meant he wasn’t hurt by it.  However, that didn’t stop another yelp from escaping him, this one of surprise.  
Collapsing his hand over the bird on his head, he chuckled in victory, saying, “And now you’re caught.  Congratulations Ohs, you really must’ve thought this through.”  Otolo struggled feebly against his grip, flailing around through his hair.  Ray was slightly concerned that the bird would try to pull his hair, or get tangled in it, as a kicking leg nearly did.  Before he could warn Otolo, though, something shot around the tree in front of them, and collided with Ray’s chest.

**********************************************************************************************************
Ray let out an unholy symphony of words that Fluttershy had never heard together as they both went to the ground.  Fluttershy hadn't seen him as she had weaved her way between trees, most likely due to the fact that she was going across the lanes of trees, while he had been up the rows.  Thus, the resulting flurry of limbs, language, and embarrassment.  
She leapt off of his chest quickly, flying into the air beside Otolo, holding her hooves to her mouth.  Oh no.  she hadn’t hurt him, had she?  Staring at Ray’s grimacing face, she bit her lip in concern as he looked over to his arm with an especially pained look.  Oh no… She dared to glance at the limb, a panicked whimper preparing to escape her enclosed mouth.  Peeking timidly at it, she dropped her hooves from her face in surprise, unable to quite comprehend what she was looking at.
At first she thought that she was staring at his protruding bone, but reality gratefully set in.  She realized thankfully that she wasn’t staring at his bone, but at some long piece of metal that he grasped.  It was some sort of spear, she knew, as her eyes canned the sharpened tip of it, but nothing like what the guards held.  For one, it was quite visibly lethal, sharp enough that she already was having cursed thoughts of it accidentally cutting Ray or anypony else.  Secondly, though, was its overall strange, and rather disfigured, build.  It was indescribable to her eyes, only as some strange, scary, three-bladed tool of the unthinkable.  This must’ve been the spear AJ had told her about, strange hook and all.
Was this what Twilight had given him?  Was this what was keeping him from conversing with the Apples?  She gulped heavily, staring at it, unblinking.  It terrified her, seeing something like that.  It was longer than her from tail to snout.  It could be used to spit roast me, she thought, suddenly finding her body trembling terribly.  She trembled so much that she was forced to land, eyes still locked on the lethal death stick.  It jerked up suddenly, causing her to let out a short yelp, stumbling back to her haunches.  
“Hey, Fluttershy,” Ray practically yelled at her, causing her to jump to her hoove swiftly.  Oh her heart.  Her poor, frightened, bursting heart.  Knowing this human boy wasn’t healthy for it.
“Y-y-y-yes,” she finally answered meekly, tearing her eyes away from the weapon and to his face.  Concern-laced amusement was etched into his expression, along with a good sense of surprise at seeing her.
“Um, what’re you doing here,” he asked slowly, standing up fully.  Wow, he was tall.  Why hadn’t she ever noticed his ginormous stature like this before?  
“I was looking for you,” she answered quietly.
He smiled at her with an expression she had only seen from Pinkie Pie, the dopey, joke-you-aren’t-understanding look.  “Well, I’m right here,” he responded cheerfully, spreading his arms wide as if to present himself.  “Why?”  
dFluttershy blushed as an alternate meaning of what could be entered her head.  Stupid adult mind thinking, she thought to herself, ducking her chin to keep from making eye contact after such a nasty thought.  
“Um, n-nothing,” she defaulted to, although she knew he didn’t believe it.  Amending, she added, “Well, I-I mean, I w-was just making sure th-that you were, y-you know, okay after that little trip to Twilight’s.  I mean, Applejack t-told me you were a bit… weird when I arrived here, and I mean, with you not being anywhere like you would, and leaving Canterlot so early, I was concerned.”
“Well that’s nice,” Ray mentioned.  “I’m fine though.  I think I finally, finally understand everything I’ve been doing wrong here.”
Fluttershy looked back up to Ray’s face, twisting her head in confusion and lifting her ear to make sure she was hearing right.  “Well, whaddya mean,” she asked slowly.  
Presenting his wrist to her, the scab from his own blade still visible on it.  He winced as she looked at it, pained by the reminder of only a few nights ago.  Sweet Celestia, was it only that long ago?  It seemed that this human also had the ability to slow time down along with being so unhealthy.  
“Well, I finally realized that I had been seeing things all wrong,” he exclaimed proudly, breaking her terrible thoughtline.  “I was looking at them like this was still Earth, like I still knew something.  But this sure as he- heck isn’t Earth.  This is Equestria, which I know nothing about.  As such, I’m an infant all over again.  I was just reborn into this world, and have no knowledge at all about any of it.  So why do I have any right to be mad at it.  I just came here!  I can be mad at Twilight for bringing me here, sad that I don’t have my old world, but at the same time, I finally realized something.
“I get to relearn everything I loved all over again.  I get this world’s version of a family, I get to learn this world’s version of friendship, and make my own friends with it, but most importantly, I get to learn this world’s version of living.  At least, until I need to go off and defend it.  I accepted my fate not too long ago, that I was stuck here, but I just learned that no, I’m not stuck here.  I’m not human with horses.  I’m human and horses!  I live here now, am a piece of it now, and can help it continue.  So why not have a heckuva time while I’m at it?”
Suddenly, very energetically, he lifted Fluttershy off of the ground with his free hand, and hugged her tightly.  She squeaked, blushing furiously as he reached around her and gave her a pat on her back, in between her wings.  Thankful that his head was tucked by hers instead of staring at her beet red face, she slowly accepted the tight embrace, joining in as she wrapped her hooves around his back.  A smile crept its way across her face, and soon she was nuzzling his neck softly.  
A tiny, fluttering weight landed on her head, and she quickly recognized it as Otolo joining in by landing on her head and adding in her own nuzzle.  Though she doubted the little bird knew exactly what was going on, she knew the intelligent bird knew how to help.  Fluttershy let out a pleasant little sigh as the seconds stretched into minutes. 
Eventually, though, Ray pulled back, the brightest smile Fluttershy had ever seen on anyponies face beaming down on her.  
“I’m glad you were the one to find me,” he softly told her, leaning his head down to press it against her own.  
Fluttershy had a sharp intake of breath, unprepared for the movement, but luckily, he stopped when their foreheads connected.  His eyes were closed gently, but hers were wide open, locked on his lips.  Why did he have to do this to her!  Oh gosh.  Why did her heart have to be so loud.  Ray must have surely heard it by now.  Oh please no.  Why were his lips so close?  Were they moving  closer?!?
Her eyes shot between his mouth and eyes, over and over and over again, until her eyes were sore.  How could eyes be sore?  Wait, was this what her parents meant when they called each other an eye sore?  Oh no, wait, did that mean, oh gosh, oh sweet, sweet Celestia.  What was wrong with her?
Frighteningly, though, she wanted to lean in, to close the gap.  To make contact, lip to lip.  She wanted it, to connect them together.  She could practically feel them, his lips on hers.
 But something held her back, something that was roughly three times her height, had a white goatee, and a sense of humor that always brightened her day.  And that something made her instantly pull away from Ray, gasping profusely from having held her breath for so long.  
Ray’s eyes opened wide with surprise as she fled backwards, Otolo leaping off her head and into the air.  Ray opened his mouth to say something, but shut it as Fluttershy whimpered pathetically.  He turned his head oddly, giving her a sideways look with a small frown.  Fluttershy covered her entire face with her hooves, her ashamed blush failing to hide from his eyes.
“You alright,” he asked, sounding as meek as she felt.  He seemed just as embarrassed too suddenly, though he didn’t seem to be blushing.  She couldn’t really see through her hooves.  
“Y-y-y-yea-ye-n-no,” she stammered out, shivering midair.  “I-i-i-i-i… I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to do that.  That was rude,” she confessed disparagingly, dropping her hooves and gaze to the ground below.  “I didn’t mean to be so… mean.”
“No no no,” Ray intervened, his hand suddenly appearing on her chin, lifting it up.  She almost wanted to turn away, to fly away from everything swifter than Rainbow Dash could ever match, but his insistence kept her in place.  “I overstepped my bounds.  No need to be sorry for something that you didn’t enact.  I’m sorry for… being so upfront?  Um, presumptuous.  Risque?”
Fluttershy instantly turned red at the last word, coughing in embarrassment, and she could see that Ray was blushing too.  However, despite the awkward atmosphere, she reprimanded him lightly, saying, “It’s not, it’s not that at all, it’s just that… I don’t know, I have no idea what the hay I’m doing, or what you’re doing, but… I like it, and don't want it to stop.  But, I don’t want to enhance it.”
Fluttershy wished she hadn’t added the last line, grimacing and looking away from him.  His hand though, still resting on her chin, turned her face back to his, a small, gentle, honest smile on his face.  He nodded slowly, muttering in an understanding, almost happy tone, “I understand.” 
Straightening up, he gave her a bright smile, one rivaling the one he had given her earlier.  She returned it meekly, pushing her hoof into his hand.  “Friends?”
“Perfect,” he responded softly.  
Fluttershy flew closer to the human boy, wrapping her forelegs around his neck in a friendly embrace, smiling.  A few seconds later though, she pulled away, leaving his arms willingly and happily, and without any embarrassment.  There was a brief moment when they made eye contact, and the smiles deepened.
Forgetting everything, her nervousness, her worries, Discord, Twilight, the invasion, she felt really and truly happy, joyous even.  
Chuckling slightly, Ray looked over to his spear.  “I guess I failed Skalos’ little challenge thing.”  He threw it to the ground before rubbing his shoulders.  “Not that I mind though.  I don’t think he exactly knows what it’s like to be a bipedal, holding a heavy spear in one hand for over six hours.”
Fluttershy quirked her head in curiosity.  She was about to ask who Skalos was, why he had a spear, all of those questions interrupted by their moments, when a sudden sharp scream split the air.  Glancing towards the farmhouse, then back to Ray, she saw momentary hesitation before he sprinted off.  Fluttershy followed him instantaneously.

*********************************************************************************************************

Ray took off, Fluttershy right beside him as they raced towards the source of the shriek.  Another once pierced the air as they neared enough to the farm to see the barn itself.  A secondary sound filled air more deeply here, the sound of feminine yelling.  
At first, Ray thought it was commanding and panicked, but as he passed into the gate, he recognized it as angry and demanding.  The closer he got to the barn -slowing slightly as he realized it wasn’t a direct emergency- the more he could hear from the yelling.  For instance, he could hear Applejack going hoarse with rage and the amount of yelling she had done, and he could hear Apple Bloom trying, and failing, to defend herself.  There was a third voice though, one that was recognizably prepubescent male, one he hadn’t heard before.
He and Fluttershy exchanged glances before approaching the wide open barn doors.  They didn’t have the chance to enter, however, as an orange and purple blur shot out of the doors, racing across the dirt path and out of the gate.  Applejack shot out of the barn right after it, followed swiftly by Apple Bloom, both of their yelling overlapping each other in an incoherent jumble.  Apple Bloom stopped when she noticed the human and pegasus duo watching in confusion and slight entertainment.  For some reason, she blushed instantly, ducking her head and tucking her tail between her legs in shame, or something close enough to it.
Her silence, though, allowed Ray tol pick up Applejack’s loud, and rather disturbing, rrant.  “I swear to every apple-pickin’, dog-breathin, Celestia-lovin’ tree in this orchid that if’n I ev’r see ya on this farm again, I’ll skin yer scruffin’ hide, tan it, an’ make a hat out of it, and feed yer remains to th’ pigs!!  If ya ev’r even dare ta find my sister after school, I’ll send ya straight ta Tartarus with an Apple buck to th’ face, ya hear?!  Don’t even think about her, or I’ll… DANG YOU DON”T GO NEAR MY SISTER OR YOU’LL REGRET EVERY SECOND OF BEIN’ BORN!!”
The blur, who Ray now saw was some colt, was long gone, leaving Applejack with nobody to yell at but the shamed filly behind her.  Rearing around so quickly Ray was sure she’d snapped her neck, he saw the full force of the farmer mare’s glare.  It was sharp, flaming cold, and focused precisely on her younger sister, deadly slits training their lethal gaze on the littler Apple.
Apple Bloom, still looking at the ground, had sat down and tucked her tail around her front, as if forming a protective shield.  Bravely daring to look into the glare, she opened her mouth to speak.
“Just try ta defend yerself, little missy,” Applejack growled darkly.
“I really, really… like him,” the little filly attempted.
Applejack’s glare somehow sharpened.  “I don’t give a hoof about if ya like him!  Th’ hay did ya think you were doin’?!  ‘I’ll just give him a mooch in th’ barn, and it’ll be a really good time, and maybe he’ll ask me ta go with him to th’ fifth grade prom’?  ‘Cause that tomfoolery ain’t somethin’ I’ll stand for at all around here!  What were ya tryin’ ta do?  Hide from me?  ‘Cause the barn ain’t the best place in th’ world to do it! Ya didn’t even have the decency ta try ta hide how eager ya were.  Like a doe in th’ spring, I say.  A doe in th’ spring!  It was disgustin’!  Ya were just… makin’ out with some colt in th’ hay, yer tongue an’ hooves an’- an’- an’-”
“Applejack,” Ray exclaimed.  The mare turned sharply to him, glare ever present at his outrageous act of interrupting her spiel.  Ray almost flinched away from it, but quickly spoke up more.  “I think you’re being a bit too-”
“Ya wanna go, mister,” Applejack asked dangerously, and Ray quickly realized it was probably bad for his sake that he’d drawn attention to himself with the angry mare.  “I haven’t seen hide or hoof of ya fer hours, and suddenly ya show up with some sort of authority?  Ya been ignorin’ yer family all day, an’ then ya just turn up like yer th’ stallion in charge?!  Well I got news fer ya, Ray!  I’m in charge around here, and whachya’ve been doin’ t’day ain’t acceptable by any measure.  Any measure at all.  So, I don’t think it’d be very wise of ya to interject with the matters of my sister.”
“She’s my sister too now,” Ray responded, slightly hurt by the mare’s words.  He realized, however, that this was exactly what he was like whenever he’d caught someone, anyone, in his own family on Earth, attacking another.  So, wisely, he left it like that. 
Applejack took a moment to reconsider her words, staring at the ground as she did so.  Ray made eye contact with Apple Bloom and mouthed ‘run’ to her, gesturing behind him and Fluttershy.  She did so, running right past him and straight into the orchard.  Applejack didn’t give chase, just maintained a heavy glare at their retreating sister, yelling out, “We aren’t done discussin’ this!”
She turned her glare back to Ray, before letting out a deep sigh, dropping most of the anger.  Taking in a deep breath, she asked sternly, “So why did ya disappear like that t’day?  Somethin’ ta do with Twilight an’ the minotaurs an’ whatnot.”
“Yeah,” Ray affirmed, rubbing the back of his head with hand, finally brushing a leaf that had been in his hair out.  It also served to help stretch out his aching arm.  Oh, right.  “Um, I forgot my spear.  I dropped it in my hurry to find out why there was screaming.  I’ll tell you on the way to get it.”
Both Fluttershy and Applejack nodded in understanding, the three of them turning to the orchard.  He began to explain in full where he and Twilight had gone the day before, the experience in Tartarus.  He saw them both shiver at the mention of the dreadful place, and having experienced (and knowing they’d experienced) the place, he didn’t blame them.  They walked through the orchard as he explained what Twilight had told him, and his introduction to Skalos.  He didn’t have time, or need, to describe the Fallen as they rounded a tree and came face-to-face with him.
The two mares cried out in surprise while Ray simply smiled at him.  The stallion didn’t return the sentiment, however, holding up the spear he’d dropped.  
“That was rather careless of you,” the Fallen commented while handing over the weapon to its owner.  “And quite disrespectful,” he added with a mouthful of disdain.  Ray cringed as he realized what he’d done earlier was probably not the best reaction, as Skalos proposed, “How were you going to fight anything without it?  With your fists?”
Looking over the mares, he quit his berating of Ray and greeted them.  “Good evening to the two of you,” he said evenly, his milky eyes glancing back and forth between the two of them.  They both stared back, Applejack in a mix of awe and confusion, and Fluttershy with fear and, strangely enough, curiosity.  Since when had he been so good at reading emotions, Ray wondered to himself.  
“Ray, uh, didn’t tell us you were a, um, ghost,” Applejack responded, her eyes scanning the slightly translucent stallion.  
Skalos smiled an empty smile, before stating, “I am no ghost.  Quite real, at least, physically.  Dead, yes, but still living.”
“Oh dear,” Fluttershy muttered.  “He’s worse than Zecora.”
“Who,” Ray asked.  Skalos gave him a short glance, before looking towards the direction of the tangled forest.
“I was going to introduce you to her, seeing as she’s the best source for potions and medicines involving combat,” he answered before either of the two mares could.  “It was going to be something for a little later, when you actually were hurt.  Being able to see each other in your element would allow a better trust to build, but alas, I might not wait for that time.”
“Well, um, my name’s Applejack, if’n it pleases ya,” the respective mare introduced, holding out a hoof for a shake.
Taking the extended hoof, Skalos shook it, responding uniformly, “I know.”  Looking between the three of them, he added with finality, “I know you all.”
The sun had begun setting in the distance when the three had first gone to retrieve Ray’s spear, but now darkness was closing in swiftly, along with a night chill.  Now, with the receding light, Skalos’ luminosity had begun to appear, glowing softly in the shaded dark.  His milky eyes were locked somewhere behind Ray, but he spoke on.
“I’ve worked a long time with Twilight, so I’ve known about you for a while now.  I wished to meet you, any of you, but the constraints of Tartarus would not allow, and besides, my showing would indicate something we don’t want ponies to know of, yet.  And I don’t think Twilight wanted to mention me to you, for obvious reasons.  No matter.  There isn’t much time left in the light, so I’ll let you be for today, Ray, but remember to come at the same time tomorrow.” 
Ray nodded in understanding, and with the confirmation, Skalos backed away, turning and leaving the orchard.  The two ponies and human watched him fade into the darkness silently, before they, too, turned away.  Some time during it all, Otolo had reclaimed her perch on his shoulder.  He smiled at the little bird and gave her an affectionate rub on the head as they approached the farmhouse once again.  
Once they had reached the house, the darkness had almost completely enclosed the Acres, leaving Ray to have to squint to make out anything.  Beside him, Applejack sighed, looking towards the orchard.  
“I’m gonna hafta go out there an’ find Apple Bloom now,” she muttered dejectedly.  “If she didn’t just run of ta Scootaloo’s or Sweetie Belle’s ta hide from me.” 
“I can check Rarity’s on my way home,” Ray offered.  “Just, don’t take it too hard on her.  She’s still young, right.  Could be just a simple mistake.”
Applejack tightened her jaw as she opened the door to the house, the light from inside flooding out to show it.  “Yeah, well before, it was just hoof holdin’, a few hugs, an’ I suspected a peck on th’ cheek here an’ there.  But then there’s this, an’ I’m findin’ myself worried that I’m gonna be an auntie real soon.”
“Oh, I doubt they’d that far, Applejack,” Fluttershy interceded.  “If it concerns you, though, I can also go check in at Scootaloo’s house.  It has been a while since I’ve seen her or her aunts.  It’d be nice to have a short chat anyways.  What’s the colt’s name, by the way?  I might be able to check there, if you want.”
“Th’ colt’s name’s Tender Taps,” Applejack answered.  “My sister has had a crush on him since she was nine.  Didn’t think it’d get to this point, though, seein’ as it was just a schoolpony crush.  Anyway, I appreciate th’ sentiment, both of ya.  I’m gonna need some cider after this kind a’ day.  Take care!”
The orange mare gave a short wave as she entered her house, the door shutting behind her.  An awkward silence filled the air between the two remaining friends before Otolo began twittering in a long chain.  Complete darkness had settled in, so Ray couldn’t see either the pegasus or the bird, but he got a feeling they were conversing in some way.  Fluttershy giggled shortly at a lingering line of chirps and whistles, and from the tone of it, there was a blush to go along with it.  
Ray rubbed his arms to warm them up, forgetting he held a spear in hand until one of the blades, the one opposite of the hook, brushed his hair.  Inhaling sharply, he let out a slow sigh of relief that he hadn't just accidentally skinned off his own scalp.  He needed to learn this whole thing a lot better if he were ever going to fight in the war.
“Otolo tells me you were telling her all about me,” Fluttershy coyly mentioned suddenly, a hoof brushing against his arm.
“Oh, I do hope she left out the part where I said I hated you for how mean and bossy you were,” he responded with equal coyness.  Fluttershy giggled softly, but once again, silence fell between them.  
Sighing contentedly, Ray spoke softly, “I think I’ll go home now.”
“Oh, okay then.  Good night.”
“Good night, Fluttershy.”
> Humility for Pride
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apple Bloom wasn’t at Rarity’s when he’d checked, nobody was, but he did find a couple of notes pinned up.  He skimmed through them candidly, finding them to be nothing but orders for new dresses and suits.  He repinned them up, treading slowly back home.  
When he arrived back home, he bathed and cooked himself a large bowl of noodles and cheese, somewhat resembling a cheesy spaghetti.  Otolo tried a few noodles with him, although she seemed rather disappointed that they weren’t abundantly worms.  He chuckled lightly as the little bird gave him a disdainful chirp, which led to him being pecked on his neck.  Naturally.  He flicked at her with a harmless pinky, landing a slighted blow on her breast.  Of course, with the distinct size difference, the hit pushed the little bird into the air, irking her greatly.  
This devolved into an aerial battle between the two, with Otolo dive bombing his head, neck, and occasionally ears, with pecks.  Ray tried uselessly to stop the barrage, the geometry of the bird and her movement being too hard to handle.  Eventually he resorted to using his hands to cover his head haplessly.  Thinking fast, he reached down to the bowl, picking it up and holding it up in the direction Otolo was coming from next.
Squawking in surprise, she attempted to swerve away, but Ray had already predicted the movement, catching her in the bowl.  The noodles tangled around her, the cheese sticking to her feathers like stringy yellow ropes.  Despairing, she looked up, looking miserable in the face of her sudden, unpredictable defeat.  Ray gave her a luxurious sneer down at the bird, before realizing that there really wasn’t much victory in beating an eight ounce bird in a four minute long fight.  
Reaching down, he pulled the remaining noodles off of her, freeing her from their constraints.  Slowly lifting her out of the bowl, he said, “I think we should probably clean you up, Ohs.”  He received a defeated chirp of agreement.  “Alright, I’m gonna take you to the sink.  Just don’t peck me or anything while I’m washing you, or I might accidentally drown you.”  Once again, Otolo gave him the defeated chirp of agreement, looking quite pitiful speckled with cheese and noodle bits.
He flipped the faucet on, turning the heat to a lukewarm temperature, tucking her under the water carefully.  Using his fingers carefully to get the cheese out from in between the birds silky, delicate feathers, he kept her under back under the water.  She ruffled herself a few times in disappointment and discomfort, but over the next few minutes he was able to remove the food scraps from her brown and grey feathers.  Removing the scraps from her head was an ordeal in itself, but with dexterous finger work, he was able to come through. 
Otolo chirped happily when she was removed from the line of water, and quickly flapped about, spraying droplets of water onto Ray’s shirt.  Chuckling lightly, he continued to wipe the bird down with a tablecloth he knew was in a cupboard under the sink.  Once she was dry enough and safe enough from being suffocated one way or another, the little bird gave him a characteristic chirp of haughtiness before pecking his knuckle.  
“Ohs, you really need to learn some manners,” Ray muttered to her, rubbing the assaulted knuckle.  “You’re gonna poke at the wrong person some day and become a nice little roasted dinner.”  After a moment of reconsideration, he added, “Not that there’s much to roast.”
A yawn escaped the duo at the same time, which led to Ray checking the time.  Only nine, and he was already rather tired.  Stretching out his aching arm a bit more, he began to head upstairs.  Despite the nonchalance he felt towards the day ending, he was actually glad such a turbulent day was ending.  It felt like, for the first time, the days here were getting shorter.

********************************************************************************************************

Ray’s sleep was, for the life of him, forgettable.  It sounded weird in his head, and it was hard to think of, but when he had returned to his bedroom, he hadn’t fully “fallen asleep”.  He didn’t remember that he was asleep at all, or even know if he was sleeping at all that night.  Only the passing of darkness to sunrise proved to him that indeed he had slept, or at least, filled the time somehow.  It was a confusing prospect to wake up to, but luckily something else caught his attention whilst he was pondering it all.
Something was plastered to his window, something yellow and papery, with scribbled words barely visible from where he stood.  He approached the window tiredly, checking the time.  He still had a good hour before he had to leave.  
Reaching the window, he saw that it had been taped up there somehow.  For a moment he questioned how it’d gotten there, but he remembered quickly that he lived in a world with flying ponies.  However, only three flying ponies he knew of really knew him, and everyone else were just acquaintances or ponies he’d seen around the town.  It also couldn’t have been Otolo, seeing as the little bird had been sleeping besides his head until he’d gotten up.  The annoying thing about it being plastered to his window was that it was going to be hard to remove immediately, but at least he could still read it.
The paper advertised something called the “Running of the Leaves”, some sort of grand event.  He skimmed over it and, unsurprisingly found that it was a race of some sort, apparently to knock all of the leaves off the trees.  Ray scrunched his face in confusion, at the prospect, before finding and reading a small, scrappy notation added by hand.  Or, hoof, he amended mentally.
“Thought you might want to know ‘bout this,” it read.  “The Running of the Leaves is something we do as a town every year.  Was wondering if you were up for a race that day -Rainbow Dash”.
Tipping his head uncertainly, he wondered what was up with the ominocity of it all.  It probably would’ve been easier for Rainbow to tell him in person.  Maybe she had something going on?  Oh well, he thought languidly, turning to get dressed in a new pair of clothes.  He didn’t remember it, but apparently he’d gotten back into his clothes from the day before.  
Thankfully, and confusingly, Ray found pairs of underwear rolled up with one of the shirts.  Hadn’t he avoided the matter of the smaller, more private pants with the mare?  Then again… had Twilight given her friend a deal of intuition about human apparel on the last visit?  He didn’t know, and he wouldn’t know until there was a flash in his room, right beside him.
Yelping, he jumped away as Discord appeared before him with a loud, “Good morning, my tall, bipedal friend.  Do you like them?”  Ray gave the draconequus a strange glance.  “Oh c’mon, Ray.  Don’t look at me like that.  I didn’t get you a welcoming gift, or even go to your welcoming party, so I figured getting you a gift the ‘regular folk’ wouldn’t understand.  Pinkie told me all about it last night.”  He leaned in close to Ray’s face with a sharp glare.  “Including how you attempted to seduce poor, innocent Flutters.”
Ray pulled back in a jumble of disgust, horror, and confusion.   “What the-”
“I also saw you two in the Acres last night, hm,” Discord interrupted, glaring even harder.  “I mean, seriously, how brazen can you be?  At least I had the decency to be flirty before I tried any moves!  You’ve been here for, what, four days, and you’re already trying things with my dearest friend?  Well, let me tell you something, mister. If I-”
“Discord,” Ray yelled, cutting in before crap got deeper.  “Did you not hear anything we told each other last night?  And you can ask the others about the party thing.  Wanna see why she was in my room,” he asked furiously.  
“Oh I know why you had her in your room,” he answered solemnly, his eyes shooting down to the arm where the wound was still scabbing over.  His eyes narrowed, and flames seemed to appear in their depths.  “Even more important, though, is what you said in the Acres.”  Slowly, Ray saw Discord relaxing into a sideways smile.  Poking him the chest with his talon hand, he continued, “You said you’d be friends.  Well, let me just say this: I approve, although it won’t last.”
“Whaddya mean,” Ray found himself questioning, his eyebrows furrowing.  “Why won’t we be friends?”
Discord chuckled like there was some sort of inside joke that Ray wasn’t understanding, before stating factually, “Kid, I’ve lived around ponies for a few thousand years.  Even if a third of that was in stone, I know enough about ponies to tell when they're being dishonest, even when they think they aren’t.  Well, let me congratulate you.  You’ve received a very coveted spot in Fluttershy’s heart.”
Discord suddenly flashed, a tuxedo with a red tie and rose pinned to it appearing on him.  His goatee was suddenly a moustache that was oily black and curled like some sort of English noble.  Otolo, somewhere in the room, made an exclamatory chirp of surprise, reciprocating Ray’s own bewilderment.  With gusto, Discord held out his lion’s paw, saying, “Game on, my good man.  Game on.”
When Ray didn’t take the paw and only stared in confusion, the draconequus sighed and took it roughly, shaking it swiftly.  As soon as he was done shaking the confused human’s hand, he dropped it, bowed, and poofed out of existence.  In his place was a plate of steaming eggs, toast, and oatmeal.  
Shaking his head in confusion he bent down to pick up the plate, when a slightly muffled voice said, “Yup, that’s Discord for you!  Poofing up and down and left and right, spreading chaos and plot!”  
“Gah,” Ray yelled, turning to the window, where the sound had come from.  Standing on the little landing was a certain pink pony, holding another paper that was also pink, against the window.  
“Pinkie Pie,” he began awkwardly, unused to the name.  “What’re you doing here?  Why’re you on my window sill.”
“To invite you to a party, silly,” she exclaimed like it was the most obvious thing in the world.  Of course.  “Twilight’s-second-year-of-ruling-Equestria party, to be specific!”
“At…” -Ray checked the time- “5:34 in the morning?”
“Well, you’re awake, aren’t you?”
“Uh, yes, but what if I was asleep still?”  
“Oh don’t worry your little head at all,” Pinkie assured, somehow opening the window from the outside.  “I know when you wake up!”
“Comforting,” he muttered as the little pony jumped up and stuck the pink paper to the front of his chest.  Quickly, he realized that he’d started undressing, which meant not only that his shirt wasn’t on, but that his pants were lazily unzipped.  He yelped at the realization, turning around quickly and zipping it back up.
“Oh come on Ray,” the little pink pony whined.  “It’s not like us ponies have any real decency,” she explained tiredly as he turned around.  She suddenly stood up on two legs, showing all.  Ray jerked back around before he could see anything.
“Pinkie Pie,” he yelled sharply.  “Get outta my house!” 
“Sheesh,” he heard her mutter as she turned to leave.  “Boy gets the view of his life and he looks away!”
“Aren’t you married or something?”
“Yesseroni!  Like I said, nopony here gives a hoof!”
“Well I do.”
“Fine fine.  See you at the party,” she called in her unnaturally cheery tone.  
Ray bent back down, shaking his head in disbelief as he grabbed the breakfast plate.  “Whatta way to wake up,” he muttered to himself.
“Welcome to Equestria,” a voice blandly spoke from behind.
“Oh what the- “
*******************************************************************************************************
Skalos had never been to Ponyville before, or any of the modernized cities in Equestria, for that matter.  He wasn’t disappointed by the progress he saw in the more modern town, but it was a bit strange to see the same road he had traveled hundreds of years before so regularly trodden on by smiling ponies.  These ponies were uneducated on their past, and for their own good.  Still, he shivered at the uncanny sight.  He knew where a peach stand stood, so had a pile of bodies six stallions tall, and where a house now stood was where his archers had let volleys upon the fleeing citizens.  
Shaking the thoughts away mentally, he watched as his lordling stood up in his window, reading the paper left by the pegasus mare.  He watched steadily as the great Lord of Chas suddenly appeared next to the human boy, watched their short argument, and the sudden disappearance of the being.  He saw the pink earth pony mare appear as suddenly and quickly as Discord, and decided he’d watched long enough.  He entered the house through the lazily unlocked front door, shuddering inwardly as he remembered times in his childhood when there was reason to lock the doors at night, when monsters roamed.
He casually walked up the stairs, listening to the resident and visitor’s conversation.  He strode through the open bedroom door to the shirtless human boy, just in time to hear him mutter grumpily, “Whatta way to wake up.”
“Welcome to Equestria,” Skalos blandly stated from behind.  The human turned to him, jumping away from a plate of something from the ground with a vulgar cry.  Raising a brow at the outburst, the skeletal pony walked forward to the human, straight-faced.  The boy sighed, giving him a slightly bothered glance.  
“Thanks for that,” he thanked flatly, picking up the plate from off of the ground.  He seemed to take a moment of reconsidering, before asking with a slight flush, “Could you please leave me for a second to get changed?”
“No,” Skalos answered simplistically.  “There’s no no room for decency when you’re in a compact army camp.  You learn to live with the fact that every soldier you know has seen you, and that, no matter how hard you try, you’ll see them.  And I can almost guarantee that with those flimsy clothes you insist on wearing, you’ll one day find yourself relieved of them in the heat of battle.  In order to rid yourself of this sort of conduct, you need to become comfortable with the fact that you are only decent when with civilization.  In war, there is no civilization.”
“You didn’t have to rant,” the lordling muttered, turning his bare back to the Fallen.  With a last glance over his shoulder, the human stripped naked.  Skalos watched the nude figure with disinterest, until he pulled on new articles from the ground.  
When he turned back around, dressed in a new pair of clothes, he seemed slightly embarrassed.  Figures, giving the situation and the sense of decency these kind had, but he’d have to learn to disregard it otherwise.  While Skalos had overexaggerated the example, he knew the possibility of it wasn’t incredibly unlikely, and it was better to be prepared for the occasion.  Taking a good glance at the human’s clothing, he noted that the pants were thick enough to resist some of the wear and tear of the ground in the Apple’s farm.  Perfect, but for a different day.  He’d have to remind him to wear these sort of pants when the day came up, but for now, lessons.
“Come on,” Skalos instructed, turning to exit the room.  He heard the human’s soft footfalls behind him, along with the sounds of eating.  It was convenient that the draconequus had left the plate of food behind, as it meant that they didn’t have to inconveniently stop to get him food.  
Now there was a meaningless word to him.  Skalos hadn’t eaten in the past few days, and didn’t know if he would today or tomorrow.  While the results of not eating were noticeable, that being him being slower in speed and thought, it wasn’t noticeable enough to cause him to turn to it.  While Fallen did eat, and require the sustenance and energy from food, they didn’t feel it so much as living creatures, or at least, more alive creatures.  Hunger appeared only as a slowing down and dysfunctioning in the physical and mental workings.  The most common form to test hunger was to see how high up one could count in the hundreds before skipping or repeating a number.
In the past three days, he’d passed the few examinations given by the self stated, and later affirmed, doctors of the Fallen.  It was another strange thing to him about the changes he’d seen in his ponies.  Some, now that war had “ended” for them, had turned to finding new passions, new reasons to themselves besides the obvious.  And now, here they were, fifteen hundred years later, being called up for their true purpose.  Being the honorable meat shields of Equestria.  
Or at least, that was how it had seemed, how he’d always seen it.  He knew that there was no strength amongst his allies, not mentally, physically, or spiritually.  In spite of their experience with war, their leaders had been removed, and they, the spears and bows, now had to learn to shoot and stab better than the enemy.  It was an impossible feat, he told the Princesses when they cared to visit and ensure that their lowliest citizens were still surviving at the bare minimum.  
He’d been made leader of the Fallen not through only his ability against Twilight in the board game, but because he at least understood.  When Twilight had first been introduced to the Fallen, he was already their leader by culture, thanks to his ability to keep ponies off of spears.  Still, those deaths hurt, especially the ones he’d watched.  It was ironic that they’d been given their fate for wanting life, but were now trying to escape it through ridding themselves of it.  A less controlled Skalos would have let mirthless smile, even chuckle, out, but he’d become something that he didn’t recognize these days.
Was he truly a pony anymore, still keeping his will to harm and kill, or had they, by having that evil portion of them retained, become something more?  He certainly knew that he had become something that none of the ponies back from home would recognize.  And a great deal of the remaining Fallen had become something that he never remembered them as.  
Some had become darker, more self servient and reclusive in their time in Tartarus.  There was a great deal of them, a larger portion he felt, than those who were the opposite. Those that were before terrified by death, who had seemed like killers in the field who only killed to live, had become more childish.  He’d seen them reverse their age over the years, becoming more and more like foals and less like the soldiers they had been.  At times, he even doubted that, once before, they had been a feared army of over eighteen thousand.  Now, they seemed to be just like the ponies that were in the living world, as he called it.
One of the privileges of being the esteemed leader of the Fallen was to be able to, with an escort, view the world now.  It would be fruitless to relate to, to teach, or attempt to instruct anyone who’d lived in the modern world, or at least, partially so.  With that came a sense of knowledge, that he at times knew what the Princess didn’t, or that there were moments when he remembered that there was no such thing as singularity within Equestria.  There was a reason the land was named for its equality, not just the country of ponies, but the land where dragons, hippogriffs, griffons, yaks, bison, and changelings lived.  It was forgotten by the modern world, as the ponies now referred to everyone as “everypony”, and nobody with “nopony”.  Strangely, the more Skalos saw about the modern world, the more he learned of the past, and the better he knew the past and his past, the more he could care for the future.
“Where are we going,” the boy behind him suddenly asked, Skalos’ ears instantly picking up the broaching noise.  “This isn’t the way to the Apple’s.”
Looking back at the human, he was delighted to see that, without instruction, the boy had grabbed his spear.  Answering instantly, he said, “This isn’t the way to the Apple’s.  There is no singular way, because there are multiple ways.  This is a way to get to the farm, and more specifically, the lake where we’ll be training.”  Oh how these moments presented themselves, Skalos relinquished to himself, continuing to teach.  “A great deal of opportunities exist to answer our problems.  There isn’t a specific way.  As long as it works and does its purpose effectively, it is a path that can and may be taken.  There will be times when only you see that path, and you must take that way to complete your goal.  In those cases, know that we Fallen will be right beside you, succeeding or failing with you.”
The boy gave him an unsure, yet amusing glance.  “That’s comforting,” he stated sarcastically, prompting the Fallen to raise his brow.
“It should be.  You’ll want seventeen thousand spears behind you when you face off against the minotaurs.”
The boy laughed, earnestly laughed, at the Fallen’s statement, making Skalos smile slightly at him.  It wasn’t the most profound or enjoyable smile, but for the first time in a long while, it was a truthful smile, and that was what mattered.  He knew that the boy was not only the right choice, but perfect choice for Equestria and the Fallen.  Whatever had happened yesterday, the cruel mental attack he’d endured, had really changed him for the better.  At the moment, Skalos didn’t know whether the “him” was for himself, or for the boy.  Because for either, it was true.
There was a constricted feeling in Skalos’ chest as he looked away from the boy and out over the rolling grassy knolls.  It was one that he hadn’t often felt in his life, in Tartarus or otherwise.  He knew it was something rarer, more exquisite than what one felt when living in a village farming.  It was a feeling that was unique in the sense that it only came before the worse, and searched for the better.  A feeling that fed countries, encouraged populations, and survived wars.  The feeling was nameless, but labeled by the populace as hope.  Four letters that could not contain the sincerity of the feeling were all that were given to the grandest emotion Skalos had even felt.
Still keeping his face forward, he asked the figure behind him, “Why did you leave in such a hurry yesterday?  I was watching you to ensure that your integrity could be undoubted, and saw that, until the pegasus mare came, you didn’t touch the ground with it.  So when you heard the screaming, why did you drop your weapon and run?”
He heard the footfalls behind him slow slightly as the boy took his time thinking of his answer.  He didn’t doubt the fact that the reason was at least understandable, if not a bit illogical, but he wanted to better know the reasoning and thought behind the human.  After thirty three seconds of deliberation, he responded truthfully, “I wasn’t thinking straight.  As you probably know, yesterday was a… complicated day, and while that’s no excuse, I think my instinct trusted my own two hands with the job more than something I’d just been given.”
“I see,” the Fallen replied with understanding, daring a slight glance back.  The human seemed at least slightly downput by the revelation that the moment between him and the pink pegasus hadn’t been private.  Privacy seemed to be a key ideology of the human folk, but beyond that, he knew the feeling of being exposed.  The Lunar Princess had laid bare the entirety of the Fallen on their day of damnation, and had made the undeniable truth prevalent in their minds.  It wasn’t a pleasant experience then, and even with the less extreme situation, he knew it wasn’t any better.
Turning back to the forest that they were now skirting the edge of, he asked, “Do you know what this place is?  The forest, I mean?”
“Yeah,” the boy answered slowly.  “It’s the Everfree Forest or something like that, right?”  
“Indeed.  And do you know why it is so feared by the ponies that inhabit the area around it?”
“Because they don’t know enough about it,” he answered questioningly.  “They don’t know exactly what is in it?”
“Precisely,” Skalos responded proudly.  The intuition of the human was impressive, and from the sound of it, presented from self experience.  How fortunate for the situation, but unfortunate for him.  Regardless though, he continued.  “The Everfree is as dangerous as ponies fear, but only in the deeper sections of the forest.  The Timberwolves and cockatrices reside in the darker portions of the forest, where they don’t have to worry about invading ponies.  They don't want to see them as much as they.”
Skirting through the edge of the forest, deep enough in it that they wouldn’t be seen through the thick brush, but close enough that they could still see the town through little peepholes between leaves, he led the human on.  “There aren’t many things that ponies aren’t afraid of, and I believe that you humans can relate well to this.  In my time, ponies feared everything they didn’t know, which was virtually everything outside of their snug homes and cozy towns.  Nowadays, they fear less things, but the things they still don’t understand are feared even more.
“Remember this, lordling,” Skalos instructed as they approached a picket fence with a gate pointing towards the forest.  The gate led into a back section of the Acres, where the trees were younger and still growing in size.  “You may lead veterans, and they may have more experience than you in war, but you know more, and thus, fear less.  Be fearless in all things, be it battle, living, and loving.  If you fear, then you fail.  And as you must know painfully, there isn’t room for failure for any of us.”
Behind him, he could tell the human was nodding.  A small, confident expression spread across Skalos’ face.  Not quite a smile, but a tweaking of his lips that could have been mistaken for one if looked at wrong.  There were few times left in Skalos’ life where he felt pride in himself, considering the reason behind why his experience was much longer than most’s.  One of those times was now, and knowing the human was the leader, the commander, and person he was, he was proud to be serving him.
Passing through the gate, they walked across the expansive rows of apple trees.  Thanks to the small stature of the youthful trees, they were able to see the larger, older trees dotted with ripe, red apples.  They continued on silently, the boy with his thoughts and the Fallen with the sights of the Acres.  It’d been long ago, but Skalos still remembered raiding this very same valley.  The greatest mistake of his life, worse than joining the ranks of King Sombra or betraying the two Princesses.  He grimaced at the gruesome memories, turning sharply around the tree with a reigned anger.
They reached the old, barely visible path that led to the lake and Skalos’ temporary residency beside it.  Seeing as he was to daily train Equestria’s champion, Twilight had given him undeserved and premature amnesty, letting him live in the world above.  Of course, it came with tight restrictions about not being seen by anyone who wasn’t in on the scheme to defend Equestria, but there were some freedoms.  His own personal guard, for one, who watched him whenever the Fallen wanted to approach anywhere that ray wasn’t, and was to ensure no one saw him.  They hadn’t said a word to each other, and Skalos preferred it that way.  
He still lived with the Fallen in Tartarus, at least partially, to help reinstruct them and keep them in the condition needed for war, but a majority of his time was in the living world.  There was much more reason to be in the living world, from the overall joy he felt to be back, seeing, feeling, smelling, and hearing the way it worked, to the much more important fact of watching over and learning of his charge and commander.  Still, he had some sort of attachment to the depths of Tartarus and the glowing blue-gray of the Fallen’s home.  He didn’t know exactly why the damning caves were so welcoming to him, but every time he returned, ever since meeting the human, he hadn’t released a disappointed sigh or saddened huff.  Truthfully, there was no reason to be disappointed in their past mistakes.  Maybe the Foals were correct in some way.  He’d begun to realize so.
They were by the lake at that point.  Straightening up slightly from a bent thinking position, he told the human, “Today, lordling, we will be teaching you to respect your weaponry, be that the spear, the sword, the bow, or any other object you may use in the coming war.  I’m sure that you know from personal experience how valuable a life is.  It isn’t able to be defined by any sentient proportion, and to try to comprehend exactly how incredibly powerful one living thing is, compared to all of the inanimate objects around us, is impossible.
“Have you, however, ever realized how powerful one might be when combining the might of sentience with the strength of inanimacy?  It creates something more powerful than either thing alone.  Something that can destroy both.  You see, lordling, it is this incredible power that is confined in the weapon, not the actual object itself.  A sword, even the most well made, cannot harm anything without being wielded by a sentient being.  It is through this unity that an object becomes a weapon.
“Just like your pet, however, you must gain a spiritual connection to it, otherwise it will be something enslaved by you.  An enslaved object may become a weapon, but it isn’t fulfilled to its maximum potential.  There is no way a chained object can have fluidity, and there is no way a soldier can survive without the fluidity of their weapon.”
Seeing the confused expression on the human’s face, Skalos gave him a simpler version.  “If you don’t know the power of your weapon, you can’t use that power correctly.”
A light seemed to go off in his eyes as he understood what Skalos was teaching him.  Nodding his head, the boy held out his spear, not like he was handing it over, but like he was admiring it.  It was always something that Skalos appreciated about teaching the boy and his comrades in Tartarus.  That moment where they realized with fullness what their job, their purpose meant, and what they held in their hand or hoof meant for them.  It was such a simple moment to the outside viewer, but to him, he saw it as the moment that their commitment as a soldier became their reality.  It was a somber moment that made Skalos both proud and resigned.  Seeing it with the human, it was a strange mixture of all, and something else.  Compassion.
A few moments later, the human looked away and nodded again, to Skalos this time.  He returned it with his own nod.  The human knew now.  
Straightening up, he snapped his hoof against the ground, intentionally hitting a rock sharply.  The human flinched at the sudden sound as Skalos called out, “Now, you can’t respect your weapon without knowing the true power that you wield with it.  In the lodge are some hay dummies.  Bring them out.  Prepare yourself, lordling.  Today you learn to stab an inanimate being.”
> Truth Be Told
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

For the next four hours, Skalos put Ray through rigorous training, in the form of teaching him two different grips for his spear, and having him jab it into a straw figure repeatedly, until his hands were sore and burning.  Despite the simplicity of the actual action, there was much more complexity to the performance of the skill.  There was no break in between the jabbing and gripping, and in spite of his relative endurance, Ray found himself tired with his whole body.  There were blisters forming on his fingers and palms by the time Skalos let him off to eat lunch.  
“You’re free to go now, lordling,” the Fallen suddenly stated, causing Ray to double take on his thrust.  “You do have a job here, I believe, and we don’t want to overwork your hands at this moment.  Those forming blisters are large enough as is.  Try to find some moleskin to put on those, and if you can’t find any, wrap it in aloe and grass juices.”
“Is this freedom real,” Ray joked in a wistful tone, looking to the sky.
“No,” Skalos declined with the slightest hint of amusement in his voice.  “This is freeing you to a slightly better step of Tartarus.”
“Home sweet home,” Ray muttered, audible enough that he knew his instructor would hear.  A slight smile brushed his face as Ray carefully set his weapon aside, using the opportunity to stretch out his aching arms.  Thanks for the advice.”
From the exercise he’d done yesterday, holding the heavy spear, combined with today’s more active practice with thrust and gripping, his arms were burning furiously.  Despite this, he found himself smiling.  Sometimes he forgot how good it felt to be working, the stress of life temporarily evaporated by the freedom of physical workout.  There was a great sense of accomplishment to the day, as despite his many screw ups and nearly skewering his own foot, he’d learned.  
Or at least, he’d bettered his use, though he was still confused by the more conceptive theories and tradition behind Skalos’ instructions.  There was also a great deal of confusion on how the pony knew how to instruct a bipedal on the art of the spear.  Otolo had vanished sometime during the whole training session, leaving Ray to wonder exactly where the bird was located now.  Ray chuckled to himself softly, realizing that already he was beginning to mentally sound like, and most likely think, like his Fallen instructor.  It didn’t matter, however, seeing as the instructions felt right, but maybe Ray was just being too oblivious to feel anything wrong.  The only weapon he’d wielded before was…
“A knife,” he finished solemnly as he started stretching his other arm.  Ray saw Skalos glance at him, most likely having caught the statement with his uncanny hearing.  Instead of letting the dark thought drag him down, he instantly focused on the first bright spot that popped into his mind.  Troublingly enough, though, an image of Fluttershy entered his head, followed closely by a flashing image of Discord.  “Game on, my good man.  Game on.”
Ray shook his head, finishing his stretching out by folding over, gripping his toes through the sneakers the draconequus had given him.  The motion stretched out his calves and biceps, graciously easing the tension and burning in them.  Standing back straight up, Ray found himself alone beside the lake, Skalos having vanished completely, the straw dummy with him.  The only sign of their presence here, had someone looked, was the dried bits of straw scattered on the ground, and even that was sparse.
Taking his leave, Ray began walking up the hillside, trying to use the incline to warm his legs up.  Schools had kept him in a stiff stance, his legs ninety degree angles, standing on only the balls of his feet.  It had stretched out his legs, and now he needed to get the blood flowing again.  He sighed in relief as his legs went from feeling like planks of wood to a sort of eased up Jello.  
Luxuriously climbing up the hill, he began hearing the sounds of farm work.  Already, it felt calming and somewhat memorable, if not nostalgic.  The sound of hooves striking the wood, the heavy panting of hard work, all the sounds of work.  Kind of strange, though, considering that, quite clearly, he could tell the source of it was Apple Bloom.  Perhaps she was attempting to work some of the frustration or stress from yesterday out?   Or maybe she was just being punished by having to work harder.  Either seemed logical, so when Ray crested the hill and into the first line of trees, he was caught completely off guard by the truth.
Pressing each other against the tree immediately in front of Ray, Apple Bloom and the colt from before were unabashedly making out.  Ray stared with wide eyes, and only a slightly gawking mouth, at the sight of the two younger ponies.  Apple Bloom seemed to have taken lead, her hooves pressed, and occasionally stomping, on the trunk, her head leaning down so her mouth could connect with the colt’s.  Both of their eyes were screwed shut, the only thing they seemed bothered with was controlling their partner’s mouth.  Their kissing was hungry, even lustful, but funnily enough, they kept the entire exchange rather calm.  
They moved in tandem with each other, their heads rocking back and forth, the colt’s orange forelegs wrapped around Apple Bloom’s head, stroking her strawberry mane lovingly.  One of Apple Bloom’s hooves sporadically left the trunk, stroking his own jawline gently.  The both of them seemed so peaceful, and despite the hunger in their kissing, there was control, the movements speedy, but not sloppy.  Ray covered his mouth to keep from chortling too loudly upon realizing just how brazen the move was.  
Ray had mistook the panting and knocking as working, and seeing their surroundings, he could tell that Apple Bloom had set it up to look like she was working.  A passing glance from the right angle would make it look like she was merely resting, and obviously the whole ordeal sounded like she was working.  The little filly had somehow set it all up to make out with her colt while simultaneously reducing the chance of being caught. 
At the same time however, Ray saw all of the little flaws in her plan.  Anyone on this side of the orchard would see it, and someone coming from the barnhouse to where they were would see.  Besides climbing the tree, which Ray doubted the colt could do quickly, let alone quietly, there was no hiding place.  And despite all of Apple Bloom’s precautions, she’d been caught in the act.  Or more, in the act of making out.   
 It brought up a question for Ray, though.  At what point did he intervene with the two’s passion?  Probably now that he’d caught the two of them making out, he decided, slowly approaching the two of them.  They didn’t even unconsciously notice him, and Ray had to restrain his laughter once again.  Was he a bad older sibling for this?  Ah screw it, this was too funny for him, and too adorable for them.  It wasn't often that he saw foot tall, multicolor teen horses making out.
He continued to walk towards them until he practically stepped on Apple Bloom’s tail.  Holding down a smirk, he coughed gruffly, trying to look as serious as he could.  The two’s faces shot appart, looking at him with fearful, panicked eyes as they realized they’d been caught.  They struggled to separate, the young colt stumbling as he tried to stand up to run away, Apple Bloom tripping slightly over her tail.  The colt attempted to take off, but Ray’s arm shot out, miraculously catching his purple tail as he began to speed away from the condemning scene.  The motion caused the colt to fall flat on his face, the sudden jerk of being stopped mid stride making him lose his footing.
Apple Bloom’s eyes shot between her colt and Ray, panicked eyes pinpricks of gilded red as she beheld the situation.  There were tears already there, threatening to crumble Ray’s amusement at the whole ordeal.  Looking down, he saw that similarly, the colt was staring up at Ray with an almost defeated gaze.  He seemed to have accepted that he was caught, and was probably considering that the much taller human would eat him.  
Slowly, Ray’s grim expression faded away into a soft smile.  He let go of the colt’s tail and reached out instead for his hoof to help him stand back up.  The smaller pony gave Ray a confused gape, slowly accepting the hand and standing up cautiously.  His eyes darted to Apple Bloom as if to ask what was happening, but she seemed just as perplexed with Ray’s notion.  The human stepped back, and with a slow sigh to keep himself from bursting into hysterical laughter.  The three stared at each other for a long moment in solemn silence as Ray contemplated how exactly to take the situation.
“Tender Taps, is it,” Ray asked, remembering the colt’s name from the evening before, catching the colt by surprise.
“Ye-yes,” Tender Taps answered unsurely with another glance at Apple Bloom.  Clearing his throat, he began to try to amend his position.  “I know Applejack told me to never enter the farm again, and I know you were there too, but please, don’t kill me.  I just wanted to see Apple Bloom again, to-”
“Kiss her,” Ray finished with a raised eyebrow.  Both of the ponies blushed, looking away from him and each other and at the ground.  Ray let himself chuckle a little, showing them slightly how amusing the situation was to him.  The two looked up at him hopefully, as if that laugh had saved their lives.  Probably did, come to think of it, he contemplated.  
“Well, um, yes,” Tender Taps answered boldly, daring to look over to Apple Bloom.  Then, almost brazenly, he smiled dreamily, and without glancing at Ray, he exclaimed, “And sneak onto the farm to do it again!”
“Aw,” Apple Bloom gushed, reaching out and taking one of Tender’s hooves, speaking for the first time.  
Ray rolled his eyes, crossing his arms.  “You two would be dead if Applejack were around.”  The statement seemed to wake the both of them up from their starstruck obliviousness, sending them back to the reality of their actions.  They held each other’s hooves, though, even as their gazes turned back to the ground shamefully.  
“Are ya gonna tell Applejack,” Apple Bloom asked, being the first to brave eye contact with him.  
“I should,” Ray started, making them both cringe, “but I’m not going to.”  Two sets of wide, curious, thankful eyes glanced up at him, and he stared back at the amethyst and gilded red with an equal measure of understanding and patience.  “I can see that the two of you are, at the very least, good for each other.  You’re going to want that with the both of you getting older and life becoming more challenging.  A shoulder to lean on is one of the best foundations you can create for each other, as friends or as a couple, and I’m not gonna disrupt that.”
“Thank you,” Apple Bloom meekly responded, reaching forward and wrapping a hoof around his leg.  Ray kelt down to take the embrace, smiling softly into the little filly’s strawberry red mane, enjoying the occasion.  He regretted not hugging his human siblings as much, but he would make it up with his second chance at being a family member.  Squeezing her slightly, he pulled away with an almost proud smile.  Looking over to Tender, he knew he needed to have the infamous “intentions” discussion with the colt.  
Patting Apple Bloom on the head, he stood up.  “Go back to the farm and make yourself seen and heard,” he instructed his sister, glancing in the direction of the Apple’s house.  “I don’t know how long you’ve been without being seen, but it’s basically lunchtime by my watch, so you’re lucky I found you two and not Applejack or Big Mac.  save some lunch for me, if you can.  I’ll be eating with you guys today, but I need to make sure Tender gets out of here without being skinned alive.”
Ray didn’t know that ponies could pale until Tender did at his statement, dourly reminded of the circumstance.  Before Ray could say anything to encourage the fearful looking colt, Apple Bloom hopped on her hind legs and pulled his head down a little, leaning in and giving him a kiss on the cheek.  It was a strange feeling, her slightly rubbery, wet lips pressing against his bare skin, but Ray appreciated the sentiment.  
“Yer the best non pony older brother I could ever hope fer,” she exclaimed with no small amount of relief and exasperation as she went running off.  Ray smiled at her fleeing the scene, responding teasingly, “You aren’t so bad either kid!”  
Losing sight of her in the trees, he turned back to the colt in front of him.  Tender was still staring wistfully in the direction the red filly had gone, a dopey smile on his face.  Jeez, this kid had been hit hard with the love hammer, Ray noted humorously.  Tender seemed to realize he’d been staring dreamily at a tree for way too long, blushing and glancing to ground when he caught Ray’s eye.  There was a brief moment between the two of them filled with contemplative silence before Ray gestured casually for the orange colt to follow him.
“Thanks for not telling Apple Bloom’s sister,” the younger boy muttered.  Ray glanced back at him with a smirk, to which the colt seemed to feel he needed to defend himself.  “I mean, it’s scary when your marefriend’s older sister threatens you with your life, but when she’s one of the Elements!  Celestia forbid I cross her path again, I might just drop dead from fright.”  There was another bout of silence between them until the colt asked, “You’re not mad, are you.  I mean, I know you're the weird creature thing that half of the town is confused about, and that Apple Bloom adopted you as her brother.  So, you aren’t mad at me for, well…” 
“Making out with my sister,” Ray once again finished for him.  
Tender Taps sputtered slightly at the finishing statement before taking a deep breath, braving himself for what the human might answer.
“Not particularly,” Ray answered, casually strolling along the path that Skalos had shown him only that morning.  He needed practice memorizing the pathing, and this was a good opportunity to use.  “To be frank,” he continued, “I was more amused by it all than anything else.  I mean, I walk up the hill, hearing what sounds like hard work, only to find my tweenage pony sister making out with the same colt from last night.  It was a strange sight, to be sure, but it was still funny.  You two were really distracted by each other,” he mentioned with a quirked glance back at Tender. 
The orange colt chuckled nervously, answering, “Yeah, we were…”
“So how was it,” Ray asked.
“It was amazing,” Tender bursted, before cringing and glancing away in embarrassment.  “I don’t think you could pretend I didn’t answer that so quickly, could you?”
“Not anymore than I could pretend I couldn’t see you enjoying it so much,” Ray shot back.  
“Fair enough,” the colt muttered in defeat.  After a moment, he continued, “it’s possibly the greatest thing I've ever felt, better than sleep after a hard recital or ice cream on the hottest day.  It felt like I was truly with her, that she was mine, and that I was her’s, and that we were nopony else’s.  And there’s the more... private… bits of it to be enjoyed.”
Ray raised his eyebrow without looking back, stating, “I’ll have to try it some time.”
“Wait, you’ve never kissed somepony before,” Tender asked in sheer confusion.
Ray glanced back with a slight glare.  “Hey, I was on your side, kid.  Don’t turn that around.”
“Right right, sorry.” 
Silence once again permeated the air, but this time, Ray was too immersed within his own internal conflict to notice.  He hadn’t ever kissed anyone before, pony or human.  That wasn’t a bad thing, considering he was only going on fifteen, but still, he felt so much older, more than usual.  He felt like he knew his life was ending, as now that reality was solidifying, the fact that he was here, he was fighting in a war, and that the chance he would ever have at being happy with anybody would be taken with the war.  There was little he felt he could do other than watch the time slip away, the noose of war closing around his throat.  
He had chances with Fluttershy, both the mare and pretty much everyone else had made that known to him, but there was also more to it than that.  Kissing someone wasn’t that important to him, but it was the context behind it.  Kissing someone, really liking someone and having them like him enough back to kiss him, meant that now he had become something more.  He’d become someone who had the love of a person, or well, pony, to drive him on, to increase his fighting to the best he could personally be.  
It also showed his still relative youth.  It was a coming-of-age sort of thing, sure, but coming of age just meant he was older, but still young.  If he skipped out on that, was he even a real sentience of concern.  He couldn’t be soulless in fighting, and he couldn’t be too friendly with it either.  But when did having heart and emotion play into either of those, feed either of the two wolves too much?  Darned ponies, why did they have to bring this up for him, even with their own livelihood?
Trudging across the dry dirt path along the crest of a small bluff obscured by apple trees, they continued on, each seemingly lost to their own thoughts until Tender Taps quietly asked genuinely, “Why are you here?”
Ray looked behind him for a brief second, glancing at the orange coated colt, with a slightly raised eyebrow.  Now how to answer that.  Same way as before, he presumed.  “I got lost,” he lied.  “My people live far away to the east, in a large archipelago.  I was learning to sail a trireme with a few of my clanmates, but a storm blew our sails awry and we drifted across the sea to here.  The rest… died.  I lived off of crabs after crashing.  I healed my wounds, and crossed the forest I saw.  I stumbled onto the Elements, and Twilight charged them with helping me adjust to Equestria.”
Tender scrunched up his snout, exclaiming, “That’s a lie!  If you really were from another place, it’d have to be in the east.  The west has too many hippogriff scouts patrolling it.  They would’ve found your civilization a long time ago.  Besides, if you really were a completely unheard of species, Princess Twilight and all the other unicorns in Canterlot would have snacthed you up for experimenting and seeing what you were.  There’s no way that she’d let you go if she didn’t know anything about you to start with.”
This caught Ray off-guard.  He didn’t realize how much the common, much less younger, ponies knew about their own world and Princess, nor would they find the continuity errors in his story.  After a brief pause, Tender continued, almost embarrassed, “I also heard you behind the hill, well, before Apple Bloom and I…”
“Started making out,” Ray found himself once again finishing, unamused.  
“Yes,” Tender responded rather drably, seeing through his guise of distraction.  “Anyways, I could hear somepony and you exchanging words.  The other one spoke loudly, like he was yelling at you or something.”  The young colt stopped altogether and gave him a suspicious glare.  “So what are you doing behind the Apples’ farm?”
Giving Tender a hard stare, he finally answered, “Something you wouldn’t understand.”  
Ray turned briskly, attempting to cut off any further comment with finality, but Tender wasn’t about to be silenced, as he cried out, “If it’s anything to do with that spear Apple Bloom saw you with yesterday, then I need to know why you’re here.  Princess Twilight wouldn’t need somepony that’s not a pony unless they could do something that a pony, dragon, hippogriff, or Celestia knows what else in this world couldn’t.  So what’s going on?”
“Like I said,” Ray shot harshly, “you wouldn’t understand!”
“But why not?”
“Because even your Princess doesn’t understand,” Ray huffed.  They had stopped right where the trail veered off into the edge of the Everfree, and seeing so, he pointed to the brush covered trail.  “Follow that trail home, kid.”
Tender’s eyes widened at the prospect of entering the haunting forest, seeming to temporarily forget their argument.  Glancing back and forth between the human and the trees, the orange colt asked, “Are you trying to get me killed?  Nopony goes in there without some sort of protection.  Too many Timberwolves!”
“Relax,” Ray assured, not completely able to rid his voice of hardness.  “It follows the very edge of the forest.  You’ll be able to look out well enough to see where you’re going, but not be able to be seen leaving here.  The critters won’t come near here.  They don’t want to come across you anymore than you do.  You’ll be fine if you stick to the trail.”
Ray turned sharply to leave, but Tender quickly called out, “Wait.”
The human stopped and looked over his shoulder at the colt, preparing for another short lecture, but instead found him kicking the dirt with chagrin.  Meeting Ray’s gaze, he muttered, “Thanks for covering my flank today.  Sorry I was so nosy.  You’re business is your’s, and mine’s mine.”
Attempting to break the ice a little, Ray cracked a wry grin and asked, “You’re not just saying that so you can get another freebee with my sister, are you?”
Instead of blushing, Tender laughed and clipped, “Maybe.”  The two of them shared a short laugh before the younger colt took his leave, trudging away through the shadows of the forest.  Ray watched him go for a moment before he too walked off, towards the farmhouse.  Hopping the small wooden fence that served as the only barrier between the acres of apple trees and the wild growth of the Everfree, he began to hum softly to himself a nameless but familiar tune.  
As he walked, he found his thoughts drifting trivially, stretching his arms as he did so.  They ached from the labor he’d put them through, and despite his continued stretching, he knew they wouldn’t loosen up for at least the next couple days.  There was a strange sensation on his arms, though.  A sort of good warmth to them, tingling up and down his arms, legs, and abdomen, as if they’d just been reawoken from a sort of slumber.  Besides the inner warmth, he could feel the remaining glow of the sun on his skin, and surprisingly enough, instead of them being red, they were slightly tanned, a light shade of coffee brown.  
Smiling at the fact that he wouldn’t have to deal with an irritating burn, he came to the main gate that separated home from trees.  He followed it until he found the main entrance of the homestead, seeing that the other Apples had already set up a picnic in front of their home.  Ducking under the gateway, he accepted the verbal greetings of Applejack and Sugar Belle, sitting down between Apple Bloom and Big Mac, where the two had left an exceptionally large gap, and a plate filled with more food than the latter’s. 
“Glad ya finally joined us, Ray,” Sugar Belle stated, her head resting slightly against her husband's broad shoulder.  “I made some sandwiches today.  Nothing fancy, just some peanut butter and grape jelly.”
“Darned traitor,” Apple Bloom muttered through her teeth as her plastic knife broke from the force she was putting into it.  She glanced at him as she said so, some slight fright in her eyes, as if he was worried he was going to blurt out what he’d found her and Tender Taps doing.  “Howdy, bro.”
“Howdy,” he responded in kind, taking a sandwich and biting off nearly half of it at once.  The bread slices the ponies used were, much like most everything else here, smaller than on Earth, and as such, he weighed down the idea of taking an entire sandwich at once.  They tasted good, the white bread soft and warm, the jelly sweet and the peanut butter smooth, but there weren't any beverages out.  Ray was about to ask if someone could get them, but another idea got into his head.  
“Hey Apple Bloom, could you show me where the beverages are,” Ray asked, trying to keep anything but curiosity out of his voice.  The red maned filly jumped at his voice and the direct mention of her name, dropping the broken plastic knife out of her mouth.  
“Uh-huh, sure,” she exclaimed quickly, catching the other three ponies by surprise with her suddenness.  
“Oh no,” Sugar Belle exclaimed with dismay, sitting upright.  “I’m sorry, I forgot.  I left some strawberry lemonade in the kitchen.  Must’ve forgotten it while trying to carry out the sandwiches and plates.  I’m sorry.” 
“Oh, it’s fine,” Ray assured, standing up with his younger sister.  “I was just a bit thirsty.  Applejack’s been having us work hard, right Apple Bloom?”
“Yeah,” the youngest Apple agreed without hesitation, hiding her slight panic surprisingly well.  “Harvest season’s on th’ corner, and it ain’t gonna wait on us.”  Ambidly, she turned and trotted into the house, Ray trailing behind.  He had to duck through the doorway, and the ceiling inside was low enough that he crouched slightly in response to it.
Once the door had shut behind them, Apple Bloom turned on her heel and hissed sharply, “What th’ hay was all of that?”
“Teasing,” Ray responded, looking around the inside of the little house.  The wooden planks that built up the house were hidden by a cream colored wallpaper.  The floorboards were still wood, and despite the age of the building, it looked like they were quite new.  A soft rug covered the floor slightly, though there were mud spots and some stains in it proving it was much older than its fresh appearance first impressed.  There was an old, worn rocking chair in one of the corners, and another, newer cushioned single seater in the other corner.  Overall, it was homy, and Ray loved it.
Apple Bloom half-heartedly kicked him in the shin, though the rough chitin of her hooves hurt more than he let on.  She walked into one of the two rooms this one led to, which was evidently the kitchen, with its stove and oven.  There was a wooden table in the middle of it, already set for four, though it didn’t look like it had been used for a while.  Strange.
On one of the counters by the stove, a pitcher barely to scale with the ones at Ray’s old home, filled with a crystalline pink fluid, ice floating in it.  Five glasses were stacked beside it, but instead of grabbing either of the items, Apple Bloom planted herself into a sitting position, cocking her head as she asked, “So are ya gonna spit out what ya wanna say, or can I?”
“Be my guest,” Ray stated with a slight gesture while sitting down in front of her, noting the irony in the statement.  
Apple Bloom bit her lip and asked, “I’m gonna ask ya a very important question, and I want ya ta answer me honestly, no matter what th’ truth is.  Promise that ya will.”
“Okay, I promise,” Ray said without thought.  
“No,” Apple Bloom denied harshly.  “I need ya ta Pinkie Promise.”
“Um,” Ray stuttered, giving her an estranged look.  “I don’t know what that is.”
“Here,” the filly instructed, lifting his hand with one of her hooves.  “Repeat after me: Cross my heart-”
As she said that, she crossed his hand across his heart.
“Cross my heart,” he repeated.
“Hope ta fly.”  She raised his hand up.
“Hope to fly.”
“Stick a cupcake in my eye.”
“Stick a cup- Ow!”
She pushed his hand into his eye with a slight vengeance. Pulling his hand away, he blinked harshly, trying to make the slight stinging dissipate.  This pony was rather viscous, he noted sourly as Apple Bloom giggled slightly, but stopped after a second, returning to the solemnity of before.  
“Alright, thanks,” she muttered, before taking a deep breath and asking, “Why were ya holdin’ a spear yesterday, and why were ya practicin’ stabbin’ things with it today?  Furthermore, why were ya doin’ so with a ghost?  And why are ya makin’ my sister lie about it too?”
Ray felt himself go pale.  Quietly, he questioned, “How do you know about that.”
“Don’t dodge my question,” she exploded furiously.  “Ya said that ya wouldn’t!”
“I’m not dodging your question,” he explained, cautiously putting his hand on her shoulder in an assuring manner.  “I just want to know how so I can explain exactly what you think you saw.”
“Fine, but ya Pinkie Promised,” Apple Bloom reminded.  “Ya break that promise, an’ she’s gonna make ya regret it fer the rest of yer life.”  Taking another moment to inhale, she began.  “Yesterday, I came ta get ya for lunch, but I saw ya talkin’ to that bird friend of yours, and holdin’ this big ol’ metal thing.  I got a closer look, an’ I could see that it was some sort a’ spear.   At first, I thought I was just bein’ crazy, but then this mornin’ while I was waitin’ for Tender, I heard ya from behind the hill.  I checked an’ saw that ya were down there, working away with that same spear!  Tender came and saw it too, an’ said we should probably do something, but we couldn’t.
“I’d told him about ya earlier, and about how you’d come to Equestria, and he said that was all a bunch of lies.  Told me that there wasn’t any way that ya could a’ come from islands out there.  Too many hippogriffs, and it’s too far away for a singular boat to come all th’ way to the coast.  He said we probably should wait to see if you’d explain the whole thing ta us, or at least, the family, but after seein’ ya practicin’ with that ghost character, we figured we should tell Applejack and Mac.”
“Wait, Tender and you watched me,” Ray questioned.  
“Yeah,” Apple Bloom answered like it was obvious, clearly confused by the question.  Ray, however, wasn’t focused on his sister.  Instead he was considering the fact that he’d been befuddled by the younger colt.  Tender had withheld information, for some reason, and Ray knew it was because he was being tested.  And that he’d failed that test massively.  He’d lied, then become defensive and threatening.  That was probably one of the less wise things he could’ve done, but alas, it was what had happened.  
Grimacing, Ray muttered another question.  “Well, what do you think I’m doing?  Why do you think I’m here, and how do you think I came here?  ‘Cause I’m almost positive you have no idea.”
“I don’t,” Apple Bloom confirmed, doubtfully biting her lip.  “And I’m not sure I wanna know.  I mean, there’s gotta be a good reason yer hidin’ it from us, right?  So maybe it’s somethin’ we don’t wanna know, or worse, somethin’ you don’t want us ta know.”
“So why confront me,” Ray began, “unless you want to know the answers to those questions.”
The red maned filly nodded her head in silent affirmation, her little red bow bouncing with the movement.  Ray reached out and patted her head gently, running his hand through her mane lovingly, a soft smile sneaking across his face, despite how grim the truth she wanted was.  She seemed equally thankful and confused by the movement, giving him a look of unrestrained admiration and love, and of course, befuddlement.  
Ray stood slowly, reaching out and grabbing the pitcher and cups at the same time.  “I’ll tell you later.  Offer to walk home with me, and I’ll tell you then.  For now, we’ve been in here too long.  Let’s go back to lunch.”  Apple Bloom looked dismayed at the apparent brush off, but Ray quickly added, “Pinkie Promise.”
“Don’t abuse that,” his little sister warned with a quick smile, picking herself up and walking out of the kitchen with him.  
They left the house smiling, immediately greeted by the sound of all three of the adults laughing.  They sat down at the same spots as before, and enjoyed the rest of the lunch leisurely. Ray ended up drinking a good half of the pitcher, and eating six sandwiches to sate his body’s much larger appetite.  It was only after his last sandwich that he recognized the telltale signs of a growth spurt.   It was strange to think that he could become any larger, but reminded himself that he was still only fourteen here, and his body barely met the height requirement for it at five six.  
After the lunch, Applejack gave him a real assignment, that of collecting broken branches off of trees in the sectioned off space of trees closest to the farmhouse.  He did so happily, finding himself pleasantly alone for several hours as he worked in relative silence.  
He found it rather relaxing in general, after the subtle stress of training with Skalos, and the work itself helped to ease the aching in his arms.  There was also a certain grotesque satisfaction in snapping off the decayed and dead branches, as if the snap itself marked a success.  There was very little Ray focused on as he worked, other than formulating a sort of rhythm to his work.  Snap, pull, crunch.  Snap, pull crunch.  Over and over, until the sun was setting.  He smiled at the orange tinted sky, seeing the encroaching darkness from the east and welcoming the cold of night.
Ray hadn’t even had the time to begin to walk back to the farmhouse when Apple Bloom came hopping towards him, bow ever bobbing.  He smiled at the approaching filly, stuffing hands into the pockets in his jeans.  He hadn’t even told Rarity about such things, but it seemed that the fashionista knew any form of her craft, even foreign kinds.  
“What’s got you into such high spirits,” Ray asked, ignoring a nagging truth in the back of his mind that what he was going to tell her would ruin the mood.  “Did Tender show up without anyone else noticing again?”
The little filly was flushed red already, but the blush didn’t seem to be from any embarrassment.  “Nope.  Applejack just apologized ta me about being so hoity toity yesterday, and said that Tender could still come around the Acres.  Without kissin’, a’ course, but hey, better than him havin’ ta fear for his life whenever he wants ta see me.”  Apple Bloom became a little dejected as she added, “Still grounded, though.”
“Better than nothing,” Ray reminded her, though he knew she probably didn’t need it.  He had stopped walking when the two had become side by side, both standing in silence they didn’t quite know how to fill.  
“Don’t worry ‘bout havin’ ta turn in to Applejack.  I already told her I’d be walkin’ with ya home.  She said you’d be gettin’ yer paycheck soon.  Since tomorrow’s a Saturday, ya don’t have ta come ta work, but work’s welcome.  Or ya could just come visit family.”  Apple Bloom informed him of the situation with a hearty smile and big eyes.  She was certainly cheerful, though the true reason was still unknown to Ray.  If it was that he was being let in on some fancy secret… 
Sighing softly, Ray turned and began to walk towards the now familiar exit to the Acres.  As he ducked under the structure, he raised a hand and tapped it playfully.  Apple Bloom continued to try and stand on her hind legs, reaching up with her front hooves.  After a few seconds of straining her reach, she realized she was a good foot short, and gave up.  Smiling at the slight dejection on her face, Ray bent down and lifted her slightly, and trying again, she glanced the bottom of the gateway with her hoof.  
Sharing a quick, short-lived smile, he set Apple Bloom down and moved on, the soft clicks of the pony’s hooves on the slightly cobbled path following him.  After a few minutes of walking towards the sunset, Apple Bloom spoke up.
“Alright, we’re far enough away from th’ Acres,” she stated.  “Now what is all this secrecy and lyin’ about?”  
Ray closed his eyes and took a edep breath, preparing to shatter this poor filly’s perfect world.  “We’re at war,” he said softly.  He waited for a response from the little filly, but none came.  He was about to say it louder, believing he’d been too quiet, but Apple Bloom spoke up once again.
“Whaddya mean,” she asked with confusion.  “Are we at war with th’ dragons or griffons?  ‘Cause the last time that happened, we all made friends with each other again.”  After a brief, painful moment of considerate silence, she mentioned, “It has been a long time.  Before Granny was born, I think.  I don’t know why that’s a big deal, though.  Nopony gets hurt.  At most, we lose trade stuffs with ‘em, and we’re mad at each other fer a couple a’ years.”
“We’re not at war with anyone on this continent, Apple Bloom,” Ray stated with sorrow.  “And people -ponies- will get hurt.  Killed, if we don’t fight it.”  Ray turned around and crouched down beside his pony sister.  
Apple Bloom stared at him in confused horror, asking, “Wh-whaddya mean?  We’ve been ta war, and nopony ever, ever gets hurt.  An’ if it’s not on this continent, then where?  Th’ moon?”
“I don’t know where exactly,” Ray admitted, adding, “but it’s somewhere out west, I think.  This isn’t like those little conflicts you call wars, either.  This is country against country, each fighting for something valuable.  For us, it’s to keep living normally, happily, to keep from being completely eliminated from history.  There will be death, and lots of it.”
“And yer th’ one to initiate it all,” she intelligently concluded, raising a hoof to her lip thoughtfully.  With a start, she asked, “Are there more a’ ya, then?  A whole army of humans to fight against… What are ya even fighting against?”  
Ray could hear the panic creeping into her voice, as she finally began to realize the rabbit hole she had voluntarily lept down.  He placed his hands firmly on her soft shoulders, causing her to make eye contact with him once again.  Conveying all of the strength he could, he explained, “Yes, I am the one to lead the fight.  There isn't an army of humans, just me leading a different army.  That ‘ghost’ you and Tender saw?  He was no ghost.  He’s a pony from hundreds of years ago, one of thousands of Fallen.  They’re the army that will help save Equestria from the minotaurs.”
“Minotaurs,” Apple Bloom questioned hushly.
“Yes,” he answered just as quietly, nodding his head.  “These things are monsters that will kill you and everyone else without hesitation, emotion, or reason.  I don’t know why, and neither does Twilight, but we think it has something to do with one of the villains you had to deal with previously.”
“W-wait,” she insisted, looking up at him fearfully.  “You’re going to fight them?  You’re going to kill them?”
“Yes,” he grimly affirmed.  “I’m going to kill as many as I can.  I’m going to fight them for as long as it takes for us to win… or for them to kill me.”
Ray watched Apple Bloom visibly deflate as a silent tear rolled down her cheek.  Another soon followed as she hiccuped out a quick, “Die?”  Ray barely nodded before the little red maned filly shot forward and wrapped her hooves around him tightly.  He gulped down a tight lump in his throat, attempting to keep himself from tearing up as his younger sister cried silently into his neck.  
After several minutes of him attempting to calm her with soothing hushes and softly rubbing her back, she pulled back, slightly recomposed.  With a teary, forceful gaze, she told him, “Don’t fight.  Ya don’t hafta.  Can’t ya just… stay with us… on th’ farm?”  Even as she asked him, he could hear the shallow confidence in her voice.  She already knew the answer to that question.
“I have a purpose here,” Ray uttered.  “I have to fulfil it.”
Screwing her eyes shut to prevent further crying, Apple Bloom bit her lip and nodded in understanding.  Reembracing her, Ray tried to forget the whole conversation whilst rubbing his fingers through her hair.  Anything to try and make his new sister feel better, feel less worse for the things that had to happen.  To save Equestria.  “Please, don’t tell anyone else,” he requested softly.
“I need to tell Tender before he finds out th’ truth on his own and goes haywire,” Apple Bloom answered without withdrawing from the hug.  “The girls need ta know, too.  They like ya, and if ya did… not come back home from whatever’s goin’ on and wherever yer goin’, then they’d be heartbroken.  Death… it isn’t somethin’ we deal with often, not so sudden and disastrous and wrong like war.  The last time a pny died in a war was…”
“Fifteen hundred years ago,” he finished, pulling away.  Smiling pitifully at Apple Bloom, he stated, “There’s a little hope.  In fifteen hundred years, we’ve had a force that the minotaurs have no idea about.  Even Twilight didn’t know about it until after she became a Princess, and there’s nobody else but the Princesses and a select few ponies who know about it.  It’s our secret weapon.”
Apple Bloom returned the smile hopefully.  “Yeah, it’s not that bad, is it?”
“Not too bad at all,” Ray lied with a slow smile. 
Apple Bloom wiped her eyes and looked around the sky.  Ray looked up too.  It had become night sometime, leaving the human to wonder how long they’d been talking.  At least an hour, because the sun was completely set, the stars and a waning moon lighting the sky.  He gave them both an appreciative smile.  It seemed almost right that their discussion had finished at night, the most dark and peaceful part of a day, much like the secrets Ray kept, and the truths spoken.
“When are ya goin’ ta fight,” Apple Bloom inquired, almost fearfully.  
“Not for a year,” Ray answered after a moment for remembrance.  
“Then let’s make it the best year.”
“Precisely.”
> As Leaves Fall
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The walk home from Apple Acres was unusually uneventful, and considering the helluva day he’d been having, he took it as a miracle.  He was too torn right now, too unguarded to be caught and ensnared through any sort of conversation.  He knew very well now that no matter who he’d talk to in this world, there would be something brought up that would lead his mind to the grim war ahead.  Yet in spite of the dire future, in spite of the harsh conversation and revelation he’d had with Apple Bloom, he was looking forward to it.  Even if he died out wherever he would fight, at least he would have this year to live.
Entering his home, he made himself a quick sandwich, too lazy from the day he’d had to care for much else.  Showering quickly, he laid down on his bed, not quite ready to fall asleep, but more to simply rest.  He stared thoughtlessly at the ceiling, trying to find something to keep his mind occupied, but there wasn’t much but that grim future.  Finally relenting to a silent urging in him, he stood up and began pacing the room.  There was too much to think about with the impending war that he couldn’t think of anything besides it, and there was nothing in the present connected to his future to think of anything else.  
Sighing, he ran a hand through his still wet hair, trudging across the soft carpet, wondering things that shouldn’t need wondering about.  In spite of his resolve to enjoy the little life he still had left to live, he found himself dreading the after effects he’d have on those he now loved.  Was it selfish of him to want this life for himself, when he knew that if he would never return, they would have better benefitted having never known him?  Was it merely indulgent that he would have only happy memories with them until he died, and that they would be left here, with only his death as comfort?
Putting his hands over his eyes, he rubbed furiously.  He never should’ve attempted to become one of them, one of the happy ones.  It was better for him to only exist, and let them live, instead of living with them and having them have to deal with him gone, to war, and then to death.
“But sadness is one of the most difficult parts of living, and one of the most rewarding,” a familiar voice spoke to him.  
Ray shot upright, whipping around and looking for the source of the voice.  He found himself not in his room, pacing around, but standing in a small opening in a cloud of dark blue and violet.  Confused, he called out, “Who’s there.”
A coil of the blue and purple mist pulled itself away from the slowly swirling walls surrounding him, forming into the shape of an alicorn.  The forming mist created the wings, snout, mane, tail, and eyes of a familiar figure.  As the distinctive “she” opened her eyes, Ray recognized her as one of the two alicorns that had pounced him, the one that had been warning her sister, the one from his previous dream.  So he was asleep then.
Taking another look around the mist wall, attempting to appear casual, he asked, “Luna, wasn’t it?  I think I caught your name in the midst of you toying around with my memories.”
“Yes, it is,” the alicorn confirmed stiffly.  She was wise enough to catch his ploy.  He wasn’t too mad about the situation, moreso disturbed, if not slightly frightened.  The two most powerful beings in Equestria knew what kind of monster he was.  What was more frightening was that they allowed that monster to remain to fight something they had never anticipated.  Though it did seem like they had little power in the politics of it all, Ray couldn’t help but feel slightly intimidated by the dark figure.
“What do you want with me,” he questioned, giving her a slightly raised brow.  
Sharing a look into the misty void that surrounded them, she simply answered, “I want you to sleep.”  Noticing the flash of confusion on Ray’s face, she clarified.  “I may not be Princess of Equestria, but I’m still Princess of the Night.  I can escape the responsibilities of royalty, but I find myself drawn to the Dream Realm, and more often than not, it’s to help a wayward soul.”  
Ray scoffed slightly, earning a sideways glance from the powerful mare.  “So how far off the trail am I, Princess?”
“Too far,” she responded steadily with a solid gaze.  Ray grunted slightly at the answer.  Of course.  “You seem to be too connected with the future, and not enough with the present.  What you ponder is true, but what you don’t ponder is the truth.  Yes, if you fall in battle out in the fields, you will be missed and mourned for, but your contribution would be remembered even better if you lived.  Yes, you may harm those by knowing them, but you’d wound them worse if you disconnected from them now.  Maybe they would be happier during the war if you didn’t know them, but they wouldn’t be better off.  Raymond, you seem to consider the options of pessimistic selflessness.  You pity them while giving the absolute worst of the best.  You wish them well while mourning that they must be weary on their travels.  Don’t fell your heart with the blunt axe you form from your thoughts.  True power comes from the heart, but a cracked heart breaks like a rusted spear or a split arrow.  
“You need to find yourself Ray.  You’ve defined who you are in this world, your place, and have abandoned the livelihood of your old world, but you fail to become what befits you.  You resist the mold you’ve given yourself while at the same time accepting the form you must become to be the hero you are.  You are ready to face the flames of the furnace to become the sword of Equestria, but you attempt to change the scabbard you must be drawn from.  Every great warrior must have a home to fight for, to die for.  You’ve found one, but are discontent with what it is because of what you must be.  Can you not see the controversy in your own plight?  Can you not see the failure your doubts will bring you too?
“You are the hero of Equestria, living and breathing.  You’ve given your oath to protect it under your own blood, not for anyone, but for everyone.  Accept the future, but live the present.  Prepare for, but do not dare to dread.  Your only failure to these ponies will be if you allow yourself to be swallowed up in the black tar you roll yourself through.  Do not kick yourself for living, and for giving others life.  Take it from me, the Warrior Queen of the East, the Conqueror of Ice.  War is a terrible, punishing experience.  To see so many die, on your side or not, enhances your view of the life you’ve had, and should you survive, changes how you are to live.  Don’t regret what you haven’t done when the time comes for you to take up the spear and live the life of a killer.  Let yourself be a liver first.”
Ray swallowed hard, facing away from the Princess.  These were true words.  The hardest words to take, the hardest words to hear.  A struggling, grasping piece of him still resisted what the Princess taught, and he wanted to indulge it.  But she was right.  So Ray intended to stall.
“So this is why you’re here, to force me into the mold,” Ray muttered, still turned to the mist.  
“Not to force, but to remind,” she quietly insisted.  Truth too.  Ray had made an oath, something to hold on to.  Whether that oath had been to show his new friends that he would be there, or it was his stubborn, thoughtless way of giving Twilight the finger whilst following the path she’d laid out for him, he didn’t know.  
“I’ve seen my own ponies massacre each other,” Luna softly spoke, gaining Ray’s attention.  “I’ve seen fear drive friends to betray each other, to cause noble stallions to murder foals and burn villages.  I used to wonder why, why ponies who had known each other for years would turn against each other, to kill each other after only a few minutes.  For the longest time, I chalked it up to cowardice, but I know now what it was.  It was regret for what could have been.  They wished for more of what wasn’t, and gained nothing but pain.”
“You’re worried I’ll turn,” Ray presumed, turning around.
“No,” he stated confidently, “but I’m worried you’ll give up.  I’ve seen into your mind.  One of the great curses of ruling this realm is being able to see a person when they are most vulnerable, when they have no defenses and no guard up.  It is then that I see a great deal of pain, torment, and anger.  I’ve seen your thoughts, the ones you fail to fully realize, or at least deal with.  But you know it.”
Letting out a breath, he mumbled, “I’m nothing without this war.”
Luna somberly nodded.  “The worst lie.  Yet also the greatest.  In one hoof, it motivates you to hold yourself higher, to fight stronger, to work harder, and be sturdier.  Yet in the other, it allows you the idea that you can’t live through this war.  After all, if you do-”
“What next?”
“The terrible after.”
Silence prevailed after the statement as the Princess seemed to wait for Ray’s response.  None came.  Ray couldn’t imagine what next.  There couldn’t be anything after.  There was just no reason for being, except as a protectorate of a nation without threat.  
With a sigh, Luna began to speak again.
“In my time as Princess of the Night, I’ve never dealt with a creature as strange as you, Raymond.  Humans are by far the most emotionally intricate beings I’ve dealt with.”  Ray started at that.  Humans?  Luna seemed to catch it as well.  “No, I haven’t come across any of your kind save you.  My power only extends to the land of Equestria, for some reason.  May it be that there is no other creature beyond this plain that dreams, or that there is no reason for me to care for the other creatures of this world, I do not know.  In either aspect, though, I’ve come across both trivial and concerning problems, major and minor, but none as serious as yours.”
“I wonder why,” Ray gruffly added.  After a moment of thought, he queried, “You said that in your time as Princess of the Night.  Weren’t you born into it?”
“No, I was reborn into it.  Nopony but Flurry Heart was born as an alicorn.  The rest of us were reborn into the responsibility that is now ours.  Me, my sister, Cadence, and Twilight all had to be remade to fit the physical, mental, and magical burden that is Princessdom.  Why do you ask?”
“Just trying to gauge how similar we are,” Ray truthfully answered.  
“We are similar in situation, Ray, but we are far from similar in nature.  You’ll find that I was rather a cruel and unforgiving warrior, and much less of a leader than I should have been.  It was why I eventually was weak enough to be dragged into my envious and darker side, Nightmare Moon.  Do not try to compare yourself to those before you.  You won’t find comfort in the flaws of your predecessors.  They arose to arms too quickly, went for blood too swiftly to be judged in the right.  Our controversies have been paid for in the torment and consequences our actions brought us.  Do not follow down the path of pain, disappointment that my sister and I went through to get to this point.  Victory is not worth everything.”
“And that is where you and I will have to agree to disagree, Princess.”  Instead of receiving any objection, Ray watched Luna simply nod.
“You are wiser than I am in this regard,” Luna admitted.  “Perhaps I need to learn a painful truth here too.”
Silence once again took hold of the two as they stood, staring at each other in a verbal stalemate.  Looking to the ground temperamentally, Ray asked, almost timidly, “Why do you bother here?  Why do you visit me with respect, but violently while I don’t sleep?”
“I suppose this is a sort of apology meeting,” Luna submitted, looking almost shameful.  “I… didn’t know how you would react to me visiting with you physically, so I visited you spiritually.  I came to give you the best and most needed advice I could, and to help your rest.”
“Rest,” Ray questioned.  
“Yes, to help you sleep,” the Princess confirmed.  “I pulled you into sleep, and am ensuring you stay here by causing this dream coil to exhaust your mind.  It will not allow you to wake until I deem it unnecessary, or until your body requires it to awaken through hunger, thirst, or other needs.  I can feel the weariness of your ever churning mind, and I know how it weathers the conscious and the physical work of the body.  Sleep is one of the few necessities that I can help with.  Actually, it is probably the only one, so I might as well assist you with strengthening your resting time.
“I won’t be able to pull you to sleep, daily, however, but the dream coil here is personalized.  Once you fall asleep, it will ensnare you and allow a good night’s rest.  In this way, I can at least secure the welfare of your resting.  However, you will need to fall asleep in order for it to work.  I suggest some sleeping agent of some sort.  I suggest the powder that can be mixed in with tea or milk.  A snack before sleep is always a good way to end the day,” Luna added thoughtfully, and for once, she seemed to have dropped her shield of formality, allowing Ray to see the pony behind the wheel.  
She was like a mature child, someone who enjoyed, but hid that enjoyment behind the responsible, mature mask her life forced her to wear.  She wasn’t the strict, cruel, blunt mare that was the harbinger of deathly truth, nor was she the evangelant god that led with absolute surety.  She was a mare who never had the chance to be a child, and would be one when she could, whilst also being the adult that times would require of her.  She seemed to be almost too realistic in that moment, a human that Ray could point out in the street, and oddly enough, he found it comforting.  There was no god here, just a powerful mare.
Giving Luna a smile, Ray understood now.  She was somber purposely, childish accidentally, and a true leader.  Imperfect and perfected.  The very thing that she was telling Ray he was.  From one obligated believer to another.  
“Thank you,” he graciously muttered through his smile.  The princess returned the gesture, before once again gazing around the mist coil.  
“I do believe I should be letting you sleep now,” she spoke, a sincere mask of friendliness and compassion.  One that she obviously favoured.  “There is still a great deal that you must achieve in these next months, and even a single day should not be wasted in your training.  Besides, I can feel the nightmares of others tugging me away.  I shall visit them, and leave you to rest well.”
“I understand,” Ray agreed, giving the mare a final wave.  “Good night, Princess.”
“Good night, and farewell, Ray Heartbound,” Luna dismissed.  “And may these next days pass quickly.”  With the dismissal, the mare’s body faded into the smoky dream coil, rejoining the slowly churning wall that now seemed to embrace, instead of confine, Ray.  Gently, he felt himself pulled away from the conscious world, his mind darkening as a peaceful, fulfilling sleep overtook his worn mind.

*******************************************************************************************************

Fluttershy cried out in horror as another one of the monstrous creatures roared, charging through the bloodied cobble streets of Ponyville.  The corpses of many residents lay scattered around, some burning alongside the buildings, others continuing to be mutilated by the ferocious beasts that tore through the ponies.  Endless bodies ran and were hewn down by the weapons of the monsters.  Friends, acquaintances, and even enemies were torn and scattered about, adorning everything in red and multicolored, disembodied fur.  She shrieked once again as half of a pony flew past her head, slapping against the broad, iron thick chest of a minotaur behind her.  
It didn’t acknowledge her, simply lumbering past, stepping carelessly on the bodies of the dead and still barely living.  The minotaurs seemed to not care for Fluttershy.  They only cared about killing whatever their sights locked on, and until it was destroyed, would not be put off.  Stumbling away from the graphic displays of violence and death, she turned down the market street, toward the center of town.  
There, a singular figure stood, fighting against the endless horde of devilish creatures, merciless and bloodthirsty as the very things he fought.  Ray swung his great, terrible spear about, severing heads, impaling minotaurs, and disemboweling any that dared challenge him.  He was surrounded on all sides, but he continued to kill emotionlessly, simply kicking aside the bodies of those he felled.  There was no possible way Fluttershy could pull her gaze away from the scene of the one hope for all of Equestria relentlessly tearing through body after body, the same way that the enemy he killed did with ponies.  Was this what heroes of war must do to win?
Finally, though, there was an overwhelming surge in the enemy, a force seeming to have pushed the minotaurs into a blood fed frenzy.  They tore through the few ponies who still stood with their bare, cloven hands, rammed their mighty, pony-long horns through them, and bludgeoned the remainder with whatever they could use to kill.  They didn’t care about effectiveness, but mere brutality, and it showed even worse now that they raged with the loss of so many of their own at the hands of Equestria’s merciless hero.  Fluttershy could feel the raw energy of hate coursing through the veins of the minotaurs, and it frightened her worse than anything she’d ever had to face in her life.
And then came the dreaded climax to the nightmare.  The apogee of hate, bloodshed, and vengeance.  The killing of Ray, their last warring opposer.  
They began to stab, slash, and tear at him as he began to lose his footing on the hill of bodies he’d made.  One strike landed across his cheek, opening a deep cut.  Another pierced his stomach, blood hastily draining from the open wound and mixing with the minotaur blood spilt on him  another to the back, and one more to the arm.  Slowly, ray weakened until, at last, he fell to the ground with a resigned air of defeat.  However, before the most brutal demonstration, came the worst part.  As he slid to join the pile of bodies he’d created, he looked directly into Fluttershy’s eyes, and cried with a broken, pained voice, “I shouldn’t be here.”
Fluttershy turned away from the boy, tears sliding down her cheek, but she couldn’t escape the sounds of his mutilation.  His everlasting screams of pain, blaming her and her friends, and the sickening squelching of his innards being removed.  Fluttershy had made the mistake of watching once, and she hadn’t been able to sleep, let alone eat, for the entire day.  Instead, she simply cried for the fallen hero, her fallen love.  There was nothing else to do.  
Abruptly, however, the sounds stopped, leaving a tranquil silence to the entire scene.  Time froze, ashes of the burning town hanging in the air, embers and flame stopped harshly, floating beside the tearful mare.  
“Fluttershy, oh poor, dear, Fluttershy,” a familiar voice called out to her.  Fluttershy turned to Princess Luna, accepting hastily the offered hug.  She needed it, more than she’d ever thought she’d need anything.  For minutes, she cried into Luna’s shoulder like a filly startled by a thunderstorm.  
Luna simply shushed her, tightening her grip on the mare, allowing her to break down within her loving, understanding grasp.  There was no end to Fluttershy’s tears, as the terror of the repeating mental wraith consumed her.  
Why did it have to plague her so?  Why did she have to suffer the fear for Ray, why did she have to be tormented like this?  Couldn’t she trust Ray to win, to defeat the enemy conventionally.  But that was it, wasn’t it?  The only conventional method here, in the face of such a brutal, disconnected force was the destruction of it.  Destroy it before it could destroy those that mattered the most to her.  Why was savagery the only answer to savagery?  Death to death?
Gently, the Princess of the night pushed Fluttershy away, just enough that she was able to brush away the tears from the pegasus mare’s eyes.  Fluttershy leaned into the hoof, trying the milk any amount of comfort she could from the older, loving mare.  Through the tears, she could see her sympathetically smiling down on her, giving her the doting attention she needed.  Struggling, and finally failing, to get any words out, she simply rested her head there, against Luna’s hoof, pinning it against her shoulder.  
Finally, Luna spoke.  “Another one?”  Fluttershy meekly nodded against her hoof.  “Fluttershy, I can dispel the nightmares, but you mustn’t feed the fear that drives them.  They will return if you do, as you can see.  Let go of it, like I’ve said.  It is more likely to harm you if it burns in your heart unchecked.”
“But how can I,” Fluttershy meekly protested.  She sat straight up, pointing around her, where the scenery of her worst fears were fading.  “If all of this is possible, then why shouldn’t I fear it?”
“Fear of the possible future only ruins the possible present,” Luna told her with a pointed look.  “I know of this.  My fear of being forgotten, my jealousy towards my sister for all that she had which I wished to have, the love and attention, blinded me to somepony who did love me, someponies who did care.  I ended up hurting them and myself simultaneously for lust of that which I wanted more of.  The possible is not the probable, only a potential future for those who enact it to be so.  This may be a future for our ponies, and an end for them, but that is less likely than you presume it to be.
“I’ve spoken with your champion on this very night about the subject.  He too fears that which may come, that which may potentially happen if he were to fail.  But he is less scared of that than something else.  He fears that he has brought harm to you by knowing, and yes, loving you and his new family and friends.  He thinks that he will die out there, in the oncoming war, and that it would be better if he did.  Yet at the same time, he doesn’t wish to bring you harm through his demise, and thus, he is stuck in a constant contrasting of the present and future, unable to enjoy the former for fear of consequences in the latter.”
“R-Ray thinks he’ll die,” Fluttershy asked in abashed horror, staring into Luna’s eyes for confirmation. 
“I should say that he presumes to know that he will die,” Luna amended, her face going somber, compassion leaving as she bore the solemn news.  Fluttershy stumbled over her words as she attempted to process the words, trying to think through the pounding in her chest.  “He feels that, even if it harms you, even if it makes you hate him for never having returned from the turmoil, it will be worth not knowing a killer.  He hates himself for the blood he hasn’t yet spilled, whilst also being upheld by the oath he’s made.”
“And where do I fit in this, Princess,” Fluttershy questioned hopelessly.  This was all too much, too devastating to hear.  She didn’t want to lose Ray, yet that seemed like an impossibility with him willing himself to die.
“You, your friends, his family, and whoever else he cares about must convince him otherwise, unless you wish him to die,” Luna bitterly answered.  “Despite my words, I can feel his discomfort with the idea.  He has tethers to those in Ponyville he knows, but they are of rope, and can be deftly cut by the sword of war.  Chain him to these people, convince him of his worth.  His heart is too true for his own welfare, too knowledgeable of what may come to pass through his engagement.  What he fears most is paining you, whether through his death or through his life.  As with Discord, you must find a way to both comfort and guide him to the truth.  The Element of Kindness is the most spiritually powerful, and through it, one may find the power within their heart to change.”
Fluttershy chewed nervously on the words, tasting bitterness in her mouth.  Forcing it down, she began to nod, only for Luna’s embrace to wrap around her once again.  
“You are the bravest mare I’ve met in a while,” she whispered in Fluttershy’s ear.  “There are few left willing enough to give their love for a lost cause.  But a lost cause is merely somepony who needs guided back to the truth, somepony who needs the power that comes from love.”
“I understand,” Fluttershy replied with surprise.  She did.  Instead of feeling daunted by the task Luna presented her, she felt empowered.  This was Ray.  In her short time of knowing him, he’d been only kind to her, if not sharp when an open wound was grazed.  All creatures were like that, be it pony, human, or rabbit.  She could handle this well.  She was his friend, and he hers.  If not more, an increasingly louder portion of her brain theorized.  Shoving the thought aside, she pulled back, looking Luna in the eyes.  
“I can do this,” Fluttershy firmly told the Princess.
“You are the only one,” Luna confirmed with an animated smile.  She looked around, and Fluttershy’s gaze followed.  The scenery had changed.
The sun was still setting, but instead of to the ashes and flames of a burning world, to the sights and sounds of ordinary life.  Ponies walked about carelessly with smiles and gleaming eyes.  They all seemed oblivious to anything terrible having happened, and for the first time, Fluttershy didn’t feel dread.  She felt hope.
As she took in the sight with wonder, her sight fell on the only human in the world, walking cheerfully down the road, smiling and waving to the other locals.  He wore a light blue shirt, his hair casually messy, trousers spotted with some sort of mud.  Her heart jumped uncontrollably as she saw who stood beside her. Walking beside him, holding his hand, was Fluttershy.
“It looks like you’re dreaming now,” Luna observed slyly, giving her a slyer wink.  Before Fluttershy could finish flushing, the Princess of the Night had faded into the dream’s scenery like morning mist into the air.  
Fluttershy looked around, at the cheerful, bustling town, and without hesitation, let the dream carry on.

*******************************************************************************************************

As Luna had blessed, the week passed by at a speed Ray couldn’t comprehend.  Life seemed to accelerate around him in such an uncanny fashion that he suspected magic.  He would wake up in the morning, finding himself suddenly out of the door, then doing some sort of drill Skalos, and then on the farm with his family, before ending the day scouting out the town, meeting the residents, and more than often, completing minute chores.  
He bought himself a watch one night, acquired a map another night, and was even able to find some laundry soap at one of the two actual stores in town.  He found out rather quickly that most food products were sold in markets, along with homemade -but apparently reliable- clothing and horseshoes.  Not much help to him, but rather interesting nonetheless.  He was also able to find a strange blue powder that was exactly what the princess had suggested to him.  Dissolvable and efficient in practice, allowing him to fall asleep quickly.  This led him to start consuming more tea, as the stock that Twilight had provided him consisted of a tasty ginger variety.
During his little time before he would fall asleep, he would read a little out of the books that occupied the space beside his little desk.  He was mostly concerned about the finances and history, for both practical and personal information gathering.  Very quickly, he found himself understanding the general worth of the bits he had, though seeing as Ponyville was a very capitalistic town, prices often inflated or decreased, depending on the stall and demand for the product.  Still, it was at least better to know the standards in the larger towns and cities, if he should ever need to visit them.
At first, Ray was concerned that Otolo had begun to show disinterest in him and would leave him completely, as she went missing for the majority of most days, only randomly turning up now and then, and somehow ending up pecking at his window as he was falling asleep.  However, Ray quickly began to notice the cause of his aerial friend’s disappearances, as the flower box in front of his window had begun to fill a suspiciously large, bowl-shaped pile of twigs, sticks, grass, and hay bits.  It seemed that, despite the approaching fall and eventual winter, Otolo was willing to stick with Ray through it, or at least until late into fall.  It was heartwarming that, despite the fowl’s constant chortling and avian teasing, she was willing to go through the effort to stick around. 
Ray’s training with Skalos was unusually calming as well, and while there wasn’t much conversation through the training as Ray focused on the forms and technique he was being taught, he could feel a sort of bond growing between them.  The little conversation they had was also rather revealing as well, as Skalos became less reserved with what life for so long in Tartarus was like.  Despite this, though, he seemed to grow tighter about himself as he grew more open about everything else.  There was always an unseen line that Ray wasn’t able to cross without the Fallen completely clamping his jaw shut with a hard stare.  Whatever Skalos wished not to reveal was either too personal, too shameful, or something too distracting for him to reveal, and Ray was fine with letting him be.  
The training itself didn’t seem to be progressing much, as for the entirety of six days were spent on merely jabbing in two different stances, each which he had to spend a day to perfect completely.  Ray had told Skalos so, but the Fallen had curtly responded that he would soon enough see what the difference was.  While he didn’t doubt his instructor’s command, he did doubt that there would be so much change from simply being able to quickly poke someone from a set stance.  Still, progress was progress, and Ray already felt a little better with his chances.  Maybe he could kill a few minotaurs before he died?
On Twilight’s coronation day celebration, Skalos didn’t give him leave, which was fine with Ray.  They both had a silent agreement that they wanted to get him as trained as possible in the next year, and that they needed to milk every second they could of every day.  There was no such thing as a holiday or weekend, though Skalos did mention that occasionally, and hopefully rarely, he would have to travel down to Tartarus to deal with the matters of Fallen there.  Until then, one of the hundreds of Fallen Ray had managed to meet, Ormisis, had command, though technically Ray was still the commander.  
During his free day that was Twilight’s crowning anniversary, he stayed at home, trying to figure out what to do with his house.  It was amazing that he already owned his own household, but compared to how occupied he was, it was little more than a glorified bedroom he could cook some food in.  He also figured out that, seeing as laundry machines weren’t really a common thing, he would have to hand wash his laundry.  The same went with dishes, but that was something he was already used to doing, simply another skill he was able to bring from Earth.  It was oddly satisfying to spend the day working on household chores, as it allowed him to forget the turmoil he was facing within himself.  
Luna’s words raised a storm in the back of his mind, but thankfully, the acceleration of his life and the work he put himself into in the meantime, along with the blessing of solid sleep from the mare, kept it at bay.  However, it was during the few hours he spent alone in the trees, helping with the harvesting of apples, that he found himself plagued by the cursed words.  It seemed that to him, there was so little he could do either way to prevent the future whilst also attempting to enjoy the present.  How could he with such a looming threat, darkening the path ahead.  Yet at the same time, it was hard to ignore those lights that shone in his life, as he was reminded every time he ate lunch.
It was many of the small, newfound blessings of having joined a family once again, and one that wasn’t bogged down with the weight of life so severely.  Every time at about one by his watch, there would be somebody who would come and get him, or a bell to summon him.  Then they would sit around outside in the shade of the barn, and talk about their labors, experiences in town, or more often, everything Ray had yet to learn of the world he now inhabited.  The most interesting conversation he’d had was brought up by Apple Bloom, when she inquired of her sister when the oldest Apple mare would finally get married.  
The teasing jab got the usually stalwart mare to blush profusely, tossing her head to the side with a notable glance to the sky.  A whole tempest of teasing wrapped poor Applejack up, as each of the family members began to toss out names Ray had never heard before, though each one was solidly denied.  Notably, however, not a single name was male, or at least, sounded masculine to Ray.  Then again, he’d found that determining the sexes of ponies based on their names here was always rather difficult for him.  Still, the idea that he may one day have a second sister-in-law was equally amusing and thought provoking.  
Two days after Twilight’s coronation anniversary, Ray awoke to the familiarizing sound of his alarm.  Giving it the usual gentle smack to shut it off, he jumped out of bed without thought, and proceeded to continue to follow through eating his usual cereal breakfast and running the usual morning jog down to the Acres.  However, unusually, when he arrived, he didn’t find Skalos awaiting his arrival, nor did he find that there was any sign of preparation for his lesson.  There was simply the cold wind blowing against the grass and making ripples in the lake, an eerily tranquil but equally threatening scene.  
Walking up to the lonely wood door set in the grassy knoll, he found a roughly written note, signed by the absent Fallen.  
Unfortunately I have been called off for the day.  Enjoy this day as a break.  Perhaps attend the “Running of the Leaves”.  If this note is here on the morrow, take the same advice mentioned above.  Do not be alarmed.  I should be back by morning tomorrow, but if that is not the case, I shall surely be back the day after.
	-Skalos
	Ray quirked a questioning eyebrow at the note before looking around the barren green hills, attempting to see if this were some sort of test of his character.  He glanced back down at the note, checking it’s authenticity, but only finding it vague, mysterious, and ever so slightly concerning.  There was some sort of trace of alarm in it, like a silent beckoning one might see in the eyes of another panicking.  But Skalos surely had nothing to panic on.  Surely. 
With another brief glance to the hills, he left the note on the door, settling to wait the hour out to see if Skalos was indeed testing him.  It may be a slight waste of time, but Ray recalled from memory that Applejack had stated the Running of the Leaves, -some sort of race to knock the leaves from their tree branches to introduce the new autumn season- was to take place precisely at noon.  He hadn’t remembered the exact date of the event, but apparently it was today.  Glancing at his watch, Ray saw that the time was nearing seven.  He would leave five before eight then, and hopefully catch somebody that knew where the North Royal Trail was.
Settling back against the hill, and staring into the sky, he found his eyes following some faintly familiar figures dancing among the clouds.  Squinting slightly, he found that they were the two familiar figures from the first time he’d arrived in Ponyville; the orange, yellow, and red streak, and the thundercloud silver blot.  Apparently the two, who he was now able to identify as pegasi, were going about their job, clearing clouds before the day’s main event.  Even as the thought crossed his mind, the silvery blot rammed gracefully through a small puff of white, causing it to collapse on itself and disintegrate.  The sight was strangely satisfying, like watching water in a pond ripple with the disruption of a pebble in it.
Smiling, he watched intently as the two seemed to dance around each other, blowing through cloud after cloud, sometimes meeting briefly before bursting away.  Rainbow had told him all about the strange sensation of flying through a puffy cloud like the ones inhabiting the sky currently.  The brief cold, wetness that covered your body before you were suddenly blasted by roaring winds and then the familiarity of the wind back through your cleansed feathers.  Strangely amusing and satisfying indeed.  Eventually, they ran out of clouds, and when Ray checked his clock, he was surprised to find that he’d overrun the timer he’d personally given himself by almost ten minutes.  
Standing up and stretching fully, he looked around.  The wind had picked up considerably, evidenced by the flapping of Ray’s hair across the front of his face and accompanied by the lapping of waves on the shore of the lake.  The wind was heading east, into the lake and across it.  Smiling into the wind and closing his tearing up eyes, he began walking back.  Skalos had truthfully failed to show face, so Ray used it as justice for returning back to his home.
He failed to see anyone he recognized on his way back, though he remembered this time to use the back path through the edge of the Everfree.  Chuckling slightly as he found the answer in his own statement, he exited the forest and approached his house promptly.  There was no reason to be precise in his pathing, so he took a few moments to familiarize himself with the hills around his solitary home.  There were a few large ones that seemed to loom slightly over the eastern face of his house, though the other hills faded into slightly raised grassland.  The landscape seemed to flow into existence, forming from small raises in the grassy ground, to hills a couple hundred feet tall at nature’s crescendo.  
In the distance, he heard the distinct, sharp sound of Otolo’s chirping calling him back to his home.  Deciding that he would later appreciate the warm up he was receiving, he ran up and down four hills until he reached the one occupied by his sturdy house.  Grinning as the incessant chirping continued, he felt a small weight land on his shoulders.  
Giving Otolo a sidelong glance, he asked, “You didn’t tear up one of my blankets again, did you?”  After a chirp of denial, she fluttered impatiently, before letting out a series of low tweets that seemed to be her way of sincere instruction.  “Well, what is it?”
Having approached the front door, the little bird fluttered up again, sweeping a wing to point to the flower box in front of his bedroom window.  Chirping inconsistently, she seemed to be telling him to observe the contents.  From the doorway, Ray could see a few stray pieces of hay sticking out, along with a bent flower, but nothing else.  With a false sigh, he entered his home and clambered up the stairs until he entered his own room.  Checking the window, he saw the steadily growing pile of sticks, hay, and scraps had transformed into a mostly circular formation that resembled a nest.  
“Ah, so you’ve finished it,” Ray half questioned.  Otolo chirped in confirmation before raising up a slightly musical series of chirps and tweets.  She flew into her newly finished nest, before nestling deeply into the bed she’d made.  There was a noticeable amount of space for several eggs and a partner, if she ever had either, but she also looked completely content with it being just her.  Lifting her head and ruffling her feathers a few times, she twittered proudly, expecting some sort of praise.
“Yes yes, very well done Ohs,” he congratulated, giving her a pat on the head lightly as she playfully nipped at them.  “You look like you’ve made a very good nest.  Mind if I sleep in it?”
The bird’s eyes widened fearfully as she retreated from his hand, hastily chirping at him.  There was a harsh tweet added at the end as a sort of barb to his size, but Ray simply rolled his eyes and gave her a small push with his pointer finger.  
Stepping away from the window, he settled back against his bed, wondering what to use to fill the time.  With sudden derisiveness, he wished that Skalos hadn’t decided to vanish for the day, but he amended his venomous thoughts with a simple fact.  There were things neither of them could control, this most likely being one of them.  There was no need to be bitter over simple business.  That was a fact of life, one that was something he could do nothing about, and something he’d have to be alright with.
Deciding that laying on his bed and contemplating was both too dangerous and too unproductive, he walked down the stairs, grabbed a pocket of the blueish powder that served as his sleeping drug.  Pouring about a quarter of it into a small cup of water before chugging it down.  Heading back up to his room, he reset the alarm to about fifteen minutes before the schedule said to meet for the Running.  Flopping on his bed, he drifted into dreamless sleep, but it didn’t last long at all.  Almost as soon as he’d fallen asleep, he awoke to the alarm.  Rubbing his eyes to wake him up, he glanced at the clock, and saw that it stayed true.  
Seeing that Otolo was still awake and still purposefully adjusting and fixing up her nest, he called out, “Hey Ohs, I’m gonna be heading out to town, if you want to join me.”  The bird cocked her head questionarily, nestling into her nest as if it were the answer.  “Okay then.  See you tonight.”
Otolo remained silent as he left the room, before eventually retreating from the house entirely.  Deciding that he was done with running until the race later on, he took his time leisurely strolling down the hill and towards the homely town.
He quickly found himself entering Ponyville, and much to his delight and surprise, a couple of familiar faces had popped up among the growing crowd.  Rainbow and Pinkie were chatting while they moved, Rainbow flying and Pinkie bouncing in an almost normal way.  They were both headed his way, or at least, down through the northeastern side of town.  Pinkie noticed him almost instantly, her head shooting from her friend to the approaching human with a lightning jerkiness to it.  Rainbow followed the pink mare’s gaze until it locked on him, her smile brightening slightly as she shot him a quick salute.  
Pinkie’s welcome, however, was neither quiet, quick, or private.  She shot across the road at breakneck speed, launching straight into his chest, knocking the wind out of him as she wrapped her front hooves around his neck.  
“Heeeeeey, Ray,” she squealed loudly, obviously humored by her rhyming welcome, before adding with slight pain, “I don’t regret it!”
“Hey,” Ray responded, giving the pony a bashful pat on the back, looking around at the townsfolk.  They seemed to hardly notice beside a few shaking their heads and continuing on their ways.  Apparently Ponyville’s residents had gotten well used to Pinkie’s exuberance and hyperactivity, though he guessed that was to be expected by now.  “You, uh, don’t regret what?”
“The leap and rhyme,” she answered, popping off of him, pointing to her stomach.  “I need to remember that my baby doesn’t like the leaps, hugs, and squeezes I do.”
So far, there was no noticeable bulge in the pregnant mare’s stomach, but Ray hadn’t actually seen a pregnant pony, or animal, in his life before, so he may not have been able to discern any difference either way.  Smiling slightly at her, he was about to comment when Rainbow flew up and gave him a rough jab in his shoulder.
“Hey, Ray,” Rainbow greeted, repeating Pinkie’s little rhyme, much to Pinkie’s pleasure and Ray’s slight displeasure.  “You mind if we get to that race yet?  We can do a sort of Running of the Leaves race, see who finishes first, if you’re down for it.  I’ve been practicing my running, and already have a rope ready!”
“Wait, why do you need a rope,” he questioned.  
“To ensure I don’t try to fly, duh.”  A cocky smile overtook her welcoming and enthusiastic one.  “Otherwise, I would completely destroy you.”
Ray bit back his tongue from cheekily responding something less suitable for public ears, noting that they still were on a well used road.  Despite his acceptance into the town by everyone, including the local mule family, he knew that his language from Earth was less than welcome.  Instead he muttered, “I’ll destroy you then.” 
Of course the athletic pegasi heard the comment, which spurred her to laugh haughtily, responding, “Tell that to Applejack!”
Ray was about to, when he realized that the mare actually wasn’t in the plaza, or around at all.  He could see Rarity and Fluttershy down the street approaching them, and thought the red and orange streaks he saw were Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, but the farmer was nowhere in sight.  That led him to ask, “Where is Applejack?”
Dejectedly, Pinkie announced, “She said she had some sort of trouble at the farm, and that the Apple family would be too occupied by everything to be able to come.”  She brightened up instantly and turned to hug both Rarity and Fluttershy, who had just barely entered speaking range.  “Howdy, girls!”
“Hello Pinkie,” Rarity said, returning the notably gentler embrace than Ray had received, though it still squished both of the mare’s cheeks up a little.   “Glad to see you are doing well.  Come to commentate the event again?”
“Abso-dudily-utly,” she confirmed cheerfully.  “Eleven years and I ain’t gonna stop no time no how,” she pressed with an added Southern accent.  
“And of course you know it wouldn’t be any party without me,” Discord suddenly exclaimed, popping in between Ray, Rainbow, and the other three, hanging upside down in the air.  Ray jumped slightly at the sudden appearance of the draconequus, as did everyone else but Pinkie, who turned to face him with a questioning eyebrow.
“Uh, this isn’t a party, Dizzy,” she informed with uncharacteristic sincerity.  Reaching up to her mane and miraculously pulling a notebook and reading glasses from it, she flipped it open precisely to a page marked with squiggles and frosting stains.  Pushing her hoof into the page, she officially announced, “The Running of the Leaves is a traditional, cultural, and celebrative way in which Ponyville residents run willy nilly along a path, knocking down the leaves to usher in the fall.  A party is a celebration for anything funny, happy, or, in Rainbow words, ‘cool’.”
“Ah heck yeah,” Rainbow jutted in.
“Um, Pinkie, dear, you used ‘celebrative’ and ‘celebration’ in both definitions,” Rarity informed.
The pink mare paused, shoving the items back into her mane before pressing a hoof to her mouth.  Finally, she stated, “Well, you can be celebrative of somepony’s birth, but you can’t have a party for celebration then and there.  I should know,” she grumbled, before springing back.  “So, in conclusion, this is not a party.”
Ray and Discord both simultaneously rolled their eyes at the exasperative ramble, inexplicably causing Fluttershy to giggle.  Both gave each other a look, Discord’s of confrontational competitiveness, and Ray’s of begging for them to not.  
Taking the hint, Discord remained silent for all of two seconds before pointedly exclaiming, “Well, I’m absolutely starved!  Why don’t we go snack on something nice, like hayburgers or a daisy sandwich!”
“I agree, though, isn’t that a bit… normal for you,” Rarity asked precisely.
“Oh come on, normal is abnormal for me,” Discord exclaimed, whilst simultaneously losing his arms and a horn.  “Besides, the food all tastes the same to me!  I just need something neat to look at to entertain my feasting.  It’s also hilarious to see the look on ponies’ faces when I start munching on books or nails.”
Pinkie giggled right alongside Discord at the statement, snorting slightly before agreeing, “It is!  Just like the look on a ponies' face when they try one of my cheesy cilantro cupcakes!”
Pinkie and Discord continued to laugh while the other four shared disgusted looks at the thought of the concoction.  The laughter was short lived as a loud horn rang out through the town.  A pony -the mayor, he recognized- stepped up to a podium in front of the main office building.
“Hello mares and gentlecolts,” she announced cheerfully.  “Please continue to the Trail of Leaves in an orderly and respectable fashion, as we will begin the Running of the Leaves soon.  If you could all promise me a good, civil run, then this may be a Run to go down in the books!”  
The mayor said this with a direct glance to where Ray and his friends stood, gaining a few looks of interest.  Smiling fakely, he decidedly shrinked behind the ponies beside him slightly, not fully invested in having so much attention placed on him.  With the action, and the attention, however, Discord began to soak it in leisurely, picking up his fallen arm with another one, before giving it little wings so it could float.  With his floating arm holding up the other, he waved at the crowd, causing several to visibly squirm at the sight of the disembodied limbs.
With an uneasy smile, the mayor exclaimed, “Let’s get this party started!” to which Pinkie promptly yelled back, “Even though this isn’t a party!”
Everyone began walking or trotting in the direction of the northwest side of town, where the trail would wrap eastwards and around the town.  Ray followed closely, keeping an eye on the flow of ponies heading towards the starting point.  There was a fair amount of chatter from the crowd, as they excitedly spoke amongst themselves of the event and potential going-ons during the event.  He heard tale of some sort of legendary treat presented to those who finished the race within an hour, though the task didn’t seem too hard.  After all, the run around the entirety of Ponyville seemed to be about four and a half miles around, and considering most people could walk that in an hour, he was confident he could make the time in half that running.
They made their way from the town’s core to a lonely side street, Discord happily floating over them as he chatted cheerfully with Pinkie and Fluttershy.  Rarity was talking with a mare who had walked up to them, both describing different artistic styles of fashion making.  Apparently this was one of her former assistants, and now a friendly competitor who she compared fashion with.  They talked distinctly of their work, and both conversations taking place around Ray seemed focused primarily on the speaker, leaving him out.  He was alright with that, as he took to observing a relatively unexplored area of town.
They had actually left the last of the cozy straw top homes, entering a grassier, almost overgrown field of green, headed towards a tamer and less wild forest.  The leaves were a myriad of brown, yellow, and red, with some still tinged a dying green.  The trees were mainly brown oaks, but a few white birch were scattered around.  Already, leaves scattered the ground, a sign that nature had started taking some toll on the surrounding trees.  A few broken branches laid on the ground as well, including one that was halfway on the now dirt road.  There was still an abundance of leaves on the branches of trees, but they looked so frail that the mere thought of exertion would cause them to fall.
There was an air of overwhelming excitement, and mixed in with it competitive pride.  This was best demonstrated by Rainbow flying forward, landing in a position in the road that seemed no different from any other, save for its slight curvature.  She characteristically called out that the victory was hers, despite several calls that this was no competitive race.  Just as many ponies called out that they would stake claim to the victory, with one or two wary glances towards the accompanying human.  There was an obvious question in the air: Would this strange creature be joining in the Running, or was it merely being babysat by the Elements.  
Ray had realized some time ago that that was what most ponies saw and thought.  He was an unexplained, strange, potentially dangerous creature, so obviously the heroes of Equestria would be watching over him.  However, Ray also noticed that, unlike what he’d previously assumed, even expected, they saw that he was not some senseless thing, and many of them treated him kindly.  The shopkeeper who sold him the watch he now wore had treated him with respect, and was quite helpful finding one that would actually fit his human sized wrist.  The marketplace ponies and shopkeepers often greeted him with nods or smiles of greeting, even when he didn’t approach their business.  More than anything, they didn’t seem to be afraid of him anymore.  As soon as they had seen him standing around Fluttershy and the others. They’d passed him off as harmless.
There were still flashes, as he’d taken to calling them mentally.  He would look at a shopkeeper, selling melons to a mother and son, and suddenly see the cart overturned, the shopkeeper buried brutally beneath the wreckage, mother mutilated, and son missing entirely, a blood pool all that remained.  He would be walking down the street, returning home after exploring the town some more, when suddenly the lanes became drenched in red, the buildings lining the street burning, burnt, or otherwise destroyed, cobblestone, wood, and char littering the street.  Even now, as if the remembrance of the gruesome visions called for the occurrence of another, the forest vanished, replaced by burned stumps and blackened earth, the noon sky tainted with smoke and the haunting glow of fire.  The road flashed bloodily in his eyes, and he gulped down a sickening roll in his stomach, clenching his eyes shut and turning his head away.
“You okay, Ray,” Discord asked, sounding halfway concerned and halfway teasing in the question.  The Lord of Chaos, with whom he hadn’t spoken to since the morning of his challenge, would of course be the first to notice the strange twist in Ray’s attitude.  “You’re looking a little seasick.”
The ground suddenly rolled beneath Ray, causing him to lose the terrible vision, and stumble briefly.  This seemed to satisfy the draconequus, as the rolling immediately stopped beneath his feet.  With a glance at Discord in thanks, Ray uprighted himself and continued to the tree Rainbow had stopped at, as she had gestured at him to do.
“Here, tie me up,” she instructed him, holding up a rope to him.  Ray quirked an eyebrow at her, to which she flushed and exclaimed, “Don’t think about it too hard!”
Complying, he wrapped the rope around her wings and belly, tying tightly enough to be firm, but just loose enough that it wouldn’t squeeze her too tightly.  There was a general consensus not to speak as he completed the act, as several ponies watched with great interest.  Seeing the crowd, Rainbow smiled, and when Ray had finished pulling the knot tight, flexed her wings out.  They stayed put, holding true to their job, and caused a good deal of the viewing to nod keenly.  They seemed to be the ones keeping the unspoken competition fair, despite not even knowing who was competing or what the competition was over.
“Alrighty then, now that you’re properly tied up like a piñata, I think we should mention the race isn’t for another forty eight minutes,” Pinkie joked, suddenly springing out from behind the tree.  
“Welcome to the annual Running of the Leaves,” the mayor called out again, causing Pinkie’s statement to be falsified.  “Before we start the race itself, I would like to remind those of you who are participating for the first time that this is a well respected, traditional race, and in no way a competition.”  There was a pause as a good few ponies glanced at Rainbow.  “Today is about welcoming in the fall season and attempting to enjoy it in the best way we can.  For those of you who haven’t heard yet, participants who finish the race in under an hour receive a special reward: a ticket to one free ice cream at any restaurant in Ponyville city limits.”
Ray raised an eyebrow at the unusually cheap and also weirdly desirable reward.  Well, small town, low budgeting, maybe it was to be expected.  
“Will all participants please line up on the line while we wait for this year’s commentators, Pinkie Pie and myself, to enter the hot air balloon.”  The mass of several dozen ponies moved to an obscure black and white checkered line placed on the ground.  There were whoops of excitement and proclamations of victory, even some competitive hoof stomping in preparation to the run’s beginning.  When both Pinkie and the mayor were secured in the balloon, the latter called out, “On your marks, everypony!  Three.  Two.  One.  Go.”
Ray, who had barely had time to prep, took off, nearly trampling the two mares in front of him.  He leapt over them deftly, and soon found himself outpacing a majority of the mass.  Looking behind him, he could see the strange effectiveness of the ponies’ tradition of shaking the leaves off.  With the large amount of ponies all running in a large area, there was a great amount of trembling in the ground as hundreds of hooves pounded on the ground.  The noise was also extraordinarily loud, so much so that Ray sped up, trying to distance himself from the tumultuous crowd.   
Turning back to the winding dirt path ahead, he saw that, indeed, Rainbow was ahead, by about ten to fifteen feet, he guessed.  There were also a few earth pony stallions who outpaced him by several feet as well, but already, he could tell that he was going to outrun them.  They were slowing down, their initial burst of speed and energy running out quickly.  The only problem seemed to be that Rainbow was the only one continuing to increase her speed.  Just a couple minutes and turns later, she looked to be about thirty feet ahead, and still running strong.  
Deciding that there was no way he could outrun her by using all of his energy, he slowed down, almost to a mild jog, focused only on keeping her barely in his vision.  There wasn’t much he could do to threaten her, but maybe if he was able to conserve enough energy, he could beat her in the last couple hundred meters.  
Strangely enough, he felt rather relaxed by the run, though he was already starting to feel a bit winded by the first mile marker.  Perhaps that initial burst of speed was unnecessary, as his infrequent glances back proved that there was no competition between him and the rest.  He could actually visibly see the mass moving, evidenced by slightly shaking branches and a churning cloud of dust that followed.  Rainbow and him had escalated to a new part of the path, one that inclined onto a small hill, and he was able to spot some ponies between the shaking trees and falling leaves. 
Concerningly enough, Ray lost sight of Rainbow after the next turn in the path, but he quickly found out why.  The pathway here was a straight dash for the rest of the mile, he guessed, but no one ran along it.  Instead, with a glance to the side, he saw Rainbow slowing down slightly among the forest’s confines dutifully.  Confused, he slowed to a stop, before following the pegasus mare.  
After losing sight of her a couple times amongst all the trees, he found himself suddenly facing a wide patch of open grass, which looked slightly yellow in the late noon sunlight.  There, standing at the edge of a sudden sheer drop off, he saw Rainbow.  She had sat down and was staring intently at the sky, which was dotted with white puffy clouds.  Ray approached her quietly, following her gaze up to the heavens, noticing the same two orange and silver streaks of color flying through the clouds like previously.  Slowly, he sat down next to her, and watched the two pegasi fly through cloud after cloud in a near careless motion.
“Hey, what’s up,” he asked Rainbow with a concerned nudge.
“Huh,” she exclaimed with a jump, apparently not having even noticed that Ray had followed her.  Glancing back to the sky, she sighed dejectedly, answering, “Oh nothing, just got distracted.”
“Okay…” Ray muttered back unsurely.  “Why were you distracted by them?”
“I… well, um, I…” Rainbow trailed off into a sigh, not looking like the usual hothead she was.  She sat straight up suddenly, looking over to Ray apologetically, “Look, Ray, I’m sorry I ruined the race.  You didn’t need to stop and all this.  You should just go back to the trail and finish the race while I…” 
“While you what,” Ray questioned.
“Mope,” Rainbow responded with another sad sigh.  Ray was slightly taken aback by the mare’s sudden attitude swing, her drooping ears and frowning, downturned muzzle.  This was certainly not the mare that Ray had been introduced to.
Uncertainly, Ray held up his hand and slowly patted it against her back.  “Okay.  I’ll mope with you then.”
Rainbow chuckled mirthlessly at the statement eyes still trailing the blurred pegasi figures hundreds of feet in the air.  He didn’t want to ask why they were moping, and he was content with not knowing, but Rainbow spoke up again.  
“Sorry for this, I just… those two, and well, the past seemed to speed up to me.  I just... needed to watch the two of them, I think.  I don’t know, but, it... it’s just too… complicated,” she tried to explain helplessly.  “I’m sorry, I’m making no sense.  I should probably just go home, but… Oh I don’t know!”  She exhaled sharply, seeming angry at herself.  Ray just gave her a tight half smile, patting her back again.  
“I think I understand, though,” he told her.  “What do they have to do with your past, though?”
“My love life, more like it,” she corrected sadly.  “I’m what most ponies here call a twiced, or somepony who… is attracted to both mares and stallions.”  She paused, as if waiting for Ray to rebuke her or something.  
“So,” he asked.  “Why does that matter?”
Rainbow let out a relieved sigh that Ray thought she didn’t mean to.  “Well, it's just that those two are Spitfire and Soarin.  I work with both of them as a Wonderbolt, and I was in love with both of them.  I figured that one of them would reject me, but figured that I may as well go after the other one in the case.  But it seems like I have high favor with life, and, well, they got engaged four months ago.”
Ray’s eyes widened as he looked down at the mare, cringing.  “That’s… that’s rough Dash,” he consoled.  
“Yeah,” she agreed hoarsely, before once again unhappily chuckling.  “I guess I was just too ambitious.  In high school I was pining for Fluttershy, but being her best friend, I rather quickly found out we were only gonna be best friends, and nothing more.  I’ve gotten over that one, but, ever since then, it feels like life’s trying to turn me straight.”
“So you’re just gonna give up,” he questioned, adding a bit of harshness in it.  “You decide who you are and who you like, not some ‘life’ figure.  I mean, hell- er, heck, you know the kind of crap I’ve gone through, we’re going through.  I want to give up.  You just need to rely on those close to you, and those who are there to help.”
Rainbow suddenly perked up, looking over to the human with a quirky smile.  There was a little haunt of the sadness still there, but it was overwhelmed by gratitude and pride.  The thundering of hooves turned their attention over to where the road would be, through the trees.  A cloud of dust closely followed, along with the gentle rustling of the leaves falling to the ground.  
After the rumbling passed, Rainbow said, “You know, the reason I wanted to race you wasn't all competitive.”  Ray turned back to her with a questioning glance.  “I’m… not good with apologies.  To be frank, they feel too mushy… and usually I’m too stubborn to admit I’m wrong.  But, I do want to apologize for how I treated you after you first arrived.  I know everypony else already said sorry, and that probably doesn’t matter anymore, but for what it’s worth, I’m sorry being a jerk and for treating you like a monster.  You’re a really good kid, Ray.”
“Thanks,” he said.  “It doesn’t matter what you did anymore, but I’m glad you still care enough to apologize.  You aren’t any bad yourself.”  
“Now,” Rainbow began, looking off in the direction of town, and beyond that, Sweet Apple Acres.  “I think there’s somepony I need to talk to.”  Turning back to Ray, she said, “Thanks for everything Ray.  I know you’re gonna be the best hero Equestria could ever need.”
Before he could respond, the mare had taken off, flying through the air speedily in the direction she’d looked.  The words died in his mouth, instead morphing into a gentle, congratulatory smile.  No, he wouldn’t be the best hero, but he would be what they needed.
> Civility
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day, Ray found the hut to be completely empty yet again, the note remaining pinned to the door.  Frowning at it, he left the lakeside, unsure what exactly to do with the time he now found himself with.  Without much thought, he walked through the grove of apple trees to the front of the barn.  He looked around the homestead for any signs of other Apples, but was unable to find them until he heard the distant, unmistakable sound of yelling.  Quirking an eyebrow, he resisted the oncoming flash and paranoia that came alongside it, instead listening intently to the sound’s source.  His eyebrows set in concern, and he decided that whatever the yelling was about was worth checking out.
Taking off running in the direction the yelling came from, he found himself running behind the homestead, where he’d never been before.  In spite of the fact, it was still simple rows of apple trees for dozens of acres, if not on a hillier terrain.  As he neared the source, he was able to recognize the voice of Apple Bloom hysterically yelling, though he couldn’t pick up exactly why.  Whatever it was, however, the argument was fierce, as it was the loudest he’d ever heard his equine sister yelling.
Stepping carefully around the few trees that remained between him and listening range, he found himself cresting the hill, looking right down on both the offending yeller and his other sister.  He paused once again, considering his options carefully.  The two seemed to be in one of their common venomous yelling bouts, though in this case, Apple Bloom was easily winning.  She was so effective in her words, that already AJ was shamefully holding a hoof against her chest, not daring to meet the younger filly’s eyes.
“Apple Bloom, ya know it’s not like that,” she attempted to respond.
“Of course it is!  I’m not allowed to even see the colt I love without him havin’ to run away fearfully fer his life, but you can just sleep with any mare that happens by!  You’re not even married!  You can just shirk off a couple hours a’ harvest to have a rowdy time, while Celestia forbid I spend a few minutes alone with my coltfriend.” 
The words seemed to snap on Applejack like a whip, causing her embarrassment to turn into anger in the blink of an eye.  “Fer starters,” she began angrily, “Rainbow isn’t just ‘any other mare’, an’ ya know that.  Secondly, I’m a mare.  I’m responsible and-”
“And I’m not,” Apple Bloom interrupted angrily. 
“Yes,” she sharply retorted.  “I’m responsible and can make adult choices, like sleeping with somepony.  An’ thirdly, I can… uh, be responsible.”
“Um, am I interrupting something,” Ray questioned, knowing he was, but unable to butt in any other way that he knew.  The two ponies’ heads snapped straight to him, glares accompanying them.  Instantly, he felt as if he should be anywhere but there, and took a step back under the pressure of his adopted siblings’ gaze.  “Uh, nevermind, I’ll come back a little later.”
“No, Ray, we need yer input,” Applejack rejected sharply.  “What do you think? Should our sister be allowed ta make out with her ‘coltfriend’?  Is it okay fer me ta engage with Rainbow Dash if she’s not allowed to with Tender Taps?  And what about you?  Do ya think you should be allowed ta have a marefriend, even though yer only a year or two older?”
“What do I have to do with this,” Ray asked, slowly backing away.  “I was just trying to find out what job you needed me to do today!  Besides, I’m not even romancing anybody right now, nor do I intend to!”
At that, both mares gave each other a shared look of disbelief, before turning their bland, questioning gaze to the human.
“Ray, we’re just gonna ignore that last comment, and politely request ya answer us,” Apple Bloom responded with a knowing and even tone.  Ray gulped and nodded.  Geez, he hadn’t realized that his love life was so public, and so strenuously present in his family life.
“Um, well, I think that Apple Bloom should be allowed to date Tender Taps,”  Ray started cautiously, eyes on Applejack the entire time.  Her jaw tightened, and Ray quickly added, “Hey, he’s a good kid.  Quite respectful, and personally, I think that he, at the very least, care’s for her, if not heavily in love.  Now, um, about what happened between you and Rainbow, I, uh, think I’m to blame there.”
“Whaddya mean,” Applejack questioned suspiciously, eyebrows raised slightly.  Apple Bloom looked just as interested as her sister, so apparently Rainbow hadn’t told either of them why she’d randomly appeared in the evening.
“Well, let’s just say I gave her some advice yesterday during the Running, and she acted on it really fast,” Ray answered with a slight blush.  This caused all three to pause awkwardly for a moment as they all involuntarily thought what that insinuated.  Ray noticed that, instead of looking embarrassed, Applejack was smiling softly at the ground.  Reminiscing?  
“Well, I guess that does make sense,” Apple Bloom admitted, before harshly continuing, “but that doesn’t give you any excuse.”
Sighing, Applejack finally spoke again.  “While I might not agree on yer relationship with this Tender colt, ya do gotta point about me missin’ out on some a’ th’ work.  I guess I’ll do the jammin’ this year, an’ let you, Mac, and Sugar take th’ weekend off.”
“Jamming,” Ray asked.  
“Ohohoho,” Apple Bloom laughed with equal relief and amusement.  “Trust me, it’s th’ worst part a’ the harvest.  There’re some folks that really like apple jam, and making it is probably more difficult than anything else here.”
AJ rolled her eyes at the comment, but didn’t disagree.  She seemed to have a sudden moment of realization, however, when she looked back at Ray.  “Wait, Ray, why are ya here,” she asked with surprise.  
“Yeah, aren’t ya supposed to be doin’ spear things,” Apple Bloom added.  This earned a horrified and surprised look from Applejack, whose jaw dropped a good few feet.  “Oh, uh, yeah, he told me all about the… minotaurs.”
Apple Bloom’s energy faded away as she undoubtedly began to ponder the grim things he’d told her only a few days before.  Oh geez, this was going to be hard to handle, this constant look of worry and sadness on the little filly’s face as she thought about the necessity of Ray’s work.  
Before she began to dive too deep into the dark pit, Ray spoke up, “No, well, at least, not yet.  Skalos, the Fallen training me, isn’t where I usually train with him.  He’s been gone for two days now, and-”
“And now I’m back,” the voice of the stallion in question spoke from behind and below Ray.  He turned with surprise to the Fallen, who stood at the base of the small hill, looking up at him.  The luminescent pony was looking almost impatiently at the human as he continued to ascend the hill to greet Ray.  “Ray, I require your assistance.  There is... trouble in Tartarus.”
“Um, isn’t that why Tartarus is there,” Apple Bloom asked from right beside Ray.  How had he failed to notice the little filly approach him?  
“Ah yes, the little one has humor to her,” the Fallen stated with amusement, though it was hard to tell with Skalos sometimes.  Frowning, he stopped and muttered, “Well, there isn’t much to be said otherwise anyways.”  Picking up his volume, he called, “Ray, we don’t have time to dilly dally about.  This is somewhat of an emergency, that may turn into conflict if not prevented soon.”
“What?  What’s going on,” Applejack demanded panickily, stepping up beside their sister.  “Is it about th’ minotaurs?”
“No, it is nothing that should concern you yet,” Skalos reassured, though there was an undercurrent of fear to it.  Ray picked it out distinctly, and he knew that Skalos had let it slip.  There was something terrible going on in the deep parts of the prison, something to do with the Fallen.  His brows dropped in concern as he nodded curtly to the Fallen, and moved to follow him.
“This does, however, concern us warriors greatly,” he finished decisively, making it clear the two ponies weren’t to question any further.  While the exclusion was harsh, Ray could tell that whatever was causing the Fallen to be so reserved and sharp was something to be truly concerned about.  With grim determination, he followed his general.
“So how are we going to get to Tartarus quickly,” he asked as they left the Acres and wrapped around towards the lake.  
Skalos didn’t look back as he responded, “We use a Sunport, lordling.  They’re a one time use item, but luckily I have one installed in the hut.  The concept is that it’ll use excessive amounts of sunlight to send us to a place without such light, but still has a rune.  Simply put, we’re teleporting to the Hall in the Homeland.”
“Alright.  Why?”
“Let’s just say that, before you worry about war with the minotaurs, lordling, you’ll have to worry about a civil war.”
> Death's Cycle
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ray had never been in Skalos’ little house before.  The door was small, even for the stallion, and Ray had to bend over, nearly crawling, to get through.  Nevertheless, the inside of the earthen house was larger than the entrance, and Ray was able to stand at full height, amazingly.  The doorway was crammed with dummies about waist high, presumably there for easy access when he needed to drag them out for Ray’s practice.  Likewise, the walls had an assortment of wooden poles and false spears, all for practice, though why he needed them when Ray was already using the actual weapon, he didn’t know.
Skalos silently led him to a room past the main one, through a well kept kitchen that seemed unused.  There, in a doorless entryway, was a strange little room with an open roof, sunlight streaming through it and lighting a strange marking on the floor.  Yellow lines swirled around an intricate circle, a symbol looking like wind blowing past an open eye.  There were several different oblong, pony-looking figures surrounding the sun symbol, seeming to run around the edge of the circle.  Surrounding those was some writing that definitely wasn’t English, and from his understanding of the ponies’ own language, not Ponish either.
“So, wait, what is this,” Ray asked.  “Some sort of teleportation pad?”  
“In a way, yes,” Skalos confirmed.  “However, it is more like a waypoint between lights.  We go from standing in bright light, and by taking the light around us, it allows us to go to a place where there is almost no light.  The process, however, burns out the source, such as this marking, and will leave a rather nasty burn mark in my floor, and on anyone who tries to reuse it incorrectly.  As such, lordling, you and I will be taking a train back.  Now, step into the center of the symbol, right on the eye, and I will join you in the center as well.”
Ray complied, and stepped directly on the eye, staring at the strange symbols that surrounded the entirety of the circle.  Skalos began chanting in a strange language, a flowing, intricate tongue that seemed to dance out of his mouth.  Indeed, the Fallen seemed to dance himself, swaying around the circle as he traced the symbols with his hoof.  Each seemed to lightly glow when his touch was lost from the pattern, a welcoming white glow.  When he was finished, he continued to whisper the chant under his breath, staring at a particularly intricate circular symbol at the head of the circle.
Abruptly, the chanting became a yell of a singular word, “Rafsa!”
Instantly, the glowing symbols seemed to explode with light, great beams of it shooting up into the air in pillars.  Glowing particles of light began to float around, when Skalos called, “Jahez!”  The light particles snapped into the beams, which intensified and rose, completely surrounding the two in blinding light.  Skalos gave a final command -“Haleck!”- caused the light to suddenly close in on them.  
For a moment, Ray was completely overwhelmed, the light blinding him, but quickly, he found that he could actually see.  It wasn’t much help, as everything was still white, save Skalos, like standing in a blank white room.  The light warmed him comfortably, like warmth was flowing through him in his veins, pulsing through his heart, yet also warming him from outside.  It was both a comforting and strange experience that left him a bit squeamish.  There was a subtle sense of crawling that remained in his skin as the light suddenly snapped into the ground, cracking loud enough to pop Ray’s ears.
Wincing, he found himself surrounded by near darkness, saved for the remaining glow of burnt ground in the pattern that had formed the Sunport.    There were remaining floating light spots as well, that gave off a fraction of the light that had created them.  Otherwise, it was pitch black.  Only Skalos’ slightly luminescent body stood out in the dimness.  With a slight squint, he could make out the low-hanging ceiling and see the pathway they were to follow.
With a curt gesture, Skalos led him away from the charred ground, and towards a void of black.  It was much like the first time Ray was down in the depths of Tartarus, slightly moist and cool, with the open feeling even in this enclosed corridor, as if a thousand eyes were watching him.  He shuddered at the thought of nameless ponies staring at him, and moved swiftly behind his Fallen commander.  They headed further down the dark corridor of stone and warped darkness, until, at last, he saw a distant sign of light.  
There was a slight blue glow at the end of the tunnel, and it was one that he easily recognized as the color used to light the Fallen homeland.  With a slightly relieved smile, he felt more confident about moving towards the end of the tunnel, until  he realized exactly why he was here.  
A potential civil war.  
All at once, the little comfort he had betrayed him, and he found himself swallowing hard.  How had this civil war come to pass?  Was it a conflict between the three factions of Fallen, or was it something to do more directly with him?  Maybe it was a group resisting the call to arms to fight the oncoming minotaur horde.  Or perhaps it was even a group who wished to propose a new leader of the army, one they thought would do better than him.  
All these conflicts tumbled over each other, becoming more real and more threatening by the minute, and making him wish he’d never even come in the first place.  It may have been better to let the Fallen do their business amongst themselves.
No!  The voice was sharp, almost painfully loud in his head.  It was him, but a different him, a him reflected in a braver mirror, a mirror without faults.  It was an unrealistic depiction of himself he felt, like a shiny gold statue of himself come to life.  Cold yet pretty.  
The self projection in his head had instantly pushed thoughts of leaving and letting the Fallen go about their own business out of his head.  He felt shocked at the clearness of the voice, half thinking that it may have been Skalos, but he quickly realized that it was indeed himself, and his own thoughts.  And this embodied thought had a valid point.  
Whether or not there was a civil war, at least a fraction of these Fallen would follow him to war against the minotaurs and uphold their oath.  He was one of them now, their leader.  He needed to be among them, to know them and their thoughts, problems, and solutions.  He needed to lead as one, so he must be one first.  
This determination drove him forward, and into the main chamber of the Fallen’s homeland.  As usual, it took a moment for his eyes to fully adjust and see the houses lining the far wall of their enclosure.  There was a large gathering of several different Fallen groups, the largest being the closest to Ray and the exit of the main hall.  They stood clustered around or in the amphitheater, though not as neatly as when he first arrived.  His arrival didn’t go without notice, as one of the keen-eyed Fallen from just a few dozen feet away spotted him and Skalos entering.  
“There he is, the leader and general of the Fallen,” the purple tinted stallion called, causing a ripple effect of Fallen looking and seeing Ray and calling out his arrival.  He watched nervously as this ripple slowly moved from group to group, and within a few minutes, he knew the entire nation of the Fallen had heard of his arrival.  And they all came to see as well.  With a deep breath, Ray prepared himself.
“The group here,” Skalos muttered quietly to him, “is a combination of Moderates and Grims that are guarding the exit from those that might attempt an escape from the chamber.  The second largest group you see, near the back, is another group, mostly Foals, protecting the weapons from these other smaller groups.  In my absence, and since your arrival here among the Fallen, a fourth group has developed.  The Secessionists.
“These ponies absolutely hate you, and view you as a usurper.  They claim that you will simply lead us to our deaths and that our oaths were to protect Equestria, not some foreign child.  They feel that they shouldn’t need to fight either, that by being cursed to live in eternal suffering life is enough punishment.  They propose that we refuse our oaths and collect our forces, fight back against the Princesses and gain true freedom, not conscription into a war that isn’t of our concern.  And they threaten to take to arms against any who stand in their way.”
“And if we let them go,” Ray asked out of curiosity. 
“We will lose some three thousand soldiers, along with their weapons, and quite possibly more, if others see this as an option out.”  Then, looking up at Ray questioningly, he asked, “Is it?”
“No,” Ray confirmed harshly.  For some reason, he felt less nervous, and more angry.  These ponies had betrayed their own kind, had turned and killed man, women, and children.  He had seen it himself thanks to Skalos.  They deserved punishment, especially living themselves to wishing death.  It was a sentence that befit the crime.  And now, some had the audacity to refuse?
“I need to talk to their leader,” Ray stated.
“Of course,” the Fallen besides him agreed.  
They began to descend, which caused cheering to come from both ends of the cavern.  Ray noted, with some smugness, that while this conflict was bringing the Fallen to a clash, the old parties and divisions were forgotten.  It seemed that, while they disagreed exactly on what their true punishment, and the restrictions of their damnation were, they all agreed to protect a population they had failed once.  It was comforting to know that, when the time came, every different kind of Fallen would come to fight besides Ray.  all except for these, he bitterly thought.
“Lordling, it is good to see you again,” a stallion called, splitting through the crowd of Fallen.  He was a light brown tinted Fallen, and Ray was able to recall that he was called Rohan.  “We were wondering when you would visit our low abode once again!”  He said this with jest, reaching out for a hand and hoof shake, to which Ray obliged.  With a sigh of dissatisfaction, he glanced toward where the group of Secessionists stood, mumbling, “I only wish it were in better conditions.”
“Yeah, me too, Rohan,” he replied.
“Ah, so you remember an old captain’s name,” he shouted with delighted surprise.  “Well, hopefully we can all leave without any spears jabbed or arrows shot.”
“Yes, that’s the goal,” Skalos cut in with a pointed look, continuing to lead on.  “If you’ll excuse us captain, we have to deal with these opposers while they can still be dealt with.” 
“Of course.  Best of words and luck, lordling,” the captain called behind them, which one again made a good deal of the Fallen in the group to cheer loudly.  Smiling, he waved at them, and turned as they broke the wall of bodies.  The smile broke into a grim frown as he began walking the few dozen yards between the groups of Fallen.  Many of the Fallen in the frontline of this group glared at him intensely, holding true to Skalos’ description of their love for him. 
He slowed his approach until he halted just a few feet from the nearest Secessionist.  “I’ve been told there’s a problem here, and that the Fallen may need assistance dealing with it,” Ray said coolly.  “I was wondering if you could tell me what the problem is and if I could do anything to solve it.  Might I discuss it with your most trustworthy leader?”
“That would be me,” a sharp lapis lazuli tinted Fallen called.  Unlike the others, he wasn’t glaring, instead merely looking over Ray.  “The problem we have, unfortunately, is that we are locked away down here for eternity, until the day we die in battle, or the day we put ourselves out of our misery.  Many of our brothers have taken that path, and I’m hoping that we can finally be granted freedom beyond fighting yet another war.”
“Ah, I see,” Ray commented, attempting to sound wise.  Despite facing so many potential enemies, he felt surprisingly calm, almost as if he were debating sports with a group of friends.  “You wish to be freed from a sentence you received for your betrayal of thousands, your slaughter of thousands, and your destruction of trust.  You wish to be freed of a more then justly earned damnation that you brought upon yourself.  You wish that, seeing as how your first attempt at guaranteeing you own lives meant sacrificing the lives of others, you can do it without consequence this time.  You bargain for freedom after murder.  Neither I, nor the Princesses, nor your peers, will condone it.”
“So we’ve been told,” the stallion replied without missing a beat.  “It is true that we betrayed our own kin.  However, is it truly betrayal if these were the same ponies who sent us to fight in the first place, who dragged us from our homes and families to fight a bloody war that only the Princesses cared for?  Is it our fault that we wished to be freed from the bonds of the Princesses and their oppressive rule, that we might live a life we wished we had, and was taken from us by a monarch’s war?”
“It is not, but it is your fault for killing those who were not fighting, who were simply living to help their country,” Ray retorted sharply, glaring to meet the stallion’s slowly growing angered eyes.  “It is your fault for accepting the deal of one who would go on to kill thousands more.  It is your fault for following through and destroying the lives of all those civilians.  It is your fault you’re down here now.  You were the ones that enacted the crime, not the Princesses.  I may not agree with them, but they are used in their punishment.  Know this.  If it were me, you wouldn’t be alive to complain to me now.”
At that, the crowd laughed, including the leader.  “Of course you would.  You’re the legendary human, here to save ponykind by leading us to the slaughter.  You don’t know anything about this world, yet you are supposed to save it?  Please, you are merely half of what we Fallen can provide ourselves.  You were chosen to be an ironic symbol of a Princess who wasn’t willing to defend the country she led herself.  Now you are here to instruct us, to boss us around like the common bully.  Well, we will not allow ourselves to be bullied into submission yet again.   We’ve drank from that bitter cup, and now we shall pass it along, to those who are willing to be sheep to a monarchistic government willing to sacrifice the kicked children to keep their own coats clean.”
There were mumbled agreements and cries for justice from the crowd, who had slowly formed a wall facing him and Skalos.  The general stood stoically, looking around at the encircling Secessionists with an almost diminishing glare, to which some of the crowd shrank.  Ray himself tried to look as confident as he was beginning to feel.  Behind him, he could hear the mumbling of those Fallen that supported him, and felt their confident gaze.  With all of this combined, he felt a fire of both rage and determination growing in him which he harnessed into the words that he used next.
“You know that they weren’t clean of blood either.  They fought and killed as well, more so than you did, defending their civilians and innocents.  On the other hand, you joined their forces, and then turned when you realized that the stories you were told of war being an adventurous, brave event were false.  Instead of defending innocents, your kin, you turned on them, and killed thousands with your actions.  You cannot claim the Princesses tyrannical when you yourselves were the ones killing the civilians and inhabitants of your own nation.  You cannot point out their muddied hooves, when you have blood on yours.”
This seemed to cause a diverse range of reactions from the Secessionists.  Several yelled terrible things, all drowned out by one another, while others merely glared and spat in his direction.  But Ray noticed that about a third of the ponies he could see wore guilty expressions, and even looked on the brink of tears from the harsh memory of their treachery.  Suddenly, one stepped away from the crowd, staring down at the ground, followed by a couple others.  When the doubtful Secessionists saw their comrades leaving, it gave a few of them heart to leave as well.  Soon, a group of a couple hundred ponies had left the  main body silently, while the remaining majority shouted to them of their treachery and their cowardice for bending to Ray’s words.
“Do not listen to the imposter,” the stallion yelled over to the remaining Secessionists.  Looking back to Ray with a heated glare, he shouted, “You have no authority here!  You are merely a child who has never been to war, and has never seen the terrors of death, felt the stab of a spear.  You have no knowledge of what you attempt to control, no knowledge of the trial and tribulations that come from leading an army, or the destruction of the soul war brings.  You cannot bully and belittle our actions without having experienced them yourself.  You speak and walk as a soldier, but you have never been one.  You are merely a shadow of what you should be!
“You come from a world that is not ours, to do the dirty work of yet another corrupted Princess, one who has manipulated you into attempting to lead us to war.  The Princess has seen to it that you will only lead us to death quicker, that you will be the true death of the Fallen and ponies.  She would have us initiate an unprecedented war, leading us to a loss of the entirety of the Fallen!  And you are proposed to be the head of our defeat, and the destruction to be wrought on this world.  You are nothing but a boy with a voice, one that says words without meaning.  You have no grounds to stand on, and no support but those who have been brainwashed to the concept of freedom by hundreds of years in our prison.”
Ray took a moment to calm himself, offended by the words that had been shouted at him.  Slowly, he yelled back, for all to hear, “I am an imposter among you Fallen, and while I have never tasted war, I have killed, and nearly been killed.”  Without hesitation, he pulled his shirt off and pointed to the scar on his stomach, shouting, “This was a wound that nearly killed me.  I lived with barely any strength, yet now here I stand, in front of all of you.  I haven’t felt the stab of a spear, but of a knife instead!  Does this not prove my physical and mental strength?  Doesn’t this disprove your theories of my weakness and my naivety to death?”
The questions hung in the air as the Fallen stared openly at his wound, and he knew that they were scanning his body’s build as well.  The blue toned leader seemed to be at a loss for several seconds as the time between Ray’s questions and the answer to come came longer.  He had put them in a corner with their philosophy of his weakness by pressing that he had not killed or felt near death.  Now that this had been disproven, they would have to find something else to say flawed him.  There was a lot, but nothing concrete, and anything they thought they might have on him was now unreliable.  
With a contemptuous sniff, the stallion at the head yelled, “This only proves you to have some slight knowledge of death.  You still have no knowledge of war and the workings of an entire army.  How do you plan, pray tell, to lead us into battle?  Have us charge gloriously to the enemies face and run them over, while you sit in the back lines giving orders, or leading us into the fray?  How do you plan to keep us supplied?  How do you plan to even march us from place to place?  Or will this all be fed to you from the great, noble, perfect Princess that brought you here?’
“I may not have fought war yet, but you hadn’t either when you went off to fight,” Ray retorted.  “I have a full year to prepare to lead and fight.  A year to train and get to know every one of you, and to help us all unify against the enemy, the minotaurs.  There is no reason to be so hostile towards me, and towards those that you shared your imprisonment with.  You are merely venting your anger like screaming toddlers.  Well, don’t worry, little ones, daddy’s here!  He’ll make sure that all your nightmares of death and ruin are proven to be a false worry, and he’ll be with you the entire time!”
The stallion looked genuinely shocked and insulted by Ray’s sharp chiding.  While he had belittled them in a playful, childish voice, he had also been keenly glaring at the stallion and the group he represented.  Many of the others were now looking flustered or shameful, not daring to meet his gaze, but there were still those that met his eyes with an equal glare.  Yet again, a group of Fallen, this time larger than before, began to step away from the Secessionists, heads bowed in humility as they walked away, towards the town on the walls.  The stallion’s eyes began to bug out as he stared at the leaving Fallen.
“See this, see those that leave,” Ray called to the remaining group.  He couldn’t quite tell how many had left by now, but he figured almost a thousand had rejoined the main body of the Fallen.  “They know the truth.  They can see that they are in the wrong.  You are traitors of traitors, those of you that remain.”  Quieting his voice, he softened his tone, saying, “I extend an invitation to those of you still unconvinced that the only path to redemption is through this war, and defending the helpless.  Please, we need every one of you for this fight, and every one of you matters.  We don’t wish for this conflict, this infighting.  All we wish for, us other Fallen, is for the chance to be redeemed, to forget our past mistakes and troubles.  Now is the time that we must prepare for war, and for us to see eye to eye on the fact that we are the only line of defense this nation and these ponies have.  Join us once again, and this incident of near war can be forgotten peacefully, without lives lost.”
“No,” the stallion shouted briskly.  “We will not bend to you like those sheep that left the right cause.  You mean to inspire us to become something we don’t need to be.  It makes no sense for us to once again militarize to defend ponies that aren’t our own.  They rejected us a millennia ago, and won’t be allowed to use us whenever they feel like it.  We have no loyalties to the Equestrian throne or people, only to ourselves and our own strength.”
“You say you want no war,” Skalos interrupted, speaking for the first time, “but call upon your own strength and threaten to fight for the ability not to fight?  What strength is this?  The strength of ignorance?  The strength of rebellion against true freedom?  This is the strength of cowards!”  The two stallions glared at each other with twice the intensity Ray had with the Secessionist leader.  “We fought together once, before the betrayal.  We won the battle, yet when we saw the cost and the horrors it took to win, we chose the path of cowards and betrayed ponies that we were supposed to defend.  There is no justification for the blood spilt, and if you refuse to fight, then it will be your blood being spilt!  Do not choose the path of cowards again, for this time it will come with guaranteed lethality!”
“So you threaten us with death since we will not follow your bloodthirsty and destructive will,” the stallion shouted angrily.  “You violate the rights granted upon all living ponies in-”
“Rights,” Ray questioned furiously.  “Rights?  You honestly have the guts to talk about your own rights, when you didn’t give other ponies, ponies who had no conflict with you, those same rights to life.  You do realize that is why you’re down here, right?  Because you killed so many of your own people because you hoped to live longer.  Well guess what, if your plan is to live yourselves to misery, I won’t impede that until after this war.  You must repay the lives you took in cowardice for lives you will take in courage.  This war isn’t a death sentence, or proclamation of extinction to all lives here and above.  No, it’s actually a chance to prevent it.
“You don’t have the rights to live the way you wish to, but you will receive them if you fight in this war.  I’ve already made a deal with Twilight that, if you all fulfill your oath of damnation, you will be granted the chance to live as a real pony once again, not these husks of flesh and glowing blood.  You’ll be free to live wherever you wish, do whatever you legally want, and all of those other rights you speak so passionately about.  In order to have the right granted to Equestrians, you must first prove that you are truly an Equestrian, and not some advantageous leech, here to suck the blood from the nation.”
“Oh yes, and what of you, lordling,” the stallion asked, spitting the last word out with enough poison to kill.  “Are you a proud, upstanding Equestrian,” he sarcastically omitted.  “Are you the paragon of virtue that the rest of us lower beings are to look to from out our muddy holes and barren caves?  Or are we simply your tools, here to provide a body shield against these minotaurs while you valiantly lead us to war from a tent?  I will say, I’m impressed that you have courage enough to appear before us, when you so obviously had none in life.  Tell me, are you scared of death coming?  Are you scared of facing these minotaurs?”
“Only a fool isn’t scared of death,” Ray said sharply.  “A fool or an idiot.  I’m neither.  Are you?”
The stallion seemed to turn a shade of purple in the face as he glared sharply at Ray.  Suddenly, he yelled hysterically, “Well, if you do fear death still, why don’t you embrace it.  Maybe it will teach you to be less of a cowering foal!” 
The stallion reached to a pony behind him, and before Ray knew it, he was lunging at him with a spear in his grasp.  It was directed straight for his heart, so he sidestepped it, pushing it away by the wooden shaft.  It still caught his shoulder, cutting through the fabric and his skin, brushing against the bone.  Before the stallion could retract the weapon, he grasped the shaft, pulling and spinning around at the same time, wrenching it from the weaker stallion’s grasp.  Using the momentum of the motion, he swung through and around, allowing the spear to slide down until his hands hit a leather grip, to which he tightened his grasp.  
He jabbed forward, looking the shocked stallion dead in the eyes as he did so.  The spear pierced his skull right in the middle of his forehead, and because of the downward angle, protruded from the bottom of his neck.  Blood from the initial stab had spurted upwards onto his hand, glowing luminescent blue in a horrid, gruesome fashion.  He felt his own blood dripping down his shoulder, the cloth of his shirt sticking firmly to the wound as it was soaked in blood.  The cut was deep, though maybe not too bad.  He couldn’t tell.  All he could do was stare at the head of his former enemy, the enemy he’d just killed.
His ears were filled with a silent roaring, the rushing of blood that he knew so well, and the adrenaline of near death. He shivered, shuddered, and trembled as he stared at the body, the brutality of his spear sticking out of the back of its neck.  The body slumped, the head only being held up by the spear that Ray was still holding.  He dropped it, looking down at his hands in confusion and strange, corrupted satisfaction.  His left hand, the one that had been closest to the spearhead, was covered in blue, luminescent blood, with his own dark red blood from his shoulder rolling down his arm and onto his hand, mixing with the blue to create a surreal deep blue, near violet color.
The roaring in his ears subsided as he looked up, into the crowd, over the spear that protruded from their deceased leader’s head.  There were mixed reactions from all of them, from shocked expressions to angry yelling, but they all stayed back, as if fearful of getting too close to Ray.  No, they were too afraid to approach him.  They all had varying degrees of fear in their eyes.  It was obvious, wasn’t it?  He’d killed their leader, but only because he had tried to kill him.  
“Rule one a’ all fightin’,” Kaleb told him.  “If he tries t’ kill ya, kill ‘im back.  It’s only fair.”
“It’s only fair,” he yelled to the shocked crowd, clenching his fists to his side, “that this stallion should die that none of you will either.  You have seen his true face, the face of rage and violence that he so condemned, which is his true nature.  I reacted as he would’ve wanted.  With strength, quick thinking, and sharp retribution.   In his death, your leader proved exactly why I’m the right leader for-”
“His name was Cohin,” a distressed feminine voice yelled from the crowd.  A moment later, the figure came running from the crowd.  The mare was a slight gray, tears streaking down her face as she wailed, “And I loved him.  He opposed you for this reason!  Because he thought you would kill ponies like us for wanting to live again!  And you did kill him!  You did kill him for that, and even if it means dying, I’ll never join you for it,” the mare shouted in distress, her voice breaking.
She collapsed to the ground as the grief overwhelmed her, crying loudly as she stared helplessly at Cohin’s body.  Ray felt sick as he stared at the mare.  Skalos moved beside him, removing the spear from the Fallen’s head with a jerk, before snapping it under his hoof.  Suddenly, the entire body of the Fallen who had been behind him appeared right besides him, spears ready for an attack.  Ray looked all around him in shock and yelled, “What the hell are you all doing?” 
“Preparing for an attack, lordling,” one of the Fallen beside him replied, glaring down the other Fallen.  “They brought weapons, so they surely must’ve expected it to come to this.”
The group cowered in fear, and before anyone could make an irrational decision, Skalos cried, “Spears down, you fools!  Can’t you see there is no need for any more bloodshed.  They see now the fault of their leader, and why they must have full respect and faith in Ray, our general!”
“Stand down and leave,” Ray yelled to the faithful Fallen who had gathered.  Without hesitation, he walked past the body, to the still wailing mare.  She looked up at him when his shadow covered her, defiance, pain, and sorrow burning visible in her eyes.  Ray had never seen a Fallen so emotional before, their feelings laid bare in their hazy eyes.  Swallowing, he crouched down and held out a hand to her.  “I never intended to kill a Fallen, let alone him.  I can see his point.  With somepony to love and want to live with, the prospect of death is something nobody wants in their lives.  I forgive him for attempting to live past the pain.  Please, help me live past my pain now.”
The mare looked up sharply at him, glaring through the pain in her eyes.  “This is what you do, isn’t it?  Demand us to die, and if we don’t listen, you kill us!  I loved him, and you’ve taken him from me!  You’ve taken him from us!”  She paused, lurching into a sob, before tearfully looking back up and shouting, “You’re a monster!”
Ray’s jaw slowly fell as he began to retreat from the mare.  What had he done?  He began to stumble backwards, staring at the mare as she continued to grieve.  This isn’t what he’d come to do.  This isn’t what was supposed to happen.  He was supposed to stop the killing among the Fallen, not incite it.  He turned, blood staining his torn shirt and running down his arm.
It was only when Skalos approached, his form extra fuzzy, that he realized he was losing a great deal of blood.  His Fallen companion helped him to his feet, yelling to the others things that were lost to Ray’s ears as he led him back the way they’d come.  Slowly, Ray’s eyes closed, his mind locking on the bloody image of himself with an axe splitting his head, Fluttershy crying as the mare had, as a minotaur continued death’s cycle.
> Purity
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a struggle to stay awake while walking down the strange tunnels.  Ray’s arm hurt sharply now, but had a bruise feel to it as well, the blood still flowing out.  He wasn’t sure if a specific vein or something had been cut, though he guessed so seeing as how the blood still flowed.  He didn’t know how much blood he’d lost by now.  All he knew was that an entire half of his shirt was ruined by blood stains, from both him and Cohin.  
Skalos kept encouraging him to move forward.  The task was harder than Ray even realized, his legs shaking with each step, threatening to fail with every footfall.  Finally, they entered the chamber from where they had come, huffing slowly and almost falling to the floor.  However, Skalos led him to another set of runes on the floor, their lines blurred over and disproportionate.  There was no way that he could tell where to stand, but luckily his Fallen friend set him firmly in place, sitting him down so he wouldn’t fall.  Then, the rhythmic hum of his chanting filled the air as Skalos circled around the two of them, his form blurred.
When he was done, the darkness in the room seemed to meld with the dim lighting, creating a gray circle of smooth light around the pair, much like the way a Sunport’s light did.  The light felt more gentle, more subtle in its movement, like a calmly flowing spring, cool and soft.  The two merging feelings were enough to lull him to sleep, until the sudden, brisk snap awoke him.
They were in some sort of jungle or swamp now, twisted trees hanging their branches over them like some sort of lurking predator.  There was a foul smell all around them, as if something had died in the outhouse, that caused him to scrunch his nose.  The soft ground they were on was sharply cold, and when he tried to brace himself to stand, he felt the grass snap and crumble.  Squinting, trying to see through the haze, he saw that the grass was frozen solid, completely white with frost.  There was a sort of fog in the air, as if the cold of the light had become steam from the swamp’s warm air.  With a confused noise, he slumped down, yelping as his shoulder ached sharply.  Stupid thing.
There was frantic knocking to his right, to which he turned in confusion, trying to understand what exactly was making that sound and if it was a danger to him.  It was only Skalos, his blurred image beating loudly against one of the thicker looking trees.  He tried to mumble a complaint, but it came out more as a croak, his throat dry and his longue dumb.  Skalos noticed the noise from him, however, and turned, reassuring him of something.  He didn’t hear quite what, but he knew from the genuine concern in the stallion’s voice that he was getting some sort of help.  
The tree suddenly opened, soft light pouring from the entrance.  A figure ried out in surprise at the sight of the bloodied human kneeling in front of them, and swiftly rushed to help him up, Skalos speaking quickly to the figure.  She was a she, he could tell, based on a deep, feminine melody she had to her speech that penetrated his mind.  She was making solemn propositions and eagerly attempted to push Ray under the door to her house.  For some reason, Ray stood up straight while walking under the doorway, thinking he’d cleared it, only to hit his head sharply against the wood above him.
He thought he yelled a curse, but the word didn’t quite escape his mouth, instead falling flat on his tongue.  The wood was rather soft, almost as if it had become a firm foam, but the quick contact with it still hurt a bit.  He was ushered onto a bed of some sorts, and told to lay flat.  At least, those were the words that came through the thick haze of his delirium.  He winced and cursed again when one of the two pushed onto his shoulder, spreading the skin around the wound he yelled at them to stop, but quickly found his mouth stuffed with something wet and flavored like mud.  Before he was able to even appropriately react, he felt his mind’s fuzz thicken as his eyesight dimmed to nothing once again.
He wasn’t sure how long he’d been out when he woke up, but he remembered everything that had happened leading up to his awakening, which he took as a good sign. For one, he hadn’t been drugged for some motley reason, and secondly, whatever had been used had worked pretty well, seeing as how his wound was no longer hurting sharply, just aching dully.  He didn’t have his shirt on, the blood cleaned from his skin neatly, his wound wrapped in a thick layer of gauze.  He winced at it, looking around the room for a moment, trying to take it all in, but Skalos had already noticed he’d woken up.  The Fallen closed in before he was able to see more than a few shelves full of strange potions and substances.
“I’m glad you’re awake so soon,” Skalos told him formally.  “It means that these cures do work for humans as well, and also that your wound was not as bad as the zebra had thought.”
“Zebra,” Ray questioned, recalling the word from a past life.  There were zebras here, that much his family had told him, but the subject had been mentioned when they were talking about all of the nations, so he figured he would only see one if he had to sail east.
“Ah yes, my friend, that would be me,” a voice suddenly called.  Sure enough, a zebra emerged from behind a bubbling cauldron that he spotted as Skalos moved out of the way.  “I am the zebra that lives in this tree.  I’m glad to see that you are no longer ill.  It is truly a testament to your body’s strong will!  My name is Zecora, the potion maker.  Tell me, human, what is your own moniker?
“Uh, I’m Ray,” he introduced unsurely.  This was definitely the voice from before, as he could tell from the rhythmacy of her voice and her tendency to rhyme when speaking with him.  He wouldn’t have figured the zebras to be so… linguistic in their conservations, but here was one that was so.  “I guess you already knew that though.”
“Yes, indeed I did,” Zecora agreed.  “There is nothing from me that Twilight hid.  I know all about you.  Please, let me do the work I must do.”
At first, Ray was confused by the wording, but then he realized he’d had his shoulder protectively turned away from the zebra.  Begrudgingly, he let her examine his wound, which was covered in a red stained medical wrap.  She gently pulled it off while Ray watched, staring as the red stain grew bigger and bigger.  It seemed that the entire face of the cloth was red by the last layer, when she finally pulled it away, revealing the wound, still open and gaping.  He stared into his own arm with slight horror, the pink-red inner skin looking like a surreal cut of meat.  Technically, he thought, it was. 
Despite the wound being as open as it had been before, it wasn’t bleeding, but he attributed that to the weird sheen it had to it.  He guessed it was some sort of balm that was supposed to stop bleeding in general and reduce pain, and as he could see, it worked perfectly.  Zecora hummed to herself as she examined the wound and, without a second thought, produced a vial from under her bed, along with a string and needle.  
“Now, my human friend, you must be brave so your skin I can mend,” Zecora instructed softly, looking him in the eyes with her own big green ones.  There was a protective intensity to it that both comforted Ray and scared him out of even the notion of resisting.  With his nod, she turned to the work ahead of her.  Skalos suddenly appeared besides him, a cup of something steaming in his hooves.  He passed it over to him, silently encouraging him to drink the beverage, which he did without question.  It tasted a bit like peppermint, but a more nutty version of the plant, and was almost cold, despite its steam.
Meanwhile, Zecora had begun to administer the contents of the vial on his wound’s edges, the skin surrounding the large cut.  Almost instantly, he felt the skin grow very hot, then suddenly it felt like there was nothing there at all.  The numbing medicine was a bit like Vaseline in its look, although there was a subtle blue to it.  By now, the pain and dull aching had faded, though whether it was the medicine he’d consumed or had applied, he didn’t know.  He stared with interest as the zebra raised her hooves, threading the needle through his skin.  
Zecora worked quickly in mending his shoulder, sewing it with great care and attention.  The further he worked up his shoulder wound, the quicker she got to sewing, and the more Skalos seemed to be lost in staring at the zebra’s work.  He was frowning, his brows clenched as he stared at the needle threading in and out of his skin.  Ray counted twenty three in total, before she went back the other way, administering another twenty one to ensure the little flaps were pinned down.  By the time she was done, the medicine had begun to wear off enough that he felt the slight pricking of the needle.  Finally, she cut the string off with her teeth, tying it neatly with her hooves somehow.
She sat up and looked at her work proudly.  “Now your wound will heal well,”  Zecora told him.  “You only need to rest for a spell.  Soon you can be on your way, but I will not allow you to leave today.”  Turning to Skalos, she said, “You are also welcome to stay, but you’ll have to sleep on a pile of hay.”
“That will do,” Skalos confirmed sharply.  “I don’t need to sleep.  I can just watch over Ray in the night and make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid like trying to go home.”
“In fairness,” Ray defended, having considered the possibility, “my shoulder is what’s injured, not my legs or feet.  I’ll be fine walking!”
“Indeed if only that were true,” Zecora chimed in.  “but there is not much blood left within you.  Your mind will be a fuzzy haze, and it is unwise to walk home in a daze.  Stay here and rest, and we will see the best!”
“Alrighty then,” Ray agreed.  He hadn’t considered the fact that he’d lost so much blood yet, only the fact that his shoulder was what needed to heal, not his leg.  He didn’t feel very tired or worn anymore, just hurting slightly in his shoulder, but now that he thought about it, that was probably thanks to the medicine.  Frowning, he didn’t like the prospect that he was relying so heavily on medicine at the moment.  It brought back-
“C’mon, stay with us,” a masculine voice instructed.  “You gotta stay strong.  You’ll live.”
The white wall flew by in blinding blurs, the doors passing by in streaks of sharp gray.  He was lying down, on a bed.  But the bed was moving so quickly.  Footsteps fell beside him, uneven and thunderous, but incredibly quick.  Why so fast?  Why so painful?
 Looking down at himself, he saw his coat was a mess of blood, his hands bloody.  Had he done this himself?  Why had- 
“Ray, wake up,” Skalos yelled sharply.  Ray snapped up, instantly cussing in pain as his shoulder gave a sharp ache.  He instinctively reached to grasp it, but a hard hoof whacked it away.  
Ray panted heavily, turning and looking at the Fallen with a culmination of shame and disorientation.  “What was that,” he asked, before realizing that they had no way of knowing what he’d seen, what he’d remembered.  The Fallen and zebra gave each other a concerned glance, before nodding.  Zecora gently pushed his chest into the bed.  He tried to protest, but she simply shushed him.  
“There is no need to distress,” she comforted.  “I merely need to assess.  You are in great inner turmoil, and if not controlled, your blood will boil.  I must see what I can do to heal within, and then you will finally mentally win.  So please, relax for me, so that I may help thee.”
Ray swallowed down his protests, laying on his back, trying to relax as much as he could.  He remembered.  Oh no, he remembered so much.  Why now?  Was it because he could sense the similarity of the situations, or at least, mentally connect this experience with the other.  His right hand traveled to his bare stomach, pressing his hand against the uneven scar tissue there.  He felt sick remembering it all.  The ambulance, the rush through the hospital, preparations for the life saving surgery, knowing subconsciously the entire time that this would only ruin the family more.  If only he had died.  They wouldn’t have had to worry about the bills, the cost of his life ruining everyone else’s life.  Why was he such a mistake?
He couldn’t even live here correctly.  All he had to do was what he was told, and help win a war to save the species, but already he had killed one of his own soldiers.  He’d taken the spear from his grip and used it to stab him through the head, all because of a disagreement of ideologies.  He didn’t deserve to call himself noble when his reaction was to kill, didn’t deserve to lead when he didn’t even know his followers, and didn’t deserve to live when he had killed so many.  There was no redemption for him, in this life or the last, to erase the mistakes he’d made.  He’d killed somebody’s son, somebody’s brother, somebody’s husband, friend, and family.  What else was he other than a killing monster?
He was a predator.  He preyed on the love and attention, the care, that those infinitely better than him provided, using their love and turning it to pain.  He’d made a new family already, and already had broken half of their hearts, and it was the same with his new “friends”.  They were victims as well, victims of his terrible claws.  Please, spare them from knowing me.  Please, spare them from remembering who I am, what I’ll become to fail to save them.  They didn’t deserve it, they deserved better than anything he could ever be.  He was never meant to be here, never meant to know and fight for them, never meant to fail them.  It was greedy thought to think that he could use this new life as one to enjoy.  It was exactly like what the Fallen he’d killed had been tryin to claim.  He was a hypocrite as well.  A failure, a hypocrite, a predator, a monster, and now, a waste.
But he still fought, a voice told him.  He still took the fall for a race that wasn’t his own, willingly giving up a life he could potentially have in exchange for the noble cause of saving lives.  He was redeeming himself with every step on his path to war, and every sacrifice he was making was going to be rewarded tenfold when he least expected it.  He did have love in his future, and now, true, pure familial and romantic love that would fuel him through the most grueling of war.  He was going to kill, kill more than anybody had ever on this continent, but it would be the killing of those who would massacre.  A killing not to take pleasure in, but to take pride in.  He could fight an enemy a hundred times his strength and come out victorious with assurity, and he would never once feel the sting of death while his mission was incomplete. 
There was hope, love, and life in his future.  There was more than him fighting this war.  He had his Fallen friends, the support that they had shown him, and whatever resources Twilight supplied him with.  He merely needed to prepare correctly for the war to win it.  A battle can always be won as long as the soldiers and generals stand strong and fight fiercely enough.  Right now, he needed to stand firm, show that he could take a stab wound and not become spineless.  He needed to display his hidden strength, show them that there was nothing that could bring him down saving hell itself.  There was strength that could be harnessed in others’ strength, and by feeding each other the power of the individual, they would create an unstoppable force.  
Slowly, Ray did relax, these thoughts rolling over him, and through his very body, loosening the tight muscles and freeing up his limbs.  He inhaled deeply, accepting a drink from somewhere, and he heard the gentle chanting of Zecora over him, the words like a nursery song that drew him to a peaceful sleep.

*******************************************************************************************************
Ray awoke to blood.  It splattered across his face as he slashed another Fallen down, his blue blood spilling freely and staining the peaceful grass.  The sun blazed a deep red through hazy clouds of ash, adding to the confusion of the battle.  Ray was slicing through minotaurs and Fallen alike.  Some of the Fallen had faces he recognized, while others were a figmentation of his imagination.  In spite of knowing it was some sort of twisted nightmare, Ray felt too real as he impaled another minotaur, it’s unnatural red blood spurting from the wound.  There was nothing stopping him as he continued to gain strength from each kill.
This isn’t what he’d meant, but it’s what he followed.  He felt like he was merely watching himself from his own body kill, emotionless as he beheaded helpless enemy after helpless enemy.   Bodies fell, some still gasping for breath, some without limbs or heads, and more often, screaming in pain and calling him monstrous.  Their painful yells and their accusations fell on deaf ears.  He soullessly sliced through them, until suddenly all that had come his way were corpses, their bodies a horrendous heap surrounding him.  
There, hidden by the wall of bodies, was a crowd much larger than the one he’d cut through.  They all stared at him silently, before one yelled in a broken voice, “You did this!  You killed my husband!”
All at once, the crowd took up a terrible, unanimous cry of pain and sorrow, shouting the names of their fallen loved ones in despair, all crying and glaring at him.  They shouted about lost brothers and sisters, of dead friends and families, pointing an accusatory hoof at him.  He merely stared in silence at the crowd, taking their insults and curses without care.  Suddenly, he stepped closer to them.
They continued to yell as he began to massacre them.  

*******************************************************************************************************
Ray slowly opened his eyes, feeling compressed and wet.  He was covered in sweat, and his shoulder was sharply stinging.  The medicine had worn out by now, and he felt completely weak, and was barely able to keep his eyes open.  He raised his head with a great effort, before setting his head back down.  It was still dark out, and there was no light source in the house to allow him to see anything.  He had seen the light glow of Skalos on the floor, his back to him, but he guessed that the Fallen was still dutifully awake.
He heard the sounds of muffled movement, heading towards him, and he was about to greet Skalos, when Zecora suddenly appeared beside him.  She gently shushed his confused question, putting a warm cup against his lips.  He drank it thankfully, the strange, cool, nutty flavor filling his mouth, and he felt the relaxants almost instantly.  She tapped on his hand, before gesturing discreetly towards the door.  Ray gave her an even more confused quirk of the eyebrows, but he complied anyways, standing and following her silhouette past the sleeping form of Skalos.
She led him through the house and to the door, then through it, to the darkened swamp outside.  Once the door was closed, she seemed to let out a sigh of relief, telling him, “I wanted to talk to you alone, since I know what made you moan.”
“Moan,” he asked, slightly discomforted.  “When did I moan?”
“It was when you dreamt of those you would slay that you made the noise that gave you away,” she explained mystically.  “I was the one that put you to sleep, but I knew that peace was not yours to keep.  There is still much within you that is in upheaval, and your mind has begun to fear on a whole new level.  This panic has nearly overtaken you, and now you’re beginning to lose what is true.  I cannot cast spells like a unicorn, but to comfort you, I do not need a horn.  You are stronger than you actually believe, and that is something that you must never deceive.  If you began to feel yourself fail, remember the base of your own strength and prevail.”
“Thanks, but, um, why are you telling me this,” Ray questioned, not quite sure if or how the zebra knew about his dreams.  
“I was able to subdue the storm that rages within, using your own fears to convince you that you will win,” Zecora told him, guiding him along like he was a lost child.  Surprisingly, the thought didn’t bother Ray.  The mystical zebra seemed to work through a loop of magic within this own world, the kind that didn’t require a direct knowledge of the matter.  In fact, as she had told him, perhaps it wasn’t even magic, just some natural or pure way to connect the minds, or whatever she had done.  “You see, I’m able to help all who reside in my tree.  Many come seeking cures or remedies, and I provide them with help for their personal fallacies.  I rarely ask for a fee, because I have no need for money.  
“When somebody enters my house, I hear more than what comes out of their mouth.  I see what really ails them.  Then, I provide a cure that heals their mental phlegm.  From where I come, we are underdeveloped some.  The traditions of our fathers is our daily ritual, which means that all healers must also be spiritual.  When I perform my task, the ability to help you is all I ask.  If I were to ask for payment, it would mean spiritual abandonment.  The job of a healer is to make, and not to take.  That is why I am your healer for this war.  What I must make is a warrior spiritually pure.”
“But how can you purify me,” Ray asked, slightly distressed.  He was supposed to have a spiritual purifier too, whatever that meant.  “How can you purify something that is only meant to be dirtied?  War is brutal, and requires a person to make the choice of killing someone or letting yourself die.  Doesn’t the act make me blemished, and unusable as a ‘spiritually pure warrior’?  Isn’t it simply a waste to try to clean something that will only be thrown back in the mud?”
After a moment of consideration, she answered, “Perhaps the word is not pure.  There is another term I am looking for.”  After a couple seconds of silence, she amended, “I believe that I am meant to teach you the ture ethic, and produce a young warrior who kills with respect.  You are correct in saying nothing pure kills, but it is incorrect to say all killers are devils.”
Ray nodded in newfound understanding, looking over the forest.  It was glowing with the multiple swarms of fireflies and other luminescent bugs, along with the moon’s glow off of the murky waters.  “So you’re trying to teach me to kill not for the sake of killing, but killing for the sake of protecting others?  I’m pretty sure that I don’t need a teacher to learn those lessons.  I mean, I already knew that.”
“Ah, but that is the danger of the self taught,” Zecora warned.  “You believe that you know what is and is not fraught, until the danger becomes your every thought.  Too many times the heroic warrior goes down the path of slaughtering, ending up as nothing more than a beast with a lust for visceral killing.  Do not even think for a second you are best alone, or else it will be you who won’t be coming home.  There is no use in singular pride; only with the strength and others will your victory not be denied.”
“Yeah, I’ve noticed you’ve been putting a heavy emphasis on teamwork and love,” he noted.  “Is it because you feel I really will be stronger with those ethics, or do you think that this will keep me from pulling the chain too hard?”
Zecora nodded absently, muttering, “So it is true you are very wise.  You will not easily come to your demise.  As for your metaphorical chain, there is nothing left but broken links that remain.  Twilight wished for a powerful champion to fight for everypony.  Well, she got what she wanted, and someone who is strong enough to break free.  You surprised her by your rebellious actions, and in her plan there are now many detractions.  But I do not have any fear.  You have a lovely teacher to protect your rear!”
Ray looked down at the zebra in slight shock.  As of yet, Zecora had been rather formal in their conversations, but this sudden tease, that had seemed to come out of the blue, caught him off guard.  She gave him a cheerfully mocking smile in the moonlight, saying, “I am not always a rigid teacher.  I take some pleasure in being a teaser!”
“I noticed,” Ray commented, suddenly feeling a lot more relaxed.  Had the drugs kicked in more firmly, or was it simply because he now knew he had one less strict instructor on his journey.  “I enjoy a good tease too.”
They stood together for a moment of silence, before he asked, “So how did you put Skalos asleep?  I’m assuming he’s too smart to allow himself to be drugged, so did you convince him that I would be less rebellious against my restrictions, or that you would watch over me.”
For some reason, the zebra blushed, looking away as she answered, “Skalos is a rather strict stallion, but there is something that every mare can do to-”
“Alright then,” Ray cut in.  He was almost shocked into complete silence by the broken news.  Skalos and Zecora… were a thing?  “I, uh, didn’t think that Skalos was the relationship type.  I mean, he seemed very much like a Grim…”
To his surprise, she giggled.  “Ah yes, my sweet little Fallen is quite Grim, but there he cannot resist me, to his chagrin.  In truth, I didn’t ever feel like I would fall in love, but alas, that was not the plan from above.  You see, a week after our first greeting, we held our wedding in a secret meeting,”
“Wait, you got married after only a week,” Ray practically shouted, astonished. 
Somberly, she explained, “When you have no idea how long until one will end up dead, it is quickly that we wanted to be wed.”
“Oh,” Ray said softly, realizing what she meant.  “Well, congratulations.  He didn’t tell me he was married.  Why do you think so?”
“It may simply be a matter of privacy, but I believe he didn’t want his love for you to see,” Zecora theorized.  “If he had told you that your healer was his life, he may have feared it would cause a fright.  After all, he is quite strict.  As you’ve said, his romantic life would’ve been hard to depict.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” Ray agreed, his thoughts turning back to Fluttershy and the Apples.  Geez, how would they react over this whole situation.  He hadn’t even left the continent, and already he’s been almost stabbed.  What did that say not only about who he was fighting besides, but also his own risk in fighting.  A singular soldier who’d had the advantage of surprise.  What was going to happen if that had been two, five, or even ten?  “I’m still just, really shocked that he ever got married, let alone to the only zebra I’ve seen around, no offense.”
“None has been taken,” Zecora assured.  “Honestly, this was a long time in the making.  He had been alone and solitary for so long, he needed someone else to keep him strong.  I’m… not as strong as he sees, but I try my best to please.”
“Oh come on now,” Ray encouraged.  “You seem rather strong to me.  You didn’t seem to flinch any when you were fixing up my gashed shoulder.”
“Yes, but that is because of all my training,” she attempted to make an excuse.  “Otherwise, my courage is rather straining.”
“Well, my training is as a soldier, so when I go to fight in war, is my courage false?  Does it mean I don’t have any actual courage, or does it mean my courage is greater when I’m doing what I was trained to do?”
“Well, I guess that is the truth to tell,” Zecora agreed.  “Skalos is right that you can teach as well.  You are wise, my friendly human.  I wonder when this will earn you a woman?”
“Not anytime soon,” Ray said hastily, trying not to be overwhelmed in the thoughts of his own love life. “I still have to save Equestria first.”
“Skalos didn’t,” a third voice interrupted from behind.  The zebra and human turned to see Skalos standing in the doorway behind the two of them, a small smile on his face.  “You should know that you can’t put me to sleep that easily, Zecora.  We Fallen require almost no sleep, and trying to force it is like trying to force a bison to move.  It will just become harder to complete the task as the body becomes stiffer in the stubbornness of its mind.”  Then, looking at Ray, he almost seemed to grimace.  “I guess you know that Zecora and I are, well, partners.  I’m not sorry for keeping this from you, but I’m sorry if it causes any mistrust.”
“Well, I guess I just won’t share all the nitty gritty of my love life with you,” Ray sighed with false exasperation.  
Skalos played along with the act, nodding solemnly.  “Well, I cannot ask you to do something that I myself will not do.  You are free to keep your secrets.  I’ll just discover them on my own.  Just be sure to invite me to the wedding.”
Both Ray and Zecora laughed while Skalos retained his solemn façade, but as the laughter died down, Ray knew that there was truth behind what the Fallen had told him.  Their love lives were none of each other’s concern.  Right now, their relationship needed to be maintained as professional first, and friendly second.  As long as whoever they were dating or married to wasn’t interrupting their work to save Equestria, there was no reason to bring it up.  
Slowly, Skalos instructed, “Your little walk has been long enough.  I’m assuming by your relative casualness, the medicine has kicked in.  Do you feel any pain in your shoulder right now?” 
“No, I don't,” Ray answered, regaining a more serious  demeanor.  
“Alright, good.  In that case, I recommend you sleep.  War doesn’t stop because you got scratched.  We’ll be working on your strategy here tomorrow, so you best get rested up so your brain isn’t muddled.”
With that, Skalos turned sharply, Zecora stepping beside him, as they reentered the house.  Looking up at the moon, he realized that perhaps, indeed, it was better that he had begun to fall in love with this land, and its residents with him.  The darn zebra had done it.
> A Game of Sorts
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ray slept fitfully that night.  Despite the comforting Zecora had given him, he still saw an occasional flash of murderous destruction, or managed to catch a bit of glowing blue blood in the corner of his eyes.  He still felt as if his body was fighting against imaginary foes, and he almost felt the stress of it as well.  If it weren’t for Skalos, he was sure he would have slept well into the afternoon.  
The Fallen general shook him awake, not roughly, but certainly not gently.  After a meal of some strange tube plants provided by Zecora, along with a healthy dose of medicine, Skalos informed him more fully of the plans for the day.  He explained that he had a game set up for them, sort of like chess, but more layered and strategic.  It had been explicitly designed for the training of captains and generals, using multiple layers and types of pieces with different abilities based on the actual animals they represented.  When he pulled out one of the boards, which Zecora conveniently owned, it looked like a 3D chess board with circles alongside diamonds and uneven rectangles.  
The game itself was much more complicated, with the option of posting another layer above the base one in practicing aerial combat motives.  However, even though there were a couple hundred Fallen who were pegasi, they were out of the practice of flight, and it was more useful to have them as archery divisions.  As such, they used only the bottom layer and set aside two pieces; aerial lancers and aerial archers.  There were still ten total pieces remaining, including earth pony warriors, unicorn sorcerers, pegasi archers, and earth pony calvary.  The definition of cavalry was a bit muddled when talking about pony war tactics, but these cavalry were armed with a sort of retractable spear that allowed them to charge in, ram an enemy, then discard them with a sliding mechanism pulled by their teeth.  
Opposing them were a legion of minotaurs that filled about half of the one hundred twenty eight spots on the map.  Each corner was shaped like a quarter of a circle, each of the five rings split into three sections, with a valley of two rectangles by eight rectangles leading into the center, four inward pointing triangles.  The minotaurs had hold of one of the “hills”, while he and his forces of only forty units held a hillside and valley, plus one of the inner triangles.  These were supposed to represent the frontline of a battle, where the leading force could be attacked from all sides except from behind.  Each singular piece had different heights, depending on how many soldiers they depicted.  
Each cavalry unit was worth one hundred lives, with four different levels representing one hundred, seventy five, fifty, and then twenty five soldiers, from highest to smallest respectively.  Every time the unit was hit, it lost the height of the piece by one, unless it was double teamed and destroyed.  There were a lot of mechanics that he didn’t understand about the game, especially the archery and double teaming, but the strategy was rather simple.  You wanted to make sure that your units had at least three companion units if they were melee, and you always fired volleys before you struck, otherwise you would cause yourself damage.  
The first round they played with this minotaur setup he lost soundly, as he accidentally eliminated his three cavalry unit and a warrior unit.  He then proceeded to  throw his own personal unit into a triangle position that got him surrounded and destroyed.  The battle ended when he called the remaining seventeen units to retreat from the battle, which was a loss.  At first, he felt disheartened by the loss and swift victory of the enemy, but when  he looked, he noticed that he had still eliminated four minotaur pieces, and that many were two or three pegs down.  Altogether, for about three thousand Fallen, he’d defeated three thousand minotaurs.  Skalos called the battle a loss with benefits, the benefit being that they lost an even amount of soldiers in a defensive battle.
The second round went smoother.  Ray was able to figure out the mistakes of the first round, that being a simultaneous volley charge tactic, and instead made the cavalry charge as the arrows flew.  While the maneuver did give them time to react to the volley, it was still pressured by the approaching units of cavalry pieces.  Skalos had realized towards the end of the first round that the number of cavalry and the number of warriors had been switched, and that there should’ve been twenty four cavalry and three warriors, and not vice versa.  This led to Ray being able to hit with three consecutive waves on the same front eliminating five minotaur pieces, combined with the volley.  
The game progressed to a stalemate where Ray had the enemy surrounded on three sides, and with archers able to volley them to oblivion, but they also had an escape.  This time, Ray forced the retreat, but the fight was declared a strategic stalemate, as only half of the minotaur units had been destroyed, and for the cost of seven cavalry units and a warrior unit.  It was also then that Ray learned that warrior units were meant to be used as a barrier unit that supported the cavalry from behind, like padding between waves, and not a direct attack unit.  He also learned that there was the ability to convert units into archers, and archers into cavalry and warrior units, although in either case, the transverted unit only had half the attack and defensive strength.
By the third round, it was near lunchtime, and Ray had learned the uphill battle concept.  It was easier to defend when uphill, and likewise harder to attack uphill.  Meanwhile, downhill charges were faster, and if performed correctly with other units, could potentially form a wave effect of damage, destroying the wave of uphill attackers and causing less damage to the defenders.  It was also better to have a downhill volley, as it allowed longer range and more defense for the weaker defensive unit.  There was a great deal of confusion when Ray unintentionally split his archer groups and had them fire at the same time, as the tactic allowed him to focus new areas, and not one broad area.  He also learned belated volleys, which performed like they sounded; one volley of arrows followed by another, each committed by half of the archers.
There was more to this round as well.  The concept of perpetuated importance, or the idea in battle that a specific area is strategically worth fighting over among the common soldiers when it’s not.  This created areas where the fighting was centered in longer battles, which this one was.  The round lasted deep into the mid-noon, as Skalos intentionally created multiple spots of contention, including the center four triangles.  The elongated battle also created more casualties than the previous two rounds for the minotaurs, and an almost equal amount for the first round for the Fallen.  In total, almost all units in the minotaur army were destroyed by consistent volleys and waves of cavalry, leaving only nine of sixty two units.  This also caused eleven cavalry units to be destroyed, with three on their last tick, and a warrior unit and one of the mage units as well.
In the end, it was a costly but decisive victory, one that they would gladly take on any occasion.  It was some two thousand lives for about six thousand minotaurs, a three hundred percent casualty rate for Ray and his Fallen.  That was concerning, however.  Two thousand soldiers was still over ten percent of the Fallen right now, and the amount of casualties the minotaurs suffered may have been sustainable.  It was still impossible to know their actual strength or the possible reinforcements they may have, let alone the actual terrain they’d be fighting on, if they did indeed have to invade the continent.  They had eaten a lunch provided by Zecora, and by the time the fifth round was concluding, the un had set.  
After Skalos had put the game away, he Zecora prodded his shoulder some and inspected the wound.  He still hadn’t been allowed to put a shirt on, partly because he had no shirt, but mostly because the two claimed they needed to keep a constant eye on the progress his wound was healing at.  Ray had practically forgotten that the wound had even happened, as he was so invested in the game.  It hardly hurt, and when he glanced at it now and then, the skin seemed to be almost completely repaired, the little stitches looking like they only held a papercut together.  Zecora kept taking little notes on a sheet of paper, until at last, she declared, “The wound is mostly healed.  The stitches must now be repealed.”
She produced a pair of scissors and carefully began the process of removing the stitches while Ray watched.  The removal stung sharply, but he was more fascinated by the sight of the thread unweaving itself from his skin.  It was strange to see it retract from the little holes in his skin and slide out, the little tugging feeling it left on his arm.  Was it really like that the last time Ray had had stitches removed from him?  He could’ve sworn it was much more painful, but perhaps it was merely because the area had still been rather sore when they had done the removal.
After his wife had finished removing the stitches, Skalos told him, “I think you’re clear to head home now.  Don’t wear yourself out with anything, and whatever you do, don’t use that arm to lift or jerk anything around.  We don’t want to reopen it.  It may seem small and not too much of a problem right now, but if it does reopen, we’ll probably have to deal with strained muscles.  Just be careful and be smart, and you won’t have anything to worry about.  You’re free to go.”
Ray nodded in thanks.  “Have a good night, you two,” he wished them as he began to leave.  
“And you as well, have safety for a spell,” Zecora returned.  
The cool night air had become crisper, the summer becoming autumn.  It wasn’t cold enough that he was shivering yet, but a wave of goosebumps ran down his bare chest and arms.  The moon had become thin, a silver sliver in the night sky, barely providing light, and the swamp provided too much cover, so the little light that did filter through the canopy was only in between the leaves of overhanging trees.  There was little to give away where the path out was.  He guessed that this was supposed to be another sort of test from Skalos and Zecora.  If he was lost and on his own, how would he get back to where he was supposed to, especially without any light.  
After considering for a moment, he looked towards the direction of the moon.  The sun and moon raised and fell from east to west here, and since it was still early in the night, that meant that the moon was still in the east, and the open plains the opposite direction of it, the west.  Well, that was simple enough.  Walk west and you walk home.  However, he knew there was more to it.  This was the Everfree forest, he had to guess.  They wouldn’t let him go off on his own if he wasn’t within walking range of Ponyville.  If he was truly in the Everfree, then he would have to worry about Timberwolves and the likes, and also deal with bogs and trees that he might fall or run into.  
After a moment of consideration, he bent down and took off his shoes and socks.  He felt around the ground outside of Zecora’s house, the beaten down yet still soft grass.  Slowly, he began walking straight from her door, until he felt his feet begin to squish on wetter ground.  Not that way.  He continued to the west, which was where he felt the path go for several hundred feet until he reached the next marshy patch.  It took him a moment to orient himself, as he kept beginning to walk back the way he’d come, but he finally realized that the path led on after a couple feet of wetness.  Using the same method, he slowly progressed through the forest, until he finally saw the very edges of the forest.  
He walked straight out, finding himself staring at the glowing town of Ponyville.  It wasn’t late enough into the night for the majority of its residents to have retired, and the houses and streets glowed warmly.  He smiled as he stared at it from his slight vantage point, watching small figures move along the streets and buildings.  This was a rare time to him, a moment where he got to see the simplicity of life in such a mediocre light.  Their lives were slow moving, not having to care or worry about life altering wars or other deadly conflicts, just about what to eat and how their time will be spent.  It was a special sort of thing to be able to see how they all moved about their life, to see the relative smallness of their town and themselves.  
Ray walked home with a strange serenity.  There was nothing to worry about right now, but there was everything to be afraid of with what was to come.  Zecora had done her job though.  Ray no longer felt completely like he was on the edge of a knife, waiting for the war every second, yet dreading it at the same time.  He didn’t need to worry so much about it.  It would come and he knew that.  Nothing would change that.  But that was okay.  He didn't need to wait for it every second of the day, or worry about it  in his every thought.  There was nothing to do than what would be done eventually, and what he did eventually all depended on him being able to do what he needed to do now.  Everything came in its order, the past before the present, and the present before the future.  
He should not worry about and live his past, for the past was only to be 3remembered for learning.  He shouldn’t dread the future, the potential outcomes of things that hadn’t taken place yet, events that weren’t existent.  He needed to be present, in the moment, and do everything he could to ensure that he learned from his past to prevent a dark future.  Before he worried about either the past or future, he had to worry about the present.  He barely had time as it was to prepare for war, so wasting the precious free time he was given on worrying and regretting was a waste.  He was to take that time to ensure that he remained the human he was, the one who wasn’t destined to be a villain.  He had to be of his mind that he didn’t lose it.  That was the practice he must keep.
The closer he got to his house, the more his thoughts became regular, or at least, less dreary.  He wondered what Otolo had been up to since he hadn’t returned from the Apples’ farm.  Maybe she had figured that he was just staying there?  No, the bird was smart and would’ve checked to see how he was doing and where he was.  She would’ve seen that he was gone… and then what?  He didn’t know.  Geez, what would the Apples think now?  He’d been gone for practically two days without any news, and only Applejack and Apple Bloom knew that he’d headed off with Skalos.  Would they think that he’d already left for the war, or that worse, the war had come early to them?
On second thought, the closer he got to his house, the drearier his thoughts became.  With a hefty sigh, he continued up the hill that led to his house, praying he hadn’t caused a panic for everyone he knew.  It was bad enough that he would be showing up without a shirt and with stitches in his shoulder from a wound, but what would happen when they learned who had given him the wound, and how Ray had killed someone.  He closed his eyes as a wave of sadness washed over him, the yell of “You killed him!” echoing distantly.  He would have to learn to live with this ghost as well, this haunting shout of a heartbroken mare to continue yelling at him for the loss of her love.
He stopped cold and shook his head, trying to get rid of the echoing cry.  Judiciously, he decided that he would have to face Fluttershy to talk to her about the crying and nightmares.  Although Zecora had eased them away, the vision of that mare ravaged him, and he knew that she would continue to devastate and distract him if he didn’t have some sort of outlet to vent to.  Or cry on, an honest part of him thought.  He always hated that side of him, the side of him that spoke out of turn and was technically true every time.  With a sigh, he looked up the rest of his path, being able to spot the top floor of his house.
By the time he was actually arriving at his own front door, the moon had risen almost halfway up the sky.  He was feeling more tired, and the dose of medicine he’d been provided with had worn out, leaving his shoulder sore.  He felt he barely had the strength to push through the door, and he certainly wasn’t ready for the sudden assault that came immediately after.
Firstly, the loud, almost sharp twittering of Otolo, and her speeding into him, caught him completely off guard, as she landed uneasily on the tip of his nose, pecking his forehead in the process.  She gave him a loud lecture of tweets and chirps, glaring at him with occasional peck as she flapped her little wings over and over.  Before she could finish her scathing rant, another force, this one larger, shoved into his chest, knocking the wind out of him and causing Otolo to lose her balance and fly off.
The being wrapped around his neck and crying profusely was none other than Fluttershy, her pink fur pressing against him.  He felt the warmth of her on his chest, fighting off the coolness of the night like a warm, living blanket.  Who was crying.  He didn’t know why she was crying exactly, but he instinctively reached down and began to pat her back, holding onto her lightly.  Her tears were warm on his bare skin, leaving him slightly uncomfortable and undecided on what to do.  Otolo almost landed on his shoulder, but spotted the stitching with a curious twittering, landing instead on his head.
Finally, the frail pegasus pulled back, teary eyes large and afraid as she stared up at him.  “I-I-I-I was s-so afraid,” she told him.  “Where did you go?  Nopony knew where you’d gone and everypony who knew about the war thought that it’d come early!  A-a-and then Twilight wasn’t even sure wh-where you were, and I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see you again.”
“Hey hey hey, I’m okay, right,” he asked, gesturing to himself.  “I mean, I might not be when Rarity hears that I completely destroyed one of my shirts, but-”
Fluttershy punched him in the shoulder, her eyes locked furiously with him, yelling harshly, “This is no joking matter!”
Ray almost dropped her as he yelled in pain, folding in slightly as he tried to deal with the sudden sharp pain.  Despite the appearance of his wound practically being healed, it was definitely a long way to go for completely being fine.  Fluttershy’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped in regret and shock as she looked over to see his stitches, gasping as she realized what she’d hit.  
“I’m sorry, I didn’t see that,” she yelped, putting her hoof up to his chin and lifting Ray’s chin to make eye contact.  “Are you okay?  Do you need anything for that?”
“Nah, I’m fine,” he said through a grimace, before realizing he was gripping her rather tightly.  “Sorry about that.  Guess I shoulda mentioned I got stabbed.”
“Y-you… got stabbed,” Fluttershy questioned slowly, staring at his stitched shoulder.  
“Yeah, I was actually going to try to find you tomorrow to talk about… things,” he told her, still wincing from the remaining pain in his shoulder.  He already knew he’d be feeling that for a good few hours, so he simply grit his teeth and continued.  “Let’s sit down.”
He set Fluttershy down on the blue sofa, being careful not to strain the stitch any worse than they already had been.  Otolo had made a sort of nest in his hair, which had begun to grow out, plucking his hair about and nestling in.  She remained firmly in place, despite Ray reaching up to try to brush her off.  He was about to step away, when Fluttershy wrapped a hoof around his hand, looking up pleadingly to him.  With a small smile, he complied, seating himself next to her.  She instantly leaned against his left shoulder, still holding his hand.
“So, what happened,” she asked quietly.  “Are you okay?”
Ray chuckled sardonically, brushing his hand through her mane as he answered with a strained voice, “No.”
“Alright,” she responded, turning to look up.  “Mind explaining.”
“Well, Skalos hadn’t shown up for two days, and on the second, I’d gone to find Applejack to see what she needed me to do.  I did find her, with Apple Bloom, and tried to ask, but before I could get started, Skalos showed up and told me we needed to head to Tartarus.”  Ray paused, taking a deep breath to prepare himself for what was to follow.  “We did go down there, using something that Skalos called a Sunport, and he told me that if things there couldn’t be resolved peacefully, there may be a civil war.”  He felt Fluttershy shudder against him, her muscles growing taught in wariness.
“Well, why did they want to fight you,” Fluttershy slowly queried, a fearful vibration to her gentle voice.  “Surely it was something you could resolve peacefully, right?”
There was a stab of pain, deep in Ray’s gut, but he knew what he had to say.  “Well, these Fallen were claiming that they were being sent to be Equestria’s glorified meat shields, to sate a violent enemy and bloodthirsty tyrant, that being Twilight.  They claimed that they had no oath, and that their true punishment was eternal damnation to the bottom of Tartarus, not fighting another war.  They felt that they had been mistreated by the Princesses and used, thus justifying their actions.  Their leader, Cohin, even proposed that they were in the right to betray ponies who willingly supported their Princesses.”
Ray stopped, not wanting to continue.  This was enough said.  Surely he could say that they had negotiated and had come to a peaceful settlement of their differences, that there had been no need to worry all along.  But the gentle pressing of Fluttershy’s hoof against his arm and her concerned, pleading eyes drew the words from his mouth.
With his voice quivering, he told her, “We, Skalos and I, went to confront the revolutionaries, or the Secessionists, with the majority of the Fallen remaining behind us.  They were convinced that they were in the right.  Their leader, Cohin was sent to tell us off about how wrong we were to try and force them to fight.  They didn’t even propose any negotiations, though I guess I didn’t either.  At the end, however, it doesn’t matter, I think that there was no other ending to it than this.  Cohin lost his temper, and I think I did too.  I called them cowards and murderers, but I don’t think I had any right to do so.  They were rather brave to stand against us, being outnumbered and all, and the ideological estrangement.  Cohin pulled out a spear and attempted to kill me.  Instead, I killed him.”
Fluttershy gasped softly, looking up to him, but Ray was staring away, lost in the memory of his stolen spear stabbing through the head of Cohin, blue blood dripping from the tip.  He swallowed as he detailed, “He attempted to stab me with a spear that was roughly twice his size, which seemed to make his grip weak.  I was able to turn and steal it from his hooves, although his spear cut through my shirt.  It hurt, but the adrenaline seemed to have taken away the pain of the cut.  Using the spear, I turned and spun through the movement of stealing the spear, thrusting forward.
“The spear pierced through his forehead, right between his eyes, and out through the middle of his throat, since I was at a slight downward angle.  I… didn’t quite know what had happened exactly, so I just… stared.  I stared as his misted eyes dimmed away from this world, and just let go of the spear, letting his head stay prepped up against the ground with the support of the very thing that killed him.  I left him like that.  I killed one of my own Fallen companions because he wanted to simply secure a second chance for his brothers and sisters.  I… murdered him.”
“It… it was self defense,” Fluttershy tried to defend him weakly, her voice quivering as she stared with shrunken pupils up at him.  “You had to defend yourself, or else you too may have died.”
“There was a mare,” Ray continued heedlessly, his voice cracking in grief.  The mare screamed at him, “You killed him!”  He gasped in pain as he tried to forget the image of the mare screaming at him, despair and rage and loss, heartbreak breaking his own heart.  He couldn’t hold on.  The dam within him broke, the one he’d built to stop this very thing, and he began to cry helplessly.  His hands tore through his hair as he tried to rid himself of the burning grief in his heart.  
He was keenly aware of Fluttershy wrapped around him, of Otolo tentatively nuzzling the side of his cheek, but neither comforted.  They didn’t see the mare, hear her yelling, her pain.  Would she kill herself out of the pure despair he’d heard in her voice?  Would he be killed for the killing of one of the Fallen?  It would fit appropriately.  His fate, death for death.
Suddenly, something was smothering him, pressing into his face, drowning out his crying and tears.  He opened his eyes to find Fluttershy pressing her head into his, pushing him back against the couch as she pinned his mouth shut.  For a minute, he was confused, but he soon realized that she was hugging him the hardest she possibly could.  She pressed the full weight of her body onto him, her limbs wrapped around his neck tightly enough to practically choke him.  Ray hiccuped against her, feeling regretful for spreading his own tears into her flawless fur.  She didn’t deserve this, to share his grief, to try to console him.  He didn’t deserve her love, but he couldn’t refuse it, so instead he simply endured the hug, calming down slowly.
Even when he was completely done crying, his hiccuping subsided, she continued to hug him, and slowly, he wrapped his arms around her as well, bringing in closer.  She folded in his grasp, rolling up almost into a ball to fit into a cradle like grip hold, until she at last retracted from behind his head.  She stared into his eyes, her own glistening with tears, wet streaks down her face as she looked up at him, emerald eyes more captivating and addictive than any drug.  Slowly, she leaned up, her lips puckering, eyes closing.  She was going to kiss him, and he was going to let her kiss a monster.
No he wasn’t.
Ray turned his cheek, closing his eyes as a different pain, the pain of loneliness filled him.  Fluttershy’s kiss landed softly on his cheek.  Almost instantly, he could tell that she realized she hadn’t hit her target, pulling back and looking up at him in shock.  She’d just offered herself to him, offered up her love for him, and he’d rejected it.  They both knew it was what they wanted, but unfortunately, Ray had realized that this wasn’t what she needed.  He had to stop pretending this was some sort of Beauty and the Beast story.  He was a monster from the moment he drew blood by cracking another kid’s skull open on a doorknob, and there was no denying his nature of destruction.  He wouldn’t allow her to fall victim to the beast that resided within him, the instinctive killer.
“I’m sorry,” Ray apologized, his voice husky as he tried to choke down his emotions.  “But I can’t let you do something that will hurt you.  You should go.”
There was a pregnant silence that filled the room as Fluttershy scanned his face.  Slowly, her face softened from the shock that had been prevalent in her eyes, as she surprisingly smiled softly in almost understanding.  Without warning, she leaned forward again, this time pressing her lips against his forehead, causing him to shudder at the soft touch of her lips.  
As she leaned back, she told him, “Okay, I’ll go now.  Just sleep well.  We need to let your wound heal.”
She hopped off of the couch, and almost strutted to the door, tail swishing.  Why was she so happy?  What had he done that made her so happy?  And why was he… smiling as she walked out the door?
Slowly, he began to realize why she was so content with herself.  She had been there to listen, help if she could.  The very fact that he had let her kiss him, twice nonetheless, was enough for her.  She had listened, and she had tried to comfort him in the only she knew how, and strangely enough, it worked.  
He was so confused, he just sat there.  Shouldn’t she at least be disgusted by him, by what he’d done.  She should be horrified by the murder of another creature, and that the murderer was sitting right beside her?
Of course she wasn’t, he thought, chuckling almost with relief.  She was Fluttershy, and no matter how much he hated himself, how much pain he was in, she still cared for and helped him.  The laugh turned hopeless.  Naive mare.  But, then again, was she naive?
Sure, she might not have the full picture or what was going on, but she had never seemed naive to him.  If anything, he now felt naive around her.  Yes killing him was bad, but wasn’t he also attempting to kill him?  Was he not supposed to defend and preserve himself so that they could fight and win this war.  Was it better, even, for one stallion to die that Ray could live and lead more to life?  Was it better to kill to save others?  After all, that was what he was going to do to win the war.  Kill enough minotaurs to defend the maximum amount of ponies.
Slowly, he felt himself come to a tenuously peaceful resolution.  Yes, killing Cohin was bad.  However, it was no worse than having to kill a minotaur to protect the ponies.  Cohin proposed war, and Ray proposed peace.  When he tried to enact his way, Ray enacted his.  Ray’s was stronger.  Jaw clenching, he remembered the mare crying, remembered her desperate, heartbreaking cry.  
There would be lots of pain.  He would cause lots of pain.  That was okay.  For all the pain he would cause, it’d allow for more joy, more life for the ponies of this land, the innocents.  That was enough.  That was the justification he needed.  He was going to kill people, lots of them.  That was fine.  That was his job.  
His job was to kill.
> Warranted
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fluttershy’s heart was jumping all around her ribcage, her lungs barely retaining air as she breathlessly walked down the path, away from Ray’s house.  Had she really just done that?  Had she really just offered herself to him, just that easily?  More crazily, why hadn’t he accepted?  It was probably good that he hadn’t, because Celestia knows how far she’d have gone with him.  
Where had that come from, she questioned herself in shock, face flushing at the thought of Ray and her together.  What a thought it was.  Her face turned a burning red and she continued to speed down the path.  She definitely needed to talk to somepony about everything that had just happened, and one name she knew stuck up first.  Rarity.  Oh brother, this was going to be quite the evening. 
With a huff of breath, she began marching off towards Ponyville, eyes picking out her friend’s shop from the other buildings in the town’s center.  She kept her wings tightly clasped against her sides, trying to control her body’s excitement.  For some reason, the thrill of seeing Ray alive after the complete confusion and fear of him being gone had awakened her feelings in a new way.  She was buzzing excitedly, and it was in that moment that she knew she couldn’t get through losing him like that, for him to vanish without ever being seen again.  She felt a tug in her fluttering heart at the thought of him passing on, and she vowed that she would do everything she could to protect him.  
She was thankful that Otolo had at least been at his home when she’d turned up asking for him, and had been so kind and honest with her about not having seen her.  She felt that the only reason the kind little bird was so teasing around Ray was because their personalities overlapped so much.  They were both so unequivocally kind and honest with her, but around the others they seemed to be much more teasing, and frankly crass.  They didn’t show each other’s true faces, except around each other and their other familiars, which in Ray’s case did not include the other ponies.  Even when he broke down, Ray’s true face was hidden by this image of a self proposed monster, and despite her best efforts, she was able to detect the shine of lunatic depression in his eyes whenever he went into his rant of self hatred.  
With a slow breath, she tried to think of something other than Ray, somebody else or something else, and she remembered Discord from earlier that week, on one of their usual tea banquets, his shining smile as he casually turned his own wings into cotton candy.  She giggled at the memory, but it didn’t last as long as it should have, as the thought of what came immediately after came before she could stop it.  
“So, I do believe we should have a rather long talk about our good old human pal,” Discord said flippantly, suddenly changing the topic of their conversation.  
Fluttershy blinked in confusion, taking a sip of tea before saying, “sure, I guess.  What’s going on with him?  He seems to be doing quite fine here.  Did you visit him?”
“Oh, he’s quite alright, believe me my dear, but I’m more worried about… well, his relationship with the ponies in general,” Discord explained tentatively.  Fluttershy raised an eyebrow at the nervous draconequus, taking another sip of tea.  He continued, “The boy’s a good kid, but do you realize exactly who and what he is, right?  He’s a killer, Fluttershy, and while I know that he can control it now, what after the war, after he’s killed a good few baddies?  What if he develops an unhealthy bloodthirst that he can’t quench it?  What do we do then?”
“We help him in any way we can,” she told Discord firmly.  The draconequus gave her a sorry look, clasping his paw and claw around her hoof.
“Fluttershy, you know I hate to be the mature and logical one, but I don’t think even Twilight has thought of it, or a solution if the problem did arise.  I mean, the whole reason he’s here is because ponies can’t fight, and everyone else is too untrustworthy to fight back.  What do the Equestrians do then?”
Fluttershy paused for a dreadful second, thinking of the horrible thoughts.  For some reason, it was always easier to think about such terrible topics when Ray wasn’t around.  Probably because of those eyes, and that kicked puppy look he always had.  Either way, she quickly found herself racking her brain for a peaceful, harmless solution.  
“Well, what if we put him in a timeout, like having you put him in a little house in the middle of nowhere.  We could go visit him and help him recover from it, and make sure he isn’t getting any worse.  Nopony needs to get hurt, and who knows, maybe that’s exactly what he’ll need.  But don’t worry about it.  I’m absolutely sure that isn’t what will happen.  After all, this is Ray.  He’s a very, very strong stallion, and I’m certain he can control himself.”
Well what now, Fluttershy thought with a shudder.  What now that he had openly admitted to murdering, no, killing that other stallion that had tried to harm him?  Was he really going to become what Discord had unfortunately predicted might come to pass?  It couldn’t be though.  Ray had cried for the pony he’d killed, had called himself a monster, had even denied her love because he feared the same thing Discord did.  He feared himself, of killing others.  That caused a different thing to fear, as well, though.
What if he lost his will to fight, his will to kill because he didn’t have the strength to do so without becoming the bloodthirsty monster Discord had described?  Would he refuse to even go out to the war, to fight?  What would Twilight do then?  Would she force him to fight?  Would that be the proverbial tipping point that drove him into rage?  
Fluttershy was so caught up in the turmoil in her mind that she didn’t realize she’d reached her destination, only stopping as her head bumped into the door.  She stumbled back, slightly dazed by the collision of her head and the door.  Wincing a little at the smarting part in the middle of her hair, she rubbed the spot, looking up.  As she did, the door suddenly opened, revealing a slightly disheveled Rarity in the opening.  
The mare instantly smiled at the sight of her friend, bringing her in for a quick, gentle hug.  “Fluttershy, how good to see you,” she squealed.  “What brings you by, especially at this hour?  Please, come in!”
Fluttershy complied, slightly disturbed by her friend’s unusual energy.  Rarity was usually more tepid, but right now she was halfway to being Pinkie.  She walked into the living room, sitting herself down on one of the sofas while Rarity hovered over her shoulder.  However, right before Rarity sat down, she seemed to have a moment of thought, before standing fully and asking, “Have you had dinner yet?”
“Um, no, I haven’t,” Fluttershy answered curiously. 
“Well, I haven’t either, and I’m not in much a mood to cook,” Rarity explained.  “Would you like to go out to grab a bite?  It’s been a bit since the last time we’ve been out, and I was hoping to catch you anyway!”
“Yeah, sure, dinner would be nice,” Fluttershy admitted, smiling softly.  She knew that, based on her eagerness, unsurity, and pure energy, she probably had a great deal to talk about.  She wouldn’t be surprised if she’d spent the entire day sewing and drawing some new dress designs, possibly baking a few sweets too.  As it turned out, she had a lot to talk about as well. 
“Just give me a moment to grab my purse,” Rarity called as she practically ran out of the room, just barely clearing the doorway before she was racing back, Fluttershy barely having the time to react.  “Right, I forgot I left it right here,” she told her with a slight giggle, reaching beside the couch Fluttershy was getting off of, producing her purple satchel.  
“If you haven’t noticed,” Rarity began to say as they left her house side by side, “Which I’m sure you have, I’ve been a bit distracted.”  Fluttershy nodded in conformity, beginning to fly up in order to keep up with her hasty friend.  “You see, Spike and I, we, well, broke up.  It was really a long time coming, and the both of us realized that the feelings that had started our relationship were just a sort of nostalgic memory, not real passion beyond friendship.  We decided mutually to end it before it became a burden, and, well, we’re happily just friends!”
“Um, uh, well, I’m not sure whether to say I’m sorry or congratulations, but whichever is appropriate for the situation, I wish you the best of it,” Fluttershy tried.
“Oh, that is indeed most appreciated,” Rarity thanked her graciously.  “I think that this is definitely a more positive situation than negative.  Spike really has grown to be quite the young drake, and very mature as well.  We had both been feeling the fading of the temporary ‘love’, but it was actually him that came to me about it all.  It was rather surprising, to be sure, that he was the one, but I feel like it made the whole ordeal a lot easier.  In fact, by the time he was leaving, we were laughing about the good old days and sharing memories of when he was a still ‘little Spikey Wikey’.”
“I’m glad the two of you could end it like mature adults,” she commended her, looking to the ground.  If only it wasn’t so prevalent in her own life what she and Ray were doing wrong, and the troubles they were going through, and were going to go through, if they wanted their relationship to work.  And then there was the whole mess with Discord.  
“So, anything interesting going on with your love life,” Rarity asked cheekily, almost as if she’d read her mind.  “Things heat up between you and Ray, perhaps?  I could only guess by how your clenched wings were when you arrived, but something must have really gone down to get you in such a mood.  Or maybe it was Discord that has you like this?
Fluttershy blushed, turning her head away and hiding behind her long pink mane.  “W-well, that’s actually why I wanted to talk to you this late,” she admitted fretfully, dreading what her friend’s reaction would be.  
Rarity gave a little giggle of apprehension, before squealing, “Oh do tell.  And don’t skim any details.  I want the full tale, and nothing less!”
“Well, um, we’ve arrived at the Barley Palace,” Fluttershy said quickly.  “I think that we should order some food and something to drink before we go all the way down that rabbit hole…” 
“Ah, so it’s a raunchy debacle then,” Rarity whispered to her with a smirk as the waiter approached them.
“Rarity,” she exclaimed with a shocked look to her friend, landing.  Glancing to the questioning waiter, she apologized.  “Sorry about that.  Um, we’ll take two seats, preferably outside, if it’s okay?”
“Of course that won’t be a problem,” the stallion told her, before leading the pair over to a set of wooden chairs and a table, the umbrella still open despite it being night.  “Please, take a seat, madames.”
The two did, and the waiter asked for their drinks.  Fluttershy ordered a cucumber water while Rarity ordered a strawberry lemonade. After the waiter left, Rarity sighed and muttered,  “I really should stop eating so many sweet things.  I’m going to gain too much plumpness.”
“Too much,” Fluttershy asked, leaning back against her seat while waiting for the drinks.
“Why of course, my dear Fluttershy,” Rarity uttered incredulously.  “You need just enough weight on you to look more than just skin and bones, but just barely not enough to become a butterball.  It’s the perfect look for attracting all of the stallions!  But anyways,” Rarity continued, leaning onto her hooves with a lidded, partially interrogative smile, “back to the matter at hoof, that being that wonderful human.”
“Yes, um, well, where to start,” Fluttershy began, trying to stall for a bit more time.  She could hardly think straight as all of the things tumbled around her head in a culmination of crying and talking and kissing.  “Um, did you know that Ray was missing for the past few days?”
“I was notified of the situation by Sweetie Belle,” she stated as their drinks arrived.  They each took their own drinks and ordered food before turning to their attention back to their conversation.  After taking a sip of the sweet liquid, Rarity asked, “Whatever did happen?”
After checking the surrounding area for any ponies listening in on the conversation, she leaned in and whispered, “Skalos, the Fallen he’s working with, had to take him back to Tartarus to deal with a problem within their little nation.”
“Hold on a minute,” Rarity requested.  “Who are these Fallen, and what are they?  I don’t think I ever caught that conversation.”
“Yeah, I think only Applejack and I know, except for Twilight of course,” Fluttershy said thoughtfully.  “They were ponies from a very long time ago, ponies who can fight and… kill.  But they aren’t ponies, or well, not really.  They’re like physical ghosts!”
“Oh well that’s just horrible,” Rarity commented with a shudder after taking another sip of the lemonade.  “They’re the ones that Twilight was talking about defending us?”
“Yes,” Fluttershy confirmed, before once again checking for any passer-bys.  Seeing none, she continued, “There was a faction within them that didn’t want to fight, and said that they shouldn't be forced to fight a war that wasn’t theirs to fight, or something like that.  Ray, well, he didn’t exactly explain everything to me.  Anyways, these Fallen were led by somepony named Cohin, and he was talking with Ray and trying to make Ray see that he was in the wrong for supporting Twilight.”
“Poor fool didn’t realize that Ray wasn’t supporting Twilight, or just didn’t care to note that,” Rarity asked intelligently.  
“I don’t know, but whatever he thought, he thought Ray was unworthy and a bad leader, and that there was to be no war against the minotaurs… or there would be war among the Fallen.”
“Oh, that’s horrid,” Rarity responded, gasping at the news.  She set her cup down, her brows furrowing as she carefully asked, “Was there a war?”
“That’s where things become a bit… muddled,” she hesitantly continued.  “You see, from what Ray told me, the two began to get into a rather heated yelling match and the leader of the ones that wanted to leave attempted to stab Ray.”  Rarity seemed to be at a loss for words, leaning back against her seat as her jaw gaped open.  Gulping, Fluttershy fearfully continued, “The pony managed to stab Ray in the shoulder; you can see the stitches.  But Ray, well, Ray killed him.  Stole the s-spear and… did it.”
Rarity’s jaw snapped shut as she stared down at the table in both contemplation and confusion.  “How had this happened?” read all over her face and she seemed to have been hit by not only a brick wall, but a good deal of Pinkie madness as well.  She began laughing nervously as she asked, “Surely he was exaggerating, right?  He was distressed and thought he’d killed the stallion when all he’d done was knick him?  I mean, the worst that came out of that was a scratch and a ruined shirt….  Right?”
Fluttershy licked her dry lips, her throat tight as she shook her head.  “This isn’t even the first time he’s killed somepony,” she slowly told her, eyes growing absent as she remembered what Ray had told her before.  “Back in his old home, Earth, he killed two boys his same age.  He kept calling himself a monster, and now with this, he’s firmly set in the mindset that he’s the bad one in all of this, and I’m not sure how to convince him otherwise....”
“Because you don’t know exactly either,” Rarity finished for her, giving her a sorry look.  “Fluttershy, dear, you do realize who exactly he is, right?  He’s meant to the very thing we can’t be, to do the dreadful thing that we can’t.  In order to be his friend, and anything more, you’re going to have to accept that this is what he is.  As uncomfortable and terrible as it is, without him, we would be destroyed by the real monsters!  Just, try to remember that, okay?  He’s going to do some things that will make us squirm, but that’s only because it’s what he can and must do in order to protect us.  Do remember he is doing all of this of his own volition.  That he made abundantly clear.”  Rarity reached out a hoof, which Fluttershy took, telling her, “Stay strong, Fluttershy.  It will be alright, in the end.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” she slowly gave, a smile spreading across her face slowly.  “The road ahead is just so rough, it’s sometimes easy to forget that this is all going to be okay, in the end.”
“It is,” Rarity agreed.  The waiter arrived with their food, and each took their respective meals and began to eat silently.  Finally, after several minutes, Rarity regained her cheeky smile and asked, “so, what happened when he returned?”
“Well, I had gone to his house because I was getting really worried.  He hadn’t shown up anywhere, and Otolo hadn’t managed to spot him from the sky, so I figured that eventually, if he was returning, it was going to be at his own home.  He did return, probably not even two hours ago, and, well, I sort of lost control over myself.”
“Ooh, do go on,” Rarity pleaded, eyes twinkling.
Fluttershy blushed deeply, turning her head away from her friend as she continued as asked, saying, “Well, I threw myself right at him.  I just… I don’t know, seeing him again, after fearing that I might never actually see him again, it just awoke something in me.  I really, really enjoyed that hug, because I could feel him, and his skin, and I knew that this wasn’t some sort of illusion.”
“You got him out of his clothes that quickly,” Rarity asked, genuinely curious.  
“No,” Fluttershy yelped frantically, earning a look from a pony crossing the street.  Gulping and leaning in, she whispered sharply, “It wasn’t like that.  He just returned without his shirt, because of his stab.  Of course, I didn’t know about him being hurt, so when he said something rather dimwitted, I hit him on the shoulder.  The shoulder that was stitched close.”
“Now Fluttershy,” her friend reprimanded.  “An abusive relationship is not as strong as it sounds.  But I digress.  Do continue, and please try to skip over the unfortunate part about my wonderful shirts being destroyed.”
With an eye roll and a small smile, she continued, “He and I had a little talk about where he’d been, and he said that we probably wanted to sit down before we talked about what had happened since he’d left.  He was really reluctant to say anything, and looked almost lost, so I asked him if he was alright, and he said no.  Then, we began to talk.  He told me where he’d been and what he’d been doing, and- and…” She paused to take breath and swallow then the rest of her water, throat tight.  “And then he told me about how he’d killed somepony who was supposed to be his ally.”
“Oh dear,” Rarity muttered.  “And how did that go?”
With a deep breath, she confessed, “He began to cry.  A lot.  There was a mare that was with the stallion he’d killed, and she began grieving him, and calling Ray a monster and evil.  It… it took a lot out of him.  He was completely heartbroken by all of that, I can tell.  He had this weird sheen to his eyes, like even though he was destroyed by what he’d done, a part of him was okay with it, and was fighting against his regretful side.  I watched his eyes cry and glare at the same time.”  Rarity began to try and say something, but the words still began to flood from her mouth.  “It was the most terrible thing I’ve ever seen.  He was calling himself a monster, saying things that shouldn’t be true, but felt so just because of how much he believed that he was a monster.  The worst part came when I tried to kiss him.”
“You what,” Rarity cried, shocked.
Fluttershy turned beet red but continued on.  “I- I just couldn’t handle hearing him say so many horrible things about himself, and I couldn’t let him feel like a monster, so I just sort of, leaned in and puckered up,” she told Rarity truthfully.  “It just felt like the most natural way to make him see that he wasn’t as bad as he thought he was, and to prove that he was no monster.  But, when I leaned in, he turned his cheek.  He didn’t let me finish the kiss, and merely accepted that it was only on the cheek.  When I pulled back, he looked so pained, so alone, and… and I realized I couldn’t stay there.  I was almost completely humiliated by what I’d done, and I couldn’t stand to stay around him.  Maybe it was just the way that he was being so versatile in his emotions, or that he had been ranting about how terrible he was, but I couldn’t stay and hear and see him so distraught.
“That isn’t even the end of it, though.  When I asked him why he was being so distant when it was something we both obviously… well, wanted, he told me he couldn’t let me love a monster.  I-I-I didn’t know how to respond to that, so I just sat there and listened.  I tried my best to stay calm, but I wanted to shout at him, to tell him to snap out of it, but there was just too much fear in me.  Fear of if what he was saying was legitimately the truth or not, and it just silenced me completely.  I didn’t even know what I was doing, but when he told me I should go, I just leaned in and kissed him on his forehead.  Was that the right move?  Probably not, but I thought that it would prove to him that I do still love him, that he still wasn’t a monster to me.  I’m not sure if it worked, though.  I left too soon to see.”
“So, to be clear, no actually lips on lips, and you were the one who initiated both times,” Rarity questioned.
“Um, yes,” Fluttershy clarified.  “Why does that matter?”
“Hm, well, you see my dear, you’ve just played all of your cards and he has his hand still very much hidden from you,” Rarity explained.  “Besides, I don’t think you exactly know what you’re doing.  I mean, you’ve only ever dated Discord.  Have the two of you ever kissed in your time together?  I feel like I would remember if you told me, but I’m still a bit focused on the Ray ordeal.”
“No, Discord and I have never kissed on the lips, just pecks on the cheek as well,” Fluttershy informed her.  “I’m still not sure why this matters though.”
“Sorry, I forget you don’t really dabble into romance and things of the romantic matter often,” Rarity apologized.  “What I’m saying is that you have no advantage in the romantic field!  Ray knows that you’re pining for him very hard, as well as how much you truly care for him, while you don't have a good measure of his feelings towards you.  
And we haven’t even gotten into detail with your relationship with Discord yet!  Honestly, you do have quite the messy love life, indeed.”
“Rarity,” Fluttershy groaned.  “I don’t know anymore.  It’s just a huge mess in my head, and I don’t want to think about it right now.  I mean, with Ray, I love him very dearly.  He's like a kicked puppy too innocent to know that it’s not his fault that he got kicked, but at the same time he’s so ruthless with his honesty and emotions that I can hardly bear to be around him.  But with Discord, it feels like we’ve become more like an assurity, like Bon Bon and Lyra.  The relationship feels almost too normal to be with the manifestation of chaos himself, and I can’t help but feeling both overwhelmed by him, and underwhelmed by what we are as a pair.  Don’t get me wrong, I love them both, but both are such huge pains that need my help, and sometimes it seems my love as well.  Oh, sweet Celestia, sometimes it feels like the fate of Equestria is all dependent on who I end up hooking up with.”
With a dramatic sigh, Rarity told her, “If only you didn’t have all of the good guys falling over you, right?”  Then becoming a bit more serious, she asked, “In the moment, right now, who would you choose to be with forever?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” she wailed helplessly, shaking her head as she lifted her hooves to cover her face.  “This is so hard, and not being able to make a decision between one great stallion and another is making me want to say both!  But at the thought of doubling up, I feel so promiscuous.  Am I promiscuous, Rarity?”
“Not at all, darling,” Rarity comforted her.  With an assuring smile, she told her, “Just think of it two exquisite opportunities!”
“Yeah, except whichever option I choose will have its own consequences, and one of the options will be left hurting,” Fluttershy exasperatedly complained.  “In fact, I’m pretty sure that Ray is already suffering from all of this romantic drama on top of the whole reason he’s here.  Oh gosh, if he hadn’t shown up, if this whole situation had been avoided, do you think it’d be for the better?”
“Absolutely not,” Rarity told her.  “For every bad memory, a good memory will make up for it twofold.”
“Rarity, the world isn’t like that,” Fluttershy regretfully objected.  “Ray has shown us that.”
“True,” Rarity agreed after a moment, giving her friend a frown.  “Oh, I do hate how things have begun to change so quickly.  Do you remember just three weeks ago, when life was simpler?  My, it feels like months ago already.  I do hope things start going by quicker, that we can just, enjoy the time but not squander in it.  Tell me, Fluttershy, what do you think.”
What did she think?  A lot.  But right now the only thing she could think about was how life might’ve been without Ray, without having known him.  She was sure that she would miss all of those pleasant memories, but disturbingly, there was a great deal more fear and sorrow in each memory of the human, even in the happiest of the memories.  There was a darkness about that boy that equally scared and lured Fluttershy, like a dangerous glowing light in the Everfree.  What if, for once, that light wasn't like gleaming off of some dew?  What if this was the glowing of a Tmberwolve’s eyes, leering at its prey from only a few feet away, ready to consume its dinner?
The comparison made Fluttershy instantly hate herself.  Ray wasn’t like some beastial creature that walked around with barely any consciousness of mind.  He was a strong and noble human that was willing to fight for a species that wasn’t his own after the injustice he’d suffered thanks to them.   There was nothing stopping him from walking away and into the wilderness, but he stayed in spite of the prospect of what was to come.  He was a good one, probably better than a majority of the stallions that were native to Equestria.  
“I think that this has gotten rather off topic,” Fluttershy asserted firmly.  “I’m supposed to be Ray’s impromptu psychiatrist, so I should be worried more about him than my romantic life.”
“Au contraire,” Rarity objected.  “If we don’t solve your romantic feelings towards each other, it will only leave tension, mayhaps even trust issues!  I believe that, before you can properly examine and help a pony in need, you must first consider your feelings towards them, and theirs towards you and the help you offer!  Remember Pinkie Pie and the poor old mule who moved here some time back?  Celestia knows she was only doing the friendly and usual Pinkie Pie thing, but it really wasn’t much help to the old donkey.  You don’t want to accidentally identify yourself as helping somepony when really you're oblivious to the harm you’re causing them.”
“You think I can harm him,” Fluttershy asked incredulously, sadly poking at her salad.  
“At no fault of intention, I’m sure, but it is a sad fact of life that you can hurt anypony and anypony can hurt you,” Rarity lamented.  “Unfortunately, the pain is only increased the more you know and love a person, so when they do even the most minor of things, you can be  greatly hurt.”
“How do you know all of this, Rarity,” Fluttershy asked.  Despite her friend’s proclamations of having gone out with a good share of stallions in her life, Fluttershy knew she didn’t have nearly as many dates behind her belt.  
“Well, I learned a great deal of this from my family, actually,” Rarity told her.  “I get called stupid and childish sometimes, and am told that some of my designs are, well, out of date by ponies from time to time, but whe Sweetie Belle says that she’s disappointed in me or that she’d rather be sisters with Applejack, well, it hurts a thousand times more than whatever any Canterlot snub can say.”
“And you think that this applies to romantic relations as well,” she questioned quietly.  
“But of course, darling,” Rarity told her, her voice unusually cheerful considering the subject matter.  “When you romance somepony, you should treat them as if they were already a member of your family.  I’m not very good at it, but I do know that around your special somepony, there should be no masks and no lies.  You shouldn’t need to protect each other from anything that isn’t physically a threat.”
“Which is probably why Ray can’t be the right choice for me,”  Fluttershy concluded with a sad frown, laying her head down against the table.  “I mean, he wears multiple different masks around everypony except Otolo, and even though she trusts me, Otolo won’t tell who he is behind the mask.  I don’t want to be distrusting of him in any way, but somepony who can’t be honest in nature must lie in practice, right?”
“... Precisely,” Rarity obligingly agreed.
After a few moments of thinking, Fluttershy quietly asked, “Rarity, on the train to Canterlot, did you overhear Applejack and I’s conversation?”
Rarity bit her lip, glancing to the side.  “I did hear a good deal of it, or at least, everything about Ray and Discord.  I didn’t ever think I’d say this, but I’m glad that Ray and you haven’t become an official companionship romantically,” Rarity solemnly admitted, causing Fluttershy to deflate.  “I mean, he’s such a wonderful gentlecolt, and he is a dear friend and Celestia knows the girls love him, but there is something about him that sets off the alarms in my head.  When you told me that he had killed somepony, I… I wasn’t surprised by it.  More, I was surprised that it had happened so soon.  Ever since he’d asked me to make those clothes for him, I’ve been thinking about how grim he was, and how panicked he’d looked over little things.  You’re right to say he has a darkness about him, but I regretfully would argue that he spreads a darkness around him.  
“These past two weeks have been more hectic and emotionally rampant than those of any other before, and I can only credit that to him, and the unfortunate insinuations of his arrival.  The great and terrible truth is that he isn’t one of us, a pony.  With other species, that’s more natural because they are natives to Equestria, but Ray is from somewhere else completely.  We know almost nothing but what he’s told us about his home, and he seems to give that information begrudgingly.  You’ve said that he never drops his mask around anypony but Otolo, but the first time he came into my boutique, he was so intimidating with his distraught and dire appearance, that, well, for a moment I asked myself why Twilight would dare to bring such a monster to fight for us.  I’ve hated that I’ve even had the faintest conception of that thought, but there is a good deal of my more rational side to those thoughts, a side I wish would just shush up.
“Fluttershy, this human is the greatest thing to enter our lands since we did, but at the same time, he’s probably one of the worst things happen to us.  He’s too perfect of a person from his land to be an acceptable member of this society.  He’s different from us in every way possible, and that fact doesn’t sit well with us, especially the matter that he can and will kill a lot.  It’s unacceptable to us, yet unstoppable.  He is as much of a hero as he is a villain to us, because he does things to save us that are worse than anything Cozy Glow, Tirek, and Chrysalis have ever done.  Quite frankly, I’m halfway to saying stay away from him, just because of what he is, but at the same time, I see who he is.”
Fluttershy took a deep breath, wiping a tear from her eye.  Why was the truth so painful?  “Oh, Fluttershy, I didn’t mean to be so harsh, I just… I just spoke my mind, and it came out all wrong,” Rarity apologized.  After a moment, she reached over the table to bring Fluttershy in for a hug.  The small pegasus accepted the embrace, crying softly into the unicorn’s shoulder as the cool night air blew through the open streets.  “Fluttershy, dear, it is getting rather late, and we’re both done with this food… and quite frankly I feel like we’re done with this harsh conversation.  I’m going to check us both out, if that’s alright.”
“That’s fine,” she murmured into her friend’s shoulder, slowly leaning back.  “I think I just need some sleep.”
“Yeah, you do that,” Rarity encouraged her with a pat on her shoulder.  “Goodnight, Fluttershy.”
“Goodnight,” she returned.  
That night was not a good night, and in the morning, she had to get her sheet laundered from how many tears she’d cried.
> Sadly the Truth
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The night was a very long one for Ray.  He was a side sleeper by nature, but seeing as how his shoulder was still aching from the cut, he wasn’t able to rest well.  At Zecora’s hut, the bed had been small and right next to a wall, and he hadn’t even really been consciously making the choice to sleep.  However, his bed had been explicitly designed for his own comfort as a larger person in this world, which meant that he could easily roll onto his hurt shoulder and wake up with a curse at the stinging pain.  Which is what he did several times.
He finally gave up sleeping on the bed and trudged down the stairs, sitting himself on the sofa with a blanket and falling asleep there, Otolo decisively nesting on his lap.  That was where he woke up in the morning as well, though at some point in the night he’d slumped over to the side, and had fallen on his left shoulder.  At first he was confused by why he was seeing everything sideways, but after a moment he came to his senses and realized what had happened.  Otolo was still nestled on his lap, though because of the awkward sideways angle, she was halfway tipped over.  
After mentally congratulating himself on being smart enough to sleep on the far right of the couch, and not in the center or left, he sat up.  He’d gone to bed without putting a shirt on, and while it was still barely warm enough at night to get away with the action, he felt the chill of oncoming fall on his bare skin.  Shivering slightly, he slowly sat up, much to the chagrin of Otolo, who chittered annoyedly at him with a sleepy glare.  
He simply picked her up and set her on the arm of the sofa, telling her, “If you want to sleep more, by all means, be my guest.  I gotta go.  I’m pretty sure that telling Skalos the reason I’m late for training today was because I was serving as my bird friend’s pillow won’t fly over him well.”  After realizing what he’d said, he slapped a hand over his face and told her, “That was unintended.”
There was a small chirp in response to his comment, but already the little bird was hunkering into herself and against the back of the sofa to catch some more sleep.  Ray rolled his eyes, getting off of the couch and heading into the kitchen to grab something to eat.  He saw that it was about twenty minutes before when he was actually supposed to wake up, but he felt more energized after having been down, even for only two days.  It was a shame that Skalos was more than likely going to keep him from doing anything too physical today, despite him feeling almost completely healed.  
He cooked himself some eggs for breakfast and got a glass of milk to wash it down.  However, after the initial meal, he still felt rather hungry, and grabbed a bowl of cereal to add to it.  He recognized quickly that he was probably going through a growth spurt, but it was also entirely possible that he was extra hungry from skipping dinner last night.  He had been too emotionally tired to bother keeping himself up, and simply wandered around his house while wondering what had actually happened.  Then, too puzzled and too worn out to care about eating, he’d gone to bed.
Which reminded him that he hadn’t showered in three days now.  He winced at the thought of how bad he had to smell, and didn’t even bother with a pit sniff as he walked up the stairs and grabbed a towel.  With a quick glance at the clock to measure about how much time he could spend leisurely in the shower.  Hopping in, he spent a good amount of his time scrubbing out any remaining crusty bits of dried blood from it, as well as some drippage that hadn’t quite been taken care of from below the belt.  He spent the rest of his time trying to relax his muscles under the hot massage of the cascading water, keeping his thoughts on trivial things to prevent too much of a self-pity party.  
Completing his shower, he finally got out a fresh pair of clothes and a new shirt that hopefully wouldn’t meet the same fate as the last one.  This one was made of some sort of thick material, perhaps wool, and felt warm against the early winter season.  Thanks to the patterns of greens and reds, he was reminded of Christmas, and almost laughed at the thought.  Come to think of it, an ugly sweater gift was exactly something he needed to give Rarity for her birthday.  That reaction was sure to be something to cheer him up on a rainy day.  With a light chuckle, he finished drying his hair and left his room, a small smile remaining with him.
There was still about twenty minutes before he needed to leave, so he decided to take the time walking instead of jogging.  He left a window open in case Otolo decided she wanted to leave before exiting his house, strolling quietly past the sleeping bird and ensuring that she was indeed comfortable.  After closing the door behind him, he casually began walking the path away from his house, smiling at a passing flock of what he presumed were geese overhead.  They were leaving as the cooler months set in, and as such he briefly wondered if Otolo would eventually join them, despite her assurance that she’d be staying with him. With a cautious glance at the path, he stepped off it, allowing his eyes to follow the flock further along their journey away.
As the flock continued on, however, there was one, at the head of the group, that split off, allowing another of the flock to take its place as head of their V shaped pattern.  With a confused quirk of his head, he watched as the rogue flier dove away, and down towards the ground at incredible speed.  Soon the figure became more clear, the morning light giving way to the colorful display of colors that made up the creature's mane, the cyan body becoming clearly ponyish.  With a smile, he observed Rainbow Dash as she gave him a mighty triple loop in the air before deftly ignoring any concerns of self-preservation, folding her wings and letting herself fall deftly to the ground.  
She landed almost perfectly besides him, already in a bowing stance, accepting her applause early.  “What was that,” Ray asked with a cheerful smile.  
“Just a little show for a very good friend,” she remarked genuinely, not a single trace of sarcasm or haughtiness in her voice.  
“Oh,” her exclaimed with a curious tone.  “And what’s the occasion exactly?”
“Well, let’s just say that I took your words to heart and went straight over to Applejack’s, and let’s just say things escalated from there,” Rainbow explained with a slight blush, though it didn’t seem too much from embarrassment.  
“Well, that much I collected from what I overheard AJ and Apple Bloom arguing over when I showed up the other day,” he commented.  “Little Apple didn’t seem to like it.”
Rainbow winced at the statement, muttering, “Yeah, I can see why.”  With a little chuckle, she told him, “I guess she does have a point though.  But, I mean, I can definitely see where AJ’s coming from.  If Scootaloo were to come home with a colt, even just in a friendly way, I know I’d be a bit over the roof with my protectiveness as well.”
“Yeah,” Ray trailed off, glancing to the ground.  Looking back up, he asked, “So, any other reason in particular you popped down to me?”
“Well, I wanted to thank you for the advice, because it led to the best few days of my life,” Rainbow elaborated.  “I wanted to thank you the day after the Runnin’, but you weren’t around after the morning, or the next day, and the next.  Where the hay were you?”
With a small sigh, he questioned, “You talked to Fluttershy yet?”
“No, not since mid-morning yesterday,” she responded.  “Poor mare’s been worried sick about you.  It was absolutely terrible, and not even a note or word of where you were going either!”  She paused her furious rant for a minute as she remembered something.  “Though, Applejack did tell me who you went along with as well…” 
“The Fallen,” Ray figured. “Yeah, that was Skalos, the guy who’s training me.”
“Well, yeah,” Rainbow murmured, almost sullenly.  “What happened?  Was it… something to do with all of those minotaurs?”
With a deep breath, he lamented, “When is it not?”  Giving her a sorry look, he apologized, “Sorry, didn’t mean to start a pity party.  Yeah, it was.  There was a faction in the Fallen, and Skalos brought me to it.  Things came to blows, and I ended up leaving there with a cut up shoulder.  I spent the last two days at Zecora’s.  Nice zebra, by the way.”
“Oh, yeah, we shoulda introduced the two of you,” Rainbow commented thoughtfully, tapping a hoof against her chin.  “The two of you are the only permanent residents in Ponyville that are from a completely different land.  It woulda been nice if the two of you had gotten to know each other before the whole tabbing incident.  By the way, do you mind if I take a look at it?  I’ve had my fair few accidents flying and whatnot, and I’d like to compare scars.”
“Well, it’s a gruesome way to showboat, but it’s nothing like the scar I have on my stomach,” Ray informed her, pulling down his shirt on his right side, making sure to not brush the still sensitive wound.  “Zecora pulled the stitches out yesterday, but you can still see where it was the worst.  Not sure if you can exactly see any of the skin underneath, but still a little torn.”
“Indeed it is,” Rainbow muttered as she stared with uncharacteristic interest at his almost healed wound.  “You said you got stabbed?  Pretty neat, if you ask me.  A war wound before you even head out to war!  What didja do to the other guy?”
“Um, nothing,” he lied, trying vainly to keep his mind off of the troubles of the killing he’d done.  Not yet.  Not when Skalos or Fluttershy weren’t around.  “Just stood strong and told him to screw off.”
Rainbow gave him a disbelieving scrunch of her face, then said, “Nah.  You’re not the type to take a punch sitting down.”  Lifting her hooves in the air, she hovered off the ground and gave a few mock jabs, declaring,  “Probably beat him up real good, like a hay pile!  Wish I coulda seen you givin’ the little idiot what he deserved!”
“Rainbow, I killed him,” Ray finally admitted, looking away.  
“Oh,” she softly said, her hooves dropping as a sorry expression fell over her face.  “Hey, I didn’t mean to make ya think of all that.  Just tried to lighten the mood.  Besides, you’re still a good kid in my books.  Don’t let it beat down on you too hard.  We all gotta do what we gotta do, and you’re one of the toughest guys out there.  I don’t speak from any experience, but I’m pretty sure that’s warranted, so if ya feel guilty, just tell Flutters.  She’s my best friend, and she’ll be able to help ya out real good.”
After a moment of consideration, Ray looked up and gave Rainbow a smile.  “You know what, I think I’ll take your word for it,” he told her with a slightly sad tone.  “I gotta go, though.  See you around.”
“Alright, see ya Ray,” Rainbow waved goodbye.  “Should take care of the geese anyways.  Stupid bird’s’ll fly themselves straight into the right side of a mountain if somepony ain’t leadin’ them, anyways.”
Ray chuckled as the pegasus left, shaking his head as he left her and continued on his stroll down the path.  By now he realized that there wasn’t time to walk, or even go through the town, so instead he began to run down the direction that Skalos had shown him, through the hills and to the outskirts of the Everfree.  He almost made a relieved laugh as he entered the dense forest, feeling the strange half cold of the early autumn morning brush off to the wet warmth within the swamp.  The entire forest only seemed to have grown greener since the Running of the Leaves, something he hadn’t the time or care to notice before.  
Jogging quickly through the forest, he followed the path faithfully, still attempting to memorize it by heart and not by sight.  Something Skalos hadn’t mentioned yet, but he sure would come up eventually, was to learn the geography of the terrain around him, especially in foreign lands.  He wasn’t sure exactly what was waiting for him on the other continent, and neither did anyone else.  Funny how the only time they had even knowledge on what was going to happen was when it disadvantaged him.  With a short, mirthless laugh, he emerged from the deep cover of the forest, right in front of the Acres.  
For a singular moment, he considered going right through to the homestead and letting everyone know he was alright, but he quickly realized he still had no explanation for what had happened to him in front of Mac and Sugar Belle.  With a sigh, he knew he would have to disappoint the Apple family once again and force them to wait several more hours before they knew his conditions.  He winced at the thought, realizing once again the mistake of attaching himself to another family, especially considering what was to come to pass in the next year.  If he couldn’t even go a month in this land unscathed, what chance did he have at returning when the war became a real factor in his everyday life? 
Not thoughts for right now, he commanded himself, deciding to skip over the Acres entirely and wrapping around the perimeter to enter the hills behind them.  This part of the Everfree, that practically brushed branches with the Apple’s farm, was almost cleaner, like a touch of the neatness the orchards had was stained into the trees and vines of the Everfree trees.  It was a nice thought, but more likely, these trees had been part of the Acres long ago, and instead of the tameness passing into the Everfree, the Everfree passed into the tameness.  In fact, comparing the orchard more towards the farmhouse, it did indeed look like these apple trees at the border between the two were more wild and overgrown than the others closer to home. 
Ray noted all of this with a sort of serene ominocity, not quite sure what this bode for the Acres or for the Everfree.  With a final harrumph of acknowledgement, he continued out from between the trees and to the slope of the first hill, that led down to the lakeside.  Though he’d noted the hills on this side of Ponyville before were more sharp and common than the gentle slopes that surrounded his house, they were much more distinguishable, with some even having a sheer stone face on one side with only and uneven, steep incline upwards to them otherwise.  It was strange to think that even though these hills weren’t part of the Everfree, they characterized it so well that, at another time, the forest and hills would have created one of the best naturally chaotic and dangerous landscapes.
Boy Discord would love that, he thought to himself as he slid down the hill, towards the lakeside.  This part of the bank was at a curvature in the oval body of water, about two or three hundred feet from where he and Skalos usually met.  He noted that, indeed, the Fallen was a ways down the bank, staring at him, as if somehow knowing exactly the direction from where he would come.  Ray waved a greeting at him from the distance and began running towards the Fallen.
Once he was within earshot of the Fallen, he heard Skalos yell, “Almost late, lordling!  Another minute and you’d be doing much worse things than I had planned for today!”
“Had,” Ray asked as he closed the remaining distance, breathing heavily.  “Plans changed anyways?”
“Indeed, they have,” Skalos informed him.  “After what occurred in the home of us Fallen, I was considering following the healing process with more strategic training, but after your confessional to Zecora, I realized that in order to be general, you would have to accept that you indeed were going to kill, whether it be former allies or age old enemies, it doesn’t matter.  So, as such, this next week or so will be conditioning for killing, and perhaps even some survivalism trips to the northern mountains.  You humans eat meat, right?  Perhaps you can learn to hunt while you’re up there.”
Ray stood with his mouth half open in surprise and shock at how nonchalantly Skalos was explaining what they would do, the preparations, and even prospect of killing.  He snapped his jaw shut as Skalos’ gaze earned a slightly demanding, but mostly requiring sharpness to it.  With a scowl, he half shouted, “Is that going to be a problem, lordling.”
For a moment, Ray was silent, his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth, but only for a moment did it last before he turned off his heart and responded, “No sir.”
Skalos gave him a searching, almost appraising look before he turned away, calling behind him, “You don’t call me sir, lordling.  I am beneath you in both rank and person, so any respect you have in me may be signified through continuing to follow my instructions.  Remember, you have no obligations to follow me or my orders, it is your choice.  What isn’t your choice, however, is what the future holds.  Remember that.  Kill or be killed.  Kill to survive.  Survive to live.  That is your creed.”
Ray nodded sharply, his jaw closed tightly.  He would not let any part of his doubts, his feelings, or his halfhearted attempts at normality interfere now.  This was where he needed to excel, and if that meant cutting every other part of him out in order to perfect the side that needed to be lethal and calculating, so be it.  
“Now, today I want you to be using a pole as a mock spear.  In the future, you should bring it daily, if not for use, then for practice in walking around with it.  More accurately running with it in hand, as that is the optimal way for you to travel.”  Skalos paused in the doorway of his hut, grunting as he began pulling out one of the dummies.  Ray rushed over, practically picking up the heavy, straw filled figure, and letting Skalos guide him to where it needed to be put.  Letting go of the strap at the bottom he’d been using to drag the dummy, Skalos instructed, “There’s a pole about as tall as you right inside the door, halfway behind the other dummies.  You’ll be using that today.”
Nodding, he ran into the house, ducking under the low doorway and staying crouched as he searched for the specific pole.  He found several only as tall as Skalos, or some as tall as his legs, until he discovered the one he was supposed to use buried underneath the other poles.  He had some trouble pulling it out from its hiding place, the long stick too big to be lifted normally thanks to the low ceiling and its height.  When he finally managed to finish retrieving it from the hut, however, Skalos was standing patiently by the dummy, staring at the lake thoughtfully.  
Ray let him be for a moment, stepping up beside him before asking, “So, what is it exactly I’m supposed to be doing today?  Some sort of jabbing routine again, or something else?  My shoulder doesn’t hurt anymore, but I still don’t think it’d be all too wise to reopen it.”
“Of course,” Skalos agreed, turning and facing him.  “Unfortunately, there will come a time when you aren’t in your best condition to fight, and either to survive or to protect, you will have to anyways.  Today’s conditioning will be teaching you how to fight while wounded and still go without worsening it.  Good luck.”
The Fallen turned back to the waters, to which Ray hesitantly asked, “Wait, is that it?” 
“Well, it depends on how you do,” Skalos vaguely answered.  After a moment of waiting for instruction, the stallion told Ray, “Well, no use in waiting.  Get started!”
Wordlessly, Ray turned to the dummy, planting one foot forward and another back, settling into one of the stances Skalos had taught him.  From there, he bent ever so slightly, weighing out the smooth wood weapon in his hand before finding its balance.  This staff didn’t have a specific counterweight on the back or front of it to replicate the spear exactly, but he was able to tell which side was supposed to replicate the spearhead thanks to a little symbol scorched into the wood.  Taking a deep breath, he stabbed the spear forward, keeping his balance as he absorbed the push of the dummy back into his makeshift spear.  
He slowly began stabbing the different parts of the dummy, practicing the angles for face-to-face combative striking.  This was one of the more intense things he’d been taught yet, a sequence of lethal strikes that slowly sped up until you were hitting seven different points in under two seconds from the jabbing.  Because he had usually used his spear, there weren't any dummies to practice on, and the strikes usually flowed without stop.  Now that there was a counterforce to his strikes, he had to ensure that his strikes and grip were exactly as practiced so he didn’t receive a jammed wrist or major blistering.  Thankfully, he had been doing exactly as Skalos had instructed with his grips and strikes the entire time, and his muscle memory allowed him to be precise in the action.
As he sped up his form, he began noticing that with every strike, the indentions left by his spear on the cloth and hay figure were remaining, and after several dozen reps of the form, they were deepening.  Each strike landed more firmly against the dummy, staying and not bouncing away.  With a grunt, he sped up the form even more, striking each point at least ten times a minute.  Head, chest, left breast, right breast, lower lungs on the left, lower lungs on the right, and center stomach.  Seven points that would prove lethal, whether instantaneously or after a few minutes, it usually wouldn’t matter.  Being hit in those places, or stabbed, more accurately, would cause any living organism to begin to flee, or try to protect the wound instead of continuing to fight.  The strikes disabled and killed quickly, allowing for him to move on to another enemy, over and over again.  
As he continued to let the strikes flow rapidly, his thoughts began to drift uncontrollably.  These were the places that he was going to hit an actual, living, breathing, thinking enemy, where he would strike intentionally to end their life.  These places hurt when hit, let alone stabbed.  Would he really stab a minotaur in the stomach and walk away, letting it slowly, painfully die without a second thought as he moved on to kill another?  Yes, he would.  And he’d repeat the process over and over, until either there weren’t any more to kill, or he’d been killed.  
His pace increased, his strikes becoming more and more viscous and powerful, the soft thudding of the wood against the hay and straw pulsing in his ears quicker than his own heartbeat.  Each strike meant a kill, another minotaur he would slay out in a new foreign land, a foreign land in foreign lands.  So it would be.  So it was.  With every forehead strike, he saw the spear he’d taken from Cohin’s own hooves piercing his skull, the feeling of bone breaking from the force of his strike.
“Kill or be killed,” Ray murmured to himself, panting in between words.  “Kill to survive.  Survive to live.  Protect through killing.  Kill to survive, Survive to live.  Give others life through death.”  
He continued to mutter the chant over and over as his pace began to slow, each strike becoming almost brutal with the amount of force he was putting into the staff.  He huffed with the final strike of every form, sweat slowly building and dripping down his arms and across his hand.  The wooden staff sunk deeply into the face, stuffing bursting out of the sides from the pressure of the hit.  Panting, he glared at the dummy’s sunken face, before committing to a last series of strikes.
“Kill or be killed,” he huffed, striking the chest.  “Kill to survive.”  The sides collapsed, slumping forward and covering the stomach.  “Survive to live.” The stomach was shoved in brutally regardless.  “Live to kill.”  The staff was driven completely through the face of the dummy, straw and dust flying through the air, the golden strands the red hue of blood.
> Friendly Outings
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fluttershy chewed her lip nervously, her hoof tapping quickly beneath her as she stared out at the open plain.  It felt like it had been so long since she’d last had a good look at the grassy hills, and not the house which stood solitary on the top of a shorter one.  The solitude provided with the location of the house was probably intentionally designed, in case Ray had taken a disliking to the ponies and had wanted to stay away.  That was understandable, but now, more than ever, it looked like he was being cut off from the rest of the town, left alone in the middle of a foreign hillscape.  
Now, however, the privacy also offered somewhat of a challenge to Fluttershy, a dangerous, unforeseen flaw in a budding plan.  She had never spied on anypony before, at least, not with the intent of ensuring another pony’s safety -well he wasn’t exactly a pony, now was he- but this felt like the right thing to do in her mind.  It wasn’t every day that she felt herself leaning in for a kiss, and she knew that no stallion in their right mind would give up an opportunity to kiss somepony they already confessed to being in love with.  This was simply her seeing exactly what might be going on with Ray, and why he might be so off, more than he explained.
It had been three days now since Ray had returned from that dreadful place, three days since he’d rejected her.  She may be completely out of her mind for thinking that this was the best way of resolving the problem at hoof, but she needed some way to see behind the masks and lies, to see who Ray really was.  And if it meant spying on him day in and day out, well, so be it.  She didn’t have too much on her plate anyways.  With the Running having just occurred, most of the winter preparations for the animals were instinctual, and nothing urgent had come up yet to prevent her.  In fact, this was all almost perfectly timed to happen, which may be why she felt down.
Was spying on somepony else really this easy?  Was this invasion of somepony else’s privacy actually just a walk through the town and a look through the binoculars, because if it really was, did that mean somepony else could be spying on her?  The thought made her even more nervous, and she forcefully pushed her own trembling leg to the ground to prevent it from tapping.  The most concerning thing to her wasn’t that it was so easy, but that it felt too easy, as if it were like a weakly made nest; real enough to draw you in, but as soon as you settle down, it collapses.  
That’s what it felt like, even before Ray was awake.  She was absolutely sure some pegasus from above or an observant earth pony would spot her and give her away.  She kept glancing around the sky and ground around the tree was hiding in, one that was lining the road into the town, just on the other side of the bridge.  There were a few ponies out at this time, but most were just barely waking up or otherwise getting ready to leave, which was probably the only reason nopony had noticed her clumsy attempt at spying.  With another nervous glance around the town square, she went back to staring through her little binoculars.
Surprisingly, it was at that exact moment that she spotted Ray leaving the confines of his home with Otolo fluttering around his head.  He looked slightly messy, his hair rustled up as he began to sprint away from his house.  However, instead of taking the path through town like she presumed he would, he simply began running down the side of the hill, straight towards the Everfree.  Gulping, she realized that he was going to pass through the dangerous forest to get to the Acres quicker, and that if she wished to keep up with him, she’d have to leave her hiding spot and follow.  
Sighing, she glanced around to once again make sure nopony was around, then slowly flew out of the tree, brushing branches aside.  With another gulp, she began to hover over the ground and fly in the direction that Ray had been heading.  She kept herself low, but quickly realized that it might be harder to spot him from so low without being spotted herself, so she ascended above the thick cloud cover.  She wasn’t quite up to date on the weather schedules, so maybe it would rain, but she wasn’t sure exactly if that was important.  Other than some weather pegasi that might make sure the clouds were in the right place, the rain may mean more cover, which would be good.
Oh sweet Celestia, since when did I become so analytical, she thought to herself as she passed wetly through a cloud and landed on the top.  She knew why she had, though, why each and every one of them, even Pinkie, had become more somber than they had before.  If Twilight had told them about the minotaurs, she knew they would have been shocked, but they would have gone into the conflict with a sense of… safety?  After all, every other fiend and villain they’d faced so far had failed to harm them or otherwise defeat them.  The fact that she didn’t believe they could defeat this threat, however, was punctuated with her bringing Ray among them.  And perhaps that was why, for what he stood for, he was the scariest thing in Equestria.
She shuddered as she felt the truthfulness of the thought, the brutal reality that, given any number of situations, he was more powerful, more capable, and more dangerous to Equestria than any other villain, or villains.  At any moment in time, if he found himself disappointed, enraged, or betrayed by the ponies he was supposed to defend, he could turn tides and  effectively become the destruction of ponykind.  He was powerful without magic, and the fact that he didn’t seem to realize it only made him more concerning.  The more she thought about it, the more Fluttershy realized that he was a monster, a monster who had no cage but whatever it made around itself.  
It was clear, however, that this monster was in control, and may even be harming itself instead of those that have cause to fear him.  Whether he intended to or not, Fluttershy could see that Ray was causing himself immense pain by forcing himself into the shoes he’d promised to fill.  The cage the beast had made for itself was much too small, and Fluttershy intended to find out why the beast restricted itself when it could be better when it was free.  The only problem was that it meant getting close to the beast, a daring move that brought a good deal of both turmoil and heartbreak.  After all, she knew that a beast was just a creature that wasn’t understood by the world it resided in.
Fluttershy crept to the edge of her cloud, watching the human enter the Everfree from above, catching the faintest glimpse of his blue shirt through the shrubbery.  Taking the opportunity while he was still in the forest, where his view of the sky would be obstructed, she flitted to a cloud a few hundred paces away, one that was thick and broad, spanning from the forest to Apple Acres and beyond.  The massive cloud was a soft, dark one that provided enough of a firm footing to allow her to rest her full weight on it, and she flew from one end to another, settling down at the edge.  
As soon as she had seated herself down, she spotted her friend emerge from the dense thicket and into the small lanes that split the Acres from the Everfree.  He was running at full speed, descending a small hill towards the lake that sat right behind the farm.  It was bordered on all sides by hills, some bare green and others covered with the Everfree and the calmer forests.  The unique spot was quite cut off from the other areas around Ponyville thanks to being right past the Apples’ property and surrounded by the dangerous Everfree.  
From her vantage point, she could faintly see another figure beside the lake, waiting patiently for Ray’s arrival.  She could tell they were talking, but couldn’t hear quite what.  Perhaps if she moved down and onto the crest of the hill, she would be able to hear them, but that would mean that she wouldn’t be able to see the two.  With a slightly disappointed clench of her mouth, she decided to stay in the clouds and watch.  She pulled out her binoculars and took a long look down at the figures below.
The Fallen -Skelo, if she remembered right- was talking slowly and pointing to a pair of dummies that she hadn’t noticed, Ray nodding along with the instructions.  She frowned in confusion as Ray carefully set down his spear and grabbed a short wooden rod.  He ran his hand up it as he stared at his teacher before grasping it at the other end.  With both ends grabbed, he listened to the ghostly pony as he continued to speak.  Ray spoke in return and indicated one end of the wooden rod, receiving an affirmative nod, and more instructions from the stallion.  
The interaction between the two went on for a few minutes longer, before Ray suddenly started moving towards one of the dummies.  As soon as he arrived, he began striking quickly at the straw figure, making quick, lethal blows along the neck and stomach.  Fluttershy swallowed hard as he suddenly struck the head of it with a wide swipe, causing some hay to fly out of the side.  She grimaced as he repeated the action with the other side of the head, with the same outcome as before.  Chillingly, when she looked back to the stallion, he was smiling and saying something to Ray, whose head jerked towards him.  They both shared a moment of laughter before Skelo began giving new instructions.  
The Fallen produced another short stick, giving it over to Ray, who looked a bit confused for a moment.  After some gestures and waving his hoof around, Ray nodded unsurely and began to slowly strike at a singular dummy with both sticks.  As he began to get the rhythm down, he sped the attack up, and soon his strikes were sharp and precise, a dance with lethal intent.  Her throat tightened up as he suddenly turned so he could begin striking both dummies fluidly, and suddenly one of the heads of the dummies was knocked clean off. 
Having destroyed the first dummy, he focused on the last one, using his knives to strike simultaneously at the straw enemy.  With malicious endurance, he focused on the gut of the figure, and within only a few minutes of the deadly attack, he had opened up its gut with the blunt sticks, allowing for straw to fall out.  Having finished off the two, he turned back to Skelo, who nodded in affirmation at something he said.  Dropping the sticks, he walked over to the lake and dipped his hands in the water.  All the while, Fluttershy watched, entranced by the immense power that Ray was showing, the pure strength he had that was unmatched by any other.
It was strange that seeing such things terrified her, yet she was too fascinated to look away, instead staring dumbly.  Ray finished cooling his hands and returned to his instructor, who was speaking once again.  Following whatever orders were given, he picked up his strange spear, the metal glint blinding her for a moment.  With a grimace at the blinding light, she looked away, setting her binoculars down.  
That was her undoing, as in a moment of thoughtlessness, she had forgotten that pegasi could stay on clouds, and not objects.  The binoculars fell straight through the cloud, which she only now noticed had drifted over the pair training, and towards the ground below.  She could only stare in mute horror as the object fell several hundred feet, praying that the two below her wouldn’t notice the object.  The only indication of them noticing was the two suddenly pausing in their actions, which from so high looked only like shuffling.  However, having seen the same reaction from before, she realized that they had looked up, and she quickly ducked behind a puffy part of the cloud.
“Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no,” she muttered fearfully to herself.  She knew that she would mess up like this, somehow give herself away on the first day of her desperate attempt to see the real Ray.  She hadn’t even managed to catch him in his natural state, only spot him when he was his most focused.  And now the opportunity had been blown in a moment of carelessness, and she was probably spotted and Ray would never want to see her again and hate her forever.  “Oh, why are you so stupid,” she quietly wailed to herself.
Before Fluttershy could react, Discord suddenly popped into existence right beside her, a burst of confetti appearing with him.  “Alright, where is the lovely pink pegasus that is committing the horrendous act of self deprecation,” he asked, staring directly down at her as he floated.  Without thinking, she reached up quickly and pulled him down.  The action seemed to catch him by surprise, as he didn’t resist at all, falling directly onto her.  
“Ope, well, isn’t this cozy,” he teasingly cooed as he rolled off her, causing her face to go red as she glanced away.  “Now, about insulting yourself..  What have I told you about that?”
“‘I’m too good for that’, ‘That’s my job’, or ‘Come on, you?’,” she responded, remembering what he told her everytime that she said something remotely discrediting about herself.  He’d started doing this some months ago, but she knew that the enchantment didn’t listen to what she said, only the negativity directed to herself, so she wasn't too concerned about Discord listening in to conversations.
“Precisely,” he loudly exclaimed, throwing his paw and claw into the air.  She shot up and pulled him under cloud cover once again, this time making sure he landed besides her and not on her.  Sitting up, he brushed dust that suddenly appeared on him off his shoulder.  “Now, please explain why exactly it is you’re handling me like some sort of hug buddy?  I may be rather attractive” -the claim was punctuated with a slick mustache appearing- “but please control yourself.  I personally find physical contact rather bothersome if it isn’t built up somewhat.”
Ignoring her chaotic friend, she whispered sharply, “I’m spying, Discord, and you might’ve blown my cover if I hadn’t already!”
“Oooh, spying,” he shrilly whispered back.  His body became white and puffy like he had suddenly transformed into a cloud, which is what he probably had done.  Turning to the ground below, he questioned conspiratorially, “And who, pray tell, are we spying on today, my dear?”
“R-Ray,” she stuttered softly, refusing to meet the surprised stare of the draconequus lying beside her.  “I need to help him, but I can’t if I don’t see exactly who he is,” she defensively stated.  “He constantly wears a mask, so I need to find a moment when he doesn’t have his mask on, even if it means watching him from the moment he wakes up to the moment he sleeps.”
“Fluttershy, this is… Well, it’s mighty devious of you, but even I didn’t spy on ponies directly, mostly because I was too busy conquering them, but still,” he cried.  Wiping the back of his cloudy claw across his forehead, he seemed to realize he was still a cloud, and waved away the puff on it.  “The point is, I think you’re a bit too worried about Ray.  I mean, invasion of privacy is a triable offense, if indeed you are caught, though I’m pretty sure Ray wouldn’t press charges.  All I’m saying is, it took me a while to come clean with my emotions and let myself loosen up.  Considering the piles upon piles of stuff he’s dealing with in his life, the more pressure you put on him to open up, the deeper the real him will burrow in.  Even if you aren’t caught, what you may find might not be worth the effort and may cause you to… step away from him completely.”
Tapping his digits together nervously, he softly muttered, “Sometimes we put on masks because the truth is worse than a lie.”
Fluttershy stared long and hard at Discord with her mouth slightly ajar, not quite sure how to process what he’d told her.  In all of her life, a pony indeed attempted to hide themselves with masks, but never once had what was under been something terrible, merely a fear the pony had about themselves.  However, Ray wasn’t a pony, and not really even an innocent person, but a grown boy, and a killer.  Maybe if the mask was pulled off, it would reveal something unforgivable, something that she wished she could deny existed.  And that was probably the true cost of forcing Ray open, the truth of why exactly he was the one here, and nopony else.
Fluttershy swallowed hard, looking Discord in the eyes as she felt her own begin to tear up.  Furling her mouth to prevent from crying, she threw herself against him, wrapping her hooves around him tightly and pressing her face into his soft fur.  Instantly, his own paw and claw encircled her, bringing her in tight as the draconequus embraced her fully, smoothing her mane as silent tears began to flow.  Discord leaned his head down to her, his long neck wrapping intimately around her as his tail did the same.  With a soft, sorrowful sigh, he pressed his own head against hers.  
She didn’t know why she flinched away at the touch of it at first, maybe because it was unexpected, or maybe because she felt ashamed for being so reliant on others, but she pushed herself back into him, whimpering through her tears.  Discord’s claws began running slowly through her messy mane, comforting her in a way only a creature like him could.  She felt herself calming down quickly, as if the embrace was something like an outlet to her sorrow and weakness, sucking it all away and dispensing it.  
She soon felt her tears dry as the last of her raw sadness was dispelled by Discord’s presence.  After several more minutes of silent embrace, Discord slowly pulled away, though Fluttershy caught his claw as he did so.  He looked her over lovingly, staring her down from head to hind hoof with a small smile on his face.  
“You know, Fluttershy, your beauty may be able to hide your exhaustion for a while, but it isn’t an infinite reservoir,” he commented as he pulled his paw through her mane.  “You have circles under your eyes, and you look bedraggled overall.  I know this whole ordeal has taken its toll on you, but you need to take care of yourself in spite of it all.  So how about I take you to have a spa?  I’ve never been myself, but I think an eon and a half of old muscles would need the occasional tending to, don’t you think?”
The offer and comment earned a smile from Fluttershy, and even though she saw through his ploy to try to ease her away from her troubles, she followed through with it, the offer too kind and the prospect too pleasant to ignore.  
“That sounds lovely, Discord.  I’d be happy to take a break to just… relax.”  She paused as she looked around, noticing their cloud had drifted slightly so that she could view where Ray and the other stallion were.  She bit her lip, catching sight of his tiny body from so high up jerking something around, and she bit her lip, forcing herself to look down at the puffy surface they sat on.  She knew that Discord had seen where she was looking, and felt a relaxing paw on her shoulder.
“He’ll be alright,” he reassured her, looking into her eyes.  With a small chuckle, he muttered, “I may not have spied on ponies, but I certainly know when they’re boring enough to be honest.  That dead guy down there is one of the most down-to-earth ponies out there, and that’s with only half a glance from half a mile up!  Now, how to get down,” he asked with a certain cheekiness in his voice.  
Fluttershy realized that they probably couldn’t get out of the clouds without being spotted, especially if her guess that Ray had caught a glance of them earlier had been correct.  She suddenly understood Discord's quip as there was only one option to get out of the sky.
“Discord, would you mind doing me a favor,” Fluttershy questioned humbly.  
“Anything, my dear,” he happily replied, knowing exactly where this was going.  
“Would you please get me out of here, preferably to the spa,” she politely requested, trying not to show her amusement at Discord’s cleverness.  “And yes, I do know this will cost me another tragic night of spending time with a dear friend,” she tried sarcastically, though the tone felt awkward on her tongue.
Discord smiled nonetheless at her attempt, commenting, “Well, we’re going on a date to the spa already, so either way you’d end up going out with me.”  Making his voice mockingly menacing, he warned, “Let this be a reminder of what happens when you insult yourself in even the slightest of sincerity!”
“Oh dear, a date with a draconequus, how severe,” she played along, giggling at the absurd little conversation.  
“Now, off to the spa then, eh?”
“Yep,” she agreed shortly, bracing for the feeling of teleportation.  It came over her quickly, the strange color of chaos transfused with the purer magic that came with teleportation.  Twilight had explained it once upon a time, but she hadn’t retained memory of the process well enough to remember.  All she knew is that it normally looked like the color of the unicorn’s magic mixed with the cosmetic colors of black and white, but with discord, those colors and his own took shapes.  Today’s were spirals which formed unevenly spaced paws, though there had been countless other shapes before these.
Suddenly it was all gone, with the feeling of being light as air filling her and making her naturally lift her wings and tail to balance.  Realizing her slightly public display, she quickly clamped all appendages around her tightly, glancing towards Discord was right beside her to make sure he hadn’t noticed.  He hadn’t, considering how he was staring intensely into a pitifully small wallet which had a few small flies emerge from its shallow interior.  With a small grumble, he tossed it behind him, where it began to fly away like a bird.
“I didn’t bring any bits, or at least, any that would stay in existence as long as I remembered them, and Twilight finally managed to seal up the Royal Coffers so I can’t reach into their reserves, so I’m out of actual money,” Discord grumbled unhappily.  “And don’t even think about trying to pay for this,” he quickly added as soon as Fluttershy opened her mouth.  She shut it slowly, looking down and around.  There was nopony outside of the spa, but considering the hour and day, there probably weren’t too many patrons anyways.  
“Aha, I’ve got it,” he declared, snapping his claws, which in turn summoned a portal into existence.  Reaching the claw in, he suddenly pulled out a hooffull of bits.  Realizing he had nowhere to put them, he glanced behind his head, to where the wallet was peacefully fluttering.  He reached out and caught it, stuffing the coins into the pouch before proudly shoving the wallet into a pocket that appeared in his coat.  
“Where did you get those bits from,” Fluttershy asked suspiciously, eyeing the place where he’d put the wallet.  
“Oh, just the Fillydelphia Bank,” he nonchalantly answered, waving it off.  “They owe me since I helped them get back that cartfull of gold that fell into the river there.”
“Um, when did that happen,” Fluttershy questioned unsurely, not remembering her friend mentioning any such incident.  
“Just now,” he said quickly, stepping towards the entrance of the spa.  “Shall we?”
Fluttershy only smiled softly in return, following him as they entered the spa together.  The interior was designed with flowery, thin paintings adorning the walls, the air cool and firm, almost like in a clinic.  Door shrouded in steam was the only sign that this was indeed an establishment for relaxation, and not for medical attention.  A receptionist desk was facing into the room and towards some soft benches, attended to today by Aloe.  She smiled as she recognized Fluttershy, but shivered slightly at the sight of Discord, who was inspecting the room appreciatively.
“Good morning Miss Fluttershy and- uh… Mr. Discord,” she welcomed unsurely, peeling her eyes away from the draconequus to greet Fluttershy.  “What will you two be enjoying today?  The same as usual for you, Fluttershy?”
“Yes please,” Fluttershy agreed, surprised by how relieved her voice sounded.  
“And, um, you, sir?”
“Well, I’ll take whatever can ease up a millennia and a half of stress plus countless chaotic transformations and disfigurements,” Discord responded chipperly.  “Or a deep tissue.  I’ve heard wonderful things about those.”
“A deep tissue massage it is, then,” Aloe confirmed, jotting it down on something on the desk.  “After an hour in the sauna or the hot tub?”
“Hot tub, please,” Fluttershy requested, feeling the sudden need to be completely wrapped in warmth.  While the hug from Discord had been nice, being higher up in the air, and especially having the cold, damp cloud’s precipitation soak into her fur, she was still rather cold.  Shivering slightly, she felt Discord’s paw on her back as they were led into the hot tub room by Aloe, and she realized then that she must have lost whatever had been said to her thoughts.  
They were provided with towels, but Aloe didn’t follow them in, allowing for some privacy as they entered the pool of slightly steaming water.  She gasped at the sudden heat before relaxing herself into the water slowly, eventually submerging herself fully.  When she emerged, she watched Discord dip his toe into the water tentatively.  Pulling it out, he had caused it to melt away like chocolate.  
“Ah, just the right temperature,” he exclaimed before stepping straight in, his entire body melting into a puddle of brown Discord.  His face appeared in the middle of it as the entirety floated over by Fluttershy.  “This is quite pleasant, if I do say so myself.  You may not have guessed it, but we draconequi are literally cold-blooded!  My natural temperature is only sixty degrees Fahrenheit, but this is almost twice as warm!”
“Sixty what,” Fluttershy asked in confusion, sure she’d heard it wrong.
“Oh nevermind, ponies don’t understand human things,” Discord grumbled, his puddle condensing to form his regular form once again.  “Quite frankly, humans don’t understand human things, but alas, I am a simple lord of chaos, and not one to judge mortals for their silly mortality.”
“You confuse me sometimes,” Fluttershy stated drowsily, the effect of the warm water.
“That’s my job,” Discord responded positively, running a claw through her wet mane softly.  She dipped her muzzle under the water, lazily blowing bubbles in the water before giggling a little.  She didn’t know why she suddenly felt so playful, but given everything she’d been worrying about, she felt it was warranted.  Thankfully, those thoughts were being dispelled completely by Discord’s embrace and the warm water that both enveloped her.
Wait… Discord’s embrace?  She groggily looked up and saw Discord smiling down on her.  She returned the smile with her own, leaning her head on his lap, her face halfway in the water as she felt herself drift away to sleep.

*******************************************************************************************************

As Discord stared lovingly down at Fluttershy, stroking her silky, wet, pink mane, he didn’t feel jealous that Ray had a place in her heart either.  In fact, he felt more obligated to respect him than ever, that he also had hold over her heart, enough that she was risking herself to try and see him truthfully.  He felt a sort of mutual respect, that a mare this great could care enough for the both of them, and while he knew that he would be jealous in only a few hours, when all of these warm fuzzies had passed away from him, he was glad.  Trully, the choice was Fluttershy’s, and he’d feel grateful if she would still call him her best friend, even though he preferred husband.  
Hesitantly, he lowered his head and pecked her wet cheek quickly, before sitting up.  She stirred slightly, before glancing up tiredly.  “I felt that,” she muttered, a little smile appearing.  
“Good,” he told her, not really feeling embarrassed for being caught.  
“This is lovely, Discord,” she mumbled, closing her eyes as she nuzzled his chest.  “Thank you.”
“Of course,” he respectfully responded, brushing through her mane some more.  With a little chuckle, he reminded her, “This is only the first half of the spa treatment too.  We still have a whole massage to go through.”
Fluttershy moaned happily at the reminder, sitting up and asking, “How long have we been in here?” 
“Eh, a little over an hour, but that spa pony told us that we could spend a little more time in here seeing as there aren’t any other patrons,” Discord explained.  “She told me to just leave the room and she’ll be with us for our massages.” 
“Mmm, well, I guess we shouldn’t keep Aloe waiting,” Fluttershy commented, stretching out and groaning slightly, water dripping from her fur.  She stepped out of the water, which had cooled a little since they had entered, Discord right behind her, willing himself dry.  Realizing that Fluttershy might have some problems drying off enough while so sleepy, he grabbed the towel provided telepathically.  He held it up towards her. Silently asking permission to dry her, to which she nodded.  Carefully, he rubbed her  down, only slightly heating up the towel for her benefit.  While it was true he could dry her just as easily as himself, he really wanted any excuse to touch her, which he took gratefully.  He knew Fluttershy had realized as well, but only made him more inclined to reward her, giving his own sort of massage through the towel until she was fairly dried.
They left the room together, and the spa mare appeared almost magically in front of them from around the corner, calling, “Your massages will be right over here.”
The pair followed the gesture and soon found themselves laying on their stomachs across a soft board, getting their backs massaged by the sisters.  Discord watched in amusement as Fluttershy dozed off once again, but unlike her, the massage woke him up some more.  Sure, he was relaxed, but he was also incredibly interested in how they did their work so well without magic.  By the end of the massage, he felt, well, admittedly the same, but that’s because he’d never been tense in the first place, and the twin he got said so herself.  
“Your muscles, Mister Discord, are very loose, and easy to handle,” she commented as he paid the fee for the visit.  
“Well, one of the benefits of being the Lord of Chaos is that there are no physical limitations to my body,” he told her.  Glancing over to Fluttershy’s sleeping form, he smiled and said, “Don’t worry, I can take her home without waking her up.” 
The spa mare nodded and allowed him to step past her and gently pick up Fluttershy, who was so dead asleep she didn’t even shuffle.  With a silent command, he instantly teleported to her house, straight aways into her room.  He managed to tuck her in completely before she awoke.  She stretched out wide with a large yawn before blinking awake completely..  
“Discord, where am I,” she asked softly.  
He had intentionally left the room dark, but forgot that she didn’t have night vision until after he’d said, “We’re in your room, silly.”
“Oh,” was all she said, scooching herself back and sitting up with another yawn.  She glanced towards the curtains, seeing that it was still light outside.  “Um, isn't it really too early for going to bed?”
“Yes, but it’s the perfect time for a nap,” he teasingly commented.  “Now just lay back down and enjoy not having any responsibilities.”
“Okay,” she complied, laying back into her bed as he tucked her in loosely.  She stared up at him with her big, perfect teal eyes, and for a brief moment, time froze.  He stared at her, and she at him, and their smiles slowly faded.  Suddenly, she spoke.
“I… I think I really like you, Discord.”
“Yeah… yeah, me too.”
Without another word, the two leaned in to each other, pressing their lips together hastily.  For a moment, they stayed like that, lips interlocked, eyes pressed shut as they forced themselves together.  For a moment, they forgot everything but the feel of each other, but all too quickly, the moment was ruined.  Discord pulled back, swallowing hard, his face bright red as Fluttershy returned the embarrassed stare, both of them out of breath.  Then, she smiled the biggest and brightest he’d ever seen her do, and he felt himself smirk as they both began chuckling.  
Yes, this was perfect.  For now, it could be like this, and Discord could feel special again.  And thanks to this pegasus, he would have the strength to go for another eon.
> The Magic of Friendship
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had been so long since Ray had lived like this, so long since he had enjoyed the feeling of waking up, even if most days he awoke sore.  He had never expected that he would find happiness in heavy labor, much less in a nation, and world not of his own.  He had expected that the apprehension of what was to come in a year would make him crack, kill him even, but as the day approached that marked a month since his arrival in Equestria, he found himself happy.  It was almost as if the conflict of what was to come was obscured completely by the conflict of everyday life.
Of course, calling his life normal in any means was hilariously incorrect, as it wasn’t common that a boy his age would be training to kill minotaurs on another planet to protect ponies, by a dead pony nonetheless!  Still, he woke up smiling every day, looking forward to spending the morning hours training with Skalos and the evening hours working with his new family, or talking with his new friends.  He was hyper aware now, thanks to the bitterness of having to kill for the first time, that if he were to take life, he was not to take it lightly.  
“It does you no good to kill out of hate,” Skalos had yelled at him, pointing to the disembodied head of the straw dummy.  “It only gets you killed, or those around you.  You kill to defend those you love, not to destroy those you hate.  If everypony were to fight like the very same minotaurs we call our enemies, then there would be no point in defending our pony brothers and sisters.  You saw and felt firsthand how it is to kill a living, breathing, sentient being, to see the pain and suffering of those they loved and who loved them.  Well, if you haven’t realized, every single living creature comes from somewhere, and has somebody who cares about them, and when you kill, you kill somepony’s brother, sister, father, mother, uncle, cousin, friend, lover, or whatever else they may be.  By killing, you destroy a line of life, and damage the way of living for others as well.  By taking life in hate, you disrespect what it stands for, and thus never deserved to be the one who took it, or the one to decide to end it.  If you have no value for life, then you shouldn’t be taking it.”
The Fallen stopped to huff irritably, glaring at the shrunken Ray.  Calming himself down slightly, he straightened up and said, “You had every right to kill that stallion, but you have no right by any means to become pitiful over your actions.  Whether you knew that he had a lover or not, in the moment, you will always choose yourself and what you stand for over theirs.  You are a thousand more times than you even realize, and if I have to give you this talk after every battle, so be it, I’ll suffer through it to keep you upright.  If you ever want to protect this world, or anybody for that matter, you’re going to have to get over that mental battle.  There is no right or wrong in battle, just surviving to decide whether the war is right or wrong.  Do you understand?”
Ray nodded, feeling shameful.  He had been rather selfish in pitying himself and acting so childish when it wasn’t him who’d lost someone.  He would lose people when it came down to it, and while he couldn’t feel glad that he had killed somepony, he wouldn’t waste his tears on an enemy. 
Closing his eyes and breathing in deeply, he hoisted another basket of freshly chopped apples into the airtight chamber to let them dry and crisp over a lit stove.  This years harvest had been incredibly large compared to others, or at least, that was what both Applejack and Apple Bloom had claimed.  There had been so many that they still had nearly three hundred bushels left over, all which needed to be cut and dried out for whatever uses they might find.  This was the third batch of the month, the previous two being used as they normally would for jams and apple chips, or sold to buyers all over.  
Ray had met somepony from basically every city in Equestria in the past two weeks thanks to the increased business, and each one of them had found the news of a human surprising.  While the ponies didn’t know of humans, and there weren’t any humans in the world, they didn’t react to him like he thought they would.  Instead of staring in shock or confusion, they simply noted him with amazement, maybe sparing a few moments to speak with him, and got back to business.   Applejack called it “farmer’s syndrome”, since everypony that came around was a farmer who didn’t want to waste a minute of daylight and weren’t really shocked by much.  When Ray asked why they didn’t find him weird, she merely responded mystically, “You’ll see come spring.”
The door to the smokehouse burst open as Apple Bloom came through, hoisting several more baskets precariously balanced on her back, head, and in her hooves and mouth.  “Geez Apple Bloom, what’s the rush,” Ray cried, rushing over and grabbing the heavy baskets from off her back.  “We don’t have to finish them today, y’know!”
“I know I know,” she responded moodily, dropping the other three baskets she held and shaking herself out.  Lowering her voice, she whispered, “I’m hopin’ that if we get more done t’day, then t’morrow Applejack’ll let me go to town with the girls.”  Laughing lightly and giving him a sly smile, she whispered secretively,  “Sweetie’s got a coltfriend now!”
“Really,” Ray noted with interest, hauling two baskets of cut apples up to the lip of the opening and pouring them in.  “I wouldn't happen to know the lucky colt, would I?”
“Nah, he’s a bit introverted,” Apple Bloom explained, passing him another pair of baskets to pour out.  “He doesn’t really go out ‘n about much.  Likes writin’ an’ playin’ games an’ such.  He’s real funny once ya get to know him, th’ natural comedian type, ya know?  Can make a storm a’ laughter outta Miss Cherilee’s classroom.”
“Ah, so talkative Sweetie went for the silent, funny type, huh,” Ray questioned, taking the baskets and tossing the contents in before grabbing the last pair.  “Well, I guess opposites do attract..”
“Are you sayin’ Sweetie Bell isn’t funny,” Apple Bloom asked sarcastically.
“Well, I’ve never heard her tell a joke,” Ray retorted as he emptied the baskets into the furnace.  
“Fair enough,” Apple Bloom said, “Scootaloo’s usually the jokester.  Anyways, th’ pair aren’t really official yet, seein’ as how Rarity would flip out over her lil sis datin’ somepony.  Really, you and Rumble are th’ only ponies outside a’ th’ Crusaders that know.  Well, an’ Tender Taps, of course.  Er, well, I guess all a’ our classmates know as well, but Cherilee! -wait, nope, she knows, but nopony else knows!  Actually… darnit, Zecora knows too!”
“Guess you guys are bad at keeping secrets then,”  Ray mocked with a short snort.  
“Oh hush it now, what would you know about.. Oh, wait, right…” Apple Bloom trailed off as Ray merely quirked an eyebrow at her.  
“Yeah, right,” Ray muttered with an eye roll.  Getting back to the topic, he offhandedly commented, “Well, I just hope the two of them don’t get caught snogging like you and Tender were.  Heaven knows what Rarity would do.”
“Wha- What in th' hay is snoggin’ an’ why would anypony in their right minds be doin’ it,” she asked in confusion.  
“Well, where I come from, that’s how a lot of people say making out, but to me it always sounded like-”
“-something pigs would do,” the two finished simultaneously.  Looking at each other for a moment, the two began to laugh uncontrollably.  Ray shook his head, leaning against the wood wall to hold himself up as he calmed down.  
“You humans’re some a’ th’ strangest folk,” Apple Bloom commented, giving him a complimentary look.  
“Oh, absolutely,” Ray agreed whole-heartedly. 
“An', while on th’ topic, I gotta ask, why in th’ wide world a’ Equestria do ya have yer shirt off now?  I mean, don’t ya wear those clothes for warmth an’ decency, or whatnot.  It’s gotten colder since you’ve arrived and you ain’t wearin’ that shirt a’ yours when anypony can walk in on ya.”
“Oh, well, I took it off when I lit the furnace a few minutes ago because it heated up like crazy in here, but you let out all the warm air when you entered, so I guess there isn’t much reason now,” he explained.  After a moment of thought, he stated decisively, “The furnace is full enough right now anyways, so might as well light it.  Do you know what time it is?”
“Um, I saw it was around six, but that was before I brought s’more baskets in, so it’s probably a little past six,” she guessed.  With a sad look, she said, “I guess that also means ya can go now, huh.”
“Yeah, and I wouldn’t go unless I had something planned already,” Ray told her with an apologetic smile.  Grabbing his shirt from off an empty basket, he pulled it on and quickly lit the furnace before turning the timer for ten minutes on.  “Don’t let that burn,” he lightly instructed as he pushed the double doors open, ducking under them and exiting the smokehouse.  Before the door closed, he quickly called back, “See you tomorrow!”
Apple Bloom didn’t respond as the door shut, so Ray just kept walking, shivering slightly in the crisp autumn air that contrasted the heat of the smokehouse.  Applejack was still out somewhere in the acres checking for any straggling apples, though thanks to Ray’s height, he had been able to see most that missed the initial harvest.  Sugar Belle had been busy baking all sorts of sweets, but lately she had also been helping Pinkie bake apple-based treats as her pregnancy began to affect her.  She was still as hyper and happy as ever, but she was slowing down slightly and beginning to be a bit more moody.  Meanwhile, Big Mac was somewhere on the other side of Equestria making the last few deliveries by hoof, and hadn’t been around much in the last week, save for when visitors arrived.
Overall, the Apple family had become much busier than when Ray had arrived, but he guessed that was to come naturally around harvest time.  He too had felt his schedule tighten up as his mornings consisted entirely and exclusively of training and his evenings were filled with helping out on the farm.  It wasn’t too exhausting or grueling, but it certainly wasn’t leaving much room for other activities around the town unless he wished to stay up later.  Sometimes he would go out racing with Rainbow, or see Fluttershy for a late night cup or tea.  
She would still come over every couple of nights to check on him, making sure that he was staying healthy and happy, and for the most part, he was.  However, he noticed that every time she visited him, or he saw her, she seemed distracted, and more than a little guilty, though for what, he still was unsure.  He still couldn’t repress the feelings he got whenever he saw or talked to her, the feeling of his chest about to burst, but also being out of breath.  He knew that it was better for the both of them to stay separated, and that in general he shouldn’t be close to anypony, really, but regardless, he couldn’t stop himself.  It was nigh on impossible to imagine himself not knowing these ponies anymore, even if it was the wrong thing.
Before he knew it, he had already arrived at his house.  He had promised Otolo that he would be home before sunset, and with autumn in full swing, that was roughly around six thirty, meaning he’d made it by only a few moments.  Lately the little bird had become more and more insistent that he was around, and not working all of the time.  He suspected that Fluttershy might’ve had a hand in it, but seeing as he couldn’t exactly ask Fluttershy why his bird was acting like his mother, and if it was because of her, they remained merely suspicions.  
As he opened the door to his house, he called out, “Alright Ohs, I’m home!”
“And so you are,” a familiar voice noted from behind him, his back being turned towards the entrance as he closed the door behind him.  
Turning in surprise, Ray asked, “Skalos, what are you doing here?”
“Well, lordling, it seems that Twilight has requested your presence this instant, and I am to be in attendance as well,” Skalos informed him.  Ray opened his mouth to say something, but cut himself short as he saw Otolo sitting on Skalos’ head.  
“Oh, hey Otolo,” he greeted, trying to buy himself time to think.  Twilight needed to talk to him right away, and that most likely meant that he was going to have to leave this evening.  However, if he disappeared without a word again, he knew at least three different ponies that would have a heart attack when they learned he was missing.  He didn’t know how important this meeting was though, and whether or not it was completely necessary to travel up to Canterlot to take.  Setting his jaw, he said, “Sorry to keep you waiting, but I think that if it was important enough to call for me, she would’ve come here herself.”
“Well it’s a good thing that she did,” Skalos sharply responded, turning slightly to make way for Twilight, who emerged from around the corner.  She wore her full regalia, and indeed looked quite majestic as she stepped up towards him.  Skalos bowed slightly to the Princess of Friendship before glancing over towards Ray, a slight questioning arch to his brow.  
Ray kept his jaw firm as he watched Twilight, refusing to be surprised by the surprising act.  He honestly had never expected to see Twilight in his house, and quite frankly, his feelings were mixed on seeing her in his home.  On one hand, he felt slightly touched, and a bit satisfied,  that it was her approaching him and not the other way around.  On the other hand, he felt compromised, knowing that at any moment the Princess could and might appear to summon him to whatever needed to be done.  Pushing all of it down, he asked, “So, what is it you need then, and why is it so urgent?”
“Well, it’s a matter of your own comfort,” she told him.  “You see, the leaders of nations across the Equus plain have heard about the mysterious creature that lives with the ponies.  Several have shown great interest in why and how you came to this world, and why it was that you appeared among ponies.  Considering the  fact that you are seen most publicly in the company of the Elements of Harmony themselves, many, including ponies, have wondered about your importance.  For the most part, they want to deduce whether you’re friend or foe, and, well, to conduct their own interrogations on you.”
“Okay, lots of people are curious about me,” Ray summarized, shrugging his shoulders.  “Does that mean I’m in danger?”
“No, not yet at least,” Twilight answered.  “There are a few who do fear you, but not enough that you yourself should be afraid for your own wellbeing.  However, considering exactly why you are here, it is important that, at the very least, the rulers of and politicians of the Equestrian nations accept you.  Now, the reason it’s so urgent is because around this time of year is when the ruler of our nations visit one another’s countries.  For me, that means riding a train on a long trip around all of Equestria for almost a week, visiting every nation and their respective rulers.  I wanted to ask you before we planned and scheduled it if you would like to be a member of my court on my journey.
“I personally think that it would be a great way of introducing you to every nation and allowing you to see every creature you’ll be protecting in the coming year.  It would also be a very educational trip on the ways of life around the world, and perhaps by having you visit the nations, the leaders would see your integrity.  I also want as many as possible to see you, to get a perspective on who you are, not as a large, hairless beast, but as an intelligent, kind human being.  However, the drawback is that this is a week-long venture, and I’m not sure exactly everything necessary for you on that trip.  I also wanted to see how Skalos felt on the matter, considering he’s training you and gauging your progress.  Skalos?”
“I don’t believe anything valuable will be missed in a week that can’t be taught in a day,” Skalos said thoughtfully, looking over at Ray.  “The real question is whether or not our lordling here wishes to go on this journey at all…”
Ray thought for a brief moment, wondering why Skalos had redirected the matter to him before realizing this was some sort of test.  His jaw tightened, wishing that for once something wouldn’t be a test, that he could do something of his own volition, and not to meet an unstated criteria.  
Hardening his gaze, he turned to Twilight and told her, “No, I don’t think I’ll be going on this trip of yours.  You heard what I said about you coming to me.  If those kings and queens or whatnot want to see who and what I am, they can do it on their own time.  I don’t want to be paraded around the continent like some sort of interesting circus animal, and I most definitely don’t want to be seen by everybody in the world.  I’m not going to be intruding on their lives, so they have no need to be intruding on mine, whether I’m in their nation or this one.”
“I thought you would say something like this,” Twilight stated.  “In fact, I would’ve been both surprised and alarmed if you had said otherwise.  However, I wanted to give you the opportunity, in case you did wish to see the rest of the world that makes up our home.”
“You wanted to test me,” he interrupted, noting the way that Skalos almost proudly nodded.  “Besides, I’ll have plenty of time to see it after this war is over.”
“So you believe we’ll win then,” Twilight asked, her brows raising slightly.  “How can you tell so soon?”
“Well, call me crazy, but there can’t be any other outcome than our victory, right,” Ray stated, halfway bluffing, but also realizing that he felt truthful.  “I mean, the way I’ve seen these Fallen act, the way Skalos has trained me, I know that every one of them is worth twenty minotaurs, no matter how big or how strong.  It doesn’t matter what I do, but it does matter what we do, and I saw exactly how strong they can be, even when divided.  Whether right or wrong, they are firm, and that’s what counts.”
Ray had finished speaking with his eyes now firmly on Skalos, who returned the gaze with his own milky blue eyes.  Slowly, a small smile spread across his face, and he muttered, “Lordling, I believe you are worth more than a thousand Fallen yourself, but I’ll be damned to say I’m not surprised.”  Slowly, he went to his knees, bowing with his entire body towards Ray.  Skalos’ voice became firm and professional as he vowed, “With what life this curse from the Moon Princess has given me, I will serve you, even if it is only for one battle.  Every word you command will be my lifestyle-” Skalos looked up, dead in Ray’s eyes “-and the lifestyle of my brothers and sisters in war.”
Ray couldn’t help but smile as he watched his mentor stand, his throat tight as he tried to register the weight of the Fallen’s words.  Without a word, he stepped forward and bent over, hugging the stallion around his neck.  “Thank you,” he whispered into his ear.
“No, thank you, my friend,” Skalos returned, reaching up a hoof and wrapping it around the human’s shoulder.  They held the embrace for a few seconds longer, before pulling apart, both of them restoring their composure.  
Twilight cleared her throat from behind Skalos, reminding them that they weren’t alone.  They both turned to her as she said, “So I take it Ray has been quite successful in both aspects of his training, then?”
“At no surprise, nonetheless,” Skalos confirmed, his voice once again solidly toneless.  “I presume that means that you wish to begin with the next phase of it then?”
“If you would, yes, although not until after the other reason I came here,” Twilight answered.  She looked over to Ray, saying, “If you aren’t going to join me while I visit the nations of Equestria, I am going to have to have you join me when they visit me.  On the day that marks Equestria’s First International Convention, exactly one month from now, there is an exclusive ball in which the rulers of every nation meet in the palace.  They and some of their most trusted delegates have a short meeting, but if I’m being honest, with you in attendance, it won’t be short at all.  Either way, the celebration is mostly a party for the rulers of Equestria where they don’t need to worry about formally greeting every guest and making impressionable appearances for the public.  
“Considering that you will still be something of concern and interest to them, I would say it’s required for you to be in attendance.  Having you appear on your own accord without me guiding you could give them the impression that you aren’t a new, thoughtless creature that we are merely taking care of.  Also, you are technically your own nation, considering that you aren’t any of our nationalities, and have complete control over a population that is also technically independent of Equestria.  Having you attend not as one of my delegates, but as one of your own would get the point across on the final thing I wish to ask of the both of you.”
Stepping back so she could stare at both of them firmly, she explained, “You see, I wish to explain to my friends who also have their own to care for what is coming, and the true purpose for your existence.  I want to, at the very least, warn them of the potential danger that these minotaurs pose, and I wish to explain to them the Fallen and who they are.  I can’t keep a secret as important and dangerous as this from them, and I believe that they have every right to know.  I know that sometime in the future I will have to confront the ponies of Equestria about this as well, but not until it is necessary for them.  However, I won’t do so for either the politicians or populace until both you and Skalos confirm that it’s alright with you.  Mostly, I’m concerned with Ray, and about the potential of him being mobbed for answers, but I also worry about the Fallen being a known force of ponies that can kill in a society where the word isn’t even used any more.  Your input?”
“Well, I don’t really see anything wrong with going to some fancy noble’s ball, except the fact that I’m not exactly… ‘proper’,” Ray explained.  “I feel like, more than anything, it’d be me mostly standing around silently while being stared at by a bunch of royalty.  Otherwise, if I can take Skalos with me, I’ll go.  Just promise me I won’t become some walking zoo exhibit.”
“Trust me, the nobility of Equestria have become much more present and refined than they used to be, though judging by the dust on that bookshelf, you have no idea what I’m talking about,” Twilight noted, a slightly disappointed glance at the dusty furniture and untouched books.
“He hasn’t had much time for history lessons or reading at all thanks to his training and his new family,” Skalos told her calmly.  “As for the matter of alerting the other nations of the threat and my kind’s existence, I believe both are appropriate matters to address in this year’s Convention.  In fact, I too wish to attend the Convention as our lordling’s delegate and as living evidence of our hope.  If you would allow it, I could be the one to announce the Fallen’s independence from Equestria and allegiance to Ray.”
“I find it fair enough to allow you to attend also, and I would encourage the two of you to think of another, third, delegate to bring as a final representative of the Fallen.”  Twilight paused to think for a moment to think before nodding to Skalos.  “That is all I needed from you, Skalos.  Thank you for your insight, but I’m afraid I must ask for a word with Ray privately now.”
“Good night then, Princess,” Skalos said.  As he passed Ray, he looked up slightly and muttered, “Good choices today, lordling.”  Without another word, he exited the house, the door shutting softly behind him.
Ray had no time to speak as Otolo landed on his shoulder, finding a new perch after her old one left.  She chirped quickly before Twilight softly began speaking.
“Ray, I’ve been wanting to speak to you more often ever since you visited the castle.  A lot of time has passed since then, and I feel like I’m missing out on so many things while also being smothered by all of these other responsibilities.  I want to set aside a day where we can talk, get to truly know each other better, and discuss the future.  I don’t want to miss anything that’s going on with you, because you matter to me more than for just the obvious reasons.  Because I took you away from one life, I want to make sure that this new life is so much better for you, and I want it to be for your sake and not mine that I do it.  
“You see, in the past few years of my life, I’ve been able to make the right choices, but every time I do so, I hurt somepony else.  I want the cycle to truly and surely stop with you, that while I might have done wrong, I’m also doing what’s right to fix it.  For the most part, however, I want to become your friend, even if I’m the mare who ripped you away from the life you knew.  I know that it will be hard to get past that fact -for both of us- but I know that no matter what, it will be better for us to work together as friends then as resentful acquaintances.”
Twilight stopped talking, pursing her lips as she waited for a response, and Ray could see immediately that the firm, courageous face she’d put forward around Skalos had crumbled.  Around him, she was still very much regretful and afraid, and that fact was what made up Ray’s mind.
“Yeah, I think that would be a good idea,” he answered slowly, trying to think out his response.  “It’s just that, I’m worried these sorts of meetings will be much too formal, like sitting in an office with a psychologist than talking to someone you want to befriend.”
“Well, fortunately, that actually brings me to my next question, though it’s one you may not like.”  Twilight took a deep breath before asking, “Would you like to move into the royal castle?”
Ray did a double take, not quite sure what he’d heard or if it was what was truly asked, but quickly exclaimed, “What, no!  Why would I do that?”
“Well, because you’ve been given the greenlight for the next step in your training, you’ll be interacting and training with the Fallen now,” Twilight explained quickly.  “Since I can’t keep literally thousands of ponies concealed from Equestria anywhere but Tartarus, you’ll have to visit it daily in order to continue successfully.  It would be simpler for you to live near me so I can simply teleport you to Tartarus than you having to take a train to Canterlot and then come to the castle so I can then teleport you there.  Also, seeing as how we also want to have a day where the two of us discuss whatever we need, it would be easiest for that to occur in the castle, where I can be available if an emergency were to come up.  I also believe that having you in closer proximity with the Fallen would help you connect with them more.  I know what happened on your last trip to them, and well… it doesn’t sound promising.”
“Twilight, I appreciate the offer, but please, think,” Ray demanded, gesturing with his arms and accidentally startling Otolo.  “I just found myself a spot here, in Ponyville, and I don’t intend to leave it.  I can’t abandon the family I just made, and finally having friends again, it’s just… something I can’t do.  I’m willing to wake up in the dead of night in order to take a train to Canterlot, and do the same to visit you on whatever day we decide, but I can’t leave.  Not yet.”
Twilight stared up at him, biting her lip.  She exhaled slowly, looking down and shuffling a little.  “When I was crowned the ruler of Equestria, I knew it meant I had to move away from Ponyville and the friends I made there.  I didn’t want to do that, but I had a more important duty to fulfill, and I knew that even if I was a hundred miles away from them, we were still friends.  However, in a year’s time, you’ll be heading away to an unfamiliar plain, fighting a war, something nopony’s done for millennia.  I won’t force you away from our friends, not until it’s what we agree on.”  Looking up, she gave him a small smile.  “I won’t make you go through what I did early.  I can already think of a better way for you to get to Tartarus than through me anyways.  It’ll just take a little bit of time.  Until then, I guess we need to figure out what to do with you.”
“Well, I mean, my Sundays are the only days that aren’t filled, if we want to schedule that for the day we do our little meeting,” Ray suggested.  “Otherwise, I’m perfectly fine with staying like this for another month.”
“Well then, I think my business here is done,” Twilight stated with a satisfied smile.  Her smile softened as she nodded to him and said, “Thank you.  You’re doing more than you know.”
Ray simply nodded in return, not quite knowing -or having- anything to say.  The two shared one last look before Twilight suddenly popped out of existence, teleporting away.  Otolo began twittering excitedly on his shoulder before fluttering up in his face.  
“You didn’t happen to know that any of this was coming, did you,” he questioned the little bird suspiciously.  She twittered in sharp denial, and Ray knew that she was telling the truth.  “Well, you could’ve done well to warn me that Twilight was also in my house.”  
The statement ended with a yawn, causing Ray to step into his kitchen to check what time it was.  He was startled to find that it was nearly eleven somehow, and the reminder that he hadn’t had a meal since noon abruptly hit him.  Hearing his stomach loudly rumble, he smiled at Otolo and said, “Well this has certainly been one long night.”
> A Long Night
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Waking up warm wasn’t an unfamiliar feeling, in fact, with large quilts and heavy blankets, it was common for Fluttershy to wake up as such, but the strange thing was waking up to a heartbeat.  She hadn’t ever woken up in such a manner before, against somepony else’s chest, feeling, hearing the sound of their beating heart, but now that she had, she felt an appreciation for it.  She didn’t exactly forget that she was sleeping in her bed, with Discord in her bed, but it was certainly still a shocking fact.  The heartbeat of her love was heavy and slow, relaxed as he still slept, and she hoped with everything she had that he was in one of his sleep entrapments, stuck with her like this for a bit longer.
She had never quite appreciated the heartbeat of anypony before, hadn’t closely been involved with or studied it, but the thumping against her ear was now an undeniably amazing sound.  How rare it was that she had the time to appreciate somepony else’s life, to really care about who they were, to be thankful that their heart beat so steadily.  She smiled softly as she nuzzled into Discord’s furry chest, getting even closer to that heartbeat.  She didn’t ever want to leave this, to think of or hear anything besides that soft thumping in Discord’s chest.
But heartbeats weren’t forever.  They would one day fade, and as the inescapable thought plagued her, so did the thought of Ray.  Celestia knows why she always had to think of him when she was having a good moment; maybe because she cared about him too much as well or maybe it was because she felt guilty.  Either way, the sad thought of Ray filled her head as she tried to continue enjoying the moment she had with Discord.  The moment seemed to be fleeing now, the terrible thought of reality, of life itself permeating her every aspect of life now.  
She whimpered softly against Discord, feeling tears in her eyes.  Why couldn’t life be happy like it used to be?  Before she could begin crying again, she felt a claw gently wrap around the back of her head, making her freeze as she was gently pushed back, away from the pulsing heartbeat and warm fur.  She stared paralyzed up at Discord as he began to gently stroke her hair, his eyes scanning her face with love and concern.  Her lips parted slightly to try to say something, but she stopped herself, instead waiting for Discord to make a move.
“You shouldn’t worry about him right now, you know,” Discord softly told her.  “You don’t need to feel bad for not being him, for not having to go through what he has to for us.  The whole reason he decided to do the right thing is because he knows he can handle it, whether he admits it or not.  He’s the best of his world and what our world needs, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be a struggle for him, either.  You know what it’s like to be a hero for everypony.  Sweet Celestia, you are still the Element of Kindness, and ponies all across Equestria look up to you, and I daresay wish they were you.”
“That’s the thing though, Discord,” Fluttershy mournfully began, holding back tears as she shoved herself back into his chest.  “I know what it’s like to be in his situation, to be the one risking themselves for others.  It’s terrifying, and you always have to worry about whether or not you’re going to fail both yourself and everypony else.  It’s so hard to be that pony because nopony else gets it except those that shared your trauma, and even then, it’s scary to think about.  The worse thing, though, is that he can’t even use friendship to win this one, can he? This is…  this is killing, strength versus strength, not friendship versus fiendship.  He has to… to… do something that nopony else can, and that means that all of it lands singularly on his shoulders.”
“And what better shoulders to land on then his own,” Discord asked almost proudly.  “We both know what Ray must go through, but have you thought about what he’s already gone through, the way he’s survived the trials and tumultuous times of the past month?  He took it all with an incredibly strong stride, all things considered.  He stumbled but always somehow remained firmly -no, stubbornly- with his choice to actually help us.  That is something that will forever be proof that he is stronger than whatever the world throws at him.”
Fluttershy nodded slowly.  Of course she knew how strong he was.  He was stronger than any stallion in Equestria, and easily one of the bravest.  He had a heart of gold, but he kept that hidden so well that sometimes he came across as heartless.  She just had to remember that this was his fight and that she was a bystander, and would only be that, no matter how far things went or how bad it got.  It was just hard to see somepony she found herself caring so much about struggling, suffering under all of that pressure.  
Discord’s paw suddenly, solidly wrapped around her hoof and began to pull it up, dragging her gaze along with it until their eyes met again.  She nearly gasped when she looked into them, seeing them for the first time as they actually were. They were bright, shimmering with a strange sheen that never seemed to fade or disappear.  It was almost beautiful, if they could be described with such a word, but then again, any word she thought of at that moment skipped her mind.  But more than their physical appearance, they were soft, both hopeful and loving, marking his words and complimentary statements about Ray almost brotherly.  She had never really seen a full interaction between the two, and she guessed that was mostly because of the true way they acted around each other, but they obviously had some close friendship.
Slowly, he leaned in and kissed her.  They kept their lips together for several seconds before he pulled away, a sudden smile of amusement spreading across his face.  Recognizing the mischievous look on his face, she quirked an eyebrow and asked, “What is it?”
“Oh nothing,” he dismissively waved, his smile showing teeth.  “Just that I can say that you and I slept together!”
A feeling of shock and absolute horror that the statement was technically true rushed over her as her mouth gaped.  “Y-y-y-you can’t just say that though,” she protested loudly.  She sat upright instantly, practically falling out of her bed as she got up and away from the draconequus.  
“I mean, it’s true though,” he countered playfully.  “We did sleep together!”
“Only in the most literal, technical way,” she yelled back, her blush deepening as she left the room.  She wasn’t sure if she was furious about the statement, or simply flustered, but it had been almost a year since she’d ran away from an embarrassing situation.  Whatever the case, she knew that Discord would forever reference their nap together as the time they “slept together”.  
“Oh come on, Fluttershy, that would be hilarious to say in front of the others,” he argued as he suddenly poofed into existence in front of her.  She ducked around him as he suddenly gasped in realization, snickering as he whispered impishly, “Imagine Rarity’s face if you said, ‘Yeah, I slept with Discord.’”
Fluttershy paused as she did indeed imagine Rarity’s face, completely abashed with the statement and couldn’t help but giggle at the imagery.  “See, see,” Discord exclaimed, “You know this has an infinite amount of comedic potential!”  Another gasp, this one drawn out, escaped Discord as he raised his claw and a sudden paper and pen appeared.  “I’m going to have to make a list of ponies and not ponies to tell!”
“Don’t,” she protested loudly, though it came across weaker than she meant it because she too was smiling at the ridiculousness of her draconequus…  
A slow solemnity overtook her as she realized that they hadn’t quite figured out who they were to each other now.  They had been friends before, or maybe they had only been friends in their mind and had actually been something else in truth.  Whatever they were now, they weren’t before, and that was all she actually knew.  A frightening thought overcame her, or perhaps frightening wasn’t the word, but shocking, and she couldn’t help but look Discord in the eyes, searching them for a reciprocating thought.  
And indeed there was.  
Who were they?  Were they merely friends experimenting with love on each other?  Were they simply having a fun time, a short fling before they remembered themselves and returned to being simply friends?  Or were they meant to be together, like this, alone in her house together?  Were they really supposed to be like this, were they special someponies?
Discord’s eyes softened, and in that instant she knew that they didn’t have an answer, but they knew that they didn’t want to wait for one yet.  Slowly, they leaned against each other in a soft embrace, holding each other for a minute as they tried to process what was going to happen between them.  They both didn’t know what to do other than that they needed to stay together, through love or friendship, or even both.  With the complication stacking in both of their lives, the greatest strength that they could find would be in each other and in their friends.
After several minutes, Discord began to push Fluttershy off him gently, standing up straightly as he said, “I’m sorry Fluttershy, but I can’t stay for long.  Twilight requested me for a meeting tonight, and I have to comply, considering the urgency.”
“Well, what is it about,” she asked curiously.
With a slight wince, he responded meekly, “That’s also why I can’t miss it.  Completely confidential information and procedure, as well as some sort of restricted knowledge of what can or can't come.  Something along those lines, she wouldn’t say exactly what because she needed to see my exact reaction to whatever she wanted to tell me.  Whatever it is, it’s incredibly important, so it without a doubt has something to do with Ray.”
“Oh… okay,” she muttered, looking down.  Things were becoming worse and worse, or maybe they were just becoming more real as the  days passed.  She felt her old life and this new one becoming more and more distant, felt it becoming harder to remember, to return to and live in as this new human stormed through and brought such vast changes with him.  She was so deep in her lonesome thoughts that she barely registered the sudden, silent disappearance of Discord until he was gone.
Sighing, she slumped back against the nearest stable structure, and though she felt worn emotionally, she needed to do something about all of this information.  Her first thought was to go to Ray’s, but she reminded herself forcefully that she was supposed to console Ray, not be consoled by him.  Her thoughts flickered immediately to Rarity then, and before she’d even thought it, her legs began moving as she left her house, heading straight away to Rarity’s. 
As soon as she closed the door behind her, she was running.  The emotions of sadness and dismay, the confusion of the past few hours were all becoming dispelled as the reality of what had happened during that time.  She began smiling to herself, realizing fully what she and Discord had done that evening, right before falling asleep together.  They had shared not only their first kiss together, but she had been kissed for the first time.  She was giddy from that realization, the realization that she had, for the first time ever, moved beyond simply hugging and holding hooves.  
And with Discord nonetheless!  It was all so much to take in now that she could move on from the stress of having to think.  Now she could simply remember those moments, the soft nuzzling, the gentle hugs and draping of his unique arms, and most especially the graze of their lips against each other.  It was everything fanciful that Rarity had discussed, the “true” beauty in romance, as she emphasized.  It was the importance of these little, small moments to build those amazing first moments into a lifetime of loving memories and happy moments.  Yet for all that discussion they’d had on romance, for all of the preparation Rarity had tried to give her for when it came, she still was far from ready for the abruptness of the emotions.  
That was to be expected though, wasn’t it.  Life was a long, drawn out event, but within it were spontaneous moments that created the way you lived.  It was blatant now, but before today, before all of this, even with Ray’s sudden appearance, it had never truly come across to her.  She’d known life could change in an instant, but she hadn’t realized that those moments, the ones that were supposed to be planned and prepared for, simply happened.  Sometimes you meant for them to happen, sometimes they just came and went, and all you could do was watch.  It was haunting, exhilarating information, and she  committed it to memory so she wouldn’t be caught unaware next time.
She giggled again for some reason, and even though the realization of life should have been overwhelmingly despairing, she didn’t feel anything but enlightenment and childish joy.  She felt like a little filly all over again, rediscovering everything and liking it no matter how truly terrifying it should have been.  It was a strange culmination of joy, enlightenment, and even a touch of acceptance as she decided with a light heart that she just shouldn’t be so fearful.  Maybe it was a momentary declaration, driven on by this overbearing giddiness and joyful naivety, or maybe it was really something she was committed to, but either way, it was something she felt she could do.
  She was in the middle of a sleeping Ponyville in mere minutes thanks to her running, and realizing that the few ponies who were on the street would certainly find it strange to see her bolting through town, she slowed to a fast trot.  She recognized a few and gave them each short greetings and bright smiles, which all felt so serenely genuine that by the time she reached Rarity’s, she couldn’t pull her lips back into a neutral position.  She tapped lightly on the door to the boutique, taking the lights that were shining within as a sign that somepony was home.  The sound of light clopping behind the door, followed quickly by the sounds of hushed voices and scuffling, confirmed that there were ponies in the shop, and more than just Rarity.
The door swung open and a very disheveled Rarity poked her head out, smiling instantly when she saw her friend.  “Ah, Fluttershy, how good to see you,” she exclaimed.  She glanced behind her, biting her lip and hesitantly stammering, “Uh, c-come in.  Just, uh, please don’t mind the mess.”  After a brief pause where Fluttershy began to enter, she added wearily, “Oh, and don’t mind the three little fillies either.”
“We ain’t so little anymore, though,” Apple Bloom protested as Fluttershy entered the boutique.  “Oh, hIya Fluttershy!”
“Hey Flutters,” Scootaloo called as she attempted to wrestle Sweetie Belle to the ground.  
“You don’t have the privileges of calling her ‘Flutters’ yet,” Sweetie grunted as she tried to resist the grip of Scootaloo.
“Yeah, that’s right, Scoots,” Apple Bloom added before jumping onto her pegasus friend from behind.  All three began to chaotically wrestle each other for some unknown reason, and for whatever reason, Fluttershy found herself giggling at the sight.  
“What in the world is going on here, girls,” she questioned.
Rarity sighed and said, “Well, I was going to tell you not to ask, but I guess I’ll explain it as we leave these three to their barbaric shenanigans.”
“We aren’t barbarians,” Scootaloo called back as the two older mares began to ascend the stairs to the second story.
 “Yeah, we’re pirates,” Apple Bloom once again interjected, pouncing on Scootaloo after having somehow come from the bottom of the filly pile.
Rarity seemed to deduce that the best way to move on was through a silent treatment as she failed to respond to either of their quips, instead finishing her ascent up the stairs and pointedly opening the door to her room for Fluttershy.  She nodded in thanks as the sounds of the young ponies’ scuffle subsided and were muffled as she entered the room.  As soon as the door was shut, Rarity sighed in relief, or perhaps it was resignation, as she simply sat on the soft carpet of the floor turning to Fluttershy.
“Well, dear, what is the problem that brought you here tonight,” she asked concernedly, her face drawn in worry.
“Oh! Um, well, actually, uh… I don’t have a problem- not exactly- um, more of… a, uh… something I want to talk about,” Fluttershy finally managed to produce, her tongue suddenly feeling heavy and tied together.  “In fact, um, today quite possibly was, or um, well, it was the best day of my life.”
“Really,” Rarity squealed excitedly, straightening her posture as her eyes suddenly shined with interest.  “Do tell.”
“Well, it started with some, uh, well, let’s just say I was attempting to spy on Ray,” Fluttershy confessed with a soft blush.
“Oh how scandalous,” Rarity whispered teasingly.
“Yes, well, I wanted to see Ray in his… natural habitat?  I don’t know how to put it, but I wanted to see him without all of his defenses up, but I really just couldn’t.    He seems to just… never stop pretending he’s somebody else, and you can tell if you really look.  The way his shoulders are so stiff and drawn up even when he was simply running from his house to the Acres, well, it looked like he was preparing for something.  Oh, and then he spotted me, or at least, it looked like he saw me while I was in the clouds, and I had to practically bury myself in a cloud.”
“I’m not sure what the definition of ‘the best day of your life’ means to you, but this certainly doesn’t sound like a particularly enjoyable day,” Rarity noted with a light tilt to her voice.
“Well, you’ll see why if you just wait,” Fluttershy responded, feeling not at all flustered by her friend’s statement.  “Anyway, I said something to myself- I don’t exactly remember what -but it summoned Discord for some reason.  Wait, I remember now!  I’d called myself a stupid mare, and he had come because he had promised he would never let me say something that ‘lowered myself’ without responding with something in kind.  He saw that I was feeling down and invited me to go to the spa to freshen up.  And before you ask, he said it in all seriousness, and indeed we went to the spa.  I… don’t actually remember much of what happened there, only that I fell asleep only a few minutes in.  I haven’t been sleeping that well, but I’m sure you know why, so I guess the relaxation and heat of the sauna made me a little woozy, oh, and that blessed massage, well, and I guess I just… you know, passed out.”
Fluttershy paused, feeling that pulsing in her heart quicken as she mentally recalled what occurred next, those blissful seconds that she had barely been awake for, waking in Discords arms.  Their first kiss.  Sleeping together.  Her blush deepened at that thought as she giggled at the joke.  She was going to have to use it, now that she was actually here, talking to her best friend.
“Well, that certainly does sound lovely, but- and I mean no animosity or offense to either of you -but you get that same experience with me,” Rarity once again added, taking Fluttershy’s brief pause as a sign that she could have a word.  “Though I’m guessing from that typical bright red that is all over your face that there’s more to this day than a spa with Discord.  What happened next?  Did you wake up to Ray walking in, or perhaps you left and Ray was there.”
“Well, actually not,” Fluttershy admitted.  “I woke up in my bedroom, with Discord having just tucked me in for some sleep.  I don’t really know what happened, but we ended up staring at each other for far too long, then one thing led to the next and we kissed.”  Fluttershy found herself smiling softly at the memory, and briefly she felt herself lick her own lips as if to try and recall the feeling.  She stopped, knowing that the touch of Discord’s lips on hers was a unique one, something that could never be replicated or replaced.  A beautiful touch that gave her such happiness that nothing else ever had.
“I-I-I… What,” Rarity asked in complete disbelief, her jaw dropped several inches, her eyes bulging out of her head.  
“And then we slept together,” Fluttershy proclaimed loudly, almost yelling the statement proudly.  Immediately her hooves came to her mouth as she hoped that none of the fillies below had heard the embarrassing joke.  In the meantime, Rarity had gone completely stiff, her shocked expression somehow only becoming more shocked until she suddenly fell sideways with a soft sigh.
“Rarity,” Fluttershy exclaimed as she reached for her friend.  Luckily she was still breathing perfectly normal, but it seemed the news had been so much that she had passed out.  Letting out a short, relieved laugh, she realized she had no clue what to do while she waited for her friend to come to. 
The door suddenly burst inward with three fillies standing in the center.  Almost in unison, all three asked furiously, “You did what?”
> Full House
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Ray approached the small lake that had become a scenic routine in his life, he was expecting to see Skalos and maybe a few more straw dummies.  What he didn’t expect was to see Discord and Twilight accompanying the Fallen, who was stoically facing the direction he knew Ray would emerge from.  The other two seemed a bit caught off guard by his sudden exit from the Everfree and onto the hill, but the surprise didn’t last.  Discord seemed a bit too happy about something with both whimsical eyes and a mischievous grin while Twilight looked much too on edge for his liking.
“Well, I guess I have an audience today, then,” Ray tried to joke.
“As a matter of fact, you have both an audience and an opponent,” the ghostly stallion responded cryptically.  A smile spread across his face for some reason before it vanished almost as quickly as it came, but for the brief moment it was there, Ray knew that it was directed at him.  “You see, so far you’ve proven yourself to be capable of learning whatever I throw at you, but we have no evidence that you can actually put it into practice.”
“Oh,” Ray managed to say, realizing that this was a physical test, glancing back over at the other two, wondering what their part in this was.  He vocalized as such, asking, “So why are they here then?  Well, I guess what I mean to ask is why Discord is here?  Twilight’s here to observe or record or something, but he’s just a friend.”
“Just a friend here to kick your human butt,” Discord proclaimed, laughing somewhat maniacally after.  
“I have the floor, Discord,” Skalos curtly cut the draconequus off without glancing back, stepping towards Ray.  “Please don’t interrupt again.  I still haven’t explained the very reason that this is happening to our good friend.”  Making sure that Ray had only his attention, the Fallen continued.  “As I said, we have no evidence that you’ve learned anything, and as such, we would like to test you on both your knowledge and your… skill.  With Discord accepting our proposition last night, we can finally have a way to see if you’ve progressed enough, or too much.”
“And what if I’m far beyond the basics,” Ray questioned, feeling a bit confident in himself.  He knew he was rather intelligent, and that in the past few days there had been so few corrections to his form and grip, there was nothing new to correct.  He didn’t think himself ready at all for battle, but he felt that he was going to be able to pass some test.  However, he didn’t let the confidence gain headway over perception and attention.  Knowing the quip was sure to draw responses from somebody, he was hoping that he would get some sort of glimpse of what was to come.
Indeed, it was Discord that broke, though all he said was, “Oh, the basics you have no need to worry about, my bipedal friend, as long as you remember them.”
“Discord,” Skalos warnedly called.  For some reason, despite scrutinizing a literal god, and a destructive one at that, Skalos didn’t seem at all concerned or affected by Discord’s presence.  At most, he seemed rather annoyed by him, but it was restrained.  “He is right, however.  We aren’t testing just what you’ve been taught.  We’re also testing what you think you know.  Please find a flat piece of land you’d like to be on for this exercise, preferably a circular space that would be optimal for close quarters, as we’ve practiced.”
With a confused frown at the statement, Ray humbled himself and sobered his boisterous attitude, instead scouring the area around the lake before finding a relatively close spot to the description Skalos had given him.  He set himself in the center of it, guessing that the entire space was about fifteen to twenty feet wide and a little bit longer up and down.  This part of the ground was rather flat, but also had some potholes thanks to the occasional flooding of the lake transforming it slightly.  Deciding that this was as good a spot as any for whatever they had planned for him, Ray nodded to the Fallen.
“Well then, if you’re ready,” Skalos trailed off, turning for the first time to look at the other two since Ray’s arrival, nodding specifically at Discord.  “If you would, we will begin now.”
As soon as Skalos had spoken, something surrounded Ray, a thick, purplish cloud that obscured his vision completely.  He raised his hand and felt that the fog was warm to the touch, but was somehow tough to push through.  He watched the fog break as his hand moved towards his face, the tendrils of it clinging to his hand as he pulled it through.  The gaseous cloud began to expand and push away, creating a dome shape all around him as it darkened.  Or, at least, the color of it darkened.  All around him the light stayed the same, as if the sun wasn’t at all obstructed by this strange new cloud of purplish smoke.  
Narrowing his eyes, he tried to see if there was any sort of break in the swirling pattern of it, but there was nothing but the purple color.  Suddenly, something poked through the smoke.  It took a second for the tendrils to disperse enough for him to tell what it was, but as soon as its form was recognizable, he sighed in slight relief.  His spear was being produced to him, the sharp head and hook somehow shining through the complete coverage of the dome.  He reached out and grabbed it, but when he tried to pull it back, he felt some resistance.
From through the cloud, Skalos called, “Figured you might want this.  Be prepared for what’s about to happen and know something.”  There was a pause, and before Ray could hear what else Skalos had to say, the spear was released, causing him to stumble back slightly.  The mist cloud began to shift as it molded itself into an almost human shape about a foot taller than himself.  The tendrils and swirling bits of smoke that made it up culminated suddenly to form the sharp, basic shape of a tall man, it’s smoke becoming visibly solid.  A sword suddenly appeared in its hands as horns sprouted from its featureless purple head, and before Ray could react, it swung the sword up, drawing a thin line across his arm.
“You aren’t safe here,” Skalos suddenly finished saying as Ray managed to lift his spear up to block a downward strike from this new foe.
“What the hell,” was his only response before he had to roll away from another vicious downward slash.  Coming up, he attempted to stab at the figure’s leg, but it sidestepped the strike.  However, this opened up his ankle to attack.  Pulling his spear back, he managed to hook the thing’s ankle.  Ray had expected the maneuver to simply trip the figure up, but the perfectly sharpened blade combined with the force of his pull caused the entire foot to come off.  Ray stared in near shock as the leg was lifted completely free of the foot, smoke gushing out of the ankle where the foot should have  been connected.
Scrambling off the ground, he stood and lifted his spear defensively as he put himself in a guarding stance against the figure.  A sudden noise caught his ear though, and he whipped around, pointing his spear at a new set of figures.  Three smoky figures now stood in a triangle formation, one on the left and right with another further behind.  They had the exact same disposition and features as the previous one, each even holding a sword.  They too took different stances, all pointing their purple swords at him as their forms solidified.  
A swishing sound from behind reminded him that there was still a fourth figure that he hadn’t quite dealt with.  In the brief second he had to think, he ducked down, anticipating an attack to the head.  Indeed, he felt wind pass over his head as he ducked, meaning he had just narrowly avoided the attack.  Not thinking precisely, he simply followed up on instinct, ramming his spear backwards, almost catching himself with the hook as he did so.  He felt a solid impact for a brief moment before it gave way to softer things that his spear butt easily passed through.  
He glanced behind him through his arm, watching in astonishment as the butt of his spear had rammed completely through the figure.  The figure held its stance for a moment, sword in both hands raised above its head in preparation for another slash.  More smoke began gushing out of the stomach wound, and slowly a weakness overtook it, its arms beginning to drop as it slumped forward, into the weapon that had killed it.  Ray withdrew the weapon from the shadowy figure, expecting it to disappear, but the inanimate body remained.
He had hardly any time to realize the destruction before he was reminded that there were still three others he had to deal with.  A sword sung as it cut through the air, a sharp report sounding as the strange hardened mist collided with the metal of Ray’s spear.  Both of them held their weapons against each other, trying to force the other to lose their grip.  Glancing to the hook on his spear, he realized it was pointed away from him, and moving quickly, he released his weight on the rear end of it. 
His opponent lurched forward, its weight on the sword still there, causing the rear end to swing in towards Ray.  On the other end of the spear, the hook swung out, straight towards the figure’s head.  He stepped back, continuing to swing through with the hook, but the figure managed to duck away, rolling across the ground perfectly.  Ray wanted to continue combating that one, but the other two were right on him, both striking in unison.  He managed to sidestep one of the attacks, swinging his spear hook out and catching the other’s weapon.
Pulling the spear downward, he disarmed the figure, and reeling its weakness, it stepped away before Ray could finish it.  The other figure was undeterred, however, swinging vehemently at him, forcing Ray to circle backwards, where he knew that the other figure that he’d knocked down was recovering.  Seeing an opportunity to temporarily stun his current opponent, he swung his spear heavily into his opponent’s, who was also midswing.  Their grip was firm and it was able to hold on, but the intensity of the contact caused its arm to be jarred and it stumbled back slightly.  This gave Ray time to glance behind his back, just in time to see the first figure raise its weapon face level for a jab.  
He spun so that he was facing both, one on the right and one on the left, gripping his spear in both hands.  The third figure took a step forward, its sword back in hand, standing beside the one on the left.  Ray tried to conceive an actual plan for dealing with the three figures, but they didn't give him the chance, two charging forward while the third waited.  Raising his spear horizontally, he blocked the first of several attacks, he noticed the third had begun to swiftly circle around, stepping over the body of the very first.  
An opening formed on one of the attacks, however, when Ray went to block another swing, this one at his stomach.  His spear ended up naturally sweeping the weapon aside, and while the opponent he’d just defended himself was still well guarded with its blade nearby, the opponent opposite to him had its side completely undefended, the hook in his spear suggesting what to do next.  Swinging it sideways, the weapon barely had time to sing in the air before it contacted the side of his opponent on the right.  
The weapon passed through the flesh with barely any resistance, the hook sinking through all the way to the rod.  The figure stiffened, looking down to its side and watching itself be killed.  Ray pulled the spear towards himself, ripping the hook through the figure’s front, mist erupting from the wound.  The figure fell to its knees, pressing both hands against the fatal wound in what seemed to be an attempt to hold the mist in.  It’s companion glanced down at it before gripping its weapon tighter and raising it once again for yet another attack.  Clenching his jaw, looking away from the fallen form, Ray did the same.  
Both struck out at the same time, the clash of metal against the strange mist sharply ringing as the two began swiftly to engage.  Ray defended himself from strike after strike before going on the offensive for the first time, lunging forward with his spear.  The figure slapped it aside with its sword, but Ray was accustomed to the weight of the spear and was able to fluidly spin it back in another strike, this time with the hook.  The attack almost landed, but the figure stepped back quickly, dodging the attack so narrowly that, for a moment, Ray thought the strike had landed.
He was put back on the defensive however as the other figure engaged, stabbing at him from his side.  Spinning around, he was able to deflect the danger away, but before he was able to retaliate, he once again swung his spear to the side, deflecting a blow from the first figure.  The two were now attempting to align their attacks so that he had to defend both strikes at once, but because he kept focusing one at a time and not allowing for them to begin an attack, the strategy failed them.  Ray had to adjust his grip so that he could equally balance and hold an attack on either side.
The whole fight was becoming exhausting, however, with sweat now dripping from his head, the metal where he’d gripped his spear now slick.  His shirt was drenched, and just now he was beginning to realize that there were several tears in his shirt, but other than the cut on his arm, he wasn’t wounded.  The figures, however, seemed completely unaffected by the amount of time this fight was taking, but he figured that it was most likely due to them not even being alive.  The fog surrounding them seemed to be the only thing that had stayed the same, as even the ground seemed a little more trodden, much of the grass crushed underfoot.
Taking a deep breath, he was the first to re-engage, charging into the two with a yell.  He thrust his spear at one, pulling back when it was countered and trying to hook the other, but missed with that as well.  The action, however, forced them back, and for once it was not Ray that was retreating, but him that was pursuing.  He struck hard and fast, and while most of the attacks didn’t even hit their swords, they continued to force his remaining opponents back, towards the wall of purple smoke.  
Suddenly, both lunged at him, catching him by surprise.  Cursing, he felt one of the swords knick his shoulder as a sharp pain filled him, but even with the pain, he managed to block the next attack.  He grimaced as the pain settled in, his shirt now soaking in warm blood, which slowly began making its way down his arm.  Channeling his pain, he let out a shout, colliding his spear with the sword of one of the figures who had moved almost completely in front of its ally.  He pushed with all of his might against the figure’s sword until the blade nearly touched its face.
Its ally came to the rescue, moving to hit Ray from the side, exactly as he had thought it would.  He spun suddenly, catching it by surprise.  Using his hook, he cut across its arm, causing that purple mist once again to spill from yet another enemy.  The enemy, however, barely seemed to register it, instead, striking back, knocking his spear out of his grip.  He still held his spear, but now only in one hand, and very awkwardly at that, leaving his entire body exposed.  All three knew his sudden show of weakness, his enemies attempting to utilize it as they both took on the attack,
Ray stumbled backwards, and going off of instinct, he decided to spin his spear counter-clockwise, the rear of it smacking against his palm, and suddenly he knew he was ready to fight, much quicker than either side thought.  He ducked under the swing of one of them, knowing they were desperate to cause damage before he could truly rejoin the fight, but it was too late for them.  He swept his through the ankles of his foe, both being cleanly amputated from the leg.  The figure tried to balance itself on its now separated feet as purple smoke began flooding out of the wound, the mist drifting up around its leg.
The figure fell backward, face up as Ray stood and continued the fight with the last capacitated foe.  He had to instantly raise his spear horizontally to block the oncoming slash, and because his grip was so firm and the strike was so wild, the sword glanced off completely.  The blade caught a small bit of his knuckle on his left fist, the flesh becoming a shallow flap over his bone.  He winced at the pain of it but didn’t even give it a glance, instead flipping his spear rear-end first towards its face, the sharpened butt of it slicing a shallow cut in its seamless face.  
The foe barely took a step back to recuperate before returning to the battle, a vivid slice at his already wounded hand nearly landing.  Ray stepped back and returned his grip to the traditional spearhold, head directed straight at his enemy’s heart.  Having more control now then he did while gripping his weapon horizontally, he struck out rapidly at his opponent, and to his surprise, one of his probing strikes landed in the figure’s shoulder.  The spearhead went completely through, and having made headway, Ray worked the hook deep into its shoulder, attempting to cause as much damage as he could.
The figure attempted to raise its sword to attack through the brutal injury, but seeing this, Ray ripped his spear out of its shoulder, mist tendrils gripping the spear as it retreated swiftly.  The figure bent over slightly in apparent pain, its sword dropping as it moved to grasp its wound.  Ray didn’t give it a chance however.  Leveling his spear, he rammed the final figure completely through, sending mist shooting from its body.  The figure had just enough time before it died to look up at Ray, its faceless horned head straining to glance up.  It reached out desperately at Ray, and gritting his teeth, he twisted the spear before ripping it out, a final spurt of mist coming with it.  
The lifeless figure keeled over, falling dead to the left of Ray.  He stared at it for a brief second before remembering that there was still one more enemy alive, and he turned towards where it had been left.  It had crawled itself towards the smoke wall on Ray’s right, a trail of the purplish smoke leading back to its footless legs.  He walked over quickly, noticing that the ground crunched when he stepped on patches tainted with the mysterious smoke.  The figure turned around, hearing Ray's approach.  He raised his spear above his head, the sharp head of it pointed down as he prepared to end the hapless figure’s life.  It raised its arms as if to try and block the attack, to beg for its life, but Ray didn’t heed the plea.  He thrust the spear downward, harder than he meant for it to be, piercing completely through the figure’s chest and planting his spear at least a foot into the ground.  
The familiar smoke began to rise from it as its arms dropped, the figure dying from Ray’s fatal attack.  Before he had the opportunity to retrieve his spear, however, the sound of two swift crunches pierced the air.  Ray had only enough time to dodge back before a new foe appeared from out of nowhere, a spear in its grasp.  It had come from Ray’s right, where he had been, and if he had stayed put, he would have been rammed through from the side.  The new fifth figure had charged too far however, and took much too long to recover from its failed attack.  Realizing its weakness, Ray jumped forward, grabbing it by the horn.  
He jerked its head back, having just enough time to see this one’s formless face before slamming it down into the sharp butt of the spear.  The spoke at the end shot through its head before slowing to a halt almost two feet past the point where it exited the skull, tendrils of smoke practically dripping from it.  Ray held a firm grip on the horn for a few seconds more, panting as the adrenaline slowly began to leave him.  Finally letting go, he straightened himself out, swallowing and attempting to control his breathing as he looked around for any more enemies. 
The bodies of the figures all lay grotesquely around him, and there didn't appear to be a single blade of grass that wasn’t trample or shrouded in the purple mist.  He looked back over at his most recent victims, the body laying with hands weakly wrapped around a spear in its stomach, the weapon taking another soul as the slumped body of the fifth figure loomed over its familiar, propped up by the spear in its head.  It was only now beginning to register with Ray that they weren’t actual beings, just some type of conjuration and that the whole fight had been schemed by his friends.
As if the very thought of them conjured their presence, the mist almost instantly evaporated, the explosion of bright sunlight nearly blinding him.  He squinted against the light, raising a hand to cover his eyes as he was forced to adjust to the light.  The sound of soft footsteps caught his attention, and slowly he was able to make out the form of Skalos and then the two that stood behind him. A third suddenly appeared beside Skalos, and Ray quickly recognized it as Zecora, who was laden with two bags full of glass bottles.  After a few more seconds, he was finally able to make out Twilight and Discord, both who had shocked faces and were staring behind him, no doubt at the grotesque display that proved his abilities.
“I’m impressed,” Skalos suddenly spoke, much closer to Ray than he had registered.  He sounded almost giddy as he stated, “I honestly expected for you to defeat two or three, but all five in such a swift time?”
“And without any major injuries, might I add,” Zecora commented, pulling out a bottle of what looked like a thick tan cream.  Opening up, she instructed, “Give me your hand, please.  I can heal it quickly with these.”
Ray put his hand out for Zecora- who began spreading the cream on his wounded knuckle and arm -as Skalos seemed to compose his attitude, a grim line forming on his brow as he too glanced behind Ray.  “Discord, let him see what we do,” Skalos suddenly ordered, his voice hard.  
Ray glanced uphill slightly to see Discord nod, his face completely pale as he continued to stare at what was behind Ray.  He didn’t know exactly what was so disturbing about a bunch of shadowy forms dead, but he could guess that most likely it was due to the brutal way he’d killed each of them.  Turning back to look at what they were staring at, he was met not with shadow figures that leaked smoke when they died, but five minotaurs.
There was blood everywhere, and before he could become completely perplexed by the sight of it like the others, he squeezed his eyes close and turned away from the brutal scene.  He didn’t have to stare at it to know what it looked like though.  His mind had instantly captured the image of bloodied bodies, the impaled minotaurs, and his spear jutting out of the chest and through the head of another.  Biting his lip, he forced himself to remember the image.  Similar scenes would plague him, and one day it wouldn’t just be minotaurs who were merely mangled corpses.  One day, he’d see Fallen bodies, the bodies of people he knew, and he’d have to keep fighting through that, surviving with those images forever.
That was why Skalos wanted him to see what they saw.  He had let him fight without dealing with the blood, and now he was forcing him to see that all of those tendrils of smoke, all of those stabs and cuts, that all of it was blood.  Firmly clenching his jaw, licking his dry lips, he forced his face into a hard neutral expression, opened his eyes, and looked back over at all of those corpses.
Then, without making a noise, he raised his hands where he knew it had been covered with the smoke, knowing what awaited it now.  His hands, healed because of Zecora’s medicines, were completely covered in blood, not a patch of clean skin visible.  With a slight frown, he removed his shirt, knowing that everyone was now watching him, and deliberately began to wipe the imaginary blood away before throwing it to the ground.  
Glancing to Zecora, he lifted his arm slightly to reveal a long, thin cut where the fifth figure’s spear had caught him.  Speaking calmly, he asked, “Could you get that too?  Hurts like hell.  My shoulder too."
> Mystery
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zecora made short work of Ray’s various wounds, her soft cream stopping any flowing blood and hardening into a protective coat over the open inner flesh.  As fascinating as the healing process was, however, his focus was not on the zebra that treated him or the words of Skalos, but on Twilight and Discord.  They both seemed, for lack of better words, shell-shocked by Ray’s full display of his fighting prowess, something he didn’t remember being so skilled in.  His other fights had always been primarily him reacting to attacks and somehow doing the right thing at the right time.  With this encounter, he had analyzed and tracked what was occurring, not simply reacting to everything.
His eyes flitted over to the bodies just in time to see Discord turn them back into the smoke he’d seen them as, the purple drawing into Discord’s outstretched claw.  He hadn’t thought of it before, but as soon as he saw that it was Discord who had made the figures, he assumed that it was also the draconequus that was in control.  Frowning, he glanced down at his shoulder, barely able to differentiate the skin from the soothing cream that covered the wound.  It still hurt, although the pain was like that of a paper cut compared to its actuality.  
When Twilight finally turned away from the dissipated bodies, her face was less shocked and more contemplative, as if she had been struck with a thought.  Whatever it was, she didn’t have the opportunity to share it as Skalos suddenly tapped his hoof sharply against a stone, drawing Ray’s attention.  The Fallen commander gave him an impatient look before nodding his head ever so slightly towards the top of the bluff they were standing on.  Confused for a moment, Ray suddenly realized what the stallion must have been referencing as the softest sound of somebody moving over grass interrupted the silence.  
“I’ll handle it,” he told Skalos, who’s only response was the slightest of smiles and another nod.  
“Ray,” Discord abruptly called out before he could move.  Glancing over at the chaotic being, Ray saw a nervous look on his friend’s face.  Painting at his now bandaged side and the still uncovered shoulder, Discord apologetically said, “Sorry about all of that.  I wasn’t in control of those… things I made.  It just... happened to happen, you know?”
“Yeah, it’s fine,” Ray dismissed thoughtlessly, waving it away with his hand.  With a cheeky smile, he added, “You gave it a hard go, but I’m pretty sure I’d beat you in a fight now.  I mean, four of you couldn’t.”
“Technically- “
A quick cough from Skalos interrupted their competitive conversation before it could properly start as the Fallen pointed out, “Our unwelcome guest is getting away.”
“Right,” Ray sheepishly noticed.  Turning, he began sprinting up the hill, knowing that he had no hope of actually catching up with a pony, but still wanting to make a show of how he was perfectly fine with only a few scratches.  Only after he had crested the hill did he realize he was lacking a shirt, but deciding against returning for the ruined clothing, he continued through the trees.  By now, he was becoming familiar with them, the straight rows of trees no longer monotonous and unending.  The Acres felt and looked large, but in reality, they were very small once you began to recognize the scenery.  There were still parts that he hadn’t been to, where the Everfree had slowly begun consuming the lesser used grounds, but otherwise, he knew the Acres like his own neighborhood. 
He slowed down ever so slightly as he made his way to the gate, noticing immediately it had been shut and locked.  Frowning, he reached for the lock, but knew he didn’t have any way to unlock it.  The gate was often closed to ensure none of the animals got out if they happened to escape, but it was never locked.  With a shrug, he hopped the fence, the wooden posts meant to keep others much smaller than him out and in.
As he finished the jump, he heard a soft gasp from somewhere behind the house, followed quickly by the shuffling of movement.  He furrowed his brow as he wondered what was going on, but considering the slight ache in his shoulder and what caused it, he figured whoever he was chasing was intentionally avoiding him.  Whether they were afraid of him now or just processing, he didn’t know, but he got the message, smiling sadly.  He turned and began walking away, making a show of taking his time to let whoever was escaping him know he hadn’t ever meant any harm.  Contemplating whether he should return to Skalos  and the others or simply go home, he saw Twilight flying down from between trees.
“Did you talk to her already,” she asked confusingly, noticing there wasn’t anybody else around.  
“I’m going to be honest, until now I didn’t know who I was chasing,” Ray stated truthfully.  Looking back over to the house, he asked softly, “Was it Apple Bloom?”
Sharing his glance to where they knew the young mare must have certainly been listening in, she whispered, “Yes.  She was petrified like the rest of us until Skalos pointed her out.  Ponies… we aren’t ever supposed to see those types of things, even if they are… aren’t real, and for somepony so young to see such things, especially from somepony she looks up to… it’s unhealthy.” 
Setting his jaw and turning back to Twilight, he harshly reminded her, “It isn’t healthy for anybody, Twilight.  Come on, we should probably just let her go…”
“Yes,” Twilight agreed curtly, also turning away from the farm and opening the gate for them.  “We have things I want to discuss with you.”
Raising an eyebrow at the purple alicorn’s back, he asked, “Isn’t that what we did last night?  I mean, it’s certainly the thing that led directly to today, so what more is to talk about?”
Twilight suddenly glanced back, her tail swishing ever so slightly as she smiled and calmly said, “You, of course.”
“Obviously,” Ray blandly satirized the comment.  “There doesn’t seem to be anything that doesn’t involve me.”
“Quite the opposite, actually,” Twilight wisely rebuked.  “The land of Equestria is large and a great deal of important things occur here daily that you never had a chance of figuring out.  Perhaps you know of the civil war within the dragon nation on our border that further proves that they could never assist us in a war?  Apparently, the concept of a female ruler is foreign to them completely, in spite of residing next to a predominantly matriarchal society for millenia.  Or perhaps the major riotings in the cities of Baltimare and Manehattan that have slowed the trans-national trade severely?  I’m sure you must know of the major marriage crisis, though.  It’s been all over the papers.”
Rolling his eyes at the alicorn, he simply retorted, “Are any of those a true threat though?  I mean, a marriage crisis?  What is that even supposed to mean?”
“It means that so many ponies are getting married, there aren’t enough ponies of authority to marry them,” Twilight answered seriously.  “Some couples have been forced to wait weeks before being wed.”
“That felt like a leading statement,” Ray slowly commented, his pace faltering ever so slightly as he realized he’d been dragged into a conversation that didn’t involve world ending situations.  
“That’s because it was,” Twilight revealed, stopping as she realized Ray had slowed down.  Turning slightly, she had the softest of smirks on her face as she stated wistfully, “Equestria is a land of friendship that affects the citizens of it and other nations, but it is also a nation of love.  I’m not surprised by how quickly you found yourself in a romantic relationship yourself.  The only thing is, why do you resist it?”
Accepting his fate, he began walking swiftly again as he stated grimly, “You saw why already.”
“If the fact that you can and will kill to protect those you don’t even know is supposed to be a valid reason for you not to fall in love, then I’m going to have to teach you a very hard friendship lesson,” Twilight warned.
“It’s not necessarily that reason, but the different insinuations of it,” Ray angrily told her.  “Think.  If I were to try and have a romantic relationship, a serious one, especially now that I’m beginning to train fully, I won’t have time to commit to it.  I can’t just halfheartedly attempt to meet somebody I say I love.  If you know so much, you should know that!  Besides, there aren’t any other humans in this world anyways.  I mean, I’m at war with the things that are the closest relatives to humans in this place anyways.  I never expected to marry on Earth, and I’m not gonna start now.  Even if I had the motivation to, I biologically wouldn’t be able to.”
“She doesn’t seem to mind too much,” Twilight reminded him softly.  He stiffened at the mention of Fluttershy, still too confused and anxious from everything else to have given her thought.  “She might be the only one too.  I think the two of you would make a lovely pair.’
“But I’m so much younger than her,” Ray burst, turning furiously to the alicorn.  “I’m fourteen and she’s… twenty one?  Aren’t there any sort of age laws in your country?”
“Of course,” Twilight assured him.  “However, for you, there’s a small little loophole.  You see, you’re thinking that our years and your years are one and the same, when in actuality they are quite different.  You see, life passes by at the same speed as it did on Earth, but for us, it ages us quicker.  By technicality, every one of your years is roughly three of our years.  Meaning that, instead of thinking of you as fourteen here, you’re actually forty five Equestrian years old.  So, you can either think of us as a third of our age, or think of yourself as three times your age.  Either way, you’re older than Fluttershy by your standards.”
Opening his mouth, he realized he couldn’t actually protest the statement because he didn’t quite know how it all worked.  Closing his mouth and frowning slightly, he crossed his arms stubbornly.  He had resolved this issue already, with himself, but for some reason, the whole world wanted him to focus on it.  “It doesn’t matter, Twilight,” he told her pessimistically, beginning to walk once again.  “She had Discord, and quite obviously had him before I came along.  I’m not going to ruin a perfect relationship for something that I don’t even need.”
“If you think that you don’t need love, then you’ve learned nothing by your transition between worlds,” Twilight told him bluntly.  “But we both know that you value, possibly even crave, the attention and love that others give you, because seeing others value you puts aside whatever else is causing you uncertainty.  You just have this strange little voice in your head that keeps telling you that you are always the problem.  It’s why you were so devastated by the transition to Equestria.  And yes, I acknowledge that I wasn’t anywhere near as kind or open hearted as I should have to somebody I’d just kidnapped, but the truth is, I already cared for you.”
“Cared for me,” he raised his eyebrow questioningly.  “What do you… mean by that?”
“I felt myself wanting to help you,” Twilight admitted.  “I saw the cards that life dealt you on Earth, and I couldn’t simply let it be the way it was.  I saw the spirit you had, the spirit of someone determined to defend those that they love to the greatest extent possible.  You put others above yourself every opportunity you get, and that’s what originally attracted my attention to you.  Then I thoroughly analyzed every single thing about you until I knew you better than you.  You wanna know what I found, what your biggest weakness is?  It’s putting yourself down while lifting others up.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean,” Ray asked furiously, though he was beginning to develop a strange sense of fear.  In the back of his head, he knew that everything Twilight had said was true, hitting painfully close to home, making him defensively resist her words.
“It means that you degrade yourself, make yourself feel worthless when you’re just as valuable as everypony else,” Twilight firmly told him.  “Ray, you’re one of, if not the most, important person in the world, and have been ever since I discovered you.  You will always be that way, until the day a new threat that somepony else has to handle appears.  What you don’t always have to be is disdainful towards yourself.”  Pausing, she looked him up and down before nodding with absolute assurity.  “You are more than just somebody brought here to fight a war that wasn’t ever yours.  You’re here to live, and I want you to remember that.  If you think of yourself as only a soldier, you’ll become a slave to that ideology, a brainless killer.  If that were to happen it… would be my greatest failure as both a ruler and the Princess of Friendship.  It would also leave nothing for you to do after the war but live as a shell.”
Twilight’s eyes were now intensely set on his, her gaze an iron grip on his attention.  “Don’t live like you have one purpose,” Twilight instructed him, the soft tone of her voice contrasting the unyielding strength of her gaze.  “You aren’t an objective, you’re not a soldier, and you aren’t a killer.  “You’re a living, breathing, thinking, loving human being that addresses the issues around him and does something about it.  You aren’t just another heartless monster used to defeat others like you.  If you don’t stop to distinguish the differences between you and the enemy, you either end up as one of them or fight the wrong thing.”
“I know,” Ray felt himself hoarsely say.  The devastating truth was hard to hear, his prideful hate for himself still resisting the blessed reality.  “I just don’t… can’t stop.”  Tearing his eyes away, he mumbled, “Every time I see something I do go wrong, it feels as if the world is cursing my name, laughing at my failure while blaming me for it.  I can’t shake that, the failures of what has happened to me before.  I know it isn’t my fault and know that I don’t hold responsibility for most of what goes wrong, but I know I can do better as well.  Hell, I’m supposed to hate you for bringing me here, yet here I am confessing all of this and just… hating myself for knowing you’re right.”
“There was more than one reason for me wanting to begin having discussions with you,” Twilight softly told him, stepping closer, forcing him to look at her.  “The others don’t know who you are without the mask you always wear, the one you sometimes don’t even realize you put on.  It’s begun to slip off around Skalos, I’ve noticed, but whenever you’re around ponies you care deeply about, or even just ponies you know, you hide yourself.  Beyond that, it changes with every individual and circumstance, your emotions and actions being fluidly differing in every interaction.  It may be how you make others see everything is alright, but the mask you put on is just a lie, another delusion that imprisons you more every time you wear it.”
“And what if the real me does more damage than the person I want to be,” Ray questioned.  “What if there comes a point when the mask becomes my face?”
“That won’t happen,” Twilight firmly asserted.  “Nopony’s personality can be forced to change on a whim and lie.”
“Yeah, no pony,” Ray reiterated.  “I’m not a pony like everybody else here.  I don’t have a mark on my rear telling everybody what I am, defining myself for the rest of my life.  Humans are infamous for their strange habits and sudden transitions in personalities, and maybe because it’s too dangerous to remember, but a majority of the time you know it’s for the worse.  It’s in our very homogeneous nature to change and develop differently as a person and individual.  There isn’t a single person in my world that hasn’t changed what they prefer to be or what they like, and many have had personality changes from what they were to what they are now.  Unlike ponies, humans can’t be boxed into one specific type of individual.  So what if I pretend to be something better?”
For a moment, there was a dreadful silence as Twilight seemed to realize for the first time that she wasn’t talking to another pony.  A slow line drew itself across her brow and a slight frown overtook her as she opened her mouth ever so slightly and muttered, “Sometimes becoming better in your own eyes only scares those who want to know the real you, the one that isn’t afraid of the truth.  Do you want to know who came to me completely concerned for you?”
“That’s a trick question, isn’t it,” Ray accused the Princess.  “Fluttershy has been fretting about me ever since… well, you know.”
“It isn’t Fluttershy,” Twilight solemnly told him, much to Ray’s surprise.
Blinking at the confusing revelation, he tentatively questioned, “Discord?”
Twilight shook her head curtly.
“The Apples, any of them?”
“No,” Twilight whispered mournfully with another short shake of denial.  “It was Pinkie Pie.”
“What,” Ray exclaimed, shocked.  “But why would she?  We don’t talk that much anyways.”
“She pointed that out quite specifically,” Twilight stated.  “She explained that she was concerned about you, and that she needed to tell me herself.  So, I met with her a week ago, and she explicitly told me everything she felt was going wrong.  Something you wouldn’t quite expect from her is her excellent judgement of character, and the way she’s able to deduce a person’s entire personality just from the few emotions they let truly spill. She told me that she didn’t quite think you were ‘living’.  At the race, she saw a bit of the true you, and that was all she needed to realize that you were beginning to emotionally kill yourself.  At least, that’s what she told me, and from there, I found the same results.
“She wouldn’t know anything like that though,” Ray protested, gesturing in mild frustration. “She’s childish and cheerful all of the time!”
“You’re serious and depressive a majority of the time, yet you still laugh and enjoy the company of others now and then,” Twilight sharply prodded, leaning into his argument and blatantly satirizing it.  “Just like you can sometimes let yourself live without real regret, she can sober up and see an issue.  The Element of Laughter has a darker side to it, a side that knows when to laugh with a pony, laugh for a pony, or laugh to distract a pony.  Pinkie is one of the youngest of us all, but she may be the most emotionally aware of us Elements, and certainly one of the most intelligent psychologically.  I trust her evaluations more than my own.”
Biting his lip, Ray held back any further comment.  He wanted to keep fighting the persistent argument, but he was quickly forgetting what they were arguing about exactly.  Taking a deep breath, they let a bitter silence settle between them as they continued walking.  Begrudgingly, they kept their heads turned away from each other, but the bitterness was slowly giving way within Ray to a slight warmth, a slow realization that these ponies, whether they be ones he’d rarely communicated with or had forgiven of a grievous misdemeanor, cared for him beyond his basic use.  He let out a soft sigh, releasing the last of his anger.  He was being idiotic to deny the truth,, and there was no excuse for it.  He had to grow into the general this world needed, and that included as a person, for the betterment of more than himself. 
A twinge of guilt twisted within him at the thought of doing for himself, but with a firm resolve, he pushed it away.  He didn’t have to worry about helping put food on the table anymore, rather making sure that he and others would continue to need it.  A sudden statement came back to him from his and Twilight’s conversation before the argument had begun.  Furrowing his brow, he thought carefully.  Twilight had said that in this world, time passed three times quicker than on Earth, which meant that he should be forty-two technically.  However, when Twilight had told him his age, she’d told him he was forty-five, which meant that by his standards, he was fifteen, not fourteen.  Considering, however, he didn’t know the date, and that it had been nearing his birthday almost, it was possible he’d missed his own birthday.  Instead of feeling sad, however, he felt more… alone, as if he’d finally begun losing himself as a human and somebody who wasn’t born Equestrian.  He was being consumed by this world, and while it felt terrifying, the prospect of losing his human identity, it was also almost a relief that he was developing and accepting his new home.  
A lonesome smile crossed his face as Twilight suddenly took a sharp turn to the right, onto a rather dusty trail.  Stopping, he glanced slightly down the road, where the town lay not even a hundred feet away, then back at Twilight, who had continued silently.  
“Hey, where are you going,” Ray questioningly called to her. 
Without pausing, she yelled back over her shoulder, “You’re shirtless and wounded.  Not a good combination for a rather superstitious and sensitive populace.  Besides, I shouldn’t be seen in Ponyville without any form of announcement.  The ponies will panic that they didn’t prepare for my arrival and attempt to keep me here as long as they can.  It’s touching, but even after only a couple years of being ruler of Equestria, it’s become tiresome.”
The surprisingly personal confession caused Ray to smile.  Whether the Princess had wanted to add that or not, it was heartwarming to hear something that felt extraordinary human.  Relatable, and humbly so.  Even if it wasn’t a copy of what he felt like, the emotions  the Princess had allowed to show as of yet were… well, uptight.  She was still very much afraid of him, he could tell, but no longer because of his larger appearance or aptitude to violence.  She was afraid of him now because she didn’t want his disapproval.  The very thought of it finally snapped Ray into the broader scope of things and to a revelation that he should have received long before now.
He was important, beyond anything he had realized yet.  More than an individual and living person, he was politically powerful, a leader of his own, but also a general.  He was, perhaps, the most important person, like Twilight had told him, and his mind was slowly wrapping around that thought.  He wasn’t just some kid training to fight, like he’d thought of himself just this morning, nor was he simply a general-to-be.  The reason that Twilight was introducing him to the other leaders of the world wasn’t because she wanted to flaunt him around or give them hope.  She was making a statement to both them and Ray that he was both an independent and key political force.
“You okay back there, Ray,” Twilight suddenly inquired, looking concerned.  “You seem a little pale.  You aren’t feeling sick about… anything, are you?”
“No, not sick,” he answered shortly, his voice surprisingly cheerful.  While he was shaken by the revelation, he felt more exhilarated, even determined, than before.  He wasn’t just performing the duty he’d given himself for the ponies- though they were first and foremost -but the whole world.  He’d forgotten already that there was more than just the equine nation, but he was quickly catching himself back up.  Slowly, his mouth dry from the lack of water, he softly asked, “How do you think of me, Twilight?”
In front of him, the alicorn froze, turning to him with a frown.  The Princess eyed the human up and down as he too halted, awaiting the mare’s appraisal.  “I think of you as a mystery,” the pony answered truthfully, her eyes still darting all over him.  “But not a mystery I want to solve, rather, something I want to simply observe.  You’re an enigma of a person, completely perplexing in nature, but utterly determined in your own traits, ever persistent in fulfilling them.  Inexplicable, unexplainable, unpredictable, and impeccable.  It’s a sheer wonder to watch you fulfill actions that seemed impossible and at the same time watch your emotions from doing the unthinkable.  But that might not be what you truly asked, so I’ll elaborate even further.
“I see you as if you were somepony I wanted to be friends with, however, I’ve already skipped the steps of needing to know you because I’ve seen your entire life and the real you.   But you only know me as the reason you’re here, and that complicates the process quite a bit.  However, I also want to let you live how you want, while making sure you do the job you were brought here for.  I don’t want to displace you for nothing, but I also hate seeing you in such a negative mood all of the time.  It’s a constant conflict around you, wondering what to do and whether everything leading up to that choice is correct or mistakes.  And then you do something that equally reassures me and breaks you a bit more.”
Twilight paused earnestly for a second, rubbing her chin with a hoof as she attempted to get the correct words out.  Then she suddenly smiled in enlightenment, giving him an almost comforting smile, “It’s why I don’t try to solve the mystery that you create.  If I did, it would only serve to change the truth into whatever I manipulated into concept, not give me the actual answer I’m looking for.  I have to take everything you do with a future look, not try to see what the product in the moment may be.  It challenges me to be both a better friend and ruler, not just to you, but to everyone else as well.  Nearsightedness is the greatest killer of rulers, after all.”
“I mean, you looked into the future,” Ray pointed out cheekily.  “I’m not entirely sure how you could be nearsighted after that.”
 Twilight laughed shortly at that, nodding in agreement.  “Yes, that I did.”  
Another short silence, this time calm and thoughtful, overtook the pair.  Ray glanced around, realizing that they were practically on his doorstep, his house only a couple dozen feet away from Twilight.  He looked to either side of him, noting the foothills to his right and the town to the left, then back at Twilight.  She was staring out over the town forlornly, a distant, nostalgic look to her face.  It was only then that he, for once, saw the true ruler underneath her anxiety and perplexment, the determined, loving mare that she really was.  It was evident in the way her eyes slowly scanned the town and watched over the small moving figures within, the sadness of missing a home she had once lived in.  
The touching moment ended fittingly, a single tear forming in her eyes but being quickly blinked away as a smile replaced the lonesome frown.  Looking back at Ray, the alicorn didn't bother attempting to compose herself, only stating formally, “I do have a great many things to attend to today, and while I truly wish I could stay, I’m going to let you be.  Don’t worry about returning to the Acres or anything.  Skalos already knows what a day you’ve had, and I’m sure Apple Bloom will… well, at the very least she’ll know why you aren’t around.”
“Thanks for that, Twilight,” Ray gratefully spoke as the mare steadied herself to leave.  “I think I understand now.  All of it, I mean.”
Smiling at the alicorn, he dipped his head down slightly, and in his peripherals, he saw her do the same.  They weren’t unlike one another, not too much.  Merely their species and society differed them, and even then, not so much as it should have.  Now, however, they held each other in truly equal respect.
“I look forward to the next time we talk,” the Princess said, a warmth to her voice.  With the simple parting, Twilight disappeared with a flash.  
Ray stared at the spot for a moment, simply taking in their conversation.  He had felt worn out, compressed even, by the topic, yet now that there were true answers to so many questions he didn’t know he had, he felt light, as if he could sprint forever.  Still smiling ever so slightly, he turned to his home, where he caught the briefest of swishes from his curtain.  His smile broadened once again as he approached his home.
Throwing open the door, he shouted, “Surprise.”
“Surprise,” a chorus of voices answered immediately after.
> Invigorated
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was a brief moment of silence inside as the whole crowd seemed to take into account that they had been somehow given away and beaten at their own game.  However, the silence lasted only a second as the roaring of laughter replaced it, a casual laugh as they enjoyed the practicality of being found out.  Ray instantly recognized the faces of everybody that were awaiting him in the living room, a small group of friends and family with nobody else but who he knew.  It was a comfortable crowd, not like the one that had stormed his house the day he had arrived. 
“I told you not to try to look out the window,” he heard Sweetie Belle chiding Apple Bloom as the laughing died down, a sheepish smile spreading across her face.  
“How was I supposed t’ know when he was gonna turn around,” the farm filly halfheartedly defended.  Giving a smile to Ray, she apologized, “Sorry for ruinin’ it, Ray.”
“You should be apologizing to me,” Pinkie suddenly furiously shouted, popping up right beside Ray and startling him.  He stepped back as the mare, whose appearance was far messier than it usually was, raised a hoof and shook it in the direction of the young pony before snapping her head to him.  “And you, not telling me your birthday was today!  Do you know what would have happened if I had missed your birthday party and left you all alone and uncaked on your birthday?  Why, if Twilight hadn’t mentioned it, I never would have known, and then quite possibly the worst of the absolute worst things would have happened!”
“And that is,” Ray asked, raising his eyebrow as he proceeded to take another step back, trying to put a little more distance between him and the pink luny mare.  It wasn’t far enough.
The mare launched herself onto him, propping her back hooves on his chest as she put her front ones on his shoulders, bringing them face-to-face.  The intensity of her heavy stare was intimidating, but considering everything that had happened today, Ray didn’t flinch away.  Narrowing her eyes sharply, she hissed fiercely, “You wouldn’t be able to open my gift.”
“Oh, that would be true tragedy,” Ray jokingly agreed, having no clue what a pony would think humans might like.  “But what did you get me?”
“That,” Pinkie proclaimed, suddenly smiling brightly, all negativity forgotten, “is a surprise for later.  For now, we’ll just have to have a bit of fun until then!”
Pinkie hopped off of Ray as he completely entered the house, shutting the door softly behind him.  Already, short little conversations had sprouted between the friends and family there, but Ray didn’t quite feel like joining the group.  Was it really his birthday already?  He hadn’t paid attention to the dates in this world, mostly because he had presumed that the months and dates would be recorded differently than back on Earth.  Thinking about it, he didn’t even remember the date of the day he had been taken.  Just another thing that he had to deal with missing from his own life.  Fifteen wasn’t a big deal anyways, simply another year he had managed to survive.
Smiling as Sugar Belle suddenly stepped up to him, he asked, “How did you manage to make it so quickly when I didn’t even know it was my birthday?”  He paused, taking a curious sniff, and surely enough, there was the sweet scent of apples and cinnamon wafting through the living room.  “And how in the world did you manage to whip up some pastries as well?”
The mare shrugged simply, smiling humbly as she said, “I have a baking cutie mark for a reason.”
Ray chuckled lightly, nodding in agreement.  “Yes, that’s true.  Say, what kind of cutie mark do you think I’d have if I were a pony?”
“Oh, that’s a good question,” she commented, rubbing a hoof on her chin in consideration.  She suddenly waved him closer, but when she also started moving, he realized that she meant for him to follow her.  “Well, I honestly don’t know what it would be ‘cause you’re a bit of an oddball, well, being a human and all, but personally, I’d say it would be a musical note or something.  You have a really strong voice, very deep and firm when you sing or hum, and that’s coming from a mare who lived in a town where we were trained to be musically perfect with our pitch!  Aside from that, I guess it could be a brick or something like that.”
“Because I’m dumb,” he jokingly suggested, earning a short laugh from the mare.
“No, it’s because you’re strong and stubborn,” she explained, stepping around Applejack and Rainbow, who were having a heated discussion about something while Apple Bloom glared from a distance.  Ray gave her a firm look, to which she almost flinched away, reminding him of his earlier chase just a half hour before.  How could he even be here when, just a half an hour ago at most he had been fighting and killing those fierce figures.  He raised his hand and rubbed his shoulder where he had been cut, the salve from Zecora still layering it and keeping it out of sight.  
A shock ran through him as he realized that he was still shirtless in front of everypony there, the urge to clothe himself coming over him, but he quickly dismissed it.  Almost everybody there had seen him practically naked, and he occasionally worked with the Apples themselves without a shirt.  Besides, it would seem rude and almost counterproductive to leave the self-invited guests downstairs when they had thrown this party together for him.  Shaking his head, he just followed the cheerful mare into the kitchen, where he found his table had a celebrative cloth covering it and several different plates of pastries and other sweet confections.
“Really,” Ray exclaimed, nodding at the mare’s response.  “I guess I could see a red brick on my butt.  Now, why did you bring me over to the kitchen?”
“I wanted to show you the fritters I baked for your birthday,” Sugar Belle told him.  “Every first time I celebrate somepony’s birthday, I make a new recipe for them as a sort of memoir to them, a confectionary tribute, if you will.  For you, I decided to try something that you told me about not too long ago.  You said that where you come from, they use applewood to smoke their foods and give it a new flavor.  From what you described, it sounded kinda like using applewood fire to cook it, so I baked a berry pie over some applewood.”
“Wow, that’s really… creative,” Ray commented, finding the said pie in the middle of the table.  It was barely steaming, but the smell produced from it was certainly attractive and reminded him that he’d only managed a small bit of cereal that morning.  He hungrily reached over to the cake knife and grabbed it, beginning to cut out a slice as he told her, “I’m not gonna lie, I haven’t had anything that was smoked before, so I won’t be able to tell you if you did it right, but from the sounds of it, it sounds like you just invented a new style of cooking in Equestria.”
“Huh,” the mare thoughtfully hummed.  “I… I guess I just did, and hey, this is probably the first time in Equestrian history that two different cultures combined their knowledge of cooking to make a pie!  I mean, the griffons perfected our chocolates, we had help with pudding from the hippogriffs, and even the dragons helped us learn how to make crystal candy, but nopony’s ever thought of using a new way of cooking to make a new pie.  Pie’s always been the same until now, I guess.”
Finishing cutting out the piece of pie, he slid it onto one of the provided glass plates, which he instantly recognized as not his own.  It was truly amazing that somehow all of these ponies he had grown close to had been able to and willing to make it there.  Of course, not everybody was there, both Rarity and Fluttershy missing from the scene, but he wasn’t at all bothered by it.  They probably had their own problems to deal with, Rarity with her shops and Fluttershy with… well, come to think of it, he didn’t actually know her job, but he knew it had to be somewhat important.  Whatever kept them from coming, he didn’t mind, and quite frankly, having the two ponies he felt the closest and most related with at something that he wanted to relax at after the troubling morning he had would probably only have served to force him to hide his feelings even more.
Enthusiastically, he took a large bite out of the pie, not minding a fork and simply shoving it into his mouth and taking a bite.  The explosion of flavor that hit his mouth was both outrageously sweet and kindly tame at the same time, like a sugar covered loaf of bread.  He chewed on the bite heartily, distinctly tasting the slightest flavor of smoke and apples with the powerful flavor of blackberries and blueberries.  He hummed appreciatively, pointing at the remaining piece of pie on his plate, nodding at Sugar Belle.  The mare smiled brightly at the wordless compliment, working out another piece as the other party attendees began to swarm the table laden with baked goods.  They all began grabbing the many different sweets laid out, thanking Sugar Belle and Pinkie, who seemed to be the only proprietors of the goods.  
Taking another bite, Ray furrowed his brows in confusion as a flavor that he was familiar with, but couldn’t quite name, hinted at itself within his mouth.  Chewing slower, the flavor faded, instead replaced by the sweetness of the berry insides of the pie.  Unsure of whether or not the flavor had just been his imagination, he hurriedly shoved another bite in, only the very crust of the pie left.  There was nothing left of the flavor at this point, just the memory of what it may have been.  It was strange, but often like smelling a familiar scent he couldn’t name, he let it go.  Chewing slower, enjoying the pie more, he put the crust in his mouth, the crumbly, bready part of the pie bursting with flavor as much as the inside of the pie had been.
That flavor was back again, and in an instant, he knew exactly what the flavor was and why it was so familiar.  While it was probably a fluke of the real deal, the unmistakable flavor of delicious meat filled his mouth.  His mouth began to water immediately, his taste buds praising the delicious flavor, the taste he hadn’t realized he was missing.  He groaned ever so slightly in enjoyment of the delectable treat, knowing that the mare had not intentionally caused the flavor and probably didn’t even know meat was a part of his normal diet, but loving it too much to care that it was simply well flavored crust.
He had to press a hand to his mouth to prevent the excess saliva from leaking from his mouth, laughing through the mouthful at the combination of ridiculousness and sheer enjoyment.  
“You okay there,” Sugar Belle asked merrily, noticing his hand to his mouth.  
Swallowing hard, he nodded and managed to say, “Yeah, I’m just salivating.”
The mare began laughing heartily at that.  “Really,” she exclaimed in disbelief.  “I didn’t know how good the pie would turn out, but literally mouthwatering?”  The mare laughed again, shaking her head.  “Unbelievable.” 
The CMC were giving the pair a strange look as Big Mac approached, a tame smile crossing his face as he stopped beside his wife.  “Happy bir’day,” the stallion congratulated Ray.  “What’s so funny?”
“Oh, I just think that Sugar Belle makes some pretty amazing pies,” Ray explained, searching for a napkin to wipe the remaining saliva away.  Finding one, he cleaned his mouth up, crumpling it and trying to spot where his trash can was through the thin crowd.  Spotting Rainbow Dash and Applejack right beside it, still vigorously speaking with one another, he was reminded of something.  Looking back down at the couple, he excused himself.  “I’m gonna go throw this away and talk to Rainbow and AJ for a second.  See you around.”
“Enjoy the party,” Sugar Belle wished him as he left, turning and beginning to whisper something into Big Mac’s ear.  
One of the advantages of being four feet taller than everybody else in the room was how easily it was to keep track of the pair mares even as ponies moved around.  He wasn’t stopped by anybody as he moved through the crowd, which allowed him to focus on all of the ponies there as well.  He noted that all of the Apples, the CMC, Rainbow, and Pinkie were here, and that it really was only a small group of ponies he knew.  However, looking closer, he realized that Pinkie was now missing from the group, though he wasn’t too concerned that the mare was gone, knowing she would probably be back with something else to surprise him with.  Throwing the napkin into the trash, he knelt down beside the pair of mares, gaining their attention.  
“Hello there, Ray,” Applejack greeted, scooting over to make some more room for him.  Gesturing to several bottles of hard cider and a stack of cups, she asked,  “Care for a drink?  These were all custom made at our own home!”
“I don’t know if I should really have any alcohol, seeing as I’m only fifteen now,”  Ray told her.  The mare had a moment of realization before nodding.
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” she muttered.  “I keep forgettin’ that ya aren’t an actual adult.  Too bad, t’ be honest.  Three percent alcohol cider is th’ perfect way to celebrate anything worth celebration’,” she lamented.
“Is it three percent ABV,” he asked, grabbing one of the bottles she had pointed to in confusion.  Reading the label on the back, he found that the bottle had a listed forty milligrams of alcohol.  Scrunching his brows together, he popped it open, taking a whiff of the stuff, but it simply had the faint smell of apples and nothing more.  Curiously, he took the smallest sip, but the bubbly liquid didn’t even have the slightest flavor of fermentation to it, save for a slightly dullness to the apple flavor.  Frankly, it tasted like flat apple juice instead of an alcoholic beverage.
“Now what did you just say about drinking it,” Rainbow asked, a mischievous grin on her face.  “That stuff’s pretty strong for somepony your age.  I’d set the bottle down before you get too tipsy… unless you think you can keep your liquor down.”
“Rainbow,” Applejack exclaimed, knocking her over the back of the head.  She quickly reached over and took the bottle from Ray, glaring at the two of them.  “Ray, you liter’ly just said how ya weren’t s’posed t’ have any liquor, and there ya go takin’ a sip like some sort of connoisseur of alcohol stuffs.”
“It doesn’t have any alcohol in it,” Ray told her earnestly.  “I didn’t taste anything but apple juice that was a bit stale.  How long did you let it ferment?”
“Ten weeks,” the mare answered instantly before suddenly coming over herself.  “Wait, since when do you know so much about alcohol?”
“I made a few bad decisions back on Earth,” Ray said simply, looking away with a slight frown.  “You aren’t allowed to bootleg alcohol without knowing the fumes and flavors, just in case you’re being swindled.”   Seeing the two mares’ concerned face, he realized he had probably said too much, and moved on quickly.  “Look, I think that, since our worlds are so different, I’m not even affected by your alcohol, or at least, the effects of it are diminished.  I won’t drink it if you don’t want me to, but personally I feel like there isn’t a huge problem with it…”
“Heck yeah,” Rainbow shouted, tearing the bottle out of AJ’s hooves and giving it back to Ray, raising her own cup of cider exuberantly.  “A very happy birthday to you, and many more awesome ones to come, am I right.”
Smiling, Ray tapped the bottle against her cup before taking a small sip.  “Absolutely.”
“I mean, if ya think so,” Applejack hesitantly agreed.  “Just… don’t get wasted.  Not sure how it was back on Urth, but in Equestria we do have drinkin’ laws.”
“Well, according to Twilight, I’m actually forty-five,” Ray slyly whispered at the two of them.  Applejack’s eyebrows raised several inches while a shocked smile spread across Rainbow Dash’s face.
“Ha, what, no way,” Rainbow exclaimed, the mischievous smile spreading.  “That’s like, as old as my dad!  You told us you were fifteen!”
“Well, I’m not sure exactly how to explain it, but basically time is different between our two worlds,” Ray began.  Noticing a bored expression already overtaking the pegasi’s face, he quickly finished, “The long and short of it is that I’m about three times my actual age.  And, I mean, if we wanted me to stay fifteen, that would just mean you guys are what, seven?  Either way, I’m older than the both of you.”
“Okay then, old man,” Rainbow sarcastically joked, but Ray noticed that she had said “man”.  The word came out strange on her tongue, as if it had tripped off, though whether it was because the alcohol was beginning to take effect or simply because the word was unnatural in their dialect, he didn’t know.  “If you’re so wise, drop some knowledge on us, something you’ve learned with all of those years.”
“Alright then, I’ll give you a little expression from where I come from,” Ray told her smartly, already knowing the kind of reaction he was going to receive.  “Light travels faster than sound, which is why I think you’re a lightning bolt until you open your mouth.”
Applejack nearly choked on the cider she was sipping on, some of it dripping out of her mouth as she laughed at the unexpected jab.  Rainbow’s jaw dropped, her mischievous smile turning cocky as even she couldn’t help but snort at the quote.  Ray simply sipped from the bottle, staring at her with a slightly smug grin.  
Swallowing the cider, he asked in false innocence, “I think that knowledge would really help you.  Maybe it could be used as an example to why there’s also the simple quote of ‘check yourself before you wreck yourself’.”
Shaking her head as she continued to smile, Rainbow admitted, “Alright, ya goof, ya got me.  Please, have mercy.”  
The smart smile returned as he glanced at Applejack, whispering suggestively, “That’s not the first time you’ve heard that, eh?”
Applejack instantly roared with laughter, this time not having to be bothered with a beverage in her mouth, quite literally wheezing as she rocked forward.  Rainbow’s face lit up bright red at the insinuation, her eyes darting between Ray and AJ, her smile turning into a hard pressed line as she stared embarrassed at her friends.  From behind them, Ray heard another chorus of laughter, which he easily recognized as Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.  Turning around, he found that the CMC had, at some point, joined them from behind and had also heard the scandalous quip.  He joined the laughter as he saw that Apple Bloom shared the same embarrassed expression as Rainbow.
“She’s not denying it,” Scootaloo suddenly observed pointing her hoof at the mare, feeding the flames and reinvigorating the laughter.  The group of them roared, and even Rainbow chuckled sheepishly as she realized she had been completely caught in the spotlight.  
“Okay, okay, that’s enough,” she timidly attempted to diffuse the situation.  There were still a few chuckles, but overall, conversation resumed and the joke was left to be, though the smiles remained.  
“So, why didn’t ya look around for us at th’ Acres,” Applejack suddenly inquired, taking a sip.  
Thinking for a moment, he looked down at his shirtless torso and answered truthfully, “I was with Twilight after training.  We were  having a bit of an argument, and I guess she just knew to lead me through the Acres.  I didn’t really want to do much work anyways, seeing as I was injured a little during training.  Nothing major,” he quickly added, seeing concern cross his two friends’ eyes.  Pointing at his shoulder, he used a finger to raise some of the loose skin there, saying, “I just got grazed a little.  Don’t even need stitches for this one, I just don’t want to open it while lifting something.”
“Ah,” Rainbow said simply, looking a little queasy at the sight of his wound.  “Well, um, don’t flaunt it then, eh?  Better let it heal.”
“Yep,” Ray agreed, quickly hiding the wound and moving on awkwardly.  “So, uh, what were you guys talking about before I interrupted?”
“Oh, not much,” the cyan mare answered too swiftly, her pupils shrinking as her eyes darted around.  “Just, ya know, friend things.”
“She asked me on a date,” Applejack said smugly, giving her partner a knowing side-eye.  “‘Just, ya know, as two mares who want to have a good time, ya know’.”  Turning and giving Ray a deliberate half-smile, she repeated, “Ya know?”
Ray chuckled at that, shaking his head.  “I’m guessing you said yes.” 
“She did, on the condition that we didn’t go anywhere… not fancy,” Rainbow muttered, rubbing the back of her head.  
“Ah, afraid of bein’ seen in public with me, hun,” Applejack asked sardonically, her smile turning devious.  She leaned in and gave the cyan mare a kiss on the cheek, causing the pegasus to once again light up like a bright red light bulb, her wings shooting up.  Ray smiled at the show of affection, standing up and stretching out his legs and arms, which had begun feeling sore from being crouched down.  
“Save that stuff for later, guys,” Ray told them as he turned back towards the table before suddenly remembering the whole reason he was here in the first place.  Looking over his shoulder, he asked them, “Hey, do you guys know where any good camping spots are around here?  Places I could visit on a dime?”
Applejack ceased pestering her lover for a moment, thoughtfully rubbing her chin as she attempted to come up with an answer.  It was actually Rainbow who spoke first, telling him, “Rainbow Falls are always a great place to visit any time of the year, though there’s a bit of a hike.  Oh, and lots of flying spider things.  And when I say lots, I mean lots of them, like thousands.  The view’s worth it though.”
“There’s also good campin’ ‘round Galloping Gorge as well, and even on th’ outskirts of th’ Everfree, although that’smore towards th’ Canterlot parts,” Applejack added.  “You could probably just find a few nice li’l spots all ‘round the mountains near Canterlot as well.  There’s also a few mountain ranges further up north that could be a good time, if ya know yer mountaineerin’ enough ta free range it.  Like most things in Equestria, th’ terrain’s pretty friendly an’ fun ta climb about, though do be careful for some a’ th’ wild critters ‘round those parts.  Nasty beasts.”
“Alright, thanks for the tips,” Ray gratefully told them with a wave.  “Just wanted to get a bigger picture of the land I’ve gotta protect, ya know?  Have some relaxation and see what there is to see in this world.”
“It’s a beautiful world to protect,” Rainbow Dash agreed, her voice sounding uncharacteristically sentimental.  The two mares gave each other a glance, smiling in near laughter at the synomosity of their minds.  Ray shared the bright smile, turning and walking away.  He didn’t really have anywhere in particular to go, so he simply returned to the concessions and grabbed the last piece of Sugar Belle’s delicious pie.  Knowing how delicious it was, he scarfed it down in two bites, enjoying the flavor of both sweet fruit and the mysteriously savory crust.
The familiar, yet almost forgotten, flavor of meat had reminded him of his wish to go out hunting and somehow acquire the tasty food for himself, seeing as ponies didn’t sell it.  Realizing he still held a bottle that was almost completely full, he took a long swig of the substance, waiting suspiciously to see if his hypothesis still held true with a larger taste of the cider.  Smacking his lips together, tasting nothing but the duller apple cider flavor, he realized that he had been correct, bringing him to remember something else that had been mentioned by Twilight on the day he had visited her in her castle.  
The air in Equestria was barely polluted, as there weren’t many factories and large locomotive companies, only the main one that ran through the entire nation and a few smaller junctions between towns.  Though he hadn’t read many of the books Twilight had left him situated with, he had studied the geography ones quite thoroughly, leaving him with several conclusions.  Firstly, that Equestria, including the other nations, was small, smaller than all of Europe, and secondly, that it was a very clean land.  Plastics had been invented, as he’d noted from the many different chairs and signs that used it, but plastic wrappings were never used, as were plastic bottles.  Everything was glass or paper, something that decomposed or could be reused, leaving virtually no land pollution.  Thanks to a smaller population as well, there was a much broader amount of untouched land compared to that inhabited or used.  All of this, of course, meant that the land was much healthier than anywhere on Earth, even in some of the cities, though Baltimare still seemed like a nightmare.  
As he lived more normally in this strange, bright land, he was beginning to realize as well that everything had a lesser effect on him than normal.  He was able to stay out in the sun longer without being burned, he was less tired with the physical activities, and even the distances felt shorter than they were.  On one of the few days he’d had to himself completely while the Apples were all out of town, he had walked completely from one forest to another with Otolo, which should have been at least six miles according to the map, but instead it felt like two and took that amount of time.  He was continuously baffled by the many things he was able to do in this world that wouldn’t have been natural in his old home.  
Still he had limits.  He found that if he attempted to climb any of the trees, whether it be an apple tree or one of the trees of the Everfree, or even an oak, the wood was too weak to hold his weight.  He was able to deduce that, from the way it felt and how easy it was to lift the wood, that it was diminished, like everything else.  Oftentimes, he would eat outside of the actual farmhouse in the Acres while the rest ate inside, seeing as he caused too many accidents while inside thanks to his abnormal size in this world.  Smiling at the thought that he was a giant while only being five foot… something.  
The ponies didn’t measure in inches, so it was hard to say exactly how big he was.  He had been about five and half feet when he arrived, but he knew he’d grown, though thankfully he didn’t have to get new clothes yet since Rarity had predicted the growth.  He smiled appreciatively, taking another swig of the cider and leaning back on the wall beside the staircase upstairs, scanning the crowd.  
From the looks of it, the CMC were attempting to get permission to have a drink of the cider from Rainbow and AJ, seeing that Ray was drinking the alcoholic beverage.  However, both mares were firmly against the thought.  Sugar Belle and Big Mac were talking to each other, and as he had guessed, Pinkie had once again appeared out of nowhere, listening to them stoically.  Funnily enough, in a party for him, he was the only one not talking, though he didn’t mind in the slightest.  One of the few things he’d managed to learn was that when his life was on a time limit, he had to enjoy spectating those around him more than enjoying being a part of their lives.  
“Well, I certainly hope you aren’t simply watching your own party and brooding about it,” a familiar, accented voice suddenly said behind him, making him jump. 
“Rarity,”  Ray exclaimed, turning to find the white unicorn standing there, a smile on her face.  She extended her hoof to him and he knelt down, accepting the friendly hug.  “I wasn’t expecting you to show up!”
“Well, I always show up for any of my friends’ celebrations, but you certainly didn’t help in informing me of the matter,” the mare reminded him, stepping back and giving him an ever so slightly firm stare.  “For Celestia’s sake, you didn’t forget your own birthday, did you?”
“Funny you should say that,” Ray sheepishly muttered, rubbing a hand on the back of his head, still kneeling next to her.  “I couldn’t keep track of the date, you know, being displaced and all, so even I didn’t know it was my birthday today until these guys all showed up to celebrate it.  Glad you somehow made it too!”
“Pardon my tardiness, but I did have to get this finished first,” Rarity excused herself, her horn suddenly glowing as she levitated a thin box out from the living room and into the kitchen.  “Um, where do I put presents?”
“YOINK,” Pinkie suddenly shouted, leaping through the air and grabbing the present, rolling as she landed and darting out of sight.  For a moment, the whole party stopped as they all stared at where the mare had been, but being more accustomed to the pink pony’s strange tendencies, they quickly returned to their conversations.  
Still, Ray had to ask, “What… What was that?”
“Probably something to do with surprises,” Rarity told him flatly, turning back to him.  “That, or something strange along the lines of attacking you with everypony’s presents at once.  Either way, best to be prepared.”
“Yeah, will do,” Ray reassured her, wrenching his eyes away and back to his friend. “So, how have things been?  I heard you got some sort of award up in Canterlot.”
“Dear me Ray, that was almost two weeks ago,” the mare exclaimed.  “Has it really been so long since we’ve talked?”
“Wow,” Ray suddenly breathed, realizing that it truly had been so long since they’d spoken.  “I guess it really has.  Oh well, I guess what I wanted to tell you is kinda irrelevant now, but good job on it.”  
“Thanks,” Rarity said with a cheerful smile.  “I won it for- “
Whatever Rarity was about to tell him was lost as a sudden pink flash of pony shot out from down the stairs.  He instinctively raised his arms in self defense, knowing that Pinkie Pie moving at the speed of light at an event for him could be no safe sign.  He was too slow as he landed on his chest, catching his mouth open before he could manage to shout in surprise and shoving a small slice of cake into it.  It was only when she launched herself back off him, sending him forward and in front of his stairsteps, right in the line of fire for her infamous party cannon that he realized this is what she’d meant by “caked”.  
The cannon fired right as he bit into the piece of cake, accentuating the flavor with a loud, but not deafening, celebratory blast of confetti.  The colorful strips of paper harmlessly blinded him as he began laughing with his mouthful, turning around in the colorful.  
This is what he wanted to live for.  These random moments of joy combined with playful fear, an oxymoron of emotions that made him feel alive.  For however long he kept himself alive in this world, this is how he wanted to live, as a part of this great, amazing combination of twisted emotions and moments, invigorating him.  He swallowed the colorful sights as he spun around through the swirl of enlivening pigments.  With these ponies, he lived.  He was alive.
> Aerial
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The swirl of colors led to a night of celebration of song, which was the first time anybody but Sugar Belle heard him sing something from his homeworld.  It was also the first time he bothered to learn any of their traditional songs, though they weren’t too hard to learn.  The best part of the night was when everybody slowly began to leave, AJ and Rainbow inebriated enough that even being led by the CMC, they were unable to move straight.  Both Sugar Belle and Big Mac didn’t have any of the cider, meaning that all of the beverage had been split between him and the couple of mares.  
By the time they’d all left, he was feeling drowsy, realizing that he had completely bypassed dinner in favor of finishing the last half dozen muffins and three pieces of cake Pinkie had left behind.  Surprisingly, she had barely partaken in any of the confectionary goods she’d somehow produced, leaving him with a few extra treats to enjoy during the week.  Taking a quick shower, he got ready for bed.  Slipping out of his shorts, realizing he had to go back to the local laundromat, he slipped into bed with a glance that reaffirmed that his alarm was set.
When he woke up, a week had passed.  
Smiling, he tripped out of bed, still not quite awake.  Otolo was already impatiently fluttering near the window, reminding him that he needed to leave the door open at the very least.  “Sorry Ohs,” he apologized, popping the window open, goosebumps rising of his arms as he felt the chill of the morning fall air enter his room.  After another chorus of disappointed twitters, he reminded her, “You know I can’t leave the windows open now.  It gets too cold in the nights for a house with no air conditioning to do that.  Just wake up later.”
Early bird gets the worm.  “Yeah yeah, the infamous adage I myself don’t ever fulfill.  There’s no birds though!  As you keep reminding me, you intentionally skipped migration to stay with me for the winter.  You gotta accept that life’s gonna be a bit harder up here where it gets cold!”  You should be accommodating me for staying.  “Aren’t I?  I mean, you have as much food as you want in here anyways.  Why go out there in the first place?”  Reasons.  “Okay, keep your secrets.  You know I have no reason to tell anyone anyways.”  If any of the other animals that knew Fluttershy found out...
“I’ve already become practically immune to your little pecks,” Ray dismissed the warning, pulling on pants and a shirt.  Recognizing the challenging look in the little bird’s eyes, he told her, “That wasn’t a challenge.  Don’t take it as one.”
A fierce bit of chatter from her only served to remind him exactly who he was arguing with.  Rolling his eyes, he strolled downstairs, deciding that his body needed something more than just cold cereal.  Grabbing a few eggs from the fridge and a banana from the fruit bowl that had mysteriously appeared in his house sometime that week, he began cooking the food.  
Seeing as Otolo had escaped to an unknown destination for the morning, he could get away with eating the breakfast delicacy, and he was going to take full advantage of that.  Cooking up an omelet for himself while he downed the banana, he glanced out the kitchen window, which had a thin layer of vapor on it.  The first frost would come soon, sometime in the next two weeks, Applejack had told him.  Then, it would just be maintaining the trees and animals through the winter.  It also meant that the workdays would be a bit shorter as they lost daylight.  Apparently during the winter, there was only daylight for about nine hours during late December and early January.  It wasn’t too unsimilar to Pittsburg, though in the city, the lights kept the streets lit through the night.
Quickly adding salt, pepper, and some paprika to give the omelet more of a kick to start his morning.  Chowing down on it quickly, he washed the few dishes that had built up over the week, not eating enough at home for it to be a daily ordeal.  The water had gotten colder as well, he realized, the warmest it got was still not quite room temperature, the pipes cooling with the season.  Shaking the water off, he turned and left the living room, getting ready to leave for training, when a book on the shelves caught his eye.  Frowning slightly, he saw that it was new, delivered somehow to his house sometime between last night and this morning.  
Walking over to the bookshelf, he gave the book a disregarding stare, but grabbed it anyway.  He knew that it must have been teleported into his house by Twilight, since Otolo would have gone crazy if anybody had entered uninvited.  Pulling the thinner book off the shelf, he read the cover: Species of the World.  Curious, he flipped open the book to the front page, surprised to find not a lengthy introduction, but a warming smile of a creature he couldn’t quite identify.  
The strange creature had a beak, but more like an octopus’ than a bird’s, that was smooth and sharp at once.  Its face was covered in silky, oily-looking pink fur that gave it a kinder impression than the jagged beak entailed.  It waved flippers at the camera, and it was only then that Ray realized the setting of this picture was underwater, and not on land.  The coat of the top half gradually transferred to scales as the rear end became more aquatic, like a fish tail.  The image of the strange creature with its friendly, Pinkie-esque eyes and half-pony half-fish body reminded him of mermaids.  Finding the footnote in the bottom corner of the page, he read, “Hippogriff student at the School of Friendship (Ponyville) in her seapony form.”
Now intrigued by just what the book had to reveal, he flipped to the title page, dismissing it and reading the table of contents.  By the looks of it, not only did it have a page for information on the different species and their customs, but also pictures of the different physical appearances of them.  Smiling, he began flipping through the book, taking little mental images of each of the different unique species that he hadn’t yet had the opportunity to meet, knowing his time was limited before he had to leave.
The last pages contained the ponies of Equestria, and he couldn’t help but stop on a page that displayed all three species.  The unicorn was a small filly, the earth pony a grown mare, and the pegasus an elderly looking stallion, all smiling at the camera as they displayed their different and unique bodies and their advantages.  The unicorn was levitating several objects while the mare was holding a large bundle of sticks in one hoof with the stallion flying overhead.  The simple image of the three different, random ponies resonated deeply within Ray, a simple thought that there were thousands of them out there, thousands of faces he never had never would see.  And he was going to defend them all.
Smiling at the thought, he propped the book open, not sure he would remember to pick it up again unless he left it out.  Pulling the door open, he shivered beneath his short sleeve shirt, wishing that he had asked Rarity for some warmer clothes until it had already become too cold for shorter sleeves.  The past couple days of training had been rather miserable, cold skin and a runny nose being some of the highlights.  The real pain, however, came from attempting to learn archery with stiff fingers and hands instead of hooves.
For some reason, the concept of drawing back an arrow with some sting and making it fly was much, much harder than he had anticipated.  His very first attempt at actually using the bow and arrow was a mess, mostly because he had gone in completely blind.  Skalos had given him a bow and a singular arrow that was almost too dull to pierce paper and pointed him to a straw dummy.  The actual problem hadn’t been with drawing an arrow back, but keeping the arrow on the bowstring.  It seemed that every time he had finally lined up the perfect shot, the arrow somehow leaned away from the bow itself.  Then, when he finally fired, it flew about three feet too high and ten feet to the left.  The shot was so bad that Skalos verbally laughed, though he cut himself off quickly.  
There was no redemption the next day, just sore arms and the first time he managed to graze the dummy.  The only bright side was that he was finally keeping the arrow on his bow instead of letting it drift off.  He expected that today would be more of the same, attempting to build up his aim and keeping his arms strong for multiple shots in a row.  The force it took to pull back a singular arrow usually left his arm a bit achy and he had to take a few minutes to regather his strength before firing again, during which time Skalos would either explain to him what he’d done wrong or how he should be more relaxed for the shot.  Either way, he would spend hours on end firing the same few arrows with the same simple wooden stick to hit the same hill instead of the hay figure. 
Oh well, he thought, realizing that he had begun jogging the familiar path to the lake, his muscle memory taking him there instantly.  There was a bit of relief in the knowledge that he was getting better, if ever so slightly.  Perhaps today he would finally be able to pin the arrow into the dummy and begin to get the flow of the bow and arrow down.  Skalos had told him about the way that archers and archery itself had been a major part of the wars the Fallen had fought previously, the way that it had turned the tide of their first battle with endless clouds of arrows descending on their enemy.   
The mental image was certainly powerful, and archery was indeed an interesting prospect that Ray didn’t dislike.  It was simply the harsh learning process of the art that made learning it as tough as it had been.  Chuckling slightly, realizing that, while he had indeed been worn out and physically exhausted by the other aspects of training, it was archery that was his first true challenge.  Who would’ve ever thought that a simple pairing of string and wood would have ever been so complex as to drive him to being angry?
Shaking his head at his own ridiculousness, he crested the hill that led to the familiar lake, the waters looking gray as an onset of clouds had set over Ponyville.  Squinting over the area, he didn’t initially see Skalos, but upon descending the hill, he noticed the Fallen standing besides his Hobbithole.  The stallion immediately caught sight of him, and began waving Ray over immediately.  
As the distance closed between them, Skalos questioned Ray, gesturing inside with his hoof, “You said you wanted to visit us Fallen more in our home in Tartarus?  I hope you were earnest in that arrangement, otherwise I just remodeled for no reason.”
Ray stared inside with wide eyes, the entire opening room past the short front hall an intricate arrangement of burnt ground that formed a vaguely familiar pattern that surrounded the much smaller version of the pattern.  The ceiling was now completely missing, a wide hole in the earth directly above the waypoint allowing sunlight and the densely cool air in.  Somehow, it seemed as if Skalos had taken the ceiling off perfectly, leaving nothing but an unnatural circle in the ground above them.  Furrowing his brow, slowly spinning around the room, he opened his mouth to say something on the appearance of his friend’s residence, but he found he didn’t have the words.  
“Huh,” was all he managed to get out.  “You uh, you say you remodeled yourself, eh?” 
“Come now, Ray,” Skalos comforted, noticing the human’s discomfort.  “After living a millennia in the depths of Tartarus, there’s no other place I could conceivably call my home.  I’ve known the pits so well that I could recognize every single building, crevice, stalactite, and curve.  Besides, this was only a temporary residence anyways, a simple hole in the side of the hill from a few hundred years back.  It’ll serve us better as a waypoint directly into my true home than as a substitute.  With this established, we’ll be able to travel to Tartarus and back in minutes for your training, as often as we require.”
“Well what was wrong with the other one,” Ray asked, turning pointedly to the room where the other one was.
“If you’ll remember, I told you the waypoint gets burned out by the use of it, as darkways do,” Skalos explained simply.  “However, we used the waypoint twice that day.  I knew it would ruin Zecora’s, mine, and the Fallen’s darkways once we used it, but you were injured, so I took the cost.  This is a daypoint, or a waypoint that uses light in the center darkway and the outer rings to transport anybody to a specific area, though it can receive transport from any other waypoint.  Since it receives much more light, it generates light where it is opening up, easing the transportation and keeping both sides cool.  And with the floor already scorched in on both sides, it can withstand multiple trips a day without being damaged.”
“I don’t understand,” Ray honestly confessed.  “Isn’t that what the other one did?”
“Not nearly,” the Fallen stallion told him, beginning the process of tracing the intricate lines on the inner symbols.  His horn lit ever so slightly as he continued to demonstrate, “This one requires more than just the natural magic of a verbal enchantment that can be used by anyone.  Unicorns are the only ones able to activate it, though once somebody has been touched, or blessed, by the creator of the daypoint, they can use it just as easily.  The key difference is that daypoints use sunlight to displace darkness, first transferring the sunlight on the inner rings to the other daypoint, allowing it to have natural light for the outer ring to connect to.”  Smiling keenly at the complex explanation he’d given Ray, the stallion asked, “Any questions?”
Surprisingly, he didn’t have many important ones, so pressing his lips together, he simply shrugged.  “Good,” Skalos remarked singularly, bending his head to the point where his horn was practically scraping against the floor.  Once again, he began chanting in the strange tongue, the flow of his words steady but uncanny all at the same time.   There was a slight respite between phrases this time, however, as Skalos ignited his horn and dipped it into one of the oblong equine figures.  A golden glow slowly overtook the room as the insignias on the floor were activated by the Fallen’s actions.  
Eventually, the entire inner combination was alight, which Ray took as his cue to step into the waypoint’s center.  Skalos entered the center with him, exclaiming “Rafsa!”  This, of course, began the warming of the air that Ray had felt himself a few weeks ago, the air beginning to brighten itself.  However, the next word that came was different as Skalos shouted, “Ankishur!”  In a flash, the outer ring suddenly exploded in light, this dimming the inner pattern as it began to transmit the light to the other side.  There was a low swishing sound, as if a jet turbine was slowly being turned on, as the light began to be literally sucked through the insignias on the outer rings, which now appeared to be black.  The light continued to drain into the symbols, the noise beginning to become an uproar, and somehow, over the terrible sound, Skalos bellowed, “Jahez!”
Too quickly, the roaring silenced, leaving a serene quiet to overtake the pair, though they could no longer see each other.  Ray hadn’t realized it until then, but the light had intensified to its gentle, blinding state.  The beam kept him from seeing his surroundings, though he was able to feel the Fallen’s presence beside him and hear as he yelled, “Haleck!”
The calm warmth of the light overtook him, dispersing any vestiges of the morning chill left, blinding light intensifying until he was back in that same white room, featureless white surrounding the pair.  Ray looked down at Skalos, both as a source of comfort and to have something more solid to stare at when the light settled back to darkness.  Sure enough, with an ear-splitting snap, the light broke, small particles of it spreading throughout the dark room.  
Stepping out of the inner circle, he found the same darkened, slightly misty room as before, the low roof above him looming dangerously near his head.  Had he really grown that much?  
Immediately, Skalos was leaving the waypoint, the briefest impatient pause to glance behind him, signaling Ray to follow him.  The human hurried to follow the Fallen down the long, featureless corridor, darkness tinted slightly by the light of Skalos’ body and little floating orbs.  The two traveled in almost uncomfortable silence, the echoes of Skalos’ hooves and soft squishing sounds of Ray’s shoes reverberating softly against the cavern's oblique walls.
It was actually Skalos who broke the uncanny silence, muttering softly, “We should really install some lighting in here.  Maybe some bullwater to give it a natural, softer light.”
“Pardon,” Ray said, confused by the stallion’s sudden talking.  He had heard the Fallen just fine, but he hadn’t quite comprehended what exactly he was supposed to derive from his statement.
“Ah, I was just saying that since this is going to become a daily routine for us, it would be best if we installed some sort of lights for you,” Skalos explained, a subtle smile crossing his face.  “Personally, we Fallen don’t require any source of light to see in the dark, since we produce enough light ourselves for our eyes to use.  Luminescence has been an… unconventional adaptation to our physicality, one that we do appreciate.  Our eyes faded with our bodies, but luminescence gave us a literal light in the dark, a new way to see ourselves and our surroundings.  We assume it’s from the bullwater we subside off of down here, Celestia knows we didn’t need to experiment with it.”
“Huh, what’s bullwater,” Ray asked, many of the words Skalos had said not making much sense to him.  
“Ah, it’s a luminescent liquid that’s full of different minerals and proteins,” he answered.  “We don’t know much about it, other than it being a rather unique liquid.  You see, it’s too thick to simply evaporate in the sun, which means all of the proteins are an actual composition inside of the liquid.  It’s not even water, rather hydrogen and oxygen with something else, though we don’t quite know what yet.  Either way, most ponies aren’t brave enough to try to drink a glowing pale-blue liquid, but when you live on the edge of boredom every day of your eternal life, you attempt some unique things to entertain yourself.”
Chuckling softly, Ray muttered, “Well, if I lived forever, I would have to figure out some way to entertain myself, now wouldn’t I?  Guess drinking strange substances and carving houses into cliff faces would be satisfying entertainment, eh?”
“Well, it passes the time,” Skalos admitted, his voice still cheerful even as a forlorn thread entered his voice, his footfalls faltering.  “When you don’t have anything to do, you find yourself asking more questions and trying to find more answers to the how rather than the what.  We Fallen have made a science of ourselves and anything else we could manage down here.  Celestia and Luna even occasionally visited us to see our progress and fund it from time to time.  They fed our curiosity.”  The Fallen stopped thoughtfully as they reached the opening into a much more… organized cavern.  Before stepping into it, the stallion muttered softly, “Bless them for forgiving us after so many years.”
Ray didn’t have time to respond before the stallion entered the strange cavern, noticing that he didn’t wish for any further comment on the subject.  Ray had finally begun to understand the stallion that had introduced him to the person he was going to become.  He was a sentimental stallion, his emotions well concealed but not repressed.  He let Ray see that he had more emotion than the cold exterior he put on during training, letting his friend know that there was personality there.  He was showing Ray more than just how to be a general, but how to be a sentient killer, someone who could understand life.
Slowly, as Ray had come to the knowledge of the subtle lesson Skalos was teaching him, he began applying it to his own life.  He had worn a mask since the moment he left the shower the night he had arrived, the only one seeing him without it being Otolo.  Now he needed to stop hiding in his shell and begin facing the truth and the utter reality of being who he wanted to become.  It was the greatest lesson this stallion could have ever been taught, and it was why he knew Skalos, while imperfect in nature, was the perfect companion to charge into battle and lead armies with.  Smiling softly as the silent Fallen hurriedly left a second opening just a few feet away, he let the stallion have his silence.  They didn’t need to be completely transparent with each other, even if Ray was rather see-through.
It was only after Ray exited the secondary opening that he realized the cavern they had just been in wasn’t a cavern at all, but a house carved into the side of the main cave.  Stepping into the open, confined area that made up the home of the Fallen, he found himself in a view he had never been in before.  He was staring out across the long field of sparse grass and stone from what was most likely a balcony.  Stepping up to a simple stone guardrail, he stared down, looking around in slight bewilderment.  
The room he had emerged from was at the very top of the town of stone buildings and houses, intricate staircases weaving themselves back and forth through the entire town.  They led to several different varying levels, and quickly counting them, he found that there were four different levels in the city, none too distinct from the other.  There were dozens of Fallen moving through the dull, smooth streets, the roads looking as if they were simply carved from the earth as well.  Ray had only seen this small city of the Fallen from afar, but now that he was here, he couldn’t believe how large it actually was.  
Several distinct buildings stood out among the organized jumble of structures, some having dome tops and others looking like half circles with open rooms facing the plains.  These buildings were teaming with Fallen, who moved about in an organized fashion.  The Fallen themselves walked and acted like any other pony out and about doing their daily chores, though many of them were casually carrying around spears or bows.  The calm, dull nature of their movement and walking was contrary to the kind ponies they were.  However, taking their surroundings into account, along with the nature of these Fallen and their lives, he found the scenery of the cramped city… relaxing.  
Looking around at the gentle chaos of the city of stone and ghostly ponies, he found himself almost feeling at home.  The tight roads and short alleys between buildings were much more familiar than the openness of Ponyville, the cramped environment comfortable after living so long in the rundown sections of Pittsburg.  He smiled at the sight of so many of his people, the soldiers and personalities that he would lead and fight besides.  They were not invincible or flawless, nor were they cold and born killers.  They were simply ponies who were trying their best to redeem themselves and make the world better.
The comforting fact did have a more concerning side to it, the fact that, for over hundreds of years, they hadn’t done much fighting, though they had allegedly been training still.  Indeed, it looked as if they were ready for war with their weapons carried about them as casually as they were.  However, what did they actually have?  What did normal acting ponies have against towering beasts well armed and brutally effective in killing, wanting to do nothing but that?  As concerning as those questions were, he didn’t have time to contemplate them, he was ushered away by Skalos. 
“We don’t have too long to tarry about,” the Fallen informed him.  “We have to take a bit of time walking out to the archery range, so you can’t stop to goggle at the sights. I too find myself staring at this city often as well.  We Fallen have spent a good deal of time mastering the carving of stone to make ourselves a city.  We call it Abrasia, or the City of our Own, where we can be free to do as we please with our free time.  A good number of us visit the chapel or the halls to discuss the latest scientific or political debate.” 
“So you guys have a religion,” Ray asked, taking the steps down to the next level of the city two at a time.  He had never found any of the ponies he knew to be religious, so the concept was rather shocking.  
“Well, yes,” Skalos answered, dodging past a gray Fallen who was rushing in the direction they’d come from.  The stallion barely seemed to note Ray’s presence, giving him a simple nod as he passed.  For some reason, Ray had expected the encounter to be much more… personal, for the Fallen to have been shocked by the sight of the human suddenly in their home.  With a soft smile, Ray tuned back into Skalos’ discussion.  
“I’m personally a patron of the moon, and have been ever since my colthood,” the stallion told Ray.  “Many ponies here are converts to being patrons of the moon, as it was the Princess of the Night who conquered us and sentenced us to this lifestyle.  Her mercy was not clouded by rage in the moments of our capture, and not a single one of us died when she captured us.  There wasn’t even a battle, only a siege and a long winter until we surrendered ourselves to her.   Our commanders were executed for their part in leading us on our horrible, murderous rampage through the valley, but otherwise, we were kept in relative safety.”
“Praising her is a strange way to show your appreciation for being captured,” Ray said, giving the stallion a look.  
“Well, yes, it is a rather strange tradition for many who aren’t us, but we Fallen were humbled by our experiences,” Skalos told him.  “You see, we were one of the largest enemy forces to be faced by the Princesses.  Previous engagements with us had led to the deaths of thousands in every battle.  The fact that eighteen thousand of us were captured with almost no death on both sides was a statistically astounding event.  We were intelligently outran and outlasted, surrounded completely and left with no options but to hold out.  There hasn’t been an occurrence like the capture of the Fallen since it happened and we respect our Princess for the way she was able to spare us and herself while accomplishing her goal. 
“We learned a great deal from the Princesses in their mercy and attitude for us, and while it took them a couple hundred years, they eventually announced their forgiveness to us.  It was that event, the announcement of forgiveness, that gave us the will to actually begin to live as ourselves.  We built our own culture down here, a scientific and politically based system of living in which we attempted fulfillment and integrity.  A thousand years passed and our development as individuals was excellent, however, we stopped feeling completed, and we didn’t have much hope for the future.  Ever since Luna was banished, we had felt our unity and our fulfillment waning, and it came to pass about one hundred fifty years ago. 
“During that time, and since, there have been many clashes between us Fallen over the matter of whether Luna or Celestia was in the right and wrong, and that division eventually led to a few major things.  Namely, we, until about five, six years ago, had a divided city, where believers in Luna’s purity one part and believers in Celestia’s in another.  We still met, however, there was an anger and darkness on us all for those decades, and we felt as if there was a civil war about to start between us.  Then, we were visited not by Celestia, but by Luna, and peace was restored, for the most part. 
“The reintroduction of us old friends to one another was probably the happiest time of my life, but the cultural divisions were still there.  That’s when we formed our different sects of Grims, Moderates, and Foals.  Grims are mostly traditional Lunars, such as I, while Moderates are radical Lunars and Celestials, with the Foals being the mixture of both.  When we learned about you, lordling, there was an uproar for weeks, though it wasn’t a violent or disruptive matter, more questions upon questions.  ‘What’s a human?’  ‘Why does he get to lead us?’  ‘Who will represent us?’”
Turning over his shoulder, the Fallen gave him a rare, genuine smile.  “You can imagine my surprise when Twilight’s test was of intelligence and not popularity, and my shock when she announced my leadership.  After living together for almost seventeen hundred years, everybody knows who other ponies are, so everybody knew my name and face, but I wasn’t popular.  Still, the others accepted Twilight’s judgement, and I’ve tried my best, taking some tutoring from Twilight, but mostly reading the books she lent me on general affairs and the sorts.  
“It was a rather busy year leading up to your arrival,” Skalos informed him, taking a pause as he glanced around the empty street they were on before deciding their direction of travel.  “You see, while you didn’t know we were going to call upon you, we did, and we had to prepare both for you and the minotaurs.  We rearmed ourselves and began the process of accumulating weapons once again, as most of our weapons had fallen away to time.  There were some preparations for a quarter for you here, but we decided against it.  If you were going to join us, you didn’t have to be us, or live like us.  This way.”
Suddenly they were turning and walking down a sloped path, the stone angling down behind buildings of the third and second levels, heading straight for the first level.  Curiously, it seemed to turn around and head into one of the actual buildings of the first level.  Indeed, upon getting to that point in their journey down the slanted path, they turned in front of a solid wall and walked into a house not too unfamiliar with the one from earlier.  This house was actually lit by torches on all four walls, leaving the room in a curious red and yellow lighting rather than the pale blue of the cavern.  They were out of the room in an instant, however, and across the short stone walkway until they reached the plains themselves.  
The grass was rigid but not exactly stiff, more like rubber.  It was strong but bent beneath his weight, throwing Ray off at first.  After a few steps across the grass, he balanced himself out.  There were dozens of Fallen out here, doing anything from sleeping to running, maximizing the use of the large space in their cavern.  Some of them saw him while others didn’t, but overall their reactions to him were much the same as before, a slight smile or nod of recognition, but nothing more.  This came as a relief, as while he wanted to become more involved with those he was supposed to be leading, he didn’t want to be flooded by their attention.  
Skalos led him along the edges of the grass, near the city’s edge until he found they were past it.  They were suddenly encroaching on an odd box-shaped structure a few feet into the grass that he hadn’t noticed before, the monotonous stone blending with the nearby edge of the cave.  Curiously, there was nobody around this structure, which was rather small compared to the simple houses and ramadas that made up the city.  They wrapped around it to where Ray saw there was an entrance, though it was small enough that Skalos had to duck under it.  Getting on his hands and knees, Ray scooted himself through the small opening, finding himself facing a drop of a few inches.  
Following the drop, he found that these were stairs that descended into absolute darkness, no light entering the structure from the outside and no light source within.  The only thing that he was able to see was Skalos, his luminescent body descending into the abyss through the stairs.  “Pardon our lack of light in here and the tight fit,” Skalos apologized over his shoulder.  “We hadn’t the space to make this any bigger for your comfort or ours.  This was discovered just a few years ago in its own right, and we haven’t finished mapping it out quite yet.”
“What do you mean,” Ray asked, though there was no answer.  Skalos had disappeared suddenly, either from descending too far to see or perhaps because of a turn.  Sighing, he reached up and touched the roof of the structure, the stone cool beneath his hand.  Using it as his guide to how tall he could be, he crouched over and began descending blindly down the stairs.  Indeed, after several steps, he found his foot bumping against a solid wall that was completely flat.  Turning, feeling his way around with his hand, he turned over his left shoulder to find an opening there, and began to descend more stares.  Just a few steps down, there was a glowing hole in the ground where Skalos stood.  
“This is a natural cavern that has been formed by flowing water that runs under Tartarus,” he explained, suddenly handing Ray a rope.  “We don’t have any wood down here, so we used some broken bow strings to make this rope to help us travel down here.  This is our make-do archery range.  The water provides a buffer for our arrows, but it isn’t that deep, so we can retrieve any misses or thrown away shots.  The main cavern is probably half as large as the one we live in up above, which serves well enough for its purpose.  It’s much better than having them firing arrows across our park and damaging the little bit of soft ground we have.”
“So you want me to climb down there,” Ray questioned, glancing down.  There was indeed light down there, and though he couldn’t see much through the hole besides the rocky ground below.  Tugging on the rope to check how firm it was, he stepped up to the hole and began to scale down the wall.  It didn't take long, maybe a minute at most, before he reached the ground.  Looking up at where Skalos peered on him from.  Holding up his rope, he inquired, “How do I get this back up to you?”
The Fallen gave him a knowing look before tugging on the base of the rope, sliding it up out of Ray’s grip and taking it back up.  The human smiled sheepishly as he watched his friend proceed to slide down the rope, not bothering to scale the wall like Ray had.  
“No need to show off,” Ray jokingly chided.  
“I did no such thing,” Skalos denied the claim, walking past him and behind the human.  “I was simply giving an example of how this procedure is supposed to be carried out.” 
“Yeah, of course,” he sarcastically agreed, turning with the Fallen.  His attention was immediately diverted from his jesting with the stallion and to his surroundings, awe instantly overtaking him.  
The cavern before him was nothing like the dull one above them, alight with bright white and colors that reflected off of the water's slightly rippled surface.  Large stalactites hung from the roof of the cavern, each filled with mysterious blue or white chambers that glowed.  These chambers seemed to be what provided the cavern its magnificent light, bright beams gleaming all from dozens of large stalactites that gave the room an ethereal atmosphere.  There were hundreds of Fallen standing on the wide bank of the lake that disappeared beneath a wall that must have been almost a mile away.  The clear water sparkled in the light, the reflected beams shining crystalline light across the dimensions of the cavern.
“Wow,” he breathed, not sure if his voice carried the sentiment.   
“It’s strange,” Skalos suddenly mournfully said.  “We found such a beautiful room such as this, with its magnetic attraction and otherworldly beauty, and instantly we made it into a new archery range to train in killing.”  Glancing behind him at Ray, Skalos’ eyes lacked any sense of irony, only a deep sadness within.  “Don’t become like us, lordling,” Skalos instructed Ray, his voice sounding broken.  “Learn to enjoy the world around you.  Don’t look at the world as if each piece of it is part of a battle.  Let yourself have peace more than once.”
Ray stared at the Fallen mutely for a second, intending to say something to reassure his friend, but the words weren’t there.  Instead, he just nodded, pressing his lips together in a slight smile.  
“Ah, Skalos, and my lordling friend,” the hearty voice of a mare suddenly called.  The both of them turned to face the voice, finding a stocky earth pony mare approaching them.  There was a bow strapped horizontally on her right side with a quiver of arrows on the left, tilted up slightly to prevent them from falling out.  Ray briefly recalled the mare, her glowing, deep purple body being distinct from a majority of the other Fallen he’d spoken to, but he couldn’t remember her name exactly.  
“The name’s Adant,” she introduced herself, thrusting a hoof out.  Ray took it, shaking it firmly as her broad smile infected him.  “I hear you’re havin’ some trouble with archery.  Glad you could come and visit us, ‘cause I’m pretty sure we have a few answers to your problem.”
“Yeah, it’s definitely not my specialty,” Ray admitted, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. 
“Ah, don’t feel ashamed of anything,” Adant encouraged.  “Archery is an art like any other and takes a good deal of training and the right teacher to learn.”  With a pointed, taunting look at Skalos, she added, “There’s certainly a great deal more difficulty to it than simply pushing a spear back and forth, I’ll tell you.”
Skalos rolled his eyes as he passed the mare, using his magic to take the bow and quiver of arrows from her to give them over to Ray.  The human grabbed them both from the magical grasp, slinging the quiver over his shoulder and dutifully following Skalos, not quite sure what the two’s attitude towards each other was supposed to mean.  The companions stepped onto the sandy bank of the underground lake, Skalos turning to him and pointing to his quiver.
“Stick those arrows into the ground here,” he instructed, though his eyes were on the Fallen behind them.  Lowering his voice, he suddenly told Ray, “I apologize for any awkwardness that ensues.  Adant claims that we were lovers some time ago, though I personally have no recollection of what she’s talking about.”
“Uh, o… Okay then,” Ray muttered, accepting the unprecedented apology, not quite sure how to react to such a claim.  Sticking the arrows firmly into the sand of the bank, he asked, “Why have her be my instructor then?”
“Because I’m the best archerer they have,” Adant proclaimed conceitedly.  She stepped between Ray and Skalos, taking the bow roughly from Ray’s hand, pointing to where he’d been gripping it, inspecting the wood.  “Well,” she contemplatively observed, “you seem to know how to hold it for a bipedal creature.  That’s a good start.   Hit one of those targets over there.”
Ray followed where the purple hoof pointed, to a target probably a hundred or so feet away, much further than the ones he’d been shooting at by the lake.  He took the bow back and pulled one of the arrows from the sand, pulling it back on the string and pointing the arrow at the target.  Taking a deep breath in, he let the arrow fly as he breathed out, watching the arrow sail shakily.  It flew for a while, his high aim carrying it far, but not far enough, as the arrow dropped into the water short by a good few dozen feet.  
“Well, there’s our problem,” Adant exclaimed.  “Let’s work on that”
> Say Good-bye
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Ah, a head on strike,” Pelios exclaimed as Ray’s sword glanced off the metal of a helmet they were using to practice.
“Very funny,” Ray testily replied, stepping back and raising his sword again.  The yellow-tinted stallion smiled at him as Ray tilted the blade ever so slightly so it was at a roughly sixty degree angle to his face.  Sweeping it down in a short, slicing motion, he once again cut it into the dented helmet.  As he withdrew, he murmured under his breath, “Don’t even know why I’m doing this.  I use a spear.”
“You use a kharamh,” Skalos corrected around the blade in his mouth.  He had his own blade and target helmet, though his was significantly less damaged.  “Besides, you’ll have a sword anyways as a sidearm, so you might as well train yourself in its proper application.”
“Well you don’t need to train with a sword,” Ray pointed out, raising his sword for another swift strike.  “We’ve already deduced that you probably would give them papercuts with the amount of force you have behind those strikes.”
“True, but consider this,” Pelios offered, grunting as he attempted to strike hard enough against his own helmet.  “What if we have to fight more than just minotaurs on the other side of the world?  What if there were some sort of creepy crawlies that presented a threat to us over there, too small for our strap-ons?”
“First of all, please stop calling those spears strap ons,” Ray asked the ignorant Fallen.  “And second, swords would be better for spiders… why exactly?  I mean, I could stomp on them easily, and we wouldn’t have to clean swords or anything.”
“C’mon, lordling, we’re talking about a whole new continent, untouched by ponykind before,” Pelios pressed, pausing from his practice to use his hooves to exaggerate his point.  Pointing out to the wall of the cavern as a figurative horizon, the Fallen asked, “Who knows what it’ll be like out there, across the world?  I mean, those spiders out there could be bigger than you!” 
“In which case a spear would be the most useful,” Ray fired back readily, shaking his head and spinning his sword around.  “It all comes back full circle.”
“Idiots, ya know we practice swords t’day ‘cause Skalos doesn’t have anythin’ planned for us today,” a fourth voice echoed in, chuckling as he approached.  Turning to find Garish, a reddish pegasus with a bit of a chip in his shoulder, quite literally, Ray smiled, giving Skalos a quick glance.  “He didn’t expect the archers to have somethin’ preplanned today, seein’ as they neva do, and lo and behold, the one day he needs ‘em for a skirmish, they're gone.”  Pausing to consider his words, he pointed across the flat plains, to where the archers, far off by quite a ways, but still in sight, were practicing formations or something.  “Well, I guess gone isn’t quite the word I’m lookin’ for.”
“Careful, Garish,” Skalos warned, giving the stallion a firm glance.  “Whatever you say to the lordling can be held against you as he is our general, and as his right-hand man, I’ll follow whatever orders he gives me regarding your punishment.” 
“Eh, our lordling, unlike your stiff ass, can take a joke,” the Fallen jeered, stepping beside Ray.  
Cocking his best cheeky smile to date, Ray reminded the stallion, “You know, as my right-hand man, insulting Skalos is not only insulting a superior, but also an insult to me.  On top of that, I’ve told you not to curse before, and you just disobeyed a direct order.”  Pointing his finger to the road that ran alongside the entirety of the cavern walls, he instructed, “Take a lap, Private.  Running.”
“Ah ya gotta be shi- … Yessir,” the stallion endured, deciding against his hot-headed nature and accepting the order from Ray.  
Begrudgingly, the stallion began to run his course, and watching the Fallen’s obedience, Ray called after him, “Make that only half a lap.  We’ll still need you in a few minutes.”
“Yessir,” the pegasus called behind his back, his pace quickening as he became visibly less exhumed. 
As Ray watched the stallion jog away, Skalos finally seemed to be satisfied with the amount of damage that had been dealt on the helmets, carefully sheathing his blade in a holster beside the dummy that held the helmet up.  The Fallen turned his head sharply to the left and right, loud snaps splitting the momentary silence.  Taking it as the stallion’s sign that they were done, Ray playfully spun the blade around a few times between his fingers before sheathing his own sword in his sidearm holster.  He’d had some extra time to learn the delicate technique of spinning a blade on his own accord, but as of yet, there had been no practical use for it other than showing off.
Cracking his own sore knuckles, he worked as much tension out of them as possible.  Clenching his fist for hours at a time had become a daily workout as their training over the past few days had become more rigorous in the way they worked as a unit.  They had been practicing several different types of training, well, mostly Ray, while the other Fallen remained within the realms of their skill sets.  By far, the skirmishes were the funnest out of them, also being the most rigorous as it required him to run the complete mile and a half from one end of the cavern to dead in the center in an unbroken charge.
He knew that training wasn’t meant to be fun by any means, but oftentimes, in spite of himself, he found he enjoyed his time down in the caverns more than above the ground, in the sunlight.   The refreshing coolness of the cavern reflected the sharp chill in the air as fall had briskly set in.  Ray had yet to set up an appointment with Rarity to fit him a jacket or two for when winter truly set in and the layers of snow fell, as he’d been warned it would.  With a soft smile, he put his hand against the fabric of his dummy, the torn fabric of missed slices and strikes underneath his hand revealing his mistakes with rough hay poking through.  
Turning around, he stared out over the force of some five hundred Fallen following in suit, tucking away their swords as they stretched out their sore necks.  There was a comfort in the sheer number of them that followed and trained with him without question.  He knew just from looking at them that they were all Foals, or at least mostly, the remaining being Moderates that leaned more towards the Foals’ point of view.  As he had spent more time with the Fallen, he began to visibly see the different ways that they held themselves up, revealing their different ideologies.
The Foals held themselves upright completely, but in a relaxed way, their actions rhythmatic more than metronomic.  They walked quicker than the other Fallen as well, moving quickly because they felt the need to get from one place to another.  In spite of all being the same age, the Foals certainly felt the youngest of the Fallen, and even seemed to think they were.  Oftentimes, they seemed to try and compensate for the mindset they put themselves in with the same attitude that Garish held himself in.  It was an interesting contrast to what he’d expected all of the Fallen to be.  
The Grims were much more what he had expected when he first looked over the entirety of the Fallen those few months back, a strict, uptight group of hardened soldiers with knowledge that far surpassed his own.  The only thing that came as a surprise about them was the way they didn’t seem to hold themselves as superior to him, even though they most definitely were in both skill and maturity.  When he stood around with them or talked with them, they put themselves down at every chance they could in the subtlest ways.  A simple comment about a certain speed that they used to drag themselves down as slow and unfit.  A slow nod following a simple statement that they attempted to take more out of then meant, then apologizing for attempting to understand.  It didn’t even seem to be of their own accord that they did it, simply a habit that they used.
The Moderates were- quite fittingly -the most normal of the group, not relaxed, but never pensive.  They walked around like the ponies he saw in town all of the time, going where they needed, but not rushing to be there or attempting to be right on time.  They seemed to be the most cohesive members of the Fallen’s society, keeping the two differing ideologies they shared views with from too many verbal clashes.  Whether it was because of Ray’s presence bringing discipline on both sides or simply because the Fallen were now truly mobilizing, he hadn’t witnessed a single conversational battle in the time he’d spent here.  
The rapid progression of Fallen training had doubtlessly been brought about by Ray’s arrival and his true adoption into the depths of Tartarus, as evidenced by how hurried everything now was.  They had obviously been training for a long time before he even arrived in Equestria, with schedules of the old drilling days carved into some of the community ramadas.  Now, however, the training was daily, with the open fields of the Fallen’s plains being filled with thousands of bodies being commanded in dozens of differing blocks by hundreds of commanders, generals, and even Ray himself.  It seemed like every day, the war took a step further towards them, a darkness creeping through them.
Shuddering at the thought, he pushed it aside.  The war was going to come on another day, so dreading it today did nothing good for them.  Still, as he looked out over the some five hundred Fallen talking with one another, sharing jokes or comparing progress on their own helmet targets, made of wood for lack of material, he remembered the terrible toll this war was going to take.  A soft sadness blanketed him, making him frown as he observed unfortunate souls attempting to be better than their past selves.  With the way this war could end, he wanted nothing more than to ensure every Fallen he saw would survive the dreadful endeavor. 
Skalos was suddenly beside him, sharing Ray’s gaze across the small number of Fallen that were packing up in preparation for the next drill.  “Well,” the Fallen asked softly, his head turning up to look at Ray.  
“I’m looking at corpses,” Ray muttered even quieter, not entirely sure Skalos would even hear him.  “Not every one of them is gonna make it out of this alive.  I'm not even sure if I’ll make it out alive.”
“Aye,” the stallion agreed hollowly, his head turning out to the crowd, then beyond, to where other Fallen were practicing their own different drills.  There was a moment of pause before Skalos admitted, “I have the same thought every time I see them.  It's a painful thought to bear.”
“How do you deal with it,” Ray inquired, more curious than actually desperate.  “I can hardly handle it when I happen to think about the war, and I’ve barely met a third of them.”
“I think it may be harder for you to say a good-bye to them than for me,” Skalos replied.  “You see, I’ve lived with these mares and stallions for so long, I view most of them as family more than as friends.  I’ve had hundreds of years to learn each of their names and I’ve had as many years to learn to love them in spite of our different views.  Having all these years together, stuck below the ground, I’ve seen us all fade into our Fallen states, and I’ve seen the rise of our three different ideologies.   With all of this time, I hadn’t met a new pony, save Twilight.  I’ve been stuck around the familiar, and as much as I do love my brothers and sisters, it’s become old.  We all feel it, the creeping of time, and now that we have something to look to on the horizon, even if it is a war, it gives us a future, a fresh breath.
“You know, I was the first Fallen in centuries to see the sun, the first to touch true, soft, brown soil and feel the brushing of grass against my fetlocks.  The first time I went to the surface, I was left alone by Twilight to familiarize myself with the surrounding areas.  I cried the entire time I was above the surface,” Skalos reminisced with a subtle smile Ray almost missed.  “You see, the first time my brothers and sisters, we Fallen, go above the surface together, there will be countless tears shed, and mine will be among them.  The coming of this war brings dread to us all, lordling, but this terrible reward for our treachery reintroduces us to the world, allowing us to be ponies once again, even if for the last time.  The pain will be indescribable, but the joy too.” 
 An eerily bright, whimsical smile crossed Skalos’ face, the first time Ray had ever seen Skalos truly relaxed and happy.  It was a warming smile, one that made Ray share his own soft smile with the Fallen, a smile that seemed to be an admission to his emotions.  Their eyes met, and Ray saw a deep truth in them, one that sent ice through his heart even as his smile brightened.  It went unsaid as Skalos turned away to finish his own cleanup operations, but Ray heard it in spite of deafening silence.  
“It doesn’t matter if I die since I’ll have truly lived.  Good-bye.”
“Your time is up now,” Skalos said behind him, his voice too bright for the dark cavern.  “You think you can take the waypoint back on your own today, or do you wish for me to assist you again?”  
“No, no I can do it on my own,” Ray hoarsely answered, beginning to walk off.  “I’ll see you tomorrow, Skalos.”
“‘Til tomorrow, lordling,” Skalos replied kindly, the staleness still refusing to return to his voice as he continued packing up.
Ray walked away from the group of Fallen just as Garish was returning to the pack, a friendly smile on his face as he recognized Ray was leaving.  He nodded respectfully to Ray, not saying anything as they passed each other, though it was most likely because he was panting too heavily to get anything out.  Passing behind a group of jogging Fallen with their lances strapped on their sides, he took a winding, but familiar path that slowly wound its way around the city and to the top of the layer.  It passed behind several buildings, though all but one was completely dark, as the Fallen tended to have it.  
While at first he had been readily intrigued by the lightened buildings, he had quickly learned that they were merely the centers that served as miniature post offices and community discussion areas.  They only had a small portion indoors that wasn’t filled with endless stacks of paper, gallons of ink, and piles of quills, with random items required for writing in between.  He had once taken a very short trip into it out of curiosity, and had left quite bored, though more educated than before.  The Fallen truly functioned as their own society while the rest of the world progressed above them.
Ray shook his head, attempting to rid himself of the stinging pang of sorrow that remained with him from his nonverbal conversation with Skalos.  It wasn’t the best idea to allow emotion to interfere with his concentration while he committed the spell of teleportation at the daypoint.  Taking a deep breath in and out, he calmed himself enough to trust that he could complete the full enchantment without a problem.  Entering into the small house that led to the thin corridor, he mentally reengaged himself.
Even though he had committed the entire magical chant to memory, he wanted the minute reminder to secure his knowledge.  Skalos had blessed him with access to the daypoint and the enchantment to use it as soon as he could, which was a few days after they moved on from the archery lessons.  It had been the most intellectually challenging part of the training so far, but it was also one of the most important, as daypoints, waypoints, and darkpoints would be the main way of communication and transportation on the other side of the sea.  He had learned in only a few hours how to use all three, and even how to make one if he had to, though since he wasn’t magical, he needed a unicorn to activate it.
Before he knew it, he was to the daypoint, the dim room subtly lit by the glow of the light on the other side of the portal.  The entire Fallen nation knew of its existence, however, there didn’t seem to be an attempt, or even want, of escape from their imprisonment.  In spite of the complaints of some of the Fallen like the Separationists, there had never been truthful talks of leaving until his arrival, and even then, when they talked about it, it was always a far-off thing, not an instantaneous event.  These were the sort of things he was beginning to discover on his own as he began to talk to his comrades and new friends more, and not from Skalos solely.  
It was exciting to become as involved with the Fallen as he had and so soon, but it was still clear the several things that separated him from the rest.  The obvious and biggest one was, in fact, his much larger size, that made him crouch whenever he wanted to speak to them, which he was used to thanks to his normal friends.  He laughed at that as he bent down to inspect the symbols scrawled around the daypoint.  Ray had begun to find himself doing that much more often on his own, laughing at things like thinking small, technicolor ponies were his “normal” friends.  
Quickly, he wiped away emotion, intense focus taking over as he began the rotation around the daypoint.  He forced himself into thoughtlessness as he quoted the same gothic chant that Skalos had used, still not knowing the exact definition of each word he spoke.  He didn’t need to know it though, merely recite every intricate, tongue-twisting word of the dialect, to feel his mouth move and hear the mystic words flow.  As his finger traced across the soft soil crevices that formed the figures of the oblong ponies, he closed his eyes, yelling fiercely, “Rafsa!” 
As soon as the word left his mouth and echoed in the chamber, he felt a warmth pass through his body, starting at his finger as a golden glow caught up to him.  He could see the brightness through closed eyelids, squinting as he continued on his path, pushing his finger underneath the coat of sunlight to continue tracing.  With a passionate swivel, he passed around the curve of the circle, feeling the eye carved into the ground, a mark of the halfway point.  His finger running around the corona of the eye, he shouted, “Ankishuri!”
Ray felt the entire ring pulse as the outer ring exploded in light and warmth.  Every part of him was warm in the most soothing way, drawing a comfortable smile from him.  Pulses of surging warmth overtook him as he continued on his circling, finishing the inner ring with a victorious, swift removal of his finger from the eye, calling the light to take him.  
“Jahez!”
In an instant, the entirety of his vision was consumed in white, and knowing it was a comfortably blinding light, he opened his eyes and stared around in peaceful awe.  He liked this, the peaceful white that surrounded him, the warmth that filled him, and the stillness that seemed to go on for years, a moment of thoughtless tranquility of nothing.  
The sudden snap as he was transported into the next daypoint in the hill.  Shaking his head to clear his vision, he walked through some of the floating light that remained, the room slowly regaining its sunlight that had been drained into the Tartarus side of the daypoint.  Stepping through the door that was already propped open, he stared out across the lake, a thin layer of ice crusting the shores of it and a thin frost remaining on the grass, even though it was almost noon.  There had yet to be any snowfall, but any time in the next few days the pegasi were planning it.  
It was still a rather strange thing that the ponies controlled the weather, but it was sometimes refreshing to know whether to expect a rainy or sunny day.  Trudging across the stiff grass, he shoved his hands into his pockets to keep the chill out for a bit longer.  The sun was blazing brightly today, with not a cloud in the sky, but it was a hollow light that failed to provide any warmth.  He needed a jacket to get through the winter, seeing as it was a mad dash to get from the doorway of his house to the daypoint and the arcanic warmth it provided early in the morning.  Otolo had even begun to stay inside, though it did make her much more energetic and impatient.
Smiling at the thought of the little bird that had stayed behind simply to be with him, he took the last few steps over the incline, to where he was looking over the entire Acres.  The leaves had fallen completely from the branches with the onset of fall and rapidly approaching winter, only a few resilient leaves remaining on the branches.  The Running of the Leaves had failed to knock down any of the trees’ leaves, as the path around Ponyville didn’t include anywhere close enough to the Acres.  It didn’t matter much, as the Apples traditionally let the leaves fall of their own accord, using the hundreds of thousands of fallen leaves as anything from firestarters to a natural blanketing on their chicken coops.
There was still a thin layer of brown and red leaves that blanketed the ground between trees, but for the most part, the last week of cleanup had taken care of a majority of the leaves.  The remaining, skeletal looking trees gave the Acres a haunting atmosphere, which had certainly added to Nightmare Night festivities.  Ray had decided not to try and take part in any of the occurring events, instead getting together with Rarity, Fluttershy, and Discord.  They hadn’t done much, just sat around talking about the various aspects of their lives they felt important enough for one another to enjoy while the CMC were out trick-or-treating.  
The strangely human custom was one of many that the ponies seemed to celebrate around the same timeframe, though they were much different in origin.  Nightmare Night was a semi-celebration of Princess Luna and a remembrance of Nightmare Moon that reminded the adults of the cost of greed.  After having personally met the Princess on a few occasions, he found it interesting she was open enough to leaving the holiday to be.  Though he had been told by basically everybody else that Luna had a soft, joking side to her, he had only been treated to the stiff, calculating part.  
Either way, with the festivities now over, the next major thing coming up was the ball that Twilight had said he would need to attend.  While he wasn’t completely opposed to attending, now that he’d had a taste of peacefulness in the past month, he didn’t want to break it by meeting with and discussing war with the most important creatures in Equestria.  However, as always, duty called, and he found that he was headed to a scheduled appointment with Rarity to fit himself with a suit worthy for such an occasion.  
He didn’t have to worry about any work today, seeing as most of the Apple family was once again out on business runs of one type or another.  Ever since harvest had ended, they had set to the task of selling any extras they had to various different companies that were looking to stock up before the winter stagnation.  Ray had made a few runs, but not outside of the town, as both he and the Apples weren’t quite sure how the customers would react to a giant, hairless bipedal proposing sale pitches over fruit and lumber.  Besides, even though word about the human had spread around, a fair amount of the information that had spread was false.
It was actually a slight concern to him as to what sorts of things were being said considering the human, especially any misgivings about his origins.  It would be a bit awkward if he happened across a misinformed foal that ran off shrieking about the hairless monkey monster.  Rainbow Dash had suggested that perhaps he should attempt to get his story out in the news so that anypony with questions would know not to worry.  However, the mare had neglected to tell him exactly how to get around to that exactly, and he himself hadn’t attempted to look around for any sort of press coverage to set his story straight.  
Ducking under the arch into the homestead of the Acres, he exited the groves and onto the small road leading back to Ponyville.  He didn’t need to take the more private path through the Everfree, seeing as he was entering the town anyways to get to Rarity’s shop.  Trudging down the path, rubbing his arms for a bit more warmth, he came over yet another bluff and into sight of the town.  Smoke rose from various chimneys as ponies started to burn fires in the day to keep their homes warm.  Ponies walked through the streets with ear muffs and small scarves to keep the places where fur was prevalent warm.  All the while, Ray walked down in a simple T and shorts, his jeans dirtied by yesterday’s skirmish.
Making his way across the bridge over the lazy stream, he entered the town, the cobbled streets grinding away at well-worn sneakers.  In spite of only receiving them a few months prior, the constant use of them, in both life and training, had worn them down.  He could practically feel the stones through the soles of his shoes, which meant that sooner or later, he was going to have to ask for new ones.  The unfortunate thing about living among ponies was their lack of knowledge for making such things out of durable materials that were not straight up metal.  Even Rarity’s “fancy shoes” had metal bottoms, like horseshoes dressed up nicely. 
Strolling through the center of town, he noted that he was no longer receiving the curious glances he once used to.  Even though he hadn’t been too present in the community, living on the outskirts and having his schedule filled to not allow much free time, they had come to accept him as just another member of their town.  There was a certain trust complex built between him and the citizens that acted as a check and balance of their interactions.  The ponies wouldn’t do anything to give him reason to be uncomfortable as an outsider as long as he followed their social customs and cues.  
By now, he knew, a majority of them had discovered or figured out that he was an omnivore, and that technically he was a predator among prey, though nopony mentioned it.  They all acted the same around him, and he did his best to act as the gentle giant and not the person that would be needed to protect them.  A number of them also had at least noticed that he mysteriously was absent in the mornings without explanation.  Whether they suspected that it was something to do with another world, in theirs or not, was unknown to him, but he could guess that they suspected it was something to do with their Princess from their soft casual conversations. 
Still, he went unimpeded through town, a few friendly nods of acknowledgement the only communication he had with the familiar, but unknown, faces. He arrived in front of Rarity’s shop within only a few minutes of leaving Tartarus, the sun having barely moved at all on its journey across the sky.  Stepping up to the door, he rapped loudly against the wooden door, shaking his hand out at the slight pain of knocking with his cold knuckles.  The knocking was met with a call from in the house, too muffled by the door to be heard, followed by the sound of hoofsteps scrambling down the stairs.  Within a few seconds the door swung open, revealing a rather breathless, but exuberant Rarity.
A smile instantly split her face wide as she looked up at him.  “Ah, Ray, perfect timing,” she exclaimed, gesturing with her hoof to crouch down for a hug.  “I was just putting the finishing touches on one of two designs for your gallery!” 
“My gallery,” he asked with a smile as he bent down and gave her the hug.
“Why yes,” she restated quickly.  “You see, I couldn’t think of simply one design for you to wear to the privative gala, and given the importance of your appearance, as well as your unusual style as a human, I decided to give you two separate fashions to choose from, with four or five accompanying outfits of each style to single out.”
“Wow, ten designs,” he muttered in surprise standing up as he was ushered out of the cold and indoors by the mare.  “You didn’t have to go so over-the-top for me.”
“Oh, trust me, darling, it was all on my own accord,” she said behind her back, her voice running a million words a minute.  “I had the time and the inspiration to do fifty different designs if I had wanted to, but I didn’t want to overwhelm you with knowledge of the different cuts and drafts a suit could have.  You see, it’s been a few months since I have had a true and thought-provoking challenge, so I have an unbelievable amount of pent-up energy.  Oh, I can’t wait to see which one you’ll choose!”
Smiling at the mare’s enthusiasm, Ray only responded, “Whatever you say, Rarity."
> Discourse
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think I chose wrong, Ray thought to himself as he entered the castle, Twilight beckoning him in.  The suit he had ultimately chosen was a white shirt that had a black coat to compliment it.  The cuffs of the coat were embroidered with emerald green thread, as well as the inner panels of the piece.  The collar of his shirt had a sharp V shape to it that went down to his breast, and while it did feel a bit open, there had been stranger options to choose from.  The suit had felt right to him, given it had a notably darker air to it than any of the others Rarity had designed.  Choosing such an outfit, on that was forbidding with the colors of death and decay ornamenting it would most definitely draw attention.  After all, the whole point of tonight was to introduce a whole new world to the leaders of Equestria.  Enough would be said tonight to take the hours up, and he would do his best to keep it away from him as much as possible.
Still, standing beside Twilight in her bright purple and gold gown, he felt that the resemblance and symbolism was a bit too distinct.  The Princess was casually leading him to the ballroom at the moment, even though there was still several hours until the ball actually began.  She had said that there was still plenty of preparation that needed to be done for the both of them there, and thinking about it, there was.  He frankly had no idea how the night was supposed to go and if he was even supposed to speak, at least, in the sense that he needed to give a speech.  He hadn’t even thought of that possibility until just now, but the realization of how much he didn’t know concerning tonight was troubling now.  
They didn’t need to say a word to each other, both knowing at the very least where they needed to go, but the awkward silence between the two provoked Twilight to ask, “So, why that get-up in particular?”
Slowing to give a demonstrative spin, allowing the loose overcoat to flow a little, he shrugged his shoulders and counter inquired, “Why do you think?”
Scoffing slightly, the mare intelligently responded, “Well that’s rather grim, don’t you think?  We want to spread more hope and peace tonight, with our main goal to tell them the plan and situation we’re in, and of course introduce you to them.”
With a slight cringe, he agreed, “Yeah, I kinda had the same thought, but at the same time, we don’t have all night to talk, so best to keep everything unnecessary out of the conversation.”
“I’d consider your attitude towards the war of the utmost importance, comparable to the support of the leaders for our plan,” Twilight pointed out.  “Wearing such a foreboding costume could easily be misinterpreted as this being a hopeless endeavor.”
“If anybody asks, I’ll just tell them it’s foreboding for the minotaurs, not the Fallen and I,” Ray retorted, a smirk on his face.  Letting the cocksure smile slide off, he asked, “What do you think their attitude towards me will be?”
Twilight had several different expressions cross her face, from a hesitant chuckle to a somber raise of her eyebrows, before she finally answered, “Well, it’ll be as varied as the different species that attend tonight, but I can prepare you for what you should expect.  Skalos has been training you on etiquette as well as magnitude alongside everything else, correct?”
“Yeah, he has,” Ray said, nodding in confirmation.  With a subtle turn so he could see the mare a bit better, once again smirking as he remembered the excruciating process Skalos had gone through to better Ray on how to act.  Even though it was only hours away from when that particular training would be needed, Ray found that he had an uncharacteristically profound memory of every word.  “It was a bit painful for the both of us, as you could imagine.”
Cringing slightly, Twilight cleverly commented, “I’d rather not.”
Ray chuckled at the joke as Twilight opened a pair of large doors that barely reached above his head with her magic.  The alicorn shared a smile with him, and thanks to the quip, he felt the both of them relax just a little more.  As they entered into the new room, the commotion and clatter of servants and other administrative staff working on adequately cleaning and decorating the ballroom disrupted the quiet they had just established.  Bustling ponies moved back and forth across the room, dozens of them with frantic speed going about their tasks yet somehow retained their stoic expressions.
Ray moved against the wall of the room, which was spotlessly cleaned already, ornate flags representing each nation hung from the domed ceiling to the ground already.  He was currently standing next to the one that represented the griffon nation and -being reminded of the species by their emerald and gold flag- he mentally reviewed their behavior, or at least what he’d read and been told it was.  Hotheaded, headstrong, and very blasé.  Kinda like Dash but without the temperament of knowing better.  
He still hadn’t met any species besides the ponies and singular dragon of Ponyville, but now that that was about to change, he wanted to be prepared.  If tonight was going to end well, however, he needed to balance appeasing each species and getting his point across.  It wasn’t very often that he felt too scared in Equestria, especially considering the inherent peacefulness and loving nature of the equine species, but the prospect of meeting the leaders of the world rightly had his nerves on edge.  
Twilight was busy quickly explaining something to a passing servant, which he had correctly predicted she’d do based on her fanatically devout attitude of perfection.  As she finished her conversation with the butler, sending the stallion off, she gestured to Ray with a hoof, not even needing to look to know he was watching nearby.  They hadn’t talked too much since the night they had planned this whole event, only seeing each other once at Fluttershy’s when the alicorn happened by during Thursday tea, in which they’d only exchanged passing remarks.  The other time was at Rarity’s, when the white mare had “accidentally” scheduled them at the same time.  Regardless, they had broken into a quick discussion to relate how training was going for Ray as Rarity fetched Twilight’s gown, in which they had solidified a time when Ray would appear at the castle using the dayport.  In spite of this, they had somehow developed a silent knowledge of each other’s tendencies and thoughts, making communicating without talking much easier.  Ray credited her knowledge to having studied him before bringing him to Equestria, and his own to his intuition of frantic and OCD people.
Dutifully following the mare across the room, where an elaborate table had been set up beside the large, spotless glass window that took up most of the wall.  It overlooked the entire land west of Canterlot, the view only stopping at the distant mountain range surrounded by tame forestry.  The table itself was waxed and polished already, with maids carefully settling a large, ornate tablecloth over it using their magic.  Almost everything that was being moved around the room was levitated to it didn’t receive any hoof stains or scratches in the chaos.  
“We need to go over some things about the other kings, queens, and chiefs,” Twilight informed him as she stepped aside to allow a few more servants to pass with a large painting to pass.  “There will be a lot going on tonight, both in front of and behind the curtain, so to speak, and all of it will decide their opinion of you.”
“Comforting,” Ray commented, watching a pair of whispering servants pass, having finished setting the cloth for the table.  “Who should I be the most worried about?”
“Honestly, I’m not too sure exactly,” Twilight thoughtfully told him, tapping a hoof against her chin.  “The griffons and yaks will both be more concerned about your physical strength more than anything else, so act tough around them, I guess.  Queen Nova from the hippogriffs will be concerned about her intelligence, but I don’t think we’ll have any problems proving your worth to her.  Oh, Dragonlord Ember -and yes, it’s best if you actually use her title- will also want to know about how strong you are.  Be ready for any sort of challenge they might put up to you.  Honestly, I think the two that will give us the most trouble about our predicament will be the bison and changelings, especially King Thorax.”
“I thought they were the friendliest nations to Equestria,” Ray said, confused.
“Oh they are, but the both of them are also heavily pacifistic, considering their past in which they did fight against us, and us them,” Twilight explained.  Biting her lip, she warned him, “Every nation of Equestria will be present and represented tonight, and each of them need to be satisfied with what they see and hear.  I’m not sure exactly what I can do to help you be the best of all sides, because I’m not really even sure what I’ll do myself, but act like you usually do.”
“Which is,” he questioned, curious about how she saw him.
“Intense, brutally honest, stubborn, compassionate, passionate…”  Twilight trailed off for a moment in deep thought, prompting Ray to raise a brow inquisitively.  Looking away from the ground she’d been intently staring down, instead turning that intensity to him, she firmly stated, “Be human.  Show them who you are.  Screw trying to appease them all.  We monarchs think alike.  They’ll see exactly what I do in you, once they look past their own prejudices.”
Ray smiled past set eyebrows, nodding in agreement.  “It’s gonna be a night then, isn't it?”
Taking a deep breath, Twilight let out her tension in a long sigh before agreeing, “Yep, it certainly will be.”  Looking away from him to one of the walls, she yelped and practically yelled, “One that starts in five and a half hours.”  Turning back to him swiftly, she cried, “Clean up your hair and whatever else humans do to look nice!  We can expect that the first guests will show up in two or three hours!”
Before Ray could respond, the alicorn had already taken off through the opposite set of double doors the table had been brought through.  Even though Twilight was well out of sight by now, and probably out of earshot, he called back, “I never do my hair anyways!  What does it matter?”
Knowing that there would be no response, the human turned from the door, facing into the room.  There were still a few servants bustling around, adding little intricate decorations in the style of each of the nations to the flags and seats where their leaders would sit.  It was then that he realized there wasn’t really anything he could do but stand there and wait for Twilight to return, seeing as how he didn’t know who to look for and where to go for “cleaning up”.  Frowning slightly, he remembered the small duffel bag he still carried, completely forgotten in the chaos but still firmly in his grip.  
Heaving the bag over his shoulder, he simply walked out of the main ballroom, back out of the door he had entered.  He hadn’t really noticed the room coming in, but it was obviously built and decorated to be one of the more resplendent parts of the castle.  The foyer was large, with two separate staircases leading into different parts of the next floor crescenting around the doors to the main ballroom.  Everything in the wide room was made of white marble or embroidered in some gold, though the pillars that were carved into the walls connected to the entry doors were each a different color of stone.  Red, pink, purple, green, salmon, and gray were on one end, while on the other orange, yellow, lavender, teal, brown, and a very light shade of black decorated the other.
The ceiling was several feet higher than Ray’s head, and could’ve even passed for a normal ceiling to humans, which was rather rare in pony-land.  Considering he had to duck through the grand doors into the ballroom, he appreciated the extra space for him, the feeling of being in a normal confined space rather than an enclosed box.  The ceiling was painted with all sorts of abstract symbols that were somewhat similar to the runes that marked the lightports and darkports, though he figured that it was because they both came from around the same ancient era.  Stepping further into the foyer, he spread his arms out, noting that there was still plenty of space from the tips of his fingers to the doors of the left and right wings.  Fingertip to fingertip, about three of him would be able to fit in the room lengthwise, and considering the perfect symmetry of ponies, he guessed it would be the same widthwise.
Looking out at his right arm, the one holding his bag of clothes and minor utilities, he smiled, appreciating the slight density of muscles that had built up.  His bag probably weighed something around fifteen pounds, but he didn’t even feel the weight.  Thanks to all of the different handlings of the weighty spear and it’ abnormal dimensions -accredited to the hook it sported- he had been challenged from the start with wielding it in the flowing style Skalos had been attempting to train him.  Though he knew it was far from perfect, and from time to time he still nicked himself with the hook or tip, he was able to use it much more precisely now.  The constant training with the spear and bow had also come with some benefits to his arms, which had been twiggy even by equine standards when he’d first arrived.  Now, his arms were probably twice as thick, in fact, he felt twice as strong as he did.  
Flexing slightly, he was able to see the slightest bulge beneath the loose black robe he wore.  Allowing himself a few more moments to appreciate the muscle he’d developed, he decided he had given himself enough praise.  Letting his arms relax and drop to his sides, he turned back around to the doors, frowning at the two oak panels that were shut.  It was probably best to try and stick somewhere close by, considering Twilight would almost literally tear the castle apart looking for him should he vanish for too long.  Rubbing his chin, he tried to think of anything helpful that might also pass the time.  
As his hands brushed over his face, he felt a rough, prickly texture to his skin, and retracted his hand in surprise.  He had almost completely forgotten to shave the past few weeks, and nobody had mentioned his growing facial hair to him.  Besides, he rarely checked the mirror these days, and usually he didn’t pay much mind to his own face.  The combination of negligence and time had led to a scruffy little mustache and beard to begin to grow, the hair wiry and short.  It certainly wasn’t true facial hair, like the beard his dad grew out, but it wasn’t just peach fuzz anymore.  
Smiling slightly, he realized he had found something to fill the time with, rushing over to the left hallway, towards where he had been kept as a guest the previous month.  He knew there was a bathroom in that area, or at least there would be a guest room with a mirror in which he could check the growth out.  He had a knife concealed in his bag, as Skalos had been teaching him during the more mundane and repetitive drills to always keep a weapon of somesort around, even in Equestria.  If not for defense, then for the sheer utility of it as a tool.
Only halfway through the doors, he found one of the guest rooms, which had its door slightly ajar.  Peeking in, he looked around for any signs of somebody inhabiting the room and -seeing no luggage at all and no signs of the room being used- he entered quickly.  Having caught sight of the bathroom from the door, he headed straight to the mirror, trying to be hasty enough that he would neither be noticed nor missed.  
Standing in front of the mirror, he found himself slightly surprised by the sight of himself in front of the mirror, the first time he’d truly paid attention to himself for weeks now.  His skin had tanned even more from the many hours he spent in the orchards, and even though the air had cooled, and sun had dimmed a little, it had still darkened his skin slightly.  His hair too had darkened from a sandy brown to a much darker brown, a color like apple tree bark, and it was much longer now, drooping past his ears and down his neck.  He had even grown bangs; it had been so long since he had received a haircut.  
The most shocking feature he found, however, wasn’t the darker hair or growing facial hair, but the way his face shape itself had developed.  He had never been a particularly meaty kid -his living conditions ensured that- but his face was generally more rounded.  Now, however, his jaw had jutted out more, his jawline setting shape and his cheekbones squared out.  Looking at himself, he realized that this was the face he would now maintain for the rest of his life, the face of a human that was nearly identical to his father’s.  The reveal of his own physical appearance was also alleviating, in a way.  No matter how far he strayed from Earth, even entire dimensions away, he would maintain the features native to his species.
Smiling, he got to work, setting his bag on the low sink and zipping the bag open.  He started the water before pulling out his knife, which he had kept on top so he wouldn’t accidentally cut himself when reaching into the bag.  Splashing his face and dipping the blade into the water, he ran his hand through the bristles to unsettle them and make it easier to cut.  Carefully, he began to slide the sharp blade across his chin, the knife blade cleanly shaving away the growing hair.  Focusing on ensuring he got the tiny stubs as well as the large ones, he meticulously continued to use the knife to clean up his face.
After a few minutes of carefully cutting away the stubble, he was completely clean shaven, his face feeling cool from the water and steel.  Setting the knife aside, he reached over to where a small hand towel was hung, grabbing it and beginning to dry his face.  Using his hand, swept some the shavings that hadn't fallen into the sink to their proper place, running the water for a few seconds to send the hair down the drain.  Then, with the same swift carefulness he had shaved with, he grabbed the knife and used the towel to wipe away the water on the blade and hilt until it was bone dry.  Tenderly, he set the knife back into the bag, zipping it closed before drying his hand.  
It was strange, he found himself thinking as he set the hand towel back on its holder, that he was both doing something so humanly normal, yet completely alien in this world.  It was as if everything he considered human, the simple things like being a bipedal, wearing clothes, shaving, even having uncovered skin, all were benign and unfamiliar in this land.  No matter how adept he was becoming to this world, it would never share the same similitude with him as he did it.  There was just too many abnormalities with his nature in the world, and even though he had come to terms with it long ago, he still found it funny that this universe hadn’t.
Throwing his bag over his shoulder, he turned around and suppressed a yelp.  A young pony, possibly no more than five, was standing in the opening into the bathroom, her little mouth agape and eyes wide as she stared at him.  She had a white coat, but her colorful hair made up for her blank coat.  The curly hair was puffy with lavender and rose-pink highlights, her big eyes contrasting her small, button nose.  Almost completely hidden in the mass of hair was a splash of gold that ringed a white horn, which he presumed by her sudden appearance inside the castle was a crown. 
Before he could say anything to reassure the child, she released a loud yell, in which he could vaguely make out, “Found it!”
In an instant, Twilight popped into existence within the entrance of the bathroom, looking frantic and disheveled.  She had teleported into the room facing the filly, requiring her to whip around wildly to face him.  The action sent her crown flying at his head, but instead ducking, he reached out and caught it with both hands, wincing slightly at the force of the hard gold whacking against his palms.  Shaking out one hand as he handed the crown back to the alicorn, he said, “Guess you missed me?”
“There’s no time for jokes,” Twilight exclaimed wildly.  “How could you just disappear like that?  And why are you even in one of the guest rooms?”
“I had to shave,” Ray explained calmly, pointing to his smooth face.  “See?”
Squinting slightly, Twilight silently shook her head, muttering, “Nopony would notice the tiny bit of hair that grows on your face!  You have so little of it anyways, what does it matter if you grow some more that isn’t on your head?”
“Oh, I have hair in other places,” he replied smartly, walking towards her, only remembering the child in the room after the risqué comment escaped his mouth.  
“Whatever,” Twilight dismissed, waving him over even though he was already moving, completely ignoring the comment.  Wrapping a hoof around the much smaller pony, she pulled her closer, saying, “This is my niece, Flurry Heart.”
“Hey kid,” he said to the little pony, crouching over so they were roughly face to face.  It was only then that he noticed something rather large underneath her long, puffy curls.  “You’re an alicorn too?”
“Yep,” Flurry replied fearlessly.  The young alicorn wasn’t anything like the other foals Ray had met in Ponyville.  Those ones had been afraid of him, even after he’d been around for several weeks, hiding behind their mothers or running away with wide eyes.  This one, however, didn’t seem to regard him any differently than as another pony, which he found himself respecting.  The little mare pointed at Twilight and explained solemnly, “She really wants you ta meet me.”
“Oh really,” Ray asked, feigning surprise.  Sticking out a hand to give the little mare a cross-species handshake, he proclaimed, “Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you!  My name’s Ray.”
“I know a filly named Sun Ray at school,” the filly squealed excitedly.  “Maybe you're her crazy uncle she tells us about!”
Both Twilight and him laughed at that, the inside knowledge giving the innocent filly’s comment a much sadder -albeit comedic- undertone than she could have never known.  Giving her niece a slight squeeze, Twilight explained, “Well, Ray here couldn’t be your friend’s uncle.  They’re two different species entirely!  They could be friends one day, though.”
“Like him and me,” she asked, her big eyes intently on Twilight.  
“Yes, like you and him,” the Princess confirmed, and while the filly couldn’t pick up the slight distress in her aunt’s voice, Ray did.
Attempting to ease the conversation away from him, he jokingly reiterated, “‘No time for jokes’, huh?  What was that rush then?”
“Bah, I guess it doesn’t really matter now anyways,” Twilight admitted exasperatedly.  “I was trying to find you because my brother and his family arrived, and as you know, they are the rulers of the Crystal Empire.  I was hoping to give them a formal introduction to you, but I guess surprise visits are more your style.  My sweet little niece heard that I was looking for you and decided to do my job for me.”
“He must be pretty hard to lose,” Flurry interrupted.  “He’s bigger than you are!  Noisier too.”
Twilight couldn’t keep the smirk off her face at the filly’s comment, though she quickly recovered, telling them, “We should go find your Mommy and Daddy.  They need to meet our friend as well.”
“Okay,” the filly agreed, turning around and darting from the room, yelling for her parents.  Neither Ray nor Twilight moved from their place however, watching the filly go running for her parents.  
As soon as she was out of direct earshot, they both turned to each other, knowing the other had something to say.  “You first,” Twilight offered.
“Alright,” Ray agreed with a nod.  “First off, I knew that the Crystal Empire was here and that they were your family, but why is your niece here?  Second, I know I vanished -I was just shaving myself to look cleaner.  I haven’t really looked at myself in the mirror much, so I wanted to make sure I looked like what I should.”
“Bah, you have hair on your head already, why is shaving going to make you look better,” Twilight asked, before catching herself.  “Nevermind it.  If it makes you more comfortable, then that’s all that matters.  What’s more important is that the dragons have arrived in Canterlot.  They’re probably only a few minutes away, so whatever you have to do to be prepared, do it very quickly.  I want you by me when they enter, regardless of your facial hair status.”
“Alright alright,” Ray exasperated, using his hands to smooth out his suit, brushing away any dust that may be there.  “I’m done anyways.  Let’s go.”
“Of course, but first I need to introduce you to my brother and sister-in-law,” she instructed.  With the statement, the two finally went to leave the room, Twilight pulling the door open magically so Ray had no troubles exiting.  With a small nod of thanks, he left first, followed closely by the alicorn, who made sure to shut the door behind her.  The two silently retraced Ray’s steps back to the hallway and out to the foyer.
There was a pair of new ponies standing in there, with Flurry Heart standing in between them, beaming brightly.  As soon as he entered the room, the little filly squealed, “See, my big weird uncle!”
“Oh ho ho, that makes sense now,” the stallion, a white unicorn with a stark blue mane stated in relief.  He rolled his eyes as he explained to Twilight, “She came running to us about her new big weird uncle that was in Auntie Twilight’s room, and Cadence and I had a moment of panic.  We thought we had missed something pretty major, and, well, Cadence had to keep me here with her magic!”
Twilight laughed nervously while she went to hug her brother, tensely replying, “Well, that wasn’t my room anyways, and Ray isn’t like that with me.  Hay, we’re hardly even friends.  You know I don’t want to get a coltfriend or anything…”
“Anyway,” Ray exclaimed, attempting to completely disperse the heavy awkwardness.  He stepped forward and gave the pair of rulers a small bow, though his head was still a few inches above theirs regardless.  “My name’s Raymond, but please, just call me Ray.  It’s a pleasure to meet some of Twilight’s family.”
Coming out of the bow, he watched the blue maned stallion stick out a hoof, and taking the appendage in his grasp, the two shook each other’s limbs hardily.  “My name’s Shining Armor, Twilight’s older brother.  I’m glad to finally meet the brave human who is willing to help us in something we ponies can’t do…”
“Well, it did take some convincing, but hey, I got a spirit for adventure,” Ray joked, turning to Twilight momentarily.  “She just knows how to twist my arm the right way.”
“Well, whatever reason you’re doing it, we’re glad of it and honored to meet you,” the mare, Cadence, said, speaking for the first time.  “My name is Princess Cadence of the Crystal Empire, but please, call me Cadence.  You’ve met our daughter Flurry already, so I guess we can skip introductions on her part.  It truly is a pleasure.”
Ray smiled, suddenly feeling bashful by the amount of attention that was being drawn to him by such important strangers, but luckily the moment was interrupted by the ever-enthusiastic Flurry Heart, who proudly claimed, “I knew him before you, Mommy!”
A sudden blare of trumpets and racket of drums from out of nowhere caused everybody to jump in surprise, Ray whipping around, his duffel bag nearly taking off Twilight’s head.  The doors became enveloped in a bright blue magical aura, slowly beginning to open and let the noonday sunlight enter the foyer.  Everybody hurriedly turned to the doors and formed a line, attempting to give the illusion of uniformity and formality.  
The door opened the entire way, revealing two shimmering, reptilian creatures.  One was a resplendent blue, standing only about half as tall as Ray, though that was a good few inches taller than the average pony.  He could almost immediately tell the dragon was a female because of the may it held itself and its vaguely familiar facial features.  The dragon was holding a strange staff in her sharp, silver claws, the blood red ruby on the tip of it giving her a dangerous air of authority and danger.  Her sharp, triangular eyes were a strange cross between snake eyes and mammalian eyes.  However strange the shape, though, they still projected the fierce stubbornness and judgment he had read about dragons having.  
She immediately turned her horned head to him, noticing the much taller human in an instant, and even her furious resolve broke for a moment, though rather than the shock or surprise he was accustomed too, the dragon smirked.  Her eyes scanned him up and approvingly, before turning away from Ray, stepping aside and allowing her compatriots to enter.  The dragon was much larger than her, a few inches taller than Ray even, black scales only interrupted by a dark red underbelly and spinal blades.  His eyes, in spite of his imposing structure, were less intense than the female dragon’s.  He also gave Ray a glance, surprise betraying his otherwise stoic upholding, as he also looked Ray up and down.  Judging by the dragon’s sheer size, he probably wasn’t used to running into large creatures like Ray, which gave him a sense of pride.
Both dragons turned their attention away from Ray, giving Twilight a courteous bow as the female stated, “It is, as always, a pleasure to be welcomed to your palace, Princess Twilight.  My companion and I are grateful for the luxurious and wonderful welcome we’ve received.”
“The pleasure is mine, to be able to host you and your second, Dragonlord Ember,” Twilight formally declared, bowing to the Dragonlord in return.  As soon as she had exited the bow, the two rulers stepped closer and gave each other a quick embrace as well.  It was Ray’s turn to be slightly surprised, completely oblivious of the pair’s friendship.  He had guessed the stiff formalities were a realistic depiction of the interactions between the two governments of the differing nations based on the history of the two species in question, and he had assumed incorrectly. 
“This is my second for the evening, my mate, Czardar,” the Dragonlord introduced, putting a hand on the much larger dragon’s back and pushing him forward slightly.  Noticing the sudden shock and worry on Twilight’s face at the introduction, she quickly added, “This was a recent development.  You didn’t miss any important news or events concerning it.”
“Oh, thank Celetia,” the alicorn breathed with relief.  “I would hate to miss out on anything so important to you, both as a ruler and friend.”
“Do not worry,” the black dragon boomed, his deep voice intimidating, though it held a sense of humor to it.  “If there had been a formal marriage, you would have heard the dragons roaring from the Crystal Empire!”
The rulers all shared a laugh, leaving Flurry Heart and Ray as the only ones who were confusedly not chuckling at the joke.  It only took a few seconds for the laughter to die down, the formalities resettling as the rulers calmed down.  Twilight gestured behind her, silently presenting the door to the ballroom to the dragon pair, another magical grasp that wasn’t her own enveloping the doors.  They pulled the doors open much quicker than they had for the dragons, the splendor of the spectacle of what lay behind the door not requiring the same respect.  
“Welcome to the Royal Castle of Canterlot,” Twilight presented, sweeping her hoof over the sights inside the room with grandeur.  “May you find it to your liking and permit you to stay longer.”
“Very lovely indeed,” Ember agreed, stepping into the room right beside Twilight, the two major rulers walking side-by-side.  Ray watched them enter, along with the Royal family from the Crystal Empire, leaving only him and the large black dragon in the foyer.  The doors shut quicker than they had opened, the formalities dropping from the two as instant tension replaced the calmer relations of the rulers.  Ray gave the black dragon a sidelong glance, attempting to gauge the dragon, who was doing exactly the same.
Knowing they had caught each other, they turned to face one another, each stone faced.  Ray couldn’t quite guess exactly what Czardar was planning or doing, but he could tell it was preplanned, possibly by both rulers.  The dragon began to step closer, bidding Ray to curl his fists, noting that the dragon did the same.  He cocked his head slightly to the side, giving the dragon a slightly cautionary stare.  The dragon was much more relaxed than Ray, taking another slow, casual step closer to the human.  There was emotion on the Czardar’s face, however, Ray could tell he was both curious and distrusting of him, a sentiment that was shared.
Suddenly, the drake began to raise his clawed hand at an even pace, not abrupt, but not slow either.  Czardar raised the hand in front of Ray’s face, spreading the fingers wide.  The hand could have easily covered his entire face, the dangerous digits on it able to wrap around his head at least halfway.  Ray remained stoic and attempted to ease himself out of his tense upholding, releasing his fists and lifting his chin as he breathed in deeply.  	
With an abrupt lurch, the dragon moved his hand forward and grasped his head, his other clawed hand moving up to reach Ray’s throat.  Even though he was unable to see past the cold, black hand of the dragon, he was able to predict the movement and catch the hand by its wrist.  This must have been unexpected, as Ray was easily able to handle it and push it into the black dragon’s other arm.  The heft behind the push wasn’t enough to budge Czardar’s firm arm, and in an instant, the drake had shoved him all the way back against the marble wall.  Though Ray still grasped the dragon’s arm, Czardar had his head, and they both knew he had won this surprise attack. 
Grunting, he released Ray, dropping him to the ground and stepping back.  The dragon grunted, crossing his arms with a clearly distasteful frown to him.  “Disappointing.  Would you have been so lackluster against a true enemy?”
“Would I have to fend myself from the betrayal of allies,” Ray spat back, his voice dripping with venom.
“You and Twilight have barred the dragons from fighting beside you in this war,” Czardar replied, his voice hard.  “We are the most capable for defending this continent, not some flesh heap on two twigs.”
“You wonder why we keep you from the front lines when all you do is prove that you’re just hotheaded, lawless creatures, insulting everyone else,” Ray convicted, pointing a finger at the dragon.  “You may be physically superior -and I do mean may be- but certainly if you dragons were the perfect candidates, you wouldn’t have left me with this?”
Whipping out the hand that hadn’t been wrangling with the dragon’s wrist, he swept his knife across the dragon’s chest, cutting deep enough to pierce the scales and draw blood, but not enough for the wound to cause true damage.  The dragon took a step back too late, looking down in surprise at the scratch he had received.  Watching as a thin line of ruby blood appeared, Czardar patted a hand against the wound appreciatively, holding up his claws to his face.
“I’m guessing you lizards don’t have feeling in your scales,” Ray remarked, taking a cloth from his open bag and cleaning the small spatter of blood from his blade.  “I was holding that knife against you for a good five seconds before you let me go.  If you had started squeezing, your Dragonlord would have had to go home without a companion.”
“You talk adequately for your size,” the black dragon complimented with a slight smile, dismissing the minor wound on his chest.  The dragon reached out a claw, this time inviting him to give it a firm shake.  Although he still didn’t have the utmost opinion of the dragon, considering their nature and how little Ray actually knew behind the scenes, he took it anyway, shaking it firmly.  “You know me as Czardar formally, but please, human, call me Redar.  It is my casual name.”
“You can call me Ray, then,” the human responded, uncertain of exactly what point the drake was attempting to make by giving him his casual name.  “This isn’t the first time I’ve drawn blood from someone who was meant to be my ally, and with the course this war is taking without fighting even having begun, I doubt it will be the last.”
“I apologize if I did end up wounding you, my claws tend to harm you flesh creatures unintentionally,” the dragon politely apologized.  He held his digits up to the light, studying them and their slightly bloodstained claws intently.  “Consider this as a precursor to the event that is going to occur tonight.  You see, Ember instructed me to challenge you in a sort of duel, the kind we dragons consider a pass-time, in front of all the other rulers and magistrates.  Twilight has no idea of this, but I believe you should, since I doubt you’ve had to physically deal with a dragon my size in combat.  Everyone here, regardless of their stance of if there should even be war, has or will have some questions of your physical prowess, and seeing as we dragons are the most similar in structure to you, it would be the best representation of your combative aptitude.”
“Well, thanks for the warning,” Ray said unsurely.  Having cleaned his knife thoroughly, he wrapped it in the cloth and set it back into the bag, realizing he was probably going to have to carry it around regardless.  With that thought, he left the cloth on the bag and slipped the knife into its scabbard before proceeding to attach it around his waist.  Czardar watched him pull his black silk jacket back around him, hiding the blade behind the fabric.  
“Come on now, the others will surely be awaiting us,” Czardar -no, Redar- instructed, gesturing broadly to the closed doors. 
“What about that,” Ray asked, pointing to the drying blood on the drake’s chest.  The dragon looked down, apparently having forgotten he was even wounded, before shrugging the words off.
“Ember will know,” he answered carelessly.  “The rest can wonder.”
With that affirmation, the two each pushed a door open and entered the ballroom, taking a moment to look around for their respective parties.  The dragon and ponies were all congested near the window, save Flurry, who was wandering around underneath each flag, staring at them in amazement.  Ray and Redar both walked over to the others, who were talking softly while staring out the window.  Shining Armor noticed them approaching, pointing it out to the others, who also turned to look at them.  Their semicircle spread, allowing Redar to stand beside his Dragonlord and Ray to stand between Shining and Twilight.  Redar crossed his black arms underneath the ruby bloodstain on his chest, not attempting to hide it, but not mentioning it either.  In spite of this, Ember raised an eyebrow at the drake, giving the wound a pointed look before glancing at Ray, their eyes meeting for a brief moment.
“So, what took you two so long to join us,” Ember asked keenly, a slight curve upward at the very edge of his lips as her claws began to trace Redar’s elbow.  
“A friendly bit of business, getting to know each other as important figures of one another’s nations,” Ray answered with an even smile.  The fact that it was the human who had answered first seemed to have surprised the Dragonlord, as her head had preemptively turned to her mate for a response.  
“So, the human does speak,” she exclaimed pleasantly.  
“Quite eloquently as well,” Redar added on Ray’s behalf, a slight nod acknowledging Ray respectfully.  Ray returned the gesture, crossing his arms as well as he stepped forward slightly, angling himself to be in a better position to communicate with Ember.
“Now the only question is, who does he speak for,” the Dragonlord inquisitively stated.  The challenge caused the entire ensemble to give their full attention to Ray.
“I speak for myself,” Ray replied evenly, feigning ignorance as he rocked slightly on his feet.  Then with a little tilt of his head, he added thoughtfully, “Well, I speak for myself and the Fallen.”
“The Fallen,” Cadence questioned from behind. 
Ray turned to face her, allowing a bit of his earnest confusion to show.  “I guess you guys wouldn’t know about them yet though,” Ray presumed.  “Don’t worry, we’ll catch you up when everyone else has arrived.  This may or may not come as a surprise, but I’m not the only one who’ll be fighting the minotaurs.”
“Fighting the minotaurs,” a little voice asked, Flurry Heart popping up around her mother, her big eyes staring at him.  The human had forgotten the young alicorn, who, in all likelihood, had no clue of the true nature of her parents’ visit with Twilight and him.  Gritting his teeth, knowing he made a critical mistake in mentioning his purpose so casually, he struggled to find an excuse for what he had said.
It was Twilight who came to the rescue, sounding surprisingly calm considering the major mistake Ray had made, explaining, “Oh, your crazy uncle just doesn’t get along very well with some of his neighbors.  You know, there’s a special room a few rooms away from here, and there may be one of your friends over there…”
“SUNBURST,” the little filly screeched, causing everyone else in the room to cringe.  In an instant, everything said before was forgotten to the filly as she took flight, soaring past the group and out the doors, shoving them open magically.  The echoes of her repeating screeches of the stallion’s name rang for a few more seconds before the doors slammed close.  
There was a collective sigh of relief from virtually everybody in the ballroom, the terrible truth of the fate regarding Ray and his Fallen avoided from the filly.  Smiling sheepishly, Ray managed to muster the courage to joke, “Crisis averted.”
“Yeah, no thanks to you,” Twilight replied sharply.
“Well, one day or another, she’ll know,” Redar stated simply, turning to the large window and walking towards it.  The dragon stared out the window for a moment, watching the sun that was now beginning to dim, with Ember quickly joining him.  “You know, I believe that once the dragons learn of it, there will be a mighty uproar that they won’t be allowed on the battlefield…” 
“They can battle all they want, but not on my battlefield,” Ray clarified firmly.  “I don’t know much about dragons, but Twilight does, so I’ll put my full trust into the integrity of my friend.”
The dragon pursed his lips, turning ever so slightly to glance at Ray, but nodded thoughtfully.  “Well, it is truly the ponies’ war then…”
“No, it is the war of all nations of Equestria,” Twilight interjected darkly, stepping up in between the two bipeds.  “However, it is Ray’s war, fought with soldiers he controls, on battlefields he commands, and with weapons he kills with.  We are simply responsible for the supporting and funding of him and his army.  The war as a whole is ours, but the fighting will be his responsibility entirely, and everything we do must be in accordance with whatever he deems correct.”
“And in that charge, we will support him,” Ember confirmed, resting a hand on her mate’s elbow.  “The dragons may not be known much for their honor, but they will understand the concepts of this war, beyond the potential for fighting.  I will give you my assurance that not one of my dragons will disrupt you in your endeavor, for better or for worse.”
“The Crystal Empire will bear witness to this pledge then,” Cadence surmised, stepping in to complete the small circle of monarchs that had formed.  “This promise will be full and upheld, and at this moment, the Crystal Empire will also promise the nation of Equestria and the army of Raymond that there will only be support from our nation.  Not a hoof will be raised to harm the cause of either nation; this pledge upheld by the witness of the Dragonlord and her lands.”
“Papers will need to be drafted for this occasion,” Twilight muttered, shaking her head slightly.  “I only wish we had awaited the arrival of the other nations before we had begun such politically charged promises, that all nations had knowledge of what was occurring.  My main goal tonight is to establish the support and trust of every nation in each other in this strife-ridden time.  I want nothing to be behind closed doors when it comes to the matters of the minotaurs and the war that will soon be waged against them.  But nevermind it for now, we must wait to discuss this over documents and a proper discussion table.”
All sides nodded in agreement at the sentiment, but before another word could be said, a servant rushed through the doors, announcing, “Gilda Griffon and her entourage have arrived to represent the Griffon Kingdom!”
In an instant, everyone was once again scrambling into a coherent formation to welcome the group formally.  The ballroom doors remained open to allow the newest guests in, which they did.  Ray had to restrain himself from snickering as he watched one stoically enter the room while another, much younger one entered with its beak agape, eyes wide as it stared at the room it had entered.  Ray had only seen griffons in the book he’d read on behavior, so meeting one in person was rather intriguing.  He had expected them to be taller, but he found that the older -which he assumed was Gilda- was probably shorter than Twilight was.  The features of the griffon were as he had seen in the book, an eagle’s head and beak, with her two front limbs the talons of the mighty bird, and the back end the feline build of a lion.  Golden fur and white feathers alike gleamed ever so slightly in the abundant light of the ballroom, the griffon’s tail swishing ever so slightly with each step. 
Surprisingly, the younger griffon looked a good deal different from her superior, black feathers and a rounder head much like an owl’s instead of an eagle.   Her back half was also different, still feline, or at least he guessed, but darker gray instead of the golden of a lion.  Regardless, the two of them were griffons as he had expected, though the younger one seemed almost too young for such an occasion as delegating a war.  In spite of himself, he found that the benign ignorance and naivety of the younger griffon caused a twinge of pain in his heart.  Seeing one of the reasons he was willing to follow through on Twilight’s plan awoke the slumbering pain and longing within him, and he had to look away before he allowed his defenses to relax.
“Well well well, Twilight Sparkle,” Gilda called to the mare, displaying that the cockiness of griffons wasn’t a misconception.  “It's good to be back in the land of ponies and parties.  I brought Gabby with me this time since Grandpa Griff couldn’t make the trip.  He isn’t feeling too good with the winter weather kicking in up in the mountains.  Besides, Gabby’s young and spry, ripe for a good long trip and some education on political etiquette.”
“Well, that certainly explains a few things,” Twilight agreed unsurely, looking at the younger griffon, who beamed brightly back at her.  This one wasn’t nearly as young as Flurry Heart, Ray realized, probably near or even in her teens, but definitely not anywhere near an adult like the other rulers and magistrates.  Ray feigned rubbing his mouth thoughtfully to wipe away a growing frown.  “Um, Gilda, you do know what this meeting is supposed to be about, though.  Right?”
“Um, no, the finer details were never explained to me,” she responded, tapping a claw on her beak.  “Come to think of it, that letter you sent must have been the shortest letter you’ve sent me, especially concerning any sort of party.  This is what I think it is, though, right?  When all of the rulers of Equestria come together to have a small ball just for themselves and to talk casually.”
“Well, yes, it’s still that, but there’s a few things that are necessary to talk about as well,” Twilight explained tentatively.  Everyone else who knew the course of how the night was supposed to go and the delicate subject of discussion watched the two tensely, knowing full well the brick wall the griffons were about to blindly ram into.  
“You say it like the fate of Equestria is in danger here,” Gilda joked, although the griffon did glance at Ray warily.  Seeing the apathetic curve of Ray’s mouth, her casual demeanor diminished greatly, her smile dropping subtly.  “Whatever.  Nothing we can’t and haven’t before.  Let’s enjoy the ball first, though.”
“Agreed, the politics can be reserved for the later hours of the evening,” Shining Armor spoke, stepping forward welcomingly to the female griffon.  The two shook each other’s limb lightly, followed by a similar gesture from Ember, the tensions of everybody else easing.  
“Hmm,” a chipper young voice said from almost directly beneath Ray.  He had casually noticed the approach of the younger griffon -Gabby- though he hadn’t figured she would start talking to him.  He looked down at her as she peered up at him curiously, her bushy brow furrowed in thought.  “Y’know, I don’t think you’re from Equestria.  I’ve flown all over the world, even in the Everfree, and I have never seen a thing like you before!”
“Well, I’m not from Equestria,” he assured her, stepping sideways a bit to put space between himself, the griffon, and the other monarchs.  “I’m a human, and we’re kinda the rarest type of thing you’ll ever see.  In fact, I’m the only one in the world!”
“Wow, that’s pretty cool,” Gabby replied, entranced.  “I woulda liked to be the only griffon in the world, but then I wouldn’t have any other griffon friends, which would be kinda sad.”  The young catbird realized the potentially rude thing she had said, a flash of panic overtaking her cheerful demeanor as she apologized profusely.  “I’m sorry, that was rude of me to say.  I get my beak running and then it outruns my little birdbrain. I didn’t mean to come off like that, I swear! “
“No, it’s fine, I get it.” he patiently nodded, waving the words away.  His guarded attitude around the others had paid off, as the words meant nothing to him, and he felt nothing about it.  Still, to reassure the small griff that no harm had truly been done, he told her, “Besides, I have many friends among the ponies, so I don’t feel lonely at all.  Equestria is a kind place, and I find that many of the creatures that live here are welcoming and truthful.”
Gabby gasped, sitting on her hind legs so her talons could cup her head as her eyes once again widened cartoonishly.  “That’s exactly what I’ve been saying for years now!  Wow, you really are a great guy!  …Um, you are a guy, right?”
Chuckling lightly, Ray informed her, “Yes, I am a guy.  My name’s Ray, by the way.  Gabby, isn’t it?”
“Uhuh,” the gleeful griffon answered with a hearty nod.  She stuck her talon out, which he had to bend over to shake, as she proudly exclaimed, “Gabby Griffon, at your service here!”
“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” he returned respectfully, careful not to drop his shield of formality, even in front of one as inexperienced in the art of politics. 
“So, what nation do you represent,” Gabby asked obliviously, remaining seated in a rare display of calm control.
“Well, I’m a representative for the ponies this year,” he lied easily, though he knew that technically, there was a vast amount of truth to it.  “Since I’m somewhat of an anomaly, in that I’m a friendly strange, giant creature that the Elements of Harmony don’t have to deal with, I’ve been invited to live with the ponies nearby in Ponyville.  I was asked to represent the ponies this year so I could be introduced to the new world I live in and its many unique and intelligent species.”
“That’s pretty neat,” the griffon stated, her full focus dedicated to the half-truths spilling from Ray.  “I’ve met every species in the world at the School of Friendship, which is actually in Ponyville!  Although I wonder why I don’t see you around town at all…”
“Ah, yes.  You see, I usually am in Canterlot, at the castle, or in Tartarus, dealing with some of the inmates there,” he explained.  This lie caught the griffon totally by surprise, her eyes widening and beak dropping open in shock.  
“You work in Tartarus,” Gabby asked hushly, leaning in towards Ray.
“Oh yeah,” Ray enthusiastically restated, crouching closer to the griffon.  “Since I’m bigger and stronger than most creatures here, and since I’m smarter and more strategic than Cerberus, I was appointed to guard some of the more dangerous inmates, although they aren’t that bad, really.”
“Really,” she inquired, tilting her head slightly in confusion.  
“No, a lot of them are just lonely and need somebody to talk to, which is another reason why I’m great with them,” Ray continued to fib.  “You see, since I’m such a strange creature that none of them have ever seen before, I have a whole bunch of unique and outlandish stories to tell them, and since I’m new to this world, they can tell me a whole lot that I don’t know.  Most of the time we just talk, although occasionally we have arguments about ethics.  Some of them still hang onto some hope of coming back and conquering the world, but most of them aren’t bad.  Some even want to change and become better!”
“So why don’t we let them out,” the griffon once again asked.  
“Well, just because a person wants to and does act better, it doesn’t mean they’re excused from their past,” the human explained sadly.  “The past is set in stone, and everything a person’s ever done stays there, along with the consequences of those actions.”
“Well that’s sad,” Gabby muttered, looking down at the floor.  In an instant, though, her sadness was gone, replaced by her usual cheeriness.  “It’s pretty cool that you get to meet all of those guys, though!  Someday, I want to be a mail griffon and pass mail all across the world, not just between the griffons and ponies!  That’s part of the reason I wanted to be here as well, so I could get to know more of the ‘inner mechanisms’ of Equestria.”
“Well, we’re glad to have you here,” another cheerful voice graced, causing both parties to turn to the newcomer.  Cadence gave the two a welcoming smile as she joined them in their conversation.  “It’s wonderful that such a young griffon such as yourself has huge and amazing ambitions.”
“Oh, why thank you, Princess,” Gabby said, bowing to the monarch.  “I only want to travel the world though, which doesn’t really help ponykind in any way I can really think of.”
“That’s crazy,” Ray replied.  “I mean, to some point, I’m a traveler, and there was and will be a huge amount of change to the world that I might cause.  I mean, already I’m one of the strangest biological creatures in the world, and there is a whole bunch that ponies and I have to discover about each other and me in their environment.  Not only that, but I also present a whole slew of opportunities for the workforce in producing and consuming parts of the economy.  Real complicated stuff, but that’s beside the point.  In this world, there is endless opportunity to make friends and have a successful, enjoyable life.”
Both the griffon and Cadence smiled at the statement, causing Ray to think to himself, And that’s why I’m going to protect it.  
“That was very well put, Ray,” Cadence complimented.  Then, with the same soft smile, she told him, “Twilight sent me over here to ask if you could join her privately for a minute.  She says it’s not an urgent matter, but she would like to get it off her chest before more representatives arrive.”
“Okay, thank you for telling me,” he replied, standing up to head towards Twilight, wherever she had ended up.  “I’ll have to finish this conversation with you later, Gabby.  It was nice to meet you and have a short conversation with a fellow inspirationist.  Until later.”
“Alright, see you later then,” the young griffon dismissed with a polite, but cheerful bob of the head.  Cadence moved closer to Gabby, replacing Ray as he stepped around the alicorn, walking towards the long, covered table.  He assured that she was still somewhere in the room, but when he looked around, he couldn’t catch sight of the mare.  Shining Armor was talking with Redar and Ember discreetly in the corner, while Gilda shared some friendly conversation with a member of maid staff that had entered at some point.  
As soon as Ray noticed, however, the mare instantly jumped, almost as if she had been startled by something.  She recovered from whatever shock she had received, waving a hoof wildly at the human, beckoning him closer.  He did, and as soon as he was close enough for the mare to whisper, she informed him, “Princess Twilight is awaiting you not too far from the doors into the castle.  She said to meet her where you were found.”
“Thank you, I’ll be right on my way,” he replied curtly, turning to the direction he knew Twilight would be.  As he did, however, he noted the way Gilda had eyed him up and down, recognizing that, thus far, she was the only leader he hadn’t spoken to directly.  Still, he gave her a courteous nod, acknowledging her and whatever sway she might hold with the griffons.  The move seemed to sate her curiosity as she turned back, Ray continuing to walk towards the double doors he had frequently crossed through already.  
Retreating from the room with even, intentionally slow steps, he attempted to see if there were any new surprises awaiting him in the grand foyer of the castle.  There wasn’t, the large room strikingly silent for all of its beauty, only the soft tapping of his hard, black shoes striking the stone echoing in the chamber.  He frowned and turned right, towards the area where he had shaved his face.  It had to have been at least an hour since then, but already it felt like yesterday’s news, and he knew that by the end of the night, there would be a lot more solved questions, and even more unanswered ones.  Still, he planned to milk every minute with the other leaders of the world for knowledge and respect, both for and from him.  It was still strange to think that, to some degree, he was a major leader, but alas, he knew that it was a truth and so would act like one to the best of his ability.  He was armed with his own blunt human nature and the lessons Skalos had given him, both directly and discreetly, and he would fight his first battle at the dinner table with them.  
His thoughts were set aside as he entered the guest room, where, as he had guessed, Twilight was waiting impatiently, pacing across the floor with her head down.  Her head snapped up to him as soon as he entered the room, stopping her pacing in an instant.  Instead of her usual snapping, however, she let out a sigh of relief, sitting down as she said, “Well, there’s one less straw on my back.  How have you enjoyed the evening so far with the others?”
Raising an eyebrow, he asked, “You called me aside urgently to ask how I was doing?”
“Well, yes, and no,” Twilight admitted, shrugging her shoulders slightly.  “I’m sort of delaying you for a bit, giving the others a chance to say what they think of you without risk of you overhearing them, as well as let you say your thoughts on them as well.  Also, the changeling brothers, Thorax and Pharynx, will both be here shortly, so I wanted us to be in private when you met them.”
“Oh,” Ray muttered, rubbing a hand over his chin.  “Didn’t you say that the changelings would be our biggest adversaries, since they’re heavily pacifist?”
“Yes, I did say that, although the fact that Thorax brought his brother Pharynx suggests that he isn’t blind to the possibility,” Twilight consented.  “You see, Pharynx was the last changeling to give up their love-eating, violent ways.  He’s still very militaristic, in charge of the defense of the hive against any threats that may pop up.  The two have very different thoughts of ruling their nation sometimes, so bringing him when talk of war on the table shows that, at the very least, he considers it an option, though one he’ll certainly vie against.  Bah, that’s talk for later on.  How are you liking the others?”
“Well, they certainly aren’t annoying to be around, and they all clearly have some sense of respect, even Gabby,” Ray thoughtfully remarked.  “Not a single one seemed intimidated or frightened by me, and nobody made any real comments on my strange size and hairlessness.  Whether they were simply being polite or not, even Fluttershy has described me as strange at some point.  Also, the dragons aren’t nearly as bad as that book you gave me mentions they are.  Maybe that was also just formality coming before their opinion, but Ember seemed genuinely relaxed around us, like it was a picnic.”
“Well, I’m glad you aren’t having a terrible time,” the alicorn replied gratefully.  “I know the others well enough to tell that they don’t dislike you, but I’m not sure if they like you too much either.  You see, we Equestrians have suffered a lot at the hooves, claws, and hands of strange, alien creatures before, so the others won’t trust you, or at least not yet.  Hopefully that all changes by the end of the night.”
“Yes, hopefully,” Ray agreed, his thoughts beginning to drift.  
“The only thing that’s actually gone wrong so far is Gilda bringing Gabby,” Twilight muttered, trying to sound hopeful.  “I mean, I guess one way or another, she will end up knowing, so we just have to gauge her reaction and hope for the best.  At the very least, we’ll be able to tell how our younger citizens will react to the news.”
Ray hummed softly, trying to collect his thoughts for a second.  Before anything else could be said, however, a loud blare of trumpets announced the arrival of yet another group of courtiers, presumably the changelings.  The two of them stood in silence for a moment, listening to the doors begin to wing open.  Then, with an almost zany smile, Ray quickly reached down and withdrew his knife, tipping it to Twilight and then himself.  
“Here’s to a night of silent conversations and empty lies.”
> Friendly Intimidation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Good evening, Princess Twilight Sparkle,” the strange insectoid creature introduced as Ray and the Princess entered the main foyer.  He was taller than Twilight by a fair few inches, but the orange horns the bug sported grew to Ray’s neck.  He seemed much more colorful than every other member of the party he had seen so far, which contrasted with his austere expression.  Even the other members of the party hadn’t looked so grim or malcontent with the prospects of the evening.  His eyes resembled a Fallen’s strangely enough, though a purple pupil allowed him to tell that the changeling’s gaze was solely on him.
“Good evening, and welcome, King Thorax,” Twilight greeted him formally, giving a modest bow.  “We’re glad to host you for the evening, and invite you to enjoy yourself and relax for the night.”
“Hm,” the changeling beside Thorax grunted, giving a slight glance at Ray.  This one was a dark turquoise color with red, spiky horns, a bit smaller than his brother, though still taller than Twilight.  Both brothers were staring intensely at the human companion that stood by the alicorn.  Prompted by a prolonged silence broken only by the larger doors closing, Ray spoke up.
“Well, get a good look now,” Ray said, throwing his arms up a little.  The statement caught all three of the others by surprise, and spurred on by his newfound eccentricity, spun slightly.  “When dinner time comes around, I don’t want anyone staring.  The food here is better than it is on Earth, and I’d rather like to enjoy it without an audience.”
There was a brief pause after the statement before the other changeling chuckled slightly.  “I warned you to not be so uptight, Thorax,” he stated.  The insectoid reached out a hoof which Ray took, shaking it firmly.  “It’s good to meet a leader who has a sense of humor, even in a situation as dire as ours.” 
“It’s best to laugh before you may cry,” Ray responded with a smile, though the statement did dampen the changeling’s mood.
“Yes, I know that all too well,” the changeling agreed somberly, nodding his head.  He looked up at Ray with a half smile and introduced himself.  “My name’s Pharynx, Thorax's older brother and captain of the Changeling Patrol Force.  It’s a fancy name for what is essentially park rangers and tour guides for whoever visits our hive.”
“Well, I’m glad you two like each other,” Thorax stammered with an unsure smile, reaching his own chitinous hoof up to Ray.  “I'm sure Twilight has already told you who I am, and probably more.  Needless to say, you are both a strange yet welcome character in Equestria.”
“Well, I’m surely not the strangest thing you’ve had to deal with,” he commented politely, attempting to clue the changeling in on his passive knowledge of Equestria’s history.
“Oh, most certainly, and being strange isn’t bad, at all!  I mean, look at me!  I’m practically an overgrown  technicolored beetle,” he exclaimed, a broad smile on his face.  “Y’know, we changelings were kinda shocked when we first took on this sort of body after metamorphosis.  We had spent so much time as monochrome black beetles that any actual color to our exoskeletons was a pleasant and exciting change.  Many of us renamed ourselves as well, but seeing as I had spent so long among ponies with my hive name, I didn’t want to change it.”
“I was a heavy traditionalist, and still mostly am, so I too kept my hive name as well,” Pharynx explained too.  “You see, I didn’t much miss Chrysalis, more just the traditional strength I thought we had, so for a few years, I refused to change.  It took a little convincing and a weird mole creature to finally get me to see that I was just being stiff about the truth and clinging onto the past a bit too much.  I have to admit, it’s much funner to be a reformed changeling than a leeching one.”  
“Well, it’s never fun to be the villain,” Ray joked, receiving an appreciative chuckle.  
“Come on into the ballroom, Thorax.   The others will be glad to see that you’re here,” Twilight told him with a friendly smile, gesturing with a hoof for him to go ahead of her.  The doors to the ballroom opened up and the two entered, greeted by exclamations of welcome by the others within.  As he expected, Pharynx shut the door behind them before he was able to follow the pair of leaders.
“More talks behind closed doors,” he sighed, turning back to Pharynx with a thin frown.  
“Unfortunately, I think you’re going to have to get used to it,” the changeling responded sadly, giving him a shrug.  “It’s the unfortunate side of having the care of thousands under your jurisdiction.  In my few years in the role I took, I’ve had many conversations like even though there has been continuous peace between everypony in our nations.  The only discrepancies have been individuals like the Terrible Three, as we call them in the Hive.  It takes many inner workings to keep a nation and its people at peace and to come to agreements.  Besides, complete transparency, even among other leaders, can often be seen as either weak or insecure.”
“Yeah, it just feels exhausting,” Ray admitted.  “So who put you up to this one?  Twilight or Thorax?”
“Myself, mostly,” Pharynx replied with a slight smile.  “Although, I told Thorax I would, and he’ll know everything said and done between us, and I’m sure you’ll inform Twilight as well.”
“I’m independent of her,” Ray stated, causing the changeling's eyes to widen.  “Basically, we came to an agreement that I and my army would be completely independent of Equestria, including her rule, on the premise that we would fight the minotaurs.”
“You have an army,” Pharynx asked, clearly surprised by the news.  
“Oh, I guess you’re the first to know about them besides Twilight and I and a few of the ponies,” Ray surmised.  He almost couldn’t believe he had actually relaxed enough around this stranger enough to let something like that slip.  The changeling held such a familiar tone as him, and seemed to be genuinely friendly, in a way that was still not completely trustworthy of him, but understanding.  “There are about seventeen thousand soldiers, all of them great ponies who made one bad choice many years ago.  They fight for Equestria now for their own redemption.  I’m honored to fight for them.”
“Aye,” Pharynx nodded in understanding, looking down distantly.  “When I led the armies of Chrysalis, we lost a few changelings to many different things, including a failed Canterlot invasion.  It was hard for a good many of us to conceive how it could happen when basically none of the ponies but the Elements of Harmony fought back.  Many gave up on inhibitions of retaking Equestria after that, and that was when my brother became the first changeling ‘traitor’.  I’ve regretted never joining him for a long time, especially now that I’ve changed.”
“I’m certain your brother has forgiven you for that, and more importantly, you’ve made up for it by helping him,” Ray assured him, reaching down and resting a hand on his shoulder.  A chill went up him as he felt the cool chitin of the bug’s natural armor.  
Looking up, the changeling smiled lightly at the action, stating, “I know he has.”  After a brief pause of consideration, he said, “Come on, let’s join the others.  I’ve heard all I need to.” 
Ray nodded in response, turning around as the door opened, lagging behind Pharynx slightly and allowing him to enter first, smiles on both of their faces as they entered the main ballroom.  A few of the guests there took note of their entry, but for the most part continued their casual conversations as the pair entered.  Only Redar gave them more than a glance, turning and beginning to walk towards them.  
They met halfway, with Redar bowing graciously to the both of them, grinning specifically at Pharynx.  “Pharynx, my good friend, I see you too took to a private conversation with our newest member as well!”  Pointing at his own chest and the small scratch across it, he commented, “Mine didn’t go nearly so smoothly.  This stringy meatstick knows some moves to get him out of a rough spot.”
Pharynx laughed at the wound, looking up at the human to see as Ray allowed an arrogant smile cross his face.  “You did that to him?  Dragon scale is a tough thing to get through, almost as tough as Redar’s skull!”
“Yes, but he admittedly had me by the throat pretty well,” Ray confessed, crossing his arms.  “The only reason I might be considered the winner in that little scuffle was because I had my knife at his side.”
“Knife,” Pharynx questioned, looking for the weapon on Ray, though wrongly guessing it would be near his chest.  Sweeping aside a fold in his black overcoat, he revealed the knife within its scabbard, taking it from its sheath discreetly and handing it over to the changeling with a spin.  The trio smiled at Ray’s showmanship for a moment before Pharynx began to examine the blade appreciatively.  “Quite a fine craftsmanship, and still good as new even after breaking through dragon scale.  I’m sure that the smith who built this would be rightly proud.”
Noticing Princess Cadence glancing at the weapon warily from across the room, Ray quickly reached out and took the weapon back, sheathing it and straightening out the fold to conceal it once again.  “Perhaps it’s best not to review weaponry at a social event,” Ray suggested.  Watching as Gabby passed by, he added, “And around younger friends of ours’.”
“Fair point,” Pharynx agreed.  The bug’s attention was suddenly caught by something behind Ray, and before he knew it, he was being introduced to Queen Novo and Princess Skystar of the Hippogriff and Seapony Nation, the Consulate of the Bison and his daughter, and finally Prince Rutherford of Yakyakistan and Yona, who also lived in the School of Friendship on the opposite side of Ponyville.  The whirlwind of greetings and brief explanations failed to hold the same importance as his interactions with the dragons and changelings, as none of the other nations attempted to have a private conversation with him.  In fact, they seemed to be passive to a point, giving him very little notice besides polite greetings, as if they had met him before or that such an occurrence wasn’t such an oddity.  Even the bison seemed to only notice him as an honored guest, which though true, wasn’t what Twilight had warned him to prepare for.
Within what seemed like only a few minutes, it was being announced that dinner was to be served, and everyone was to be seated.  Ray found his own spot at the right end of the table, rolling his eyes at the intentional placement that would give him a fair amount of attention.  Strangely enough, however, Twilight sat at the opposite end of the long table, the true head of the table.  Frowning as he sat, he watched as Ember sat down beside him to his left while Queen Novo sat down to his right, her back to the window.  They both were seated by their companion for the evening, followed by the griffons, bison, and Crystal royals to the left and the yaks and changelings to the right.  Even odder, however, were the two empty seats to his far right, which virtually everyone took note of as they sat down.  
Raising an eyebrow across the table to Twilight as she sat, he failed to catch her attention, so instead simply glanced around at the contents of the table.  As more guests had arrived, more utensils and even some food had been placed out.  There were three different plates of differing size and color, two bowls of different size, and a series of forks, spoons, and knives.  There were four different displays of fruits and four more displays of different plants and flowers that he presumed were for the herbivores seated, and not simply visual.  There was also a variety of spices placed out as well, not just salt and pepper, but also pepper flakes and basil among other things.
“Dinner is served,” a voice suddenly expressed loudly, and within a few seconds the doors to the kitchen burst open as several servants brought in different carts of trays and bowls.  As they began to be served out among the group, he noticed that a male griffon in a different outfit than the palace servants began serving the hippogriffs and griffons their trays before coming over to serve him.  When the servant removed the platter from his plate with a small bow, Ray saw why.  For the first time in several months, there was meat provided in the meal on his platter.
It was fish, cooked well and steaming slightly still, and though he wasn’t sure exactly what kind it was, he immediately felt his mouth watering.  Seeing other members at the table beginning to dig into their meal, he lifted his fork as he had been instructed by Skalos and cut a generous portion of the fish from the bone and ate it.  He chewed evenly, and in spite of the heavenly taste, refused to show more than just a simple nod of appreciation to the retreating servant.  
“Tell me, Ray, is this the first time you’ve eaten meat here,” Gilda asked suddenly, chewing on her own fish.  
Setting his fork down and wiping his mouth with a napkin, he replied, “Yes, this is my first meat in months.”
“It tastes delicious,” Gabby exclaimed before shoving another bite into her maw.  Several of the members of the party glanced at the human, though notably the three seated ponies kept their eyes on their own plate.
“Do you enjoy meat, Raymond,” one of the bison questioned, the hulking beast eyeing him behind bushy brows.  
“Of course I do,” Ray answered, picking up his utensils and cutting another slice.  “I’m a predator.”
The table relapsed into silence briefly before someone started up a conversation that got the entire party to join in.  Ray didn’t exactly understand the subject at hand, as it had something to do with a political blunder between residents of their respective nations.  It was a fiscal matter with little consequence and in the end only proved entertaining in the end for all leaders present.  Still, he sat there listening in and laughing at the few jokes he understood.
At the end of the story, the servants reentered, revealing the true main dish.  The platter they presented to each guest was the same, a completely vegetarian meal consisting of noodles, a thick creamy tan sauce, and several different swirls of spice.  As the meal was served, the different members of the table broke off into individual conversations.
“Have you been to the sea in Equestria yet, or even better the seas of Seaquestria,” Princess Skystar suddenly asked from beside her mother.
Swallowing a bite, he looked over at her and asked, “Pardon?”
“Have you been to the sea yet,” the hippogriff clarified with an evergreen smile.
“Oh, no, unfortunately I haven’t had the opportunity to visit the ocean my entire life,” Ray informed her with a half smile.  “Maybe I’ll be able to visit the ocean in the summer.  I know I’ll see it someday, though.”
“Well, when you do visit, do it in the spring,” Skystar suggested with a wink.  “That’s when most seaponies and ‘griffs enjoy their breaks, since in the summer everycreature else comes to our island.  You get to make some fun friends, and meet a few nice ladies…”
“I doubt a human is too interested in hippogriffs as a partner,” Queen Novo politely corrected her daughter.  Looking up at him with a smile, he added, “No offense meant, of course, but, if you are interested in them, no judgment from anyone here.  Ever since the unification and opening of borders of all nations, there have been many different interspecies couples, even a dragon and a seapony!  Besides, as far as we know, there’s only one of you in this world, and nopony, griff, hippogriff, drake, or anything else deserves to be alone.”
“Precisely,” Skystar agreed heartily before consuming a healthy sized bite.  Wallowing quickly, she added, “I’m getting married next year sometime, and we’ll be doing it on the beach!”
“Really,” he exclaimed softly, once again genuinely surprised by the prospect of someone who seemed so young getting married.  This hippogriff seemed almost like a younger Pinkie Pie, and, in suit with the mare, she seemed to do the opposite as expected.  
“He hasn’t even proposed yet,” Queen Novo pointed out.
“He wiiiillll,” Skystar sang in return.  
Before he was able to reply, however, there was a slight tap on his shoulder, and turning, he found Ember leaning in.  He leaned in slightly as well as the Dragonlord whispered, “Redar is about to issue the challenge.  We just need to wait for dessert to be served with champagne, and then he can make a formal- and formidable- declaration.”
“Okay,” he responded, leaning back in his chair to look more casual.  He should probably have been more nervous about the challenge, especially since he knew Redar wouldn’t necessarily hold back anything.  However, he was actually relaxing a fair bit around the leaders, and, in spite of the truth behind what this entire convention was truly about, he found himself enjoying the night.  He had met two creatures of different nations and species that he related to and enjoyed talking with, and aside from their kinship, befriending them so easily bode well for his political endeavors.  
For a few minutes, he ate in silence undisturbed, listening in to a conversation between the hippogriffs and the yaks.  The yaks spoke with a thick broken accent, though briefly they lapsed into their native language, which somehow sounded both like a mix of Russian and Arabic.  Having known a few immigrants working minimum wage with him, they had taught him the words that mattered whenever they’d dropped the random piece of garbage on themselves.  The strange language of the yaks flowed melodically yet was performed gruffly with harsh noises.  None of the other creatures seemed to speak a different language but English, or technically Ponish.  
However, one particular conversation caught his attention in a concerning way.  Across the table, he heard Gabby ask Twilight, “Um, Princess, who are those two seats by you for?”
“Oh, well, initially they were meant for delegates from the Zebrican Federation, however, they weren’t able to make it this year thanks to a tropical storm that rolled in south yesterday,” Twilight explained.  “There will still be two… special diplomats who take the place of those spots, though: my second and Ray’s second.”
“Wait, I thought Ray was your second,” Gilda said, looking over to Ray.  Their eyes met briefly, revealing that Ray had been listening in.  He quickly ducked his head down for another bite before the griffon could ask him any questions.
“No, Ray isn’t my second for the night, but you’ll find out soon enough,” he heard her explain.  
“So human is own nation,” Yona surmised, joining in the conversation.  The others seated at the table also paused their private conversations, turning to look at either him or the princess.  
“It’s more complicated than that, but in a way, yes,” Twilight smoothed over, somehow remaining completely unshaken by the sudden bombardment of tricky questions.  “In short, Ray isn’t a citizen of Equestria, simply a temporary resident at the moment.  As some of you know and the rest of you will soon find out, his task gives him a special agency that means he is an ally, but not subject, of any of our nations.”
“So what are you, the president of Humania,” Gabby asked curiously.
Once again wiping his face clean with the napkin provided, he sat up and replied, “It’s not called ‘Humania’.  I am the proud leader of a place called the Harkening, but I’m certain nobody here knows where that is but Twilight.  Let’s just say that the sun never shines in this place, but the population there is more than fine with allowing themselves to light the town up.”
“So there are actual residents in this town of yours,” the bison consulate vocated, sounding surprised.  “How many?”
“Seventeen thousand and twenty two,” Ray responded confidently before inwardly cringing.  The flash of pain must have shown in his voice as he corrected, “Sorry, seventeen thousand and twenty one.”
“Oh,” Gabby muttered, looking down solemnly at her food.  
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Queen Novo consoled, resting a clawed talon on his wrist briefly.  “In our struggle against the Storm King, several of our seaponies went missing or… otherwise.  It truly hurts as a ruler to lose one of your beloved subjects.”
“Yes, it does,” Ray agreed with a slight smile.  “But sometimes the most meaningful lessons are learned through pain.”
There were mixed reactions from the statement across the entire table, but before the words could settle too deeply, the doors burst open, and the sound of rolling carts and clattering trays interrupted the abrupt silence.  Glasses of champagne that clearly wasn’t the champagne he knew it as were passed out with a luxurious chocolate mousse layered in what Ray could only describe as marshmallow fluff.  The cook, yet another pony, introduced the dish and accompanying champagne which- as he had guessed- was nothing more than a carbonated, creamy aged juice of peach and mango.  The delicious drink was served from a large bottle that would take Ray two hands to hold, the orange liquid fizzing as it was poured.  The dragons, however, were served a different, blood red drink that looked almost like liquified rubies, and upon inspection, even seemed to be.  As it was poured, it made a tinkling sound in the special metallic cups they were given, the little droplets that spilled out solidifying into tiny crystals.  
As the servants left, Shining Armor took to the room’s attention, standing up with his glass in hoof.  Raising it high above his head, Ray watched as the other guests did the same, standing with their drinks, so he joined them as well.  Even though he stood over all of them save Redar, he too raised his glass above his head.
“A toast,” the stallion called, smiling broadly as he looked around the table.  “To another year of prosperity and friendship, to friends across nations, oceans, mountains, and tundras, and to more members and new friends!  A toast to the whole continent of Equestria, a toast to the rulers, both present and not, old or new, and a toast to a night of joy and entertainment, enjoying the fruits of the philosophies we stand for.  Cheers.” 
“Cheers,” the small crowd echoed, everyone tipping their glasses before taking a sip.  Ray took a generous swallow of the champagne, his tongue tingling at the flavor and carbonation.  Smiling, he sat down with the rest, though Redar remained standing a moment longer.  
The dragon gave him a brief glance, and for a short moment, smiled at him, before raising his glass once again, declaring loudly, “Allow me your attention for but a minute, if you please.  Tonight, I made a friend, and also a rival.  I have challenged Ray in the contest of language, and now wish to contest with him in the field.  If the Princess would allow for the Palace in Canterlot to host such an event, it would be my greatest pleasure if all in attendance would join us after this wonderful meal for a challenge of honor and physicality.”
Instantly the entire table was murmuring, and when Ray looked across the table, he found Twilight with her eyes wide, obviously not having been properly informed on Redar’s intentions.  She glanced over at, mouthing a question to him.  Knowing he was being watched intently, he gave the very slightest of nods, and with the affirmation, Twilight stood with the confidence of a god.  
“I accept the invitation and am glad to be the host of the first duel in many years,” Twilight declared as she slowly spread her wings.  “You have my blessing to proceed with the challenge.  There is an old dueling grounds right outside the main garden, next to the statues.”
With that, many of the attendants began to vocalize their assurance that they too would spectate the duel.  None of them seemed to think too seriously of it, either not recognizing the significance or identifying what this duel would truly be.  As Redar sat down, Ray saw the dragon’s gaze flicker to him for the briefest second, and he knew that there would be blood drawn, regardless of their newfound friendship.  Grimly, Ray stood and accepted the challenge, though it was obvious that nobody had doubted that he would step up to the duel.  
As he sat back down, he drained the rest of his glass and straightened out his overcoat, which had begun to fold from standing and sitting so quickly.  His hand brushed over the discreetly concealed knife, and as he felt it, his hand lingered, unsure exactly what his intentions to use the weapon were, or even if he should for the duel.  However, Redar had challenged him with full knowledge of the weapon, so either he was anticipating Ray using it, or was simply relying on Ray to decide how to arm himself for the duel.  Either way, he found himself too distracted to finish the dessert provided and simply pushed it aside, deep in thought.
Once everyone had finished eating, there was a few more minutes of conversation before the servants came in and cleared the dishes from the table, marking the end of the meal.  Not waiting for anyone to tell him what to do, Ray stood and pushed his chair in as the servants left, thanking them.  A few of the others did the same, though a few more remained in their seats.  Looking over to Twilight, he asked, “You said over by the garden, right?”
“By the maze, yes,” Twilight replied, looking doubtful.  With a nod, Ray turned and nonchalantly walked away.  Pushing open the double doors of the foyer, he walked to the main doors, surprised to find it now guarded by a pair of ponies in armor.  They both eyed him as he approached but didn’t say anything as he pushed the large doors open, exiting the palace.  As they closed behind him, he turned right, remembering that the garden was facing towards Canterlot and not the ledge of the mountain.  There was a well paved path that led around the palace and to the maze Twilight had told him about.  The maze itself was a good fiftyish feet away from the walls of the palace, though the space was filled with a small field with green grass that seemed to have been allowed to grow out.  
As Twilight had said, there were several statues around the small field, which was boxed in by pavement paths.  There was an intricate statue of some sort of ornately decorated mare who was cloaked, a horn peeking out from beneath the hood. Her face was nondescript, but still gave her a wise, young complexion that contrasted the strikingly mature plaque titling the statue as “The Last Hope”.  Frowning, Ray glanced over to another one, this one much less concerning, a simple bust of all four alicorns facing in the four cardinal directions.  Each one seemed to be given the utmost regality, which was funny considering how misleading it was comparing Twilight’s stoic, heroic stance next to her timid, nervous self.  Still, it wasn’t hard to imagine the expression on Twilight like the artist obviously had.  The small plaque at the base called this one “For the Future”, surprisingly, even though it didn’t look like a single one of the alicorns were in a very frontward stance.  
The most surprising statue, however, was the last one, a horrific marble bust that he knew in an instant wasn’t really rock.  Approaching the reprehensible creatures encased in stone at the entry into the maze, he frowned at their forever frozen expressions of fear and panic.  One of the creatures seemed almost to be lunging towards the viewer, angry at their imprisoner.  It looked almost like a changeling, but if it was corroded into a worse state, holes in its thin wings and stiff legs.  Its horn was crooked and bore a few holes as well, but the most detracting feature was the forked tongue that stuck out of a mouth filled with sharp, shark-like teeth.  
The other creature that shared its imprisonment was also a quadruped, however, it also shared the strange top half of a bipedal creature.  It was almost like someone had replaced a centaurs top half with a mangled monkey with horns.  The beast’s complexion was thin and mangy, its stone fur unmanaged and sticking out in every direction.  The beast wasn’t attacking whoever had imprisoned it like its comrade, instead crumpling over on itself in agony or fear.  A hideous scowl of defeat was forever engraved on its face, its hands only reaching halfway to cover its face.  It was turned away from the viewer, so Ray had to circle it to get a better look at the creature, which gave him an opportunity to see that there was a strange disturbance on its shoulder where the fur had been flattened.  
From his new perspective, he could also see the plaque that had been nailed bleakly into the statue’s base, reading “Cozy Glow, Tirek, and Chrysalis”.  Looking back up, he realized that the changeling one had to be the same Chrysalis that the changelings had been freed from, the one Pharynx and Thorax had briefly mentioned.  The other one, the strange centaur, had to be Tirek, since he already knew Cozy Glow was a pony name.  The only question left… where the mentioned pony was?
Ray didn’t have any time to ponder the question as he refocused on the task he had at hand.  Turning back to the field, he noticed how even the land was, perfectly flat like the paths that surrounded it.  It wasn’t like the ground around the lake, or even just normal ground in general, but was perfectly smooth to the millimeter.  Frowning, he stooped down and began to scuff the ground, tearing away some of the dirt and causing little mounds to form.  He kept doing that until the center of the field was much more uneven than even the water-logged lake shores.  
There wasn’t any time to appreciate his work as he suddenly heard a myriad of voices and footsteps.  Looking up, he quickly stepped off to one side of the field, farther off from the oncoming group that rounded the side of the building, Twilight leading them.  Everyone was present, even Gabby and Yona, though they seemed more hesitant about the proceedings than even Thorax.  As they approached, Ray casually removed his overcoat, though he left the silk undershirt underneath it on.  Knowing that Rarity would be most upset if he were to damage it or get it dirty in any way, he calmly hung it from the outstretched hoof of the statue of Chrysalis.
“Well then, Ray, here we are,” Redar said broadly, spreading his arms as if to encircle the area they were going to fight in.  “Are you adequately prepared for battle?”
“Well, before we get started, I do have a single request,” Ray replied.  Looking over to Twilight, he asked, “Since Redar was the one who made the official challenge, then it only seems fair that I set the rules, no?”
“Hmm,” Twilight muttered thoughtfully, glancing at both the dragon and human.  Her eyes narrowed as they landed on his dagger, which he hadn’t bothered to remove yet.  Hesitantly, she finally answered, “Well, what rules do you propose?”
“Everything goes,” Ray replied immediately, causing the entire crowd to begin murmured conversations with each other.  “Wings, claws, fire, weapons, teeth… All’s fair.  Duel ends when the other one is no longer able to fight.”
“I accept these terms,” Redar quickly injected, stepping into the grass opposite of Ray.
Before Twilight could respond to either of them, Ember declared, “The grounds have been set.  Let the duel begin!”
 Both opponents moved into action immediately, Redar lunging forward across the field, propelled by his scaled wings while Ray dodged sideways, careful not to cross into his opponent’s side.  Redar reached out with a clawed hand, swiping quickly at Ray, though the attempt was so far off he didn’t even need to avoid it.  The drake had obviously expected Ray to lunge at his as well, but quickly was able to spin around to keep facing the human.  Ray held his ground now, just a few short steps away from Redar as a momentary pause settled while they both weighed their options.
This time it was Ray who moved first, though he stepped carefully into the no-man's land.  The movement initiated Redar’s own re-engagement, as he lunged once again at Ray with a swift punch.  Barely managing to clear his face out of the path of the strike, he was able to catch the dragon’s outstretched limb and yank it before he was able to retreat.  The drake was set off-balance and stumbled forward ever so slightly, though he was able to regain balance thanks to his tail.  Using the advantage of a lighter body weight and better agility, Ray was able to encircle the dragon as he recentered himself. 
Noticing Ray’s movement, Redar swung his tail at the human, and while the strike landed squarely in his chest, there wasn’t nearly enough force behind it to cause any harm.  Still, it gave him time to flip around and prepare yet another swift lunge at the human.  Anticipating the move, Ray ducked underneath his attacker’s arm and right behind him, stepping on his tail and pinning it down by the spear at the end of it.  Redar roared in pain as the sensitive area was crushed by Ray’s foot, wheeling around with his mouth glowing.  The close proximity of the two, however, allowed Ray to strike the dragon swiftly in the throat as he prepared to breathe fire, causing the drake to hiccup a small ball of flame out his mouth instead.  
The action obviously hurt Redar by the sound of a raspy growl, but Ray knew that this fight wasn’t going to be about showing mercy.  Reaching out, he grabbed Redar’s right shoulder with his left hand, pulling the dragon into his own squared shoulder.  The hit caught him right in the chest, a gasp escaping the dragon as the wind was knocked out of him.  As the dragon slipped backwards, Ray lifted his foot off the dragon’s tail and used it to kick him away.  Redar fell to the ground wheezing, but in an instant was back on his feet, smoke trailing from his mouth.  
In a show of strength, the dragon spread his wings above his head, blotting out the setting sun as his arms stretched out, claws fully extended.  The dragon roared primally and in an instant charged Ray with the last of his remaining strength.  This time, however, Ray didn’t attempt to sidestep the move or dodge as Redar anticipated, standing his ground truly and lunging forward.  The drake had angled himself to the right in an attempt to predict Ray’s movement, but having anticipated wrong, it allowed Ray to wrap himself around the larger biped’s shoulder and whip him around, sending him into the ground. 
The dragon lay still for a moment panting, exhausted and in pain, but upon seeing Ray unsheathe his dagger, the metal singing as it was freed, he attempted to stand.  The knife flashed through the air as Ray slid to the side of the dragon, and with a loud crack, brought the hilt of the weapon to the dragon’s temple, instantly rendering the dragon unconscious.  Holding the pose, his blade pointed towards himself while his opponent lay on the smattered ground he looked over to the crowd, who all stood in shocked silence.
“Redar is no longer able to fight,” he declared, spinning the knife around expertly in his fingers, sheathing it.  “I win the duel.”
As if the statement was a wakeup call, Prince Rutherford yelled in broken Ponish, “The human is strong, more than a dragon!”
Nodding in acknowledgement of the comment, Ray turned and helped Ember lift the unconscious dragon off the ground.  The dragoness seemed slightly concerned, her brow set and her eyes refusing to meet Ray’s for even the briefest moment.  Ray decided to let her hold her piece and simply put one of Redar’s arms around his shoulder, lifting him up.  The fight had gone much better than Ray had anticipated, without even his luxurious undershirt receiving a scratch.  Obviously the others had no way to guess Ray’s fighting prowess beyond his physical stature, and pitting him against a dragon that they knew as a warrior and formidable enemy that weighed in well over Ray, to them it might have seemed like at best for Ray a draw match.  
Helping Ember prop Redar against the nearest bench, he turned curtly and without a word retreated back to the frozen duo.  He gave them a bleak look, their faces scowling and hissing in defeat and fear, the strength they had once used to oppress their foes seized in stone with them.  Frowning, he reached up and grabbed his overcoat from off of Chrysalis’ marble hoof, wrapping it around his shoulders and buttoning it up tightly around himself, concealing his knife once again.  It was strange how little time felt had passed since the arrival of the first guests, but now that he was looking at the statue, there was only the dim moon and stars behind it, the light gone.
“Sometimes I forget that I wasn’t the one who encased them in stone,” Twilight suddenly said from beside him, her voice hushed.  Ray looked down momentarily, but the alicorn was only staring intently at the statue. “It was Discord, Celestia, and Luna who actually imprisoned them.  The only thing I did was leave them defenseless against it.”
“You and the others, from what I hear,” Ray reminded her, crossing his arms over his chest.  Silence followed the comment as they both stared at the defeated villains, though their thoughts were quite obviously not on them.
Finally, Twilight complimented, “That was a very unconventional duel.  Well done.”
“Unconventional,” Ray questioned quietly.  
“Well, yes,” Twilight defended, looking up at him.  “I saw what you did with the field, turning the ground up like that to make it more treacherous to cross.  That forced Redar to fly over the area regardless of if you attacked or defended, which you both knew.  However, he expected you to defend your ground, but you didn’t.  This was surprising and since he had weighed so much on you being predictably defensible, it threw him off the rest of the fight.  It’s also why later on, when he expected you to be elusive and avoid frontal conflict, your attack was completely surprising too.  Very smart, I must say.  If I’m being honest, I knew you would win, but… I thought you might not show mercy, to prove a point.”
“I did to prove a point,” Ray replied calmly, kneeling down to be face level with Twilight.  “But for a brief moment, I considered it.  If I didn’t know him at all or that he had Ember, I may not have held back.  Though I guess I was merciless in other ways.”
“Yes, that hit in the head did look rather brutal,” Twilight agreed, glancing behind them to where Ember and someone else was taking care of Redar.  Looking back at him, she told him, “The others that know were quite frankly frightened by the performance, but at the very least it confirms your ability to fend for yourself without even using a weapon.  Some of the others that didn’t actually have any clue what was going on were completely shocked that you both won the duel and used an actual knife to finish the fight.  They're waiting for your response now.”
Ray hummed thoughtfully, looking back up at the stone face of Chrysalis, her sharp teeth attempting to grasp his face, the only thing holding it back being the stone that encased her.  Frowning, he looked back at the mare, pointing to the statue as he asked, “Where’s the other one?”
The mare looked uncomfortable for a brief second, before responding, “I actually don’t know where she is exactly, but she’s free from the encasement, as you can see.  She’s living with one of my closest friends, Starlight Glimmer, or at least, the last I knew.  She’s reformed… ish, and she likes to keep her secrecy since she’s still kinda mistrustful of me.  Overall, though, she and Starlight have become a weird family thing, and with Sunburst and Starlight dating, they might actually become your average family.”
“Alright, I just needed to know I wasn’t harming her either,” Ray responded, straightening his coat as he stood up.
“Wait, what do you mean,” she asked, looking up at him, concerned.
Whipping his hand out from beneath his coat, he rammed the knife deep into the stone side of Chrysalis, the marble crumbling as if it were sandstone.  Cracks splintered the entire body of the stony changeling, the force of the impact shattering pieces off as well.  He had half-expected the statue to gush blood, but the only excretion was a plume of dust that formed with the breaking of the stone.  Ripping the blade from the depths of Chrysalis, he raised his foot and kicked the statue over, watching the two wobble for a brief moment before crashing onto the concrete bellow.
A loud cracking sound filled the air as the frozen figures shattered into hundreds of pieces, large and small, as they collided with the ground.  Dust shot through the air, and in spite of the fact that it was the very foundation of the two, Ray breathed in deeply.  Letting out a sigh, he carefully took a step back, avoiding chunks of stone littering his surroundings.  The pile was no longer recognizable as the statue it had once been, and seeing the final destruction wrought by the villains encased in the statue, he sheathed his blade.  If all else failed, at least he had ended the era of these tyrants.  Nothing could ever be contained forever.
“Sweet Celestia, why in the wide world of evergreen Equestria did you do that,” Twilight exclaimed from beside him, her hooves holding her head as she stared with wide eyes at the ruins of the statue.  
Turning around, he found not only the mare but the entire party staring at the rubble.  Each and every member, even Ember, had turned their attention to where the villains were no more, and they each held similar expressions to Twilight’s.  Instead of answering Twilight, Ray took the opportunity the silence and attention gave him and proclaimed, “My name is Ray of the Harkening.  I’m not one of you, an Equestrian, and I will never be one of you.  The world you live in now may be a cheerful, peaceful place, but the world around you is unkind to the concept of peace.  There have been many attempts to destroy the harmony of this land, some by the very villains that I just now shattered, and they will not be the only ones to be destroyed by me.  From my first days here I have found myself loving the populace of this land, but I cannot truly associate myself as an Equestrian, because as you have all seen, I am a killer.
“This isn’t the first time I have killed, not even in a land such as Equestria, and it will not be the last so long as I live.  You see, some of you know my purpose, some of you may even have come to accept that I am a murderer.  Well, let this example show you the true nature of my being, a testament to my will to end the lives of enemies of Equestria.  Violence should never be the answer to any problem, but, unfortunately, it is the only answer to the challenge we face.  You see, thanks to your Princes Twilight Sparkle, we know now that in less than a year, shortly after the next anniversary of her crowning, an invasion comes.  
“These invaders aren’t anything like you have seen before, not even on the level of the Storm King.  The Storm King was evil, truly, but he wasn’t senseless.  What will come from across the ocean, from beyond the islands of Seaquestria.  These invaders will be monsters, minotaurs as we know them, that have no conscience, and will slaughter every living being they come across.  They have no will to live, only the want to kill, and if they land on our shores, we may lose more than we can afford in defense of Equestria.  Therefore, I and my army of Fallen will go and strike preemptively against them, and hopefully beat them to the punch.”
Taking a breath, looking at the mix of confusion, horror, determination, and… admiration, on the faces of the leaders before him, he nodded his head slowly.  “As you can see, I and my people are an independent branch of Equestria, ruled by no other nation but ourselves.  She most likely would have preferred this discussion to be had at the dinner table, sitting down in an official meeting, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. This side of the world has seen endless conflicts and issues for the past several years, with only a few months of true peace, but even then I hear of and know the rumors of what is going on in other ponish cities.  It’s time for this plain to have peace and for those who would think to attack its inhabitants to pay for their transgressions.”
“Everything Ray has just said is true,” Twilight suddenly spoke up from behind him.  He turned around and looked at her, surprised to find her approaching him, a firm et to her jaw.  “The world we know is in danger once again, and this time there is nothing the Elements can do to prevent it from happening.  Shortly after I was named Princess, I decided to use a spell that nopony had ever attempted to use before, a spell that looked into the future.  It’s a dangerous spell that almost sent me insane, but I was able to control myself long enough to see the future.  I foresaw the issues with the Yakyakistan passages, the border crisis with Seaquestria and the griffons, and even the attack of a rogue dragon, and when all of those things came, I knew how to react.  The one thing I didn’t see coming, couldn’t have guessed would ever happen, was the invasion of minotaurs, exactly two years, two months, and thirteen days after my crowning.  Today, that number is eleven months and two days.
“In my vision, I saw the shores suddenly flooded with large boats containing hundreds of strange creatures that looked like monotaurs- the species here in Equestria- with overgrown fur and dangerous weapons.  They tore apart the ponies, wore their skins as clothing, and once they were done with the ponies, they move on to other nations, killing off the changelings, griffons, bison, yaks, seaponies, hippogriffs, and eventually, even the dragons.  At first I had hoped that, perhaps, I would be able to buffer them with the Elements, but then I realized two things, One, the Elements can only give beings the chance to be good, but when the enemy at hoof is an entire race of vicious killers, there is nothing that can be done to befriend or ally with them.   And Two, the Elements are instilled in each of us, and using them would require us to be put in the line of danger.”
“But surely we fight back,” Prince Rutherford shouted, his eyes briefly showing from behind his thick hair, thin and thoughtful.
“Yes, some of you could fight back,” Ray agreed, holding his hand out to Twilight to show that he would take it from here.  “Many years ago, however, before many records were kept, there was a large war that killed thousands.  At the time, Celestia and Luna were both so devastated by the loss of life that they removed the ability to kill or commit violence from the ponies.  By doing so, other equine creatures, such as hippogriffs, bison, and yaks were also prevented from violence.  This all meant that they were defenseless against attack, but for millennia, the solution worked, and the Princess’ plan seemed like the permanent solution to war.  After all, until most recently, there hadn’t been a single war.  They could have never known that there was a much worse war to come so far ahead into the future.
“They did, however, leave us with a back-up plan unintentionally, a hope that we could hang onto in case we ever needed it.  The Fallen, the soldiers I discussed of, were once ponies that fought in the terrible war eons ago.  However, they betrayed the Princesses and killed innocent civilians, and so when they were captured, they were punished.  Princess Luna damned them to live forever in the bottom of Tartarus, to stay there unchanged until they were called upon again.  It was there that they adopted the name the Fallen, as they recognized the mistakes they had made.  For hundreds of years they have lived down there, in the nigh on dark of the bottom of hell.  They called the town they carved into the cave walls the Harkening, a place where they would learn and grow out of their mistakes, and it is there that they still reside.  These are the soldiers that will now defend the land they once betrayed, both to redeem themselves and to rescue Equestria.
“They, however, needed a general, somebody who could live as one of them but lead all of them.  Somebody who could kill without fear and fight without holding back, somebody who would do whatever necessary for both them and for Equestria.  They needed someone who could take hits and retaliate ten times what they’d received, learn to love them, yet hold them to their ancient oath.  That person did not exist on Equestria, though there were candidates.  They needed someone fresh to peace but well accustomed to conflict, a person who had nothing to lose but everything on the line.  A person who could die for them, but may live.”
“You,” Princess Skystar hushly whispered, a claw held up to her mouth in shocked realization.  “You’re not just the leader of the nation politically, but also as a…”
“You have killed,” Thorax asked grimly as Skystar trailed off.  He seemed less friendly now, a dangerous frown on his face as he glared Ray down.
“Indeed I have,” Ray confirmed without delay.  “Including Chrysalis and Tirek, I have killed five.”
“Five,” the bison’s daughter exclaimed in surprise.
“Yes, only five,” Ray restated.  “I didn’t do it because I wanted to, however.  I don’t like killing, in fact, it hurts that I’ve killed so many already.  Personally, however, I believe that each death was necessary for both the defense and security of Equestria and myself.  Today marks the end of an age of defenselessness and insecurity.  Today is the beginning of an age in which Equestria must prepare for the future, a future that will forever be rocked by the introduction to the new world we must fight.  Tonight, the sun sets on fear and obliviousness, and in the morning, it will rise to the strength of every nation of Equestria standing together in fullest support of each other.  It is a great deal to ask, but I must know that I and my nation have alliances not of paper and ink, but of mind and body, a trust that goes beyond contracts.  The conflict we face is no longer able to be stopped by the politics of this plain, but by the war of the new world.”
“The bison support the Fallen and their brave leader in this endeavor,” the Consulate suddenly stated, stepping forward with his head raised.  “We bison have fought many a time with ourselves and the ponies, though peace has now been maintained for over five years without relapse.  Perhaps this war will lead to a greater peace across the world.  Suffering, after all, is a great motivator for peace.”
“The hippogriffs and seaponies were forced out of their homes and into the depths of the ocean once already, and while I am still queen, I refuse to allow it to happen again,” Queen Novo declared fiercely.  “Upon return to Seaquestria, I will immediately order a scouting force to find the coastline of this other continent.  We have explored far and wide the ocean around us, however, we have not gone past the Deep Point.  Even if we must cross over it, we will find the enemy’s coast and set the proper navigation information to reach it.”
“Yaks will not fight, but we will send plenty food, and warm clothes too,” Prince Rutherford stated thoughtfully.  “Yaks can help build boats with plentiful wood.  Pykrete too!”
“From the start, the Crystal Empire has been supportive of Ray and Twilight’s mission, and now we too will strive to work for the defense and betterment of all Equestria,” Princess Cadence added.  “In whatever way we can, we will support the cause with all of our heart.”
“The dragons support this cause,” Ember stated shortly as she lifted up a dazed Redar.  “No grudges held, and no support withheld.”
“Well, I don’t speak for all griffons, but I’m sure that we can help in whatever way possible,” Gilda said uncertainly.  “If you have any need for us, we’d be most glad to help.”
Silence fell over the crowd as they all looked over to Thorax and Pharynx, waiting for the changeling’s response.  Thorax stood there, a hoof thoughtfully stroking his chin as he carefully weighed his options.  He looked intensely focused, but not entirely aggressive, simply sitting there in thoughtful silence.  Finally, he muttered, “The nation of changelings is barely three years old.  We as a population have not been forced to face the tremendous weight of governance required to support citizens during a war.  The changelings are still recovering from the reign of Chrysalis and the changeling queens that came before her.  We have never had to make a harder choice than standing by our allies in times of trial, and though the stakes are much higher this time, we will continue to stand by our friends.  Both old and new.”
Ray felt himself smile gratefully at the changeling as Thorax looked up at him and returned the gesture.  “So it is decided then,” he summarized, looking around at all the other leaders.  Once again, nods of affirmation and small comments reaffirming their loyalty.  “Alright then, Ray, Twilight, what is the plan?”
“Well, depending on what the seaponies discover, we hope to set sail to the other continent in time to prevent the minotaurs from sailing out as well,” Twilight explained thoroughly.  “As stated, Ray will be the military leader of the Fallen, which will be the only force allowed by any nation to fight them.  We know that many will be willing to assist, however it would mean putting dragons and griffons under the control of Ray completely, and while we trust your leadership, not every individual would be keen to follow every order from Ray.  Along with that, we have no idea what opening up multiple fronts would mean for the war, if it would alleviate the pressure off the main force or encourage harsher fighting conditions.  There is also the consideration that by attacking them, we might inspire them to completely forgo the fighting and head straight for Equestria to inflict as much damage as possible.”
“I will be delegating a small force of Fallen to remain along the coastline once we take it, and from there we will attack and destroy as many ports as possible, if any exist,” Ray continued, stepping forward.  “Though it wasn’t originally part of the plan, now that we have all of your support, we can plan more aggressively.  For starters, the seaponies, dragons, and griffons could most easily scout out our own coast to defend it if any ships slipped through.  Mostly likely we’ll have to set some counter defenses out at sea to deter any scouting efforts such as sandbar spikes and entangling patches of seaweed once we have sailed beyond our coast.”  
“Currently, we haven’t planned for Ray and the Fallen to return to Equestria yet,” Twilight detailed.  “We have plans for in case the minotaurs do break through and send a massive invasion force to attack us that involves the use of the Crystal Empire’s tundra and Yakyakistan, the most hostile locations in Equestria, to escape to, as well as diamond dog tunnels.  That is just a backup plan however, as the main goal is to force the minotaurs into a position that they cannot negotiate out of.  Ray will handle the affairs of the minotaurs and after their defeat we will extend friendship with trade negotiations and cultural trades.  Hopefully this war will not end in extinction for either race, but in case Ray deems it as… the only solution, then we will seal that part of the world off from us out of respect for the lives lost their, whether Fallen or not.”
“I hate to be the one who asks this,” Redar suddenly began quietly.  “But what is the plan for if Ray dies?”
Silence followed the question as the entire party once put all of their attention on Ray.  Many of them looked as if they were just now realizing what the war entailed and could possibly result in, more than just beyond fighting.  With a sad smile, Ray answered, “It’s unfortunate how likely that is to happen, but then my second-in-command, Skalos, will take the role of general from there and continue leading until Twilight arrives to finish directing them.  While Twilight may not be able to kill or witness death in any healthy way, she can instruct and lead battles from the rear guard.  It is hopeful that the war never gets to that point, and the plan, though it may be naive, is for the whole conflict to be over in between four to six months.”
More silence followed that statement as the party somberly chewed on what Ray had told them.  It was hard to see how many of them looked as if they pitied Ray, the strange hopelessness they looked at him with as if he were going off to war at the moment.  Ray felt himself almost feel bad for them, that they would have to be hear behind the lines without knowledge of what all was happening while he and the Fallen fought.  He caught the eye of Gabby, the young griffon sitting silently with her claws wrapped around her tightly.  The griffon looked away immediately, a slight frown crossing her face as she scrunched herself up even more.
“C’mon now, everyone, today was merely a day to make friends and inform you on the meaning of my being here,” Ray exclaimed with a forced smile.  “We still have a whole party to complete inside.  The war will come one day, so let's enjoy the time we have before we must face it.  Today is for learning, growing, enjoying life as it is, and the future is uncertain, no matter how many dates we set for it, or how much we plan.  Today isn’t just the present, but also a present.”
“He’s right,” Thorax suddenly agreed with a bright smile.  “The future is dark, but the night is still young, full of starlight.” Turning confidently to Twilight, he asked, “Princess, if you allow it, might we have our ball outdoors tonight?  It’s too beautiful of a night to simply stay inside.”
Nodding slowly, Twilight said, “I agree.  I’ll have the musicians set up outdoors, on the patio and refreshments.”  
As if the words of the alicorn were a reality check, the others seemed to finally shake the somberness off, small smiles and little conversations springing up like flowers through the cold winter ground.  Ray breathed in deeply, letting it out in an exhausted sigh.  It had certainly been a long day, and now he could finally start breathing normally again.  Glancing over at Twilight, who had begun to set about preparing the patio quickly as a small ballroom, he excused himself.
He didn’t particularly need to go inside, but simply away from the others.  Turning around, he walked towards the entrance of the plant maze, intending to lose himself in it for the hour.  Casually passing the broken stone of the statue that Twilight had already begun to clean up into a large pile, he felt a calm settle into him as he entered the walls of the green labyrinth.  Silence crept gracefully, gratefully, across his ears, a peace he hadn’t felt in a long time allowing his shoulders to fall and his chest to fill.
In between the branches of the maze, he saw a small flash of glowing blue, and rounding the corner, he found Skalos sitting there, his back to him.  The stallion glanced behind him slowly at his approach, but ultimately neither of them said anything, the soft whistling of a sudden light breeze the only sound and carrying the last of his evicted stress with it.  Ray strode up beside the Fallen, wordlessly taking a seat beside his mentor and friend.   Silently, the pair enjoyed a rare moment of silence and victory.
> What About Them?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Several weeks passed without incident, simply the same schedule replaying itself day after day.  Before Ray knew it, winter had set in, snow had settled, and the ponies were celebrating Hearth's Warming.  It was a strange holiday akin to Christmas, but Ray avoided the bitter reminder of his old life by spending it with the Fallen deep beneath the earth.  Most days he spent anywhere between twelve to eighteen hours down in the Harkening, becoming familiar with the thousands of Fallen throughout training and short conversations afterwards.  It was a sweet time, being among so many friends and allies.
After over three months of training with them, the Fallen had come to finally unite under Ray, though they for the most part kept their different ideologies.  The promise of a new life after their war with the minotaurs kept a vast majority of them in line, and the few rebels who attempted to disobey orders were dealt with peacefully, reassuring the rest that there would not be a repeat of what had occurred on their plains once already.  Overall, however, everyone got along as if there hadn’t been any division at all.  Skalos gave him credit for it since Ray had taken some time to reorganize several different divisions of soldiers and integrated them with others.
All Fallen that had been wielding swords for their previous assignments had to be reassigned to different divisions, a majority of them being converted to spears, though a few dozen joined the ranks of archers.  It was a quick process, the hardest part being that they needed to learn how to place the straps and holsters for the spears on and efficiently take them off.  The archers were easily trained up by Adant and her fellow commanders.  Oftentimes, Ray had ended up joining in on the training as he had begun to master using his kharamh, even learning how to spin it around in his hands like a staff.  The mastery of the weapon didn’t help him at all in archery, and though he’d become better at the bow, he was still only adequate at best.
As the intensity of training increased, so did everything else.  Only a few days ago Twilight had announced publicly to the entire nation of Equestria what was going on, though he had found out about it a day later in a newspaper that had been tossed at his door.  For the past week now, it had consistently made headlines as several different topics of discussion for what exactly was going on “behind the scenes” and with the “hairless stranger”.  The newfound attention brought to the matter had prompted him to stay overnight for several days within the Harkening, sharing a room with Pelios until he felt he could return home without incident.  
It was funny now, that even though many of the inhabitants were now focusing on the war, he felt himself worrying about it less and less.  He was enjoying his time with the Fallen, and every day, when he wiped the sweat from his forehead and bandaged cuts and iced bruises, a smile crept across his face.  The more he trained, the less unprepared he felt, and the more each day felt like a minor victory.  Like now, when he wrapped his hand in a cloth doused in one of Zecora’s many to soothe blistered and scraped palms, the memory of quite literally throwing Axis settling pleasantly in his mind.
They had been practicing charges today with wooden spears, but the stallion commander had miscalculated how easy it would have been to take Ray out by targeting his legs.  Unfortunately for him, Ray had already fallen for the move twice previously, and he wasn’t keen for a third round of knee bruises.  The human had used his own wooden rod to deflect it away, causing the stallion to falter.  The move had removed the rod from Ray’s hands, as he hadn’t balanced it correctly, and seeing Axis stuck slightly, he had stooped over and wrapped his arms underneath his stomach, throwing him up.  
The both of them had laughed it off as the fight was called to a close, Ray’s side sweeping through their left wing and wiping them out with soft wooden taps.  It was funny that it seemed like he could still feel the stallion’s cool flesh as he had tossed him even though that had been hours ago, but that was the effect of not seeing the sun.  Standing up, Ray flexed his fingers out beneath their wrappings, frowning at the slight sting, but he had gotten used to the lesser pains of cuts, bruises and blisters.  
He was still currently in Pelios’ stone cottage, one of the few on the middle layer that wasn’t built into the mountain, merely carved out of it.  He rolled up the small sleeping mat he had been borrowing from the Apples, the wool slightly scratchy from going several nights unwashed.  Seeing as it had been a week since Twilight had broken the news about the inevitable war with the minotaurs, he was hoping that the population had calmed down enough for him to not be mobbed as he attempted to enter his house.  Still, as a slight precaution, he had a little spot in the Everfree Forest he had picked out a few weeks back in case he ever couldn’t get back to his home before the dead of night.
Slinging the sleeping bag over his bare shoulder, he ducked under the door and left the cottage behind, walking the now familiar roads in a now familiar path back to the waypoint to the surface.  He passed through a ramada, nodding at Hexor, one of the many commanders he’d come to befriend in the course of his training.  The road gently inclined to pass the level above the middle, leading directly up to the top level of small houses pressed against the wall.  From there, it was only a turn and a few steps before he entered the exit building, the circular tunnel that had once seemed foreboding now bright and welcoming.  A change of perspective, a week to live as a Fallen, was all it took to see that the caverns deep beneath the ground were not a thing to fear, merely but a cage to escape.  
He thoughtlessly went about the task of igniting the waypoint, the warm glow of the magic and light being released from it contrasting with the cool that he had become familiar with.  A soft sigh escaped his lips as the only thing he didn’t particularly enjoy about the Harkening was washed away.  He stood in the center of the waypoint, taking a moment to appreciate the glowing figures and the warmth they provided, but finally, he shouted, “Jahez!”
The blinding light was welcome for the first time in a week, and the warm feeling of being hugged by the air was nice in a way he couldn’t describe.  Living in the Harkening was a pleasant experience, but he could easily tell how it was also a punishment, endless day or night, depending on how one looked at it, never a time that could be checked.  It was hard to remember there as well, the same dull colors, consistency of stone, everything bordered by shadows, it had all felt claustrophobic if he had stopped to think about it.  
At the same time, it was just as easy to find himself losing track of time in the most pleasant ways, endless conversations,  and enjoyable training that gave everyone involved a sense of fulfillment.  A society had truly formed deep within the cavern, a tight-knit group of thousands of eternal ponies, living ghosts, that had become family with unbreakable bonds.  It had been strange to learn that in spite of everything, the conflict that arose between the different ideologies, the Fallen really did see themselves as a large family.  It was one of the many societal effects of living together for millenia.
The light faded away to sudden darkness, a chill quickly taking the place of the warmth.  He shivered slightly at the sudden cold, glancing around at the empty room lit by nothing but the early night’s moonlight.  The door was still open from when he had first entered last week, and though it had been left so, it seemed nothing had come by and disturbed the house.  Stepping out from the center of the circle, he felt the ground crunch softly beneath his bare feet, the dirt floor hardened by the frost of winter.  The shoes that he had been given by Discord five months ago were long since faded, the soles punched through completely.  He had brought a shirt down with him to the Harkening, but it had torn in the first mock battle and he had discarded it.  Even though it was cold in the Harkening, it was relatively warm compared to Equestrian winter.  
Speaking of winter, he thought, glancing out at the door, running through that snow is going to be a pain.  
With a shrug of his shoulders, he recentered the bag on his shoulders and took several large, quick breaths, pumping his legs to warm them up.  As soon as he felt his pulse quicken, he sprinted out the door, his feet punching through the soft layer of moonlit snow.  He took the path he always had, though this time he was especially appreciative of the canopy the foliage provided, as it meant that there was no snow when he entered the Everfree.  He slowed his pace, digging his feet into the softer, warmer ground to ease the sting of cold on his feet.  In spite of the atmospheric changes of the terrain around it, the swampy Everfree had maintained warmth to it, if at a lesser level than in the fall, the air less muggy and humid.  
He took the time to rub the goosebumps out of his arms and legs as he walked through the forest, warming up for the final leg of his little dash.  At least he had been able to keep his shorts in working order so the chill was kept from truly uncomfortable places, he joked to himself.  Cracking a small smile at the thought, he remembered something Skalos had reminded him of.
“One day, you’ll be fighting, and those loose clothes on you will be your downfall,” the Fallen had commented when his shirt had torn.  “You’ll be fighting a minotaur and suddenly he’ll have you by the collar.”
“So what, do I just fight naked,” he had asked, stripping the torn shirt off.  
“I mean, it would be preferred,” Skalos replied.
“For you or for me,” Ray questioned cheekily.  
“For your safety,” Skalos clarified.  “Although that may provide a distraction to the minotaurs, seeing an opponent charging them in the nude.”
“Or it might give them a bigger target,” he replied.
Ray was jerked from the memory as his foot suddenly took a step into a wet pile of slush at the border between the Everfree and the rolling hills surrounding Ponyville.  He shook the muddy wetness off, frowning at the cold coating of dirt that still remained.  Shrugging off the inconvenience, he once again began to pump his legs, revving himself up to race across the snowy plains.  He decided to stick to the mostly visible path that led to his house since there was no way to know what lay beneath the snow, dashing over the smooth, compacted dirt that was layered only by a thin outline of snow.
Running as fast as he could with his sack bouncing against his back, reaching his front door after only a few minutes.  His door, as always, had been left unlocked, though as he entered he could tell that at some point somebody had entered.  For one, there was some mud tracked in the shape of hooves, though it was only for a few steps before it circled back.  Secondly, there was a small note left on the lapis couch, slightly crinkled on the edges as if it had been left in a pocket.  Frowning slightly at the note, he shut the door behind him and approached it, bending over to pick it up.  
The writing was neat and he was instantly able to recognize it as Fluttershy’s, the name at the bottom only verifying the information.  
Dear Ray,
I figured that you would have disappeared with the news that Twilight gave out yesterday, but the others are still concerned.  They thought you may have gone on that camping trip you said you would be going on soon, and the missing sleeping bag seems to confirm it.  It’s been hard to get in and out anyways with how many ponies have been watching your house all day and night.  I can see why you ran away easily, but wouldn’t it be easier to face the music?  I know from experience that running from facing the truth will only prolong the inevitable and make the reveal all the more embarrassing.  At any rate, if when you come back, please respond to this letter in person..  We’re all worried for you.
Fluttershy
Ray shook his head, setting the note aside as he carelessly tossed the bag onto the ground, loosening his belt and pulling it out of his pants.  The belt had been made by one of the Fallen, a design that had both a hilt and two separate pouches sewn into it.  The pouches currently had no purpose, but theoretically, they were meant for storing food, since a small attachment for a water flask was already there.  It was made from real leather, though where the Fallen had gotten it from was a mystery to all involved.  Regardless to say, the belt did its multipurpose job well, and its craft had helped keep his pants intact throughout the week.  Perhaps he could commission that same Fallen to make him some pants and shirts that wouldn’t tear so easily, he mused with the slightest of smiles.
Picking up the dirty pants, he suddenly heard a furious storm of twittering from above him.  With a start, he dashed around his house and up his stairs, to the door to his bedroom.  He burst through it with a smile, though it instantly dropped, the call of “Ohs!” dying to a repressed, “Oh…” 
Inside the room, as he had expected, was the furious little brown bird, who fluttered over to him, chattering bitterly the whole time.  The cause for his sudden sodden expression, however, wasn’t the nagging bird that pulled at his hair in petty revenge for his abandonment, but the mare that stood even more furiously in the center of his room, a harsh glare sobering him in an instant.  
“Now where in th’ hay have ya been,” Applejack exclaimed, stomping towards him menacingly.  “Ya leave fer a whole week, no word, no note, jus’ one minute yer there an’ the next yer gone!  Ya’ve had me, Big Mac, and Apple Bloom all worried as get up as to where ya possibly coulda gone, an’ with Twilight finally makin’ th’ announcement, we’ve been worried sick as to what’s goin’ on!”
“I know Applejack, I’m sorry,” Ray apologized, stepping warily around the mare while reaching up with one hand and beginning to pet Otolo.  The bird pecked at his hand first, but gradually allowed him to rub out her feathers.  “I figured I might worry you, but as soon as I found out I knew other ponies would be after me before even Twilight could tell me herself.  I mean, she told me beforehand that she was, she told all of us, but I didn’t realize I would be the frontpage news and not just the minotaurs.  I had to escape quickly since there were already a good few residents on their way to have a lovely chat about this war of ours!”  
“You coulda stayed at th’ Acres,” the mare exclaimed, throwing out a hoof.  
“Oh, and nopony came around to check out if your human family member was still around,” Ray questioned, wrenching open a drawer angrily.  The silence that followed was the only answer he needed, and as he pulled out a change of clothes, he realized that he was indeed arguing in his underwear and nothing else.  Rolling his eyes at his lapse in decency, he turned back around and continued, “Precisely.  I didn’t want anybody else getting ensnared in this whole publicity business.  Everybody in town knows that I work with you guys all the time and am an Apple, but beyond that they surely know that I go to Rarity’s for clothes, talk with Rainbow and Pinkie, am friends with Discord, and went on a date with Fluttershy!  A strange creature getting friendly with the Elements is one thing, but that same creature being responsible to fight the first war in Equestria for hundreds of years?  I may have sworn to fight and protect these ponies, but I never said I would give them every aspect of my life.  The less they know, the less they see, the better.”
“But why,” Applejack asked, exasperated.  “Why can't ya accept their attention, to see them as loyal, thankful ponies who only want ta thank ya fer yer service?”
“I can’t face them,” Ray firmly stated, pulling up a new pair of pants.  “There isn’t a moment I don’t feel like an outcast in this world.  The only time that I feel at home isn’t in Equestria, but below it.”
“With th’ Fallen,” Applejack questioned, cocking her head to the side slightly.  “Not even with us.  But why?”
Ray felt himself beginning to crack, the pressure of the words condensing around him, the words written by Fluttershy biting into his heart.  The guilt of having left them without knowledge had been eating him away daily, but it had always been ignored thanks to the distraction the Fallen had provided, the comradery he felt when with them.  That, however, had allowed the problem to fester, a growing pain that now, without any ointment, was exposed and destructive.  
“Please, talk to me, tell me why, “Applejack pleaded, a crack in her voice cracking his shell more.  “These past few months… it's all been growin’ colder between you an’ us.  You barely talk anymore, just sit and listen, and that’s on th’ days ya actually come home to us.  Some days, for days on end, ya just head straight back here, not ta be seen fer another day.  It wasn’t like this all that time.  Why is it now?”
“Because I’m not you,” Ray shouted, causing Otolo to squeak as she launched off his shoulder.  “Because I am a human being who, in spite of all attempts to be a better person, has just come full circle.  I’m going to go out there and kill every minotaur I see until that kills me.  You hear me?  I said I was going to kill and kill and kill until there is nothing else to kill out there but me!  And nobody finds anything wrong with that!  Not once has someone said, ‘Well, golly, that’s just rotten.’  Not once has anyone questioned what I’ve said I’m going to do, which in and of itself should not be done, period.
“Everyone here is too accepting of everyone else,  encouraging them to keep at their lives the way they want, egging them on to be whatever they say they're going to be.  That’s great and all, but I’ve come out here saying that I’m going to eliminate an entire species from the world, and I have support from literally every single country in Equestria.  It may be the only answer, and it may be the answer that is necessary for the success and survival of everyone else, but that doesn’t mean you should encourage death.” Calming down, taking deep breaths to soothe out the aching of his heart, he gave Applejack a pitying look.  “Don’t congratulate us on killing our enemy, for murdering murderers.  Don’t lower yourself to our level.”
“Oh,” Applejack muttered, giving him an understanding look, stepping closer to him and reaching up.  “Oh no no no, that ain’t how it is.”  The extended hoof wrapped around his hand and tugged him down into a soft hug.  Her hooves wrapped around his neck, giving him a warmth around his chilled, bared skin.  Otolo landed softly on his head, nestling into the tangled mess it had become, picking out random bits of dirt and grime.  
“There is a difference between the villain and the hero,” Applejack explained softly.  “I found this out over th’ years, but the main difference between the monster that’s th’ villain an’ th’ monster that stops it isn’t  so easy to see as light an’ dark.  See, th’ monster that’s fightin’ fer itself, th’ one that is th’ aggressor, is doin’ it out a’ want, out a’ th’ want of itself, willin’ to eliminate anythin’ in its path.  Th’ monster that fights back against it, th’ one that is there ta destroy that dream, is there ta fight fer th’ right of everypony else.  They stand for th’ choice of others, and even though they may use th’ same methods as th’ villain, they are th’ ones that bring th’ conflict to end.  They make th’ peace.
“When we praise ya fer yer actions, we aren’t condonin’ death, killin’,” Applejack continued, gently rubbing his shoulder.  “If th’ situations were dif'rent, if you were in th’ wrong, we would probably be th’ ones to stop ya.  Instead, we are faced with a task against us that is so great, so impossible, that it required us ta turn ta you fer assistance.  We celebrate ya not because of how yer protectin’ us, but because ya are.  I know, this whole thing, these past few months an’ these next few years… they’re gonna be th’ toughest times of our lives.  But we’ll get through it, all of us, an’ in th’ end, everythin’ will be alright.”
Ray stared Applejack in the eyes for a moment before leaning in and giving her a soft hug.  Taking a deep breath, he muttered, “I’m sorry for yelling at you, AJ.  Life is just speeding by, and I keep feeling like I’m missing all of the sights.  I’m worried that at the rate I’m going, I’m gonna crash and burn.”
“Ya aren’t failin’ at anythin’, no matter what that voice in yer head’s tellin’ ya,” the mare assured him.  Pulling back, she gave him a silly smile, shaking his head suddenly as she demanded, “Stop feelin’ bad about yerself!  It’s okay ta have emotions, ta be a livin’ breathin’ critter!  Celestia knows I’ve goofed up now an’ again, but it ain’t th’ end of th’ world.  Well, not yet at least.”
The little quip made Ray smile, a small amount of the weight he had unknowingly picked up in the last few minutes falling off.  Lifting himself off the ground, he thanked her, stating, “I don’t know where I would be today without you and the rest of the Apples.  I’m glad you all came to call me family before I even began to call this place home.”
“Hey, Apples come in all shapes an’ sizes, all from different places, an’ all with different flavors,” Applejack replied.  Then, sniffing the air, she smirked, adding, “They also need a good washin’ ta best enjoy them, an’ you smell halfway like a pig from Tart’rus!  I’m gonna leave th’ house an’ let ya shower in peace, knowin’ you humans with decency an’ all.  In th’ meantime though, think a’ somethin’ to say to Fluttershy.  She hasn’t gone a day without askin’ us about ya.  Best ta talk ta her in person.”
As the mare turned away to let him go about his business, he called after her, “Thank you.  I’ve never had an older sibling in my life before, but for the few months you’ve been mine, you’ve shown me not only the right choices, but also the right character to have.”
“It’s a pleasure ta be a pleasure, Apple Ray,” she returned, and with a small smile, closed the door behind her.  He stood there, listening as the mare went down the stairs and then out of the house, the door banging gently as it closed.  With a deep sigh, he pressed a palm to his bare chest before looking over at Otolo.  
“Been a while since I’ve had some alone time, Ohs, so what do you say to me making a nice warm little bowl bath for you in the kitchen sink while I shower up here?”
> What is Wanted
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Look, I don’t care how urgent the move was, you can’t just run off like that,” Fluttershy told Ray, shaking her head as she circled around him.  “You scared everypony half to death, and the only reason Twilight herself didn’t attempt to find you was because she could confirm where you were.  Thank goodness Skalos has better communication skills than you do, otherwise the same day she announced the war she would’ve had to announce our only hope was missing.”
“Look, I screwed up, I know, but please, listen for half a second,” Ray demanded, following her through the thick layer of snow around her house.  “This past week has been the best week of my life, here or on Earth.”
The mare whipped around furiously, a brow arched at him, and he quickly explained, “These past seven days have been a blur of training and fighting, and I’ve enjoyed every single moment of it.  Down with the Fallen, I don’t have to be perfect, be a completely flawless apparition of purity, in order to be a hero.  Up here, on the surface, the ponies are afraid of me, afraid of what I can do, and now afraid of what I will do.  I’m not going to try to change that, partly because I know that I really can’t when I’ll only reaffirm their fears in a few month’s time.  
“But down with the Fallen, in the Harkening, there is no judgment for the mistakes that I have made, only acceptance and encouragement.  I tell them that I’ve killed people, that I killed Chrysalis and Tirek, and they don’t react with fear or shock or discomfort.  They tell me that if I feel like it was the right choice, then it is.  With the Fallen, there is no condemnation, because they have done similar or worse.  We’re all imperfect down in Tartarus, and we’re all striving to be a bit better.  None of us have the squeaky clean life or history that everyone on the surface does, and maybe that’s what makes us the best candidates to fight.  We don’t have to attempt to be perfect, only better, and that leaves room to walk in the gray, to make mistakes.”
“Okay, but at what point does acceptance become encouragement,” Fluttershy challenged, opening the door to her cottage.  “At what point does somepony ki… kill somepony else, and everypony just goes along with it.  From what you told me, it already happened with that stallion down in Tartarus, that one who was leading the rebellion.”
Taking a breath and slowing down for a moment, Ray clarified, “He was a traitor in his actions and words.  He would’ve become problematic for us even if he hadn’t been neutralized, but you also forget what actually happened, and what could have happened, if he didn’t die.  He represented a group that was willing to fight against me and the other Fallen in combat over their ideologies.  A full blown civil war in the Harkening would have been devastating and would only increase the division amongst us.  I never intended to kill him but I did because he attacked me.  Need I remind you of the result of that?”
With a firm yank, he pulled down his shirt from his collar, revealing the scar that remained from Cohin’s spear.  The mare visible shuttered at the skin, the small valley formed in his shoulder in spite of the healing it had received.  Fluttershy bit her lip before hesitantly saying, “I know, it was in self defense, justifiable, even, but it goes against everything I stand for.”
“Perhaps that we can only ever be friends then,” Ray stated sadly, letting the collar back into its place before lifting up his shirt from the bottom, showing her the mottled skin of his stomach’s scar.  “Every person I’ve ever killed has left a scar, a mark of the damage they’ve done.  Not one of them has died undeserving of their ultimate end.”
“What about Tirek and Chrysalis,” Fluttershy challenged.  “You never fought against them, and yet you killed them too!”
“Twilight showed me the scar around her neck, given to her by Tirek when he attempted to choke the life from her,” Ray revealed, letting his shirt drop back into place.  “Chrysalis’ work can be seen in the castle itself and all over Canterlot.  Some houses attacked by the changelings under her rule were abandoned, left as broken or burnt remnants of her attack.  Even in the Everfree there are still pockets destroyed by the both of them, the magic they wielded against innocent creatures like you.  When I said I haven’t killed a single person that hasn’t left a scar, that doesn’t just count towards me.  The scars those two have left on Equestria are still damaging, a mark of an age of fear and chaos.”
“Then what about Discord,” Fluttershy demanded.  “He’s left plenty of odd marks on Equestria, yet you two are friends!”
“Discord has never killed anybody with his chaos, has never done damage that he himself hasn’t fixed,” he responded.  “He took his second chance and became better with it, decided to change his course.  That’s why Cozy Glow is free out there, somewhere.  Twilight told me the only reason she is free is because there was an ounce of redeemability in her, a part of her that wants to and will change for the better.  If the same had been true for the other two, then they wouldn’t be pieces of stone scattered all over the world.  They determined their fate, I merely fulfilled it.”
The pegasus fell silent at the statement, a concentrated look crossing her face as she attempted to come up with an argument against him.  With a sigh, he knelt down, reaching out a hand and running it through the fur along her back, the soft hair warm in spite of the cold.  “I know it’s impossible to ask you to go against what you stand for, what is embedded in you, but I need you to trust my judgment and accept that this is how it will always be.”
“You mean you running off and fighting, coming back Celestia knows when to say ‘Hello’, before going off and doing it again,” Fluttershy asked, a crack in her voice.  
“If that’s what it takes for this to end, then maybe, but for now, before I do leave for war, let’s not worry about what will happen,” Ray begged.  “I’ve been having to deal with this war, the shadow of it, since the first day of arriving in Equestria.  It’s almost killed me twice, and has forced me to make choices that I would never have thought I’d make.  Everyone I talk to only wants to talk about it, the terrible tragedy that I have to fight it, or that it means death for so many.  There are plenty of other people to make me focus on that; Twilight, Skalos, Discord, any of the leaders or Fallen…  Please, Fluttershy, can you be the one I can go to when I don’t want to talk about it?  Can you be the one that I can trust to never force me to face my fate?”
Fluttershy paused for a moment, contemplating hard at the question.  She sat like that for a minute, and then two, occasionally glancing up at Ray’s face before back down at the snow.  They sat like that long enough from the snow to seep through his pants and shoes, custom made by Rarity to fit him and work better in combat.  They stayed like that long enough that Ray felt the chill creep through him and force a shiver out of him, but he stayed still, searching her face.  Finally, she looked up slowly, opening her mouth haltingly.
“I can’t promise to be perfect… but you deserve every break you can get from it all,” she told him with a weak smile.  “I’ll do whatever I can in whatever way possible to give you peace of mind.”  Then, with a flash of sudden realization, she stood up, scattering the snow at her doorway as she exclaimed, “It’s Thursday!  Please, come in!  I’ll make some tea and we can talk about whatever’s on your mind.  Most of my animals are out anyways hibernating, though a few of them, like Otolo, decided to stay with me through the winter.  Perhaps you could go get her before the tea is finished?”
“Sure, I’ll run and grab her,” Ray agreed.  Standing, he turned to begin, but a small voice inside him urged him to do one last thing before he left.  Turning, he caught the door right before it closed, opening it enough to catch Fluttershy’s eye.  With a grateful smile, he said, “Thank you, Fluttershy.”
“For what,” she responded, a knowing twinkle in her eye as she turned and entered her house, Ray following her into the warmth.
> Camping
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Now you be safe, ya hear,” Applejack demanded, patting down the last blanket into a green backpack that had been built for him.  
Ray smiled and nodded, teasingly saying, “Oh c’mon now, AJ.  I’ve faced beasts, enemies, and even Discord!  What’s a little snow and ice gonna do to me that they haven’t?”
“With an attitude like that, kill ya,” the mare stated matter-of-factly, pushing the packed burlap bag over to Ray.  “Here, this one’s finished.  Are ya sure ya don’t want a tent?  It seems kinda… reckless.”
“That’s the point,” Ray asserted, causing the mare to turn back to him with an unimpressed raise of the eyebrow.  Shaking the stare off, he clarified, “Not like that.  I’m not gonna go be stupid and jump off a cliff or go swimming in some frozen lake.  The whole point of this and the reason Skalos approved of it was to test my metal out in the wild.  Out there, in the minotaur lands, we have no clue what life is like, the terrain, climate, or flora and fauna.  All we know is that it’s more than likely that, at some point, we’ll have to abandon a camp, either advancing or retreating, and if I can do it myself, I can definitely do it helping other Fallen.”
“Well, alright,” Applejack hesitantly agreed.  “Couldn’t ya have waited fer spring, at least?  It’s still single digits in th’ nights, an’ up on some mountain, prob’ly in th’ negatives.”
“We don’t have time to spare, anymore,” Ray responded, packing his cotton sleeping bag tightly against the few other supplies held within the pack.  This one was bigger and stored his limited water and food supply.  While the whole point of the trip was survivability in new and potentially dangerous terrain, it would be equally humiliating and terrible if he were to accidentally be injured, or worse die, on this camping trip.  To him, the aspect of danger in the trip didn’t really seem too threatening, and in fact gave more confidence in himself to be able to handle such activities. They had spent almost a month of on and off preparation, which included the sewing of the two packs and making of a bigger, thicker sleeping bag that would easily be compressed into the packs.
“Besides, I wanted to be tested, to be forced to try,” Ray added as he tapped his food supply.  “Even bread would be a bit too generous for a trip like this.  Most likely I’ll have some sort of food, sure, but I need to be able to handle myself without it so when I have it is more of an advantage than a bare minimum.”
“Yeah, but how in th’ hay do ya ‘spect to find some food out in th’ middle a’ winter,” Applejack questioned, shaking her head.  “I still don’t understand yer reasonin’...”
“That’s for me to worry about, and I already have a plan,” Ray replied easily, clipping the top closed.  With a heft, he pulled it onto his shoulders, glad for the winter jacket Rarity had stitched up for him.  He had started the winter without one, and because of a combination of strange human dimensions and the “creative process”, he hadn’t received it until after his little trip to the Harkening.  Glancing up at the clock in the Apple’s kitchen, he gave a little startled gasp, exclaiming, “Gah, 7:13!  I gotta get going, AJ, but thanks for all of your help!”
“No prob’em,” the mare responded kindly, handing over the pack she had finished stuffing.  “Just please, fer th’ love a’ horseapples don’t do anythin’ stupid or get hurt.”
“Trust me, I intend to have as much fun with this as I am using it for training, so getting injured is not on the checklist,” Ray assured her, turning bent over to leave through the small doorway.  
“Well then, have a good time of it,” Applejack called after him as he left. He nodded thankfully at the expressment, waving goodbye before closing the door, stepping into the snow. 
Shivering slightly at the chill, he looked up at the overcast clouds and sighed.  If it was dark and gloomy only a few hundred feet above him, the mountains would probably be in an all out blizzard.  Welp, I signed myself up for this, he surmised, turning and beginning to walk down one of the lanes of bare bark apple trees.  The winter had really done a number on the orchard, leaves gone and several branches broken off of every tree, leaving them looking like something out of a horror show.  Shaking his head at the thought, he carefully stepped through the snow towards the lake, which was now frozen completely thanks to the cold days and frigid nights.  
Cresting the familiar hill, he found himself staring a little at the view ahead of him.  The forest beyond the Everfree was tamer, but not tamed by ponies, meaning that for the most part, the forest and animals grew wild.  For some reason, even though it was calmer, it received less attention than the Everfree and even less visitors, meaning that the wild animals would have their guard up.  Whatever animals that weren’t hibernating, that was, and from what he knew, there were very few of those.  Rubbing his bare hands together for warmth, he scouted out what he could of his trajectory.  
He was on his own now, officially, so each and every choice was his to make, and with a soft smile, he chose to walk the several miles to and up the mountains, as far up as he could.  Shaking out his arms, he began jogging, the backpacks jostling with his movement as he descended the hill and towards the opposite side of the lake.  He had to circle it, knowing that the center of the lake would only have a thin layer of ice, but seeing as it was still rather diminutive, he didn’t mind the extra time or distance.  
Thanks to the constant training and work out he had endured over the past six months, he had slowly built up both stamina and muscle.  The changes had been unnoticeable at first, but slowly had become more and more muscular, to the point to which he no longer recognized himself as he was, twiggy and lanky.  He was nowhere near bodybuilder level, but as Skalos had told him, it was best to have muscles that fulfilled their purpose and didn’t just look good.  He had also grown more, and by his best guesses, he was about five ten now, something like three or four inches taller than he had been just a few months ago on his birthday.  Or at least he thought.  He could barely remember it now.
Along with his taller features, he felt his body finally fill itself in, his jaw setting and his voice deepening ever so slightly.  In spite of being in a completely different world, a universe away from his birthplace, he had still undergone the human process of puberty.  It was still going on, he knew, but for all intents and purposes, this was him now, four inches taller and fifty pounds heavier.  It was strange to notice his growth, but even stranger when others pointed it out with surprise.  
Just a few days ago he had been talking to the CMC when suddenly Scootaloo exclaimed that he looked bigger.  It was then that he had checked his weight and height to find that, to his surprise, he was bigger.  Taller and heavier than he ever had been.  Thanks to the very limited amount of food he had on Earth, he usually maintained a weight around one o’ five, but now that he had virtually as much food as he could eat in Equestria, he was able to gain much of the weight he had been missing out on.  Because of his training, the food had turned into muscle, and what little didn’t put a little more meat on his bones.  For once, he couldn’t see his own rib cage through his skin.
It was a bit unusual in the most welcome way, and the more he noticed it, the harder he worked to maintain and advance it.  Whether that was cocky or not, he didn’t know, but he knew that had he returned to his world, he would have been called one of the jocks.  Weird as it was to think of himself like that, he couldn’t deny how good it felt to finally have a full stomach and firm body that didn’t nearly get blown off by the wind in the alleyways.  
His mind briefly revisited those dirty, wet streets behind stores and houses, the darkness and grime they held in them.  The memories.  Pittsburgh in December.  Ray took a deep breath in, allowing flashes of those events to run through his head, each death as brutal and deserved as the next.  It didn’t matter now, it didn’t matter worlds away.  It was his past.  This was his present.  Focus.
Ray pushed himself a little harder, his feet thumping against the ground a little faster as his heart beat a little quicker.  Skalos had taught him, had burned into him, how to rid himself of those thoughts, to let them start and then cut them away quickly.  He had to think of something else in those moments, something incredibly happy or incredibly sad, but not something about him.  He couldn’t afford to think of himself as at fault when others relied on him to get them through the thick of it.  He had to focus on his heartbeat, to make it match the tempo of his footsteps.  It’s why running was such a good way to force him into other thoughts, forcing his heart to pump quicker and him run faster.  
Breathing in the sharp air deeply, he held it even as he sprinted over the leaves of the forest, the fallen down and rotting logs.  He focused on keeping the breath in him until a particularly rough step forced the air out of him.  He was panting, the backpacks slapping against his back as he dashed around trees, rocks, and whatever other obstacles the forest provided.  He was moving quicker than he ever had, his blood shooting through his veins, red hot and boiling with the intense focus of exercise.  He swerved around a tree, ducking his head to avoid a branch, lept over a stone and into a pile of collected snow, scattering it.  He felt the warmth of his movement constructed by the sharp cold splash of the snow across his face as he entered the clouds, the snow and icy mist that it consisted of chilling yet serene.  He slowed slightly here, jogging to avoid reckless collision with anything that may be hiding within the mist.  He couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of him, and occasionally the odd branch tugged at his shoulder length hair or slapped against his chest, but otherwise he continued undeterred.  
Letting his breath out once again, he came to a sudden rise that contrasted the gentle slope upwards from the base of the mountain.  Coming to a slow stop in front of the large shadow, he stepped towards it, reaching a hand out and pressing it against the wall.  It was cold to the touch, maybe even colder than the air around him, and leaning in, he saw that it was simply a small rocky face that rose upwards past his limited vision.  Looking beside him, he realized that it continued into the the mist, and with a confused hum, he followed it, his hand steadily brushing the frosted stone.  
He continued following it until he was suddenly in between two faces of rock, one to his right and one to his left.  They were far enough apart that he couldn’t reach either standing in the middle of them, and as he explored the strange crevice, he found several sprouting trees barely poking out of the snow built up between the faces.  It was unnatural for certain, strange ridges running vertically along the entire face, and, looking closely at the stone, it was slightly blackened, as if it were burnt.  Frowning at the stone, he turned and checked the one behind him, finding it to be the same there as well.  It only took a mild amount of thinking to realize that, more than likely, this was a scar left in the land from some magical duel not too long ago.  
Everything here was unnatural, but somehow still completely set in the world as it was.  There was an aura that sent a warm strike of lightning through him, past the chill of winter and snow.  It was a subtle realization that the thing that caused this, the deformation of a peaceful, untouched forest removed it of its innocence through an evil attack.  Tirek, as far as he knew or could guess, but it might have been any of the other powerful mages the ponies had been forced to face over the past few years.  It was disheartening to see the destruction, to come upon it so close to the place where ponies dwelled and the land they left to the wild creatures.  
Shaking his head sadly at the sight, he retracted his hand from the stone, the feeling of the cold stone ridges a phantom on his fingertips.  Looking around once again at the minute valley fabricated from artificial destruction, he furrowed his brow, frowning.  He knew instantly that this would be where he would set his small camp up, in between walls of hewn stone and on burnt ground bandaged by snow.  Using his foot to brush aside some of the snowdrift that had built up, he set his backpacks down, stretching out his arms as he circled the small area to keep his muscles warm.  
Thinking back to when he had left, he guessed it had probably been almost three hours of consistent running.  Probably seven or eight miles then, he figured, accounting for the climb upwards.  It was weird to think that he had been able to go the entire journey in one single run when, three months ago, he could barely maintain a full sprint across the entire plain in the Harkening.  A testament to his and Skalos’ work over the past few months, with credit to those previous months that had set him up for success. It was equally encouraging and challenging to bring awareness to his growth, forcing him to realize that he could still get better than he already was.
“And that’s scary for whoever we fight against,” Garish had commented when Ray had told him about it.  While for the most part Ray had stayed in Pelios’ house, he had spent a good deal of his time with the sub-captain of a newly formed division of four hundred and fifty spears.  It was formed from mostly new spears that had transitioned from swords, but thanks to the red stallion’s experience and his likable, if cocky, nature, he had been able to become both a cherished and respected leader of the group.  
All in all, the army of Fallen had undergone several major and minor reforms in the past few weeks.  It had all been initialized during the week he had stayed with them, as he and Skalos, with the assistance of several other Fallen of various ranks, noted flaws in the structure or areas that needed to be more concrete in their makeup.  Overall, it had been a rejuvenating process that had left the army more cohesive, with either new divisions being formed or older, smaller divisions being dissolved into larger groups where it was deemed fit.  
A large reason for the relative decay in the system was how old it was, with some individuals forgetting their ranks or positions and certain divisions being almost completely forgotten in general.  Thanks to guidance from the generals of the Fallen, however, they now had a five main armies that formulated the Fallen, three divisions of spears and two of bows.  While he was the Commander-in-Chief of them all, each army had its own general and compositional units.  The main spear army consisted of five thousand Fallen, commanded by Skalos, divided into five waves of one thousand, each thousand having two ranks of five hundred individuals commanded by an officer.  
The other two armies of spears had four thousand Fallen respectively, each also consisting of four waves of nine hundred divided into two units of four hundred and fifty, with a supporting unit of the remaining four hundred for defensive attacks if one of the waves were to need assistance.  The two armies of bows had two thousand Fallen each, divided into four blocks of five hundred bows.  The remaining twenty Fallen were the messengers, and with their contribution, the entire army could send communications through the divisions and ranks within ten minutes.  Combined, the army was an organized, unbeatable machine in their own eyes, able to move strategically and effectively.  The combined fifty five divisions: five armies, thirteen subdivisions, and thirty six units, and a messenger brigade.  On paper, and in sight, it looked large, but every time he ran the numbers through his head, he felt slightly dismayed by the reality of his situation.
By the end of this war, he would be lucky to have a singular intact unit.  
Shaking away the disturbing thoughts, he focused on his work, realizing that he had been subtly cleaning out the snow from his surroundings and leveling an area for himself.  While he didn’t have a tent to place in the area, he figured it would be as good a place as any to settle his sleeping bag and packs, if a little damp.  The thought prompted him to continue brushing away the loose, cold soil until he hit the solid, frozen ground beneath.  In spite of the chill it brought to his hands, he continued with the process until he had cleared a large enough space that he could walk around in.  
Smiling at his work, he placed his packs on the dry ground and began to set the dirt as a small, makeshift wall on either side of him that wasn’t blocked out by the stone walls.  The snow had stopped sometime during his clearing process, and though the clouds remained set all around him, he decided it was probably the best time to go searching for sticks for a fire.  In spite not feeling cold yet, he knew that would change soon, and if not then, certainly once dark had set in.  Most of the wood would be moist anyways, but luckily he had learned a thing from his time on the farm.  
Venturing out from the crevice in the mountain side, he searched the surrounding terrain for large sticks, of which there were many either buried in snow or simply dusted with it.  He took as many of the sticks as possible, an idea formulating in his head as he carried them back towards the camp.  Many were longer than he was tall, either branches or thin trunks of smaller trees, and thanks to the somewhat sloping angle the cut had made in the mountain, he was able to wedge each branch down into a firm place between the two faces that created something of a roof a few feet above the ground.  Using this method, he spent a good amount of time collecting and placing branches until he had a sturdy roof that could, for the most part, keep out the cold.  Then, using a bit of mud and smaller twigs, he filled in the little holes until there were none, simply a makeshift roof.  
Satisfied with that aspect of his little shelter, he finally acknowledged his frigid hands, and, taking some bark and tiny twigs from along the ground, made a small pile beneath his canopy.  He had to sit or crawl to keep from bumping into it, but it was large enough to allow free movement across and build a small fire pit several inches deeper into the ground, using the unearthed soil as a barrier around it.  Setting the small wood pieces into the fire pit, he took a small box from within the backpack AJ had packed, a little tinder and a few matches inside, all dry thanks to the protection of burlap.  
Stuffing the fluffy, paper-like stuff against the damp bits, he took one of the matches and lit it against the stone wall.  Cradling the flame carefully, he held it down near the small pieces, letting it practically sit against the wood until it burnt out, drying it out enough that, when he took a second match to the pile it lit without too much struggle.  Working quickly, he added some slightly larger pieces of bark, in a small teepee structure over the small fire that had started, and, as hoped, the flame eventually spread to the drying pieces of bark.  Happy with his work, he continued the process until he had a nice little fire going for himself, the smoke filtering out through small little slits he had left for the purpose.  
Eventually, the fire died down, though was careful to bury some of the warmer embers within the ash to hopefully retain its warmth while he left to collect more wood.  It was as he was leaving that he accidentally brushed against the pack he had brought, and with a somber realization, he reached within and withdrew the bow he had packed, unobserved by any of the Apples.  
He hadn’t said a word of what he planned to do while on the trip to anybody but Skalos, and for good measure.  Reaching back in, his hand wrapped around a perfectly smooth wooden shaft, and carefully pulling out the arrow, he keenly inspected it.  The feathers on the end were a bit crushed from being buried beneath his sleeping bag, but with a little bit of smoothing out, he was able to correct the small amount of damage done.  The tip was metal, sharp to a lethal point, unlike the flint arrows they used in the Harkening to practice archery.  These were the ones they had been stockpiling ever since the Fallen had received their charge.  It was all he allowed himself, one shot to decide the success or failure of this trip.  If he missed, he would be forced to admit defeat and return to the Apples the same day he had left.  If he was successful, he would have food, strength, and fur to work with.  
Admiring the arrow for just a minute longer, he gave his bowstring a quick check to ensure it had received no damage and that the cold wasn’t tightening it.  With the confirmation that all was right with his weaponry, he stepped out from his enclosure and into the murky clouds, his eyes scanning his blurred surroundings.  With a decisive step forward, he vanished into the mist, allowing himself to be consumed by the cold and dark.

*****************************************************************************************

The fire crackled softly as Ray chewed on the last of the deer meat, the juicy meat just as fresh as it had been four days prior.  In spite of having to bury it in snow to keep it cold and preserved, it hadn’t lowered the quality of food one bit.  Interestingly enough, he didn’t have to deal with wolves or other predators like he had worried about.  Apparently, either because he was a towering human or because there were none around, he hadn’t heard sight or sound of anything around, save this unfortunate deer he ate.  
In spite of his resolve, he had ultimately buried its horns and innards, out of both respect and caution, the worry that he would bring a piece of animal home among ponies would be too delicate to handle.  Still, he kept its coat, having cleaned the animal and skinned it.  He would ask someone else who knew how to tan to do it, seeing as he both knew next to nothing about the process and had almost no time to do it himself.  Still, he wished to at least craft the waterskin, sheath, and handle he planned to use the coat for.
Thanks to the training of Adant, he had loosed a precise arrow, leaving almost no damaging tear in the coat and ending the creature's life in a matter of milliseconds.  Said coat was currently stored beneath his sleeping bag, which had his bow and singular arrow atop it.  It was a distraction in case Applejack glanced into his pack when he returned, but it also served as a grim reminder to him why he even had the coat to begin with. 
Swallowing softly, he took a handful of dirt from beside him and tossed it onto the dwindling fire before stomping on it to finish it off.  With a soft sigh of contentment, the last bite of the deer settling into his stomach, he nonchalantly stood up, pushing his shoulders through the roof he had crafted and that had served him well through the days and nights.  Stretching out his arms and legs, he pushed the other branches aside, scattering them and eliminating the roof altogether.  It was a mundane process, and once it was complete, all that was left was to grab his packs and make his way down the side of the mountain.  The clouds had cleared up overnight and had thankfully remained clear into the morning, allowing him to now see the short plain and lake just outside the few miles of mountain and forest he would have to traverse to return home.  
Setting off, he shouldered his second pack and set off at a slow jog, a calmness settling over him as he breathed in the sharp air.  As far as he knew, these would be his last few hours alone for the rest of his life.  It was a thought that may have once given him fear, but now… now it only gave him the subtlest of emotions.  These past six months had been undoubtedly the best of his entire life, and by all means, they could be considered the last days of his life.  Spring came in one month.  Summer came in four.  In five, he would be sailing across the seas.  It would be his turn to face his fate then, to determine victory or defeat.  
So, today was his last day alive, and tomorrow would be his first day consumed by war, by the hope that it would all be worth it.  No matter how his life ended, it was his turn to let go of Raymond, once and for all, to allow himself to become the thing that Twilight had seen in him, the person that Skalos saw he would be, and the destroyer of worlds across the sea.  Setting his pace faster, he raced down the mountain, streaking through the forest, tossing up snow and leaves and dirt as he went, a furious rushing filling his ears.  If all else failed, if he died in the very first battle, if he and his Fallen, his family, were slaughtered, then this was the moment he wanted to see before he died.  He wanted to watch as he raced towards the end.
> Let There Be War
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The minotaur huffed as he raced down the burning corridors of the palace, a fear causing its hair to be on edge.  He had run from one side of the world to be here, to bring the news he knew his Queen would be most unpleased to hear.  He knew the risks it meant, being the bearer of such news to the Highest Priestess, but alas, the work was needed from a minotaur, and so he had provided himself.  
The two minotaur guards at the doors to Her chamber gave him little notice, opening the door with huffs, steam escaping their noses.  The minotaur minded them fearfully, the Priestess’ own guard giving him an unpleasant stare.  She was in a bad mood already, most certainly brought about by everything She was intending to deal with.  He would be lucky to ever leave this palace, he knew.  
Entering the chamber with a nervous step, the steer raised his head to stare up at the Veil.  It hid Her from him, or more accurately, protected him from Her.  She was there though, sitting in the Unseen Throne, behind the resplendent, bloodred Veil.  Her shadow was cast through It, Her figure impossibly tall.  He could see every feature of Her’s, the imposing way Her head looked up as the doors were closed, leaving them alone.  
The minotaur’s voice failed him as he was only able to watch the shadow of Her Horns through the Veil, the chains hanging from Them as clear through the Veil as She was.  Managing a short huff, he bowed himself in front of Her, unable to do anything but cower in Her presence.  It was a defense mechanism of all those who knew Her, who lived by Her rule and reign.  Unable to do anything else, he extended his cloven hands out to Her, offering the simple scroll that bore the news to change time itself.  
The breath left him as he heard It get pulled aside, the Priestess leaving her Throne and the covering of the Veil to retrieve the message Herself.  The minotaur couldn’t breath as he heard Her heavy footsteps approach him, the impossibility of Her stepping towards him almost causing him to lose consciousness.  He managed to breath in, but only held onto the breath for a second as suddenly the tome was taken from his hands.
Feeling the weight leave them, he once again lost his breath, knowing She was there, just a few hairs from him.  The thought made him feel honored and terrified at the same moment.  His Queen and Priestess in one, reading the letter he presented Herself.  He felt his shoulders gain weight in spite of nothing being added.  Her presence nearly crushed him, Her unadulterated glory threatening to be his downfall.  A glorious downfall it would be, then.  
“Very well then,” the Priestess spoke sharply, dropping the tome to the ground before him.  He was startled by the sudden speech of his Queen, flinching at Her words.  The Priestess suddenly rested Her own Hand against his shoulder.  With a fierce growl, she instructed him, “Your time has come.  Lead your brothers to war.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

End of Part 1 of


Equestria's Ray of Hope

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> The Oblique World
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The salty sea air blew through Ray’s hair, the brown locks having grown past his shoulders in the past four months.  He stared out across hundreds of solid blue waves, watching the foam form and dissipate against the hull of the barge.  Licking his lips, he pulled his waterskin to his mouth and took a deep swig of the water within, eyes still on the distant blue horizon.  Somewhere out there was his quarry, and if he wasn’t mistaken, it was approximately fifty miles more in that direction, just beyond his sight.
Several groups of brave seaponies had gone scouting out the distant landmass, which in total was exactly three hundred and fifty three miles west of the Equestrian plain.  It was almost a week’s travel by boat, but the reason it hadn’t ever been surpassed came from how surprisingly stormy the center of the sea was, almost always being rocked by one typhoon or another.  The seaponies had barely managed to cross over the rough patch before another storm had caught them, but it had left them stranded on the other side of the world for several days.  Luckily the vast majority of the coastline that wasn’t encased in ice was a long, sheer cliff wall as if someone had cut part of the land away and sunk it into the sea.  
The only piece of land that could be used as the basis of a coastal attack was a twelve mile stretch of coastline that proved uninhabited so far.  All of the searching had concluded three months ago to the date, which was exactly why they were out here now, two months before the actual invasion, a mock preparation and drill that had required the entire army to perform as necessary.  The majority of these past four days out in the open ocean had been spent with various technical drills and caution checks, but up to this point, the only flaw they had run into was a strange groove in the side of one of the barges that required physical labor to keep the ship straight.
Overall, this was another success and major step forward, allowing the entire army to earn their sea legs before the actual event and give the captains of the invasion time to iron out their sailing techniques with hundreds of passengers.  Ray and the other Fallen captains who were in charge of vessels had earned their sea legs only about a month prior during drills and practice sailing trips with hippogriffs to learn the way of sailing and the sea.  It had been the first time since his arrival that he had been sick, which was an equally strange and frightening process that had left him reminded that there was the possibility of illness for him and the Fallen.  
For the most part, however, the Fallen had become immune to the diseases that proved most troublesome for armies after hundreds of years dealing with the sicknesses, and Ray couldn’t be infected by the pony viruses, so save seasickness, there wasn’t much worry for an outbreak.  In fact, after that first sailing trip, he had come to enjoy his time on the sea more than on land, the sharp salt of the sea and the smell of water spraying the hull of the ship.  It was refreshing, perfectly matching what the hippogriffs said about the salt sea air healing.  Perhaps because his time on the water was fleeting or perhaps because it was the perfect calm before the disastrous storm, he wished he could spend his days out on the sea like many of those hippogriff navigators.
“Whatcha thinking about, sir,” Adant asked, her hoofsteps on the wooden planks hollow.  
“Oh, not much really,” Ray admitted, looking out over the sea.  “Mostly just appreciating the cool of the ocean mist.”
“Aye, I hear that,” Adant nodded in agreement, the mare holding up a hoof to block out the bright, burning sun.  “How hot is it today, again?”
“Kraven estimated between thirty seven and forty one degrees,” Ray told her, feeling the outrageous heat on his tan skin.  The burning of the sun in these parts of the ocean was like that of the hottest summer days ever recorded in Equestria, but it was fall, and come summer in this region, the moisture would cause typhoons the likes that had never touched Equestrian soil.  “Apparently it’s colder today than yesterday.  It was forty three at noon.”
“Yeah, I didn’t even bother to come out on the deck yesterday,” she admitted, nodding subtly.  “Besides, my division decided to try their hoof at that whacky board game Skalos came up with to challenge us commanders.  Everypony went to bed with a headache.”
“Ha, he forced me to learn that while still on some of Zecora’s medicine and with a swollen shoulder,” Ray reminded her.  The mare laughed at that, likely remembering her first time learning the complex “game”.  “Speaking of which, I think Skalos and Zecora have retired for the evening for some relatively private time, so don’t bother them.  They haven’t seen each other for over a month with all the craziness that’s been going on in the mainland.”
“Yeah, I figured,” Adant replied with a slight glance at the quarter deck.  Garish stood there, controlling the boat expertly as the wheel headed the turn back around, back towards Equestria.  Seeing his wife look back to him, he smiled and waved enthusiastically with one hoof, still holding the wheel with the other.  The archer mare smiled softly, blushing ever so slightly, as she turned back to Ray as she said, “I can understand the desire.”
“Well, control yourselves for a few more days while you’re needed, and go crazy back in the Harkening,” Ray instructed softly, looking back out over the waves as they slowly began to crash into the side of the boat and not the bow.  Muttering under his breath, he added, “The less we mess up here, the less we lose on our real attack.”
“Yessir,” Adant snapped sharply with a salute.  “Now, why did you call me on deck?”
“I need you to take one of the life rafts and two of your archers and make your rounds to Pelios’ and Rohan’s boats and have them send off inquiries to the other four boats and so on.  I want a tally on the recordings of everyone inside as practiced.  I doubt we’ve had anybody go overboard, but it’s best to be in practice for more complicated situations.” 
“Like after a battle,” Adant presumed, earning a nod from Ray.  “Of course, lordling.  Would you like Kraven to cross check the numbers?”
“Yes, I believe that would hasten up the procedure,” he agreed, turning fully to the ocean, clasping his hands behind his back, staring at the distant blue that led home.  “And once your done, you can retire for the night.  Oh, and have Charin replace Garish at sunset.  He’s been working very hard and deserves a good few hours of rest.”
The order caused Adant to slip up, a small laugh escaping her as she mumbled, “He won’t get much rest with me.”
Ray glanced over his shoulder, arching an eyebrow at the comment, causing the mare to officially snap back into a salute, her hoof knocking against her head as she cried, “As ordered, sir!”
The lordling shook his head as the mare rushed off officiously to follow the command, pausing for a moment to note the fifty plus Fallen shuffling about the deck of the barge, all working on a variety of tasks delegated to them by Garish.  Some of them were manning the two ballistas mounted facing either side of the ship, some were helping keep the several masts and instruments in top shape, and others were managing the variety of supplies stored in the ship.  Even as he watched, three of them on duty to help lower the life rafts snapped a salute to Adant and assisted her and her two archers already present in case of an order requiring them into their small vessel and carefully lower it into the choppy water.  Two other Fallen on deck joined them and served as the rowers, helping escort the messengers.
Ray followed their short trip only a hundred or so feet back towards the next large ship, Pelios’, then continued looking up back to the entire armada, dozens of ships holding hundreds of Fallen each, all working together in this large machine working to cross the great blue sea.  He was proud of it, staring out and catching glimpses of different glowing Fallen carrying out different tasks on different ships, all with the same goal.  And here he was, standing at the head of the ship leading the fleet. 
Smiling, he turned and looked out over the blue ocean, the boats now facing away from the sunset and back east, towards the mainland.  He squinted, knowing it was useless to try and see the landmass more than three hundred miles away, but he still liked to imagine the coastline he had left, the well kept docks and hundreds of ponies and hippogriffs who had waved them off.  On the actual day of departure not too long from now Twilight had warned him that possibly all of Equestria would be present to watch them go.  Either to bid them farewell for the war or forever, nobody could be sure.  
But that was why he was here, standing one foot on the bowsprit, to ensure that there was no chance of failure.  And now he was certain there wasn’t.  It had taken time, but his army had become something the likes he had never heard of before, a cohesive unit of destruction organized and led in such a manner that everything flowed, even in the heat  of battle, exactly how he wanted.  His own training had been completed with Skalos, the Fallen deciding there was nothing more to teach Ray in spite of the time they still had until the invasion.  His last lesson was how the strategy of sailing, and that in itself hadn’t been taught by Skalos, but by the admiral of the hippogriff and seapony navy.
Mock battles had been fought across the entirety of the Harkening, from the open plains to the city itself, everyone practicing the attacks and defenses of the various geographical areas within their home.  Though not truly accurate to the course of battle, it was intense practice with somewhat realistic consequences decided by the winners, such as where defendants had to protect next, the amount of soldiers lost, and most humorously, who was charged publicity from among the ranks of losers.  
Ever since Twilight’s announcement to the world of Ray and the Fallen, the future of Equestria, and everything in between, eyes had been on them, and while they had been able to avoid too much direct attention for the most part, a demand for answers and perspectives had to be met in the face of such publicity.  It was a strange task, as many of the interviewers would rather have the Fallen than Ray himself, which was a relief to him, but a much different experience for those brought in for the questioning.  At first, they had been sated with interviews with Skalos and Halberd, the stiff and strict manner the Fallen commanders used to uphold maximum secrecy were tasteless to the crowds.  
While it was against the armies’ nature to give in to the demands for “juicier” articles, Twilight pointed out they would face such distractions in the future if not addressed now.  Pelios, Garish, and eventually some of the normal foot soldiers were given to the public to have their stories eaten up and spat back out.  As Twilight had promised, the others that were much more open had proved to be enough for most ponies, but some tabloids and late coming news outlets still had to be met with, which was where the losers came in.  The inquisitive and naive nature of the audience and questionnaires they received made the interviews almost intolerable as the answers to the questions were often either misunderstood or too graphic for the audiences.  More than once the question of how the war might end had come up, and every single answer was the same.  
With either the slaughter of ponies or the slaughter of minotaurs.
It was that absolution that ponies couldn’t handle, that nobody other than those who would carry out the decision could handle.  The grim future was decided though, the lines had been drawn, and even without the enemy truly present to prepare for anything, they had future insight on their side.  There was a spirit of hope over the entirety of the Fallen because of it, their training and preparation dissipating the air of concern and dourness that had flooded the Harkening.  Now, they were the ones with a bright future in mind, the first to be thinking only of victory even as the rest of the world had succumbed to fear.  It was strange how quickly the roles had reversed, but that was the Equestrian's way of living fast paced and listening to how they felt in the moment.  
Ray and the Fallen, however, had come to accept the death and destruction they would bring about, the losses they would make and take, and that was their present, to live like they had and were.  It allowed them to hope for the future, to look forward to not living this day but a day many years from today.  Even Discord and Twilight, who would surely live longer than any of them, held the same views of the other Equestrians, fearing the future and wanting to enjoy the present.  It wasn’t so long that Ray himself had followed that philosophy.  Times had changed, and his time had come.  It was better to focus on fighting for hope than blindly enjoying what he had until it was torn away.
Ray squinted, his thoughts breaking as he realized that he was no longer staring at the open ocean with rolling waves.  Instead, the blue had dimmed to black, shining stars reflecting off calm, almost motionless water that gave the appearance of infinity.  He smiled as he stared at the sparkling dots in the water, the empty blackness in between them.  He hadn’t usually been out at sunset, or actually paid attention when he had, so this was a first for him.  Being on the ocean had almost gotten normal, the way the boat rocked, the waves crashed, and air smelled, but this was something fresh.  
Just below the surface, he caught sight of something moving, but it was moving away from the ships swiftly, off to the south.  He frowned, not sure what he was staring at until it had gone a bit further, the ripples it caused revealing the thing he was staring at wasn’t a singular creature, but many.  It seemed to have been some sort of school of fish, disturbed in their passive movement across the waves.  He watched them go, darting away into the eastern horizon, their forms vanishing beneath the black waves.  It was strange to see fish this far out from the coast, but a small sea shelf was in the area according to their maps.
Looking up, he couldn’t tell whether he was staring at the same sky as in Equestria, the stars seemingly more present and brighter, glowing white sparks in the sky everywhere he looked.  It was like nothing he’d seen before, and much like everything else in Equestria, was simply a beautiful detail in the world.  Licking his lips, he glanced behind him, the sun gone behind the waves in its trajectory.  With a frown he realized he was now standing alone, most of the Fallen either below deck or on the quarter deck a few dozen feet back.  He took a step off the bowsprit and onto the deck, but in an instant pain shot through his head.
Wincing, he pressed his hand against his temple as he glanced around him looking for the source of the sudden pain.  Grimacing, his muscles suddenly began to ache, his legs beginning to shake as he struggled to keep his eyes open through the pain.  Squeezing his eyes shut, he forced himself to stand up, stiffening his arms and legs against the onslaught.  Biting the inside of his cheek, he felt a shock run through him like some sort of snake slithering through his veins, an icy chill following it. 
“Come on now lordling,” a dripping voice drawled within his head.  The words weren’t spoken, but rather put right into his ears, and as soon as he heard them, he knew he was alone.  “Care for a spot of destruction in you?”
Forcing his eyes open, he saw he was still on the boat, but something was really off.  He looked around, and saw nothing on the boat, not even the most abstract detail.  It was completely desolate, the deck devoid of life and the wood of the ship not really wood.  He glanced down at his feet, his brow furrowing as he found that he was no longer on describable, wooden material.  Instead, it looked like the mist created by Discord for the figures he practiced against, but this was corrupt, not the soft purple but some sort of dark blue, so dark it was to the point of blackness.  He looked up, his head swiveling around as he looked past the nondescript boat, to what should have been the ocean.
There was nothing liquid about the stuff that surrounded him, however, simply the same material that made up the boat.  It formed a completely flat plain, and he had no doubt that if he were to jump onto it, it would act as such, but considering the situation he had found himself in, Ray decided against it.  He glared at the empty sky, still glancing around warily for the voice that had called to him.
“What is this place, what happened to the others,” Ray demanded to the empty surroundings, looking around for anything other than the oblique world.  “Who are you?”
“So curious,” the voice drawled once again, its words rippling through the air.  This time he could tell where the noise was coming from, but that gave him less comfort than not knowing.  Looking down into what should have been the ocean once again, he found himself staring at a wide set of slitted eyes that spanned the entire horizon.  The pair glowed a bright blue, illuminating his face and the boat around him, but other than the color, there was once again no other detail.  There were no pupils, eyelids, lashes, or anything that formed the eye of a creature.  Perhaps that explained why he still didn’t understand what he was staring at.
“That trait will help you greatly,” the voice without a mouth said, the eyes narrowing slightly.  
“What are you,” Ray asked, feeling the confidence draining from his voice.  He knew he was no longer in Equestria, in spite of the impossibility of it all.  Steeling himself he shouted, “Where am I?”
“Human, calm yourself,” the voice spoke testily.  The eyes, no, the entire ocean of cryptic material began to rise from its flat form, slowly becoming a large figure.  In the blink of an eye the form sharpened, clarifying itself into that of something half phantom, half figure.  Its head was an upside down triangular, but not perfectly, one sharp corner at the top looking as if it was constantly crumbling away, while more of its head was fading away from behind.  Its eyes were set into its face, which slowly formed a T-shaped slit that served as its mouth as it said, “You know not who you raise your voice to.”
“That’s because you still haven’t told me who you are,” Ray replied stoically, watching it carefully.  Its body formed a flowing dress-like structure, ripples of its prosaic material drifting down its hundreds of feet tall body.  The eyes narrowed at his remark, a limb appearing from behind it, a sharp crescent of the material a mile long suddenly slashed at him.  He leapt forward and grabbed onto the bowsprit as the limb slashed through the boat he had been standing on, the material soundlessly sliced into oblivion.  
“Your attitude isn’t appreciated though,” the voice rumbled, its eyes dangerously slim for their size.  “You would be wise to listen and learn rather than rebel.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll play along,” Ray agreed, grunting as he pulled himself up back onto the bowsprit as the ship mended itself.  
“Very well, then,” the thing replied, its large, empty face leaning down towards him, tilting slightly.  “A game it is, human.”
Suddenly another appendage appeared from somewhere within the folds of its body, the limb acting like a leg as it reached out and stepped onto the boat, instantly shrunk to fit the miniscule vessel.  The body and head followed, all suddenly standing in front of him, looming over him by only a few inches now.  Ray glared up at the strange thing, pursing his lips, unsure about anything that was going on at the moment, other than that he was, in fact, in danger.
“You don’t know me, or anything concerning me,” the thing spoke Ray’s thoughts factually, beginning to circle him slowly, each step ringing throughout the world.  Those glowing blue slits remained trained on him deductively, even as it continued, “I wouldn’t expect you to know anything, though.  You are a fragile creature, a foreign creature.  Comprehension was never yours to grasp.  However, I could be your compensation for that lack of foreclosure.”
“What are you even talking about,” Ray questioned, his eyes as narrow as the blue slits that burned into him.   
“You fear absolution, yes,” the voice asked.  Ray paused for a moment, that cold chill returning.  
“No, I don’t fear death,” Ray answered.
“But you fear absolution,” the thing pressed, turning to face him directly, its final footstep booming.  “You hate it with your very heart, and if you could, you would destroy it yourself.  Absolution is beyond death.  Death is a weak thing, a bendable thing.  I could destroy it for you.”
“But why would you,” Ray inquired.  For some reason, the question seemed to be unanticipated, the thing pausing itself, almost considering the question. 
Suddenly, its limbs spread wide, hands with crude angles and gangly fingers stretched to the horizons.  “This land, this realm of the worlds, it is my dominion.  I am these seas, this ship,” the thing declared.  The figure paused, stepping closer, the boom of its movement blowing Ray’s hair back.  The face leaned in and whispered sharply, “I am you.”
Ray felt himself shudder at the words, but quickly came over himself, gaining the courage to reach out and push the figure away, his hands contacting what felt like hard clay as he did so.  “Yeah, don’t get ahead of yourself,” Ray warned.  “I don’t even know what you are.”
In an instant, the bowsprit behind him was upright, and he was pinned against it, the crescent shaped limb pressed against his neck as the figure’s head overshadowed everything else.  Instinct kicked in, his arm knocking the blade upwards, narrowly avoiding severing his own nose.  He used his other arm to shove the thing away, then proceeded to attempt to kick it further back.  His foot, however, sunk into the figure instead of contacting the solid he had thought made up the thing.  
“Be that way, then,” the voice growled, venom dripping from its words.  The being suddenly lurched forward, its crescent becoming a lance before Ray could even comprehend what was happening.  The appendage plunged into his right shoulder, pain like he had only felt once before spiking through his body as he was driven back into the bowsprit.  He let out a cry of pain as the other limb slammed bluntly into his chest, knocking the wind out of him.  "I am power."
Ray felt tears well in his eyes at the pain, but he mustered the strength to ignore it long enough to glare into the empty blue slits.   The slits narrowed slightly at the defiant action, the pressure in his pain increasing ever so slightly.   “I couldn’t expect you to begin to understand the intricacies of this universe, but I expected you would be more righteous than the ingrate mortals you tread with, that you would care more for eternal incandescence than the qualms of the living.  Your likeness is that of the grime of mortality… but I can change that.  All you need to do is let me in…”
“Hell no, maniac,” Ray replied through his teeth, his hand clasping on the knife in his belt, whipping it out, he rammed it into the thing’s side.  
The figure looked down to where the knife was jammed into it, Ray holding on tightly to the knife as his pain increased once again, earning a groan.  The figure looked back up into Ray’s eyes, long and hard before saying, “Yes, there is a reason I chose you.”  The creature paused momentarily, a thoughtful look coming over its nondescript face.  “You can call me the Spectre.”
The lance retracted from his shoulder, as did the other arm, as the Spectre took a step backwards, letting Ray fall from the bowsprit.  Suddenly, he was no longer falling sideways, but down, his body weightless momentarily until he suddenly landed hard against something, and then sank.  Cold wetness spread across him, causing him to realize he had fallen not into the solid sea, but the actual water of the Equestrian seas.  Salt rushed through his mouth as he pulled himself up from below the water and into the chill night air, gasping for breath as he thrashed on the surface.
He could barely hear anything over the waves crashing against the side of the ship he was now swimming next to.  Wait, the ship!  With a grimace, he reached out and found the rope net strung along the sides of every ship in case of someone going overboard.  Clinging to the rope, he pulled himself up and used his other hand to wipe away the salt in his eyes, squinting up at the pair of Fallen staring down at him in surprise.  
Pointing his finger at the pair, he narrowed his eyes and commanded, “Not a word of this to Skalos.”
Another familiar head joined the pair, Adant’s purple glow giving him equal humiliation and hope for his situation.  “Um, yeah, no.  You went quiet for a good few minutes there and just… fell off.  What in the hay was that?”
“I… don’t know,” Ray admitted, pulling himself up a few more levels of the rope net.  “Whatever it was, I don’t think it should concern you guys.”
Ray grunted as he pulled himself over the railing of the ship, his feet thunking on the wood.  He let out a deep breath, panting slightly from exertion from both the maneuver and whatever he had just dealt with with the Spectre.  
“Our general just went unresponsive and then took a dip in the ocean fifty miles from the nearest land, which is controlled by our enemies, I’ll have you remember,” Adant pointed out sharply, jabbing a hoof into his kneecap.  “I do believe that’s plenty of validation for our knowledge as to what in the moon just happened!”
Lowering his voice, he leaned in to right next to her translucent ear and whispered harshly, “When I said I don’t know, I earnestly do not have any clue as to what happened, and when I say it doesn’t concern you, I mean whatever this is, needs some alicorn assistance.”  Ray paused as he saw her gaze divert to his shoulder, causing him to ask blandly, “What do you see?”
“Well, did you always have that tear in your shirt,” the archer questioned.  Ray glanced at his right shoulder, to where he saw the cloth was torn on both sides of his shoulder.  The skin there was slightly lighter as well, something he was now familiar with.  “Is that scar new too?”
Grumbling slightly, he stood up and replied, “Yep, those are fresh.  Part of the reason this is most definitely not a Fallen problem.”  Looking at the three very confused Fallen, Ray sighed and rubbed his hand across his mouth, inquiring, “You got your reports done?”  
“Yessir,” one of the other Fallen, an orangish one, replied with a snapped salute.  “Kraven has the full report prepared and sent it with us.”
“I’ll take it and check it out, then,” Ray said, reaching out a hand expectantly for the report.  He needed something to keep his mind preoccupied from whatever had just happened anyways, and checking numbers was monotone enough to put him to sleep.  However, the Fallen sat down and used a hoof to rub the back of his head sheepishly.
“Well, since you weren’t responding at the bowsprit, we sent it to Skalos, so he’ll be dealing with that, actually,”  the Fallen admitted.
“Oh boy,” Ray grumbled with a deep breath in.  Letting it out with a sigh, he excused himself, “I’m going to go to my bunk then and call it a night.”
“Get some good rest then, lordling,” Adant wished him, frowning slightly.  “You look like you need it.”
“Thanks,” he replied sarcastically, standing up and walking across the deck to the door that led to the lower levels of the ship.  Just as he went to open it, a magical aura overtook the handle and turned it, pushing the door open.  Skalos practically ran into his leg as Zecora bumped into him, the both of them turning in surprise to see him there.
“Going to bed already, lordling,” Skalos questioned.  “It’s hardly that late.”
“‘S been a long day,” Ray said, rubbing his right shoulder to hide the torn shirt from his friend.  
“Ah, I see, I got the reports,” Skalos replied kindly, eyeing his wet hair.  “Everything is in order.  Not a singular Fallen missing from the charts.”
“Well, I didn’t suspect anything,” Ray assured him with a nod to Zecora.  The zebra smiled in turn, a slight nod of her head to compliment.  “I’ll be off now.”
“Okay, good night, lordling,” the Fallen said as Ray slipped past the pair, and down the wooden steps.  When he was at the bottom, Skalos called out one last time, “Um, Ray, where is your dagger?”
Reaching down to the empty sheath, he called back, “I went overboard for a bit.  Must’ve slipped out then.”
“Well, that was careless of you.”
Licking his lips as he fingered the empty leather strap, he muttered, “Yes it was.”
> Return
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ray stepped onto the docks with a soft sigh of relief, the feeling of solid wood beneath his feet almost foreign after over a week of travel by sea.  He slung his sack of everything he had packed for personal use over his other shoulder as the rain continued to fall.  Everywhere he looked felt different, though that was most likely the result of being in a new part of Equestria.  The port town they had taken as their harbor for the moment was on the river caused by Canterlot’s waterfalls, and given the proximity to the city, it had proved to be an excellent base of naval operations.  It was also practically a straight shot to the continent overseas to the only possible landing spot, so it provided strong defense as well.  
Fallen shuffled across the port’s plank walks, each holding a sack or case of some sort that stored their few personal belongings, a tent to be shared with three or four others, or equipment of various uses.  The process would be arduous and dull, but wholly necessary seeing as the hundreds of thousands of bits invested into the cause.  One of the upsides of having the public attention on them was having the public support of monetary investments into the army.  Many ponies that specialized in woodwork had come to help build the many ships required to transport the large army over the ocean, working with expert seaponies to build the massive caravels.  
Griffons and ponies alike worked with the dragons to produce hundreds of thousands of individual arrows, almost sixteen thousand replacement spears, and almost ten thousand bows as well.  The entire Equestrian world had come together in the wake of the concerning news to arm their protectors.  It had been a lively four months that had seen the development of the best army in the world from the best nations in existence.  While the public could be a nuisance and distraction, ultimately it was because of them that everything they had done and were going to do was even possible. 
While Ray himself wasn’t quite in touch with all of the defensive preparations headed by Twilight, he did know that the changelings and the diamond dogs- a species he hadn’t even known about- were in collaboration to create giant underground structures that worked like the hives the changelings lived in.  The seaponies had also prepared several underwater structures to hide in if the minotaurs managed to ever touch the Equestrian soil.  Otherwise, however, he didn’t have any clue as to what was occurring across Equestria to defend the peaceful homeland.  All he knew is that he wanted to ensure these preparations were obsolete.
Blinking away several raindrops, Ray took his turn to cross over the dock and towards one of the many spots where the cargo was being carefully piled up and counted before being sent away to a waypoint.  With help from the living unicorns, Skalos had been able to install large waypoints and Sunports near the city and several other locations to allow for quicker travel between the Harkening and wherever the Fallen were needed.  The Fallen had built a much larger one in the Harkening themselves now that the training was finished, one that was large enough to transport all of the army from one place to another, with the help of several dozen unicorns.
Still, personal travel was limited to Ray and Skalos, with only three locations connected to the waypoint in Skalos’ hut: the Canterlot throne room, Ray’s house, and Zecora’s lodge.  All three served only official uses of the utmost urgency, as the waypoint in his hut had been copied and engraved into an intricate bronze contraption that Ray wore around his neck most of the time.  He didn’t have it on him now for fear of getting it damaged in the hustle of the disembarkment, but the item was for the sole purpose of necessary travel, as if it wasn’t also within the bounds of a waypoint or Sunport, it would burn out on use.
The strange device had been given to Ray as a sort of necessary gift, and already had made his life much easier by providing travel from the Harkening to the castle swiftly or to Zecora’s for the various wounds sustained during training and such.  Another break in the flow of smaller Fallen bodies allowed him to turn and head back to the ship, his thoughts moving with him.  It was planned that once they secured a defensible base camp on the other continent, they would make a small waypoint only usable by those who had the amulet.  Hopefully, travel would be limited to simple equipment and salve runs in between successful battles, however, worse come to worse, it would be a point that could be used to evacuate survivors.
Walking back up the plank and onto his ship, he nodded in acknowledgement to Garish, who was casually instructing several different Fallen on the disembarkment.  Stepping around others who were fulfilling menial tasks, Ray entered the captain’s office reserved for Garish and- by proxy- Adant.  The two had apparently been flirting for something like fifty years, and with the coming war, they had decided to seal the deal before it was too late.  Like many weddings that had suddenly occurred among the army, the ceremony was officiated by Skalos and presided over by one the of many friends made by Garish.  Some hundreds had come about with the war nearing, over fifteen hundred individuals marrying, sometimes in mass marriages, to bind them to each other in case of the worst.
It had been an exciting time, and while everyone knew the tragedies that would befall those marriages, the morale boost given by each wedding was undeniable.  Still, Ray kept focus on other tasks, such as resource management, outer cooperation, intelligence gathering, or even personal training, causing him to miss many of the weddings.  He didn’t mind much, as in spite of his time among the Fallen and the casual bond he’d formed with many of the inhabitants of the Harkening, he still stood out, and given his position, often stole the attention away from the subject couples.  
Grunting, Ray lifted a crate that had remained sealed shut the entire trip, straining to lift the heavy box.  Carefully maneuvering his way out of the room and back onto the deck, he let out a short whistle to catch the attention of the Fallen around him and warn them.  The Fallen on-deck parted enough for him to get out quickly, continuing to struggle to hold the large crate.  Crossing back over the plank, he made his way across the dock and onto solid ground.  Pausing briefly to set down the heavy box, he wiped away some of the sweat on his brow, the rain a blessing considering how terrible the work would be in the blazing summer sun.  
A puff of smoke suddenly appeared in the small clearing right in front of him, startling him, Discord appearing from the cloud as Ray spun his kharamh out from behind him.  Recognizing the friendly, mismatched face of the draconequus, the human sighed and dropped his stance, shaking his head as he said, “You can’t sneak up on me like that, Discord!  I nearly impaled you.”
The spirit of chaos simply grinned at the statement, haphazardly shoving the tip away with a claw as he tried sheepishly, “Surprise?”
“Yeah, indeed,” Ray agreed, spinning the weapon expertly to latch it back to his back.  “What’re you doing out here?”
“Why, helping, of course,” Discord cried with a snap of his fingers, the crate by Ray suddenly vanishing.  “I could clear these ships in an instant!
“I really hope you were careful with that,” Ray winced, pointing to where the box had been.  “There was something pretty valuable in there…”
“Relax, chaotic teleportation may be… iffy, but it isn’t destructive,” Discord assured Ray with a wave of his paw.  Pausing considerately, he added, “Most of the time.”
“Well, I guess it doesn’t matter now,” Ray mumbled, staring off in the direction of the Sunport he had been heading to.  Turning back to the draconequus with a smile, he asked, “So, what brought you out here?”
“Well, y’know, a little birdy told me that you were going to return today,” Discord replied cheerfully.  “And I thought, might as well drop by and give a fellow biped a hand!”
On cue, Discord’s claw turned into a human hand eerily similar to Ray’s own.  Smiling uneasily at the pun, he remarked, “It has been a good while since I’ve seen you.  Good to catch up, but maybe later.  I’ve still got a whole fleet to disembark and an army to return home.”
“Oh, pish posh,” Discord dismissed, waving the human appendage around.  “Besides, Twilight demands your presence in the castle immediately for a report and for some- hm, how do I put this?- small talk.  She is quite certain she needs the both of us for the evening.”
“Yes, I just received the orders myself,” Skalos agreed, suddenly appearing beside Discord, causing the both of them to jump in surprise.  “Everything is in order for you to leave, when you are ready, though considering Discord’s arrival, I doubt we’ll need to reserve a waypoint for you.” 
“Are you sure you won’t need me,” Ray questioned, looking around at all the work that still needed to be done.  After everything that had happened four nights ago, the encounter with the Spectre, he had thoroughly avoided bringing up anything that wasn’t army-related to his friend.  All in all, it had meant nigh on avoiding the stallion himself, and while it hadn’t been altogether an obvious effort, he knew for sure that Skalos had noticed it.
“Trust me, lordling, that in spite of your size, your efforts will not be needed.  Besides, with all of this rain, the Sunports are down until tomorrow at least.  We can manage until then,” the Fallen general reassured him.  Glancing up at Discord, whose human hand had begun reaching down towards him, he ordered, “Put that away, draconequus.”
Retracting his hand, Discord frowned, the hand returning to its claw form as he muttered audibly, “Buzzkill.”  With a sigh, Discord instructed, “Come along then, human.” 
Checkered black, dirty orange, and deep violet obscured his surroundings, the world leaving momentarily as he was left weightless in the void of chaos.  As suddenly as it had overcome him, the realm dissipated, revealing an awfully familiar room at the center of the Canterlot Castle.  Shaking his head to prevent the nausea of teleportation overwhelm him, Ray swallowed hard.  Solidifying his feet and ensuring he wouldn’t fall over from the dizzy disorientation of travel, he glanced around for Twilight.
Surely enough, the mare was standing right in front of the pair, albeit facing out the large window of the ballroom, and not at them.  Ray cleared his throat to catch her attention, the alicorn letting out a soft squeak of surprise at their sudden arrival, whipping around quickly with a weak smile.
“Ray, there you are,” she hastily piped, causing Ray to raise his eyebrow at her urgency.  “I’m so glad to see that you and the Fallen have returned safely and successfully.  I’m sure I’ll have the full report on your journey by the end of the week.”
“Indeed you will,” Ray replied officiously.  “Though, I doubt a report is what you called me here for.”
“Us,” Discord corrected.  “I’m still here too.”
“You’re just here to provide more of those magic dummies for me to prove myself on, though, aren’t you,” Ray countered.  Discord shrugged his shoulders, genuinely in the dark on what his purpose was.  Confused by the draconequus’ response, he turned to Twilight and asked, “Isn’t he?”
The alicorn bit her lip, looking to the tile floor, away from the both of them, her brow furrowed in a way Ray had never seen.  Concern, fear, determination… something was on her mind, something that required him and the embodiment of chaos to solve or deter.  Silently, the mare gestured for the two to follow her, striding quickly between them and towards the exit of the palace.  The two dutifully did as ordered, giving each other the same glance of concern while she couldn’t see them.  Something was wrong today, something that shouldn’t have been, and the more the silence deepened, the more Ray wondered.
Had Twilight somehow sensed the Spectre’s presence near Ray?  Had she discovered the Spectre was somehow haunting him?  Was there a new development with the ponies?  Had minotaurs been spotted?  The more questions he asked himself, the more Ray steeled himself for the worst, his hand resting on his new dagger securely.  He hardly noticed them leaving the castle entirely, walking around towards the dueling grounds that not too long ago he had faced Redar on.  His eyes glanced around warily, searching for any unnatural movement, the start of the ambush or the charge of an attack. 
As soon as he began searching, he found it, a stream of Discord’s purple mist springing from the ground and forming the familiar figures he had defeated dozens of times.  In an instant, his dagger flew from his hand and lodged itself into the face of the figure, ending it before the fight had even begun.  Reaching behind his back, he withdrew his kharamh from its holding, whirling the weapon with deadly efficiency to cut through another’s knee with the hook.  He barely took note of the fog that enclosed his battle and he rammed the spear through its face.  
Withdrawing, he ducked beneath the swing of a figure that had formed behind him, not even glancing back to jab the sharpened butt of the kharamh into its abdomen.  Having cleared his behind, he backed into it, raising his weapon to block a sharp strike by a sword wielding figure.  The blade remained pressed against the weapon’s body, and realizing that another two figures were approaching quickly, he let the rush of battle overtake him, letting his brain revert to his primal instincts.
Loosening his hold on his left side, he let the figure push the kharamh into a slant, catching it off-guard and allowing him to finish it with a hook through the head.  Dropping low to the ground, he dodged the figure to his left’s attack while dragging the defeated figure’s body with the hook to trip up the other figure that was now behind him.  The move worked, buying him enough time to stand back off and lunge forward, plunging the tip through the figure’s chet.  Turning swiftly, he ripped the spearhead through the figure’s body, allowing him to continue the spin until his tip burst the other figure’s head open with the strike.
Another group of figures had formed, eight in total in a loose formation that cornered him against the fog wall behind him.  Gritting his teeth, he waited for one of the figures to take a step forward before making his move.  As soon as the center figure began to run at him, he dashed sideways, catching one of the figures out of stance, a singular stab through the chest ending it.  He ripped through the figure’s body in order to be able to block the myriad of strikes that followed the attack, four figures instantly upon him in retribution for his aggression.  
He blocked two strikes at once by whirling his kharamh, knocking a blade out of one of the attacker’s grips and providing the opening he needed.  Spinning himself to the ground to dodge a large axe, he severed the disarmed figure’s ankles,  raising himself up and jabbing upwards with his weapon to impale the figure.  The swift action allotted him a small window to continue his offensive and, with the figure still impaled on his kharamh, he lunged into the center figure.  The attack charged right through the weak formation and caught the figure’s shoulder with the strike.  Changing his grip, he jerked the figure sideways and himself backwards, allowing him to face the figures, who were now cornered against the smoke wall.
Smiling at the advantage he had regained, he pulled the spear down, cutting through it until the spearhead shattered its heart.  Having killed the central figure, he ripped his kharamh out of the bodies, discarding them and resetting his stance defensively as the remaining five moved in for the kill.  Within seconds he was once again surrounded, although this time with the luxury of not having a wall to his back.  The solution came quickly as well, as the five charged in simultaneously, wasting their advantage and leading to yet another impaled figure as he dodged a thrust and returned one of his own.  Knowing the one behind him was most certainly the most dangerous, he turned with his kharamh and used the lifeless figure as a shield against swift sword strike.  
Suddenly, one of the figures landed a harsh blow to his weapon, knocking it from his grasp with the unexpected force of the axe blow.  Grunting, he ducked under a follow-up attack, rolling beneath the strike and standing up beside the attacker.  While he wanted to deal with the foe instantly, he was forced to sidestep another swift sword slash from his side and duck under another spear jab.  Narrowing his eyes, he caught a glimpse of his liberation.
Using his much more agile body, he grabbed the figure in front of him’s arm and threw it aside, offsetting another attack and making space for him to leap towards one of his first felled foes.  Not having the space to remain standing as the figures persisted, he went to the ground and reached out, wrenching the knife from the defeated figure’s face.  Rotating on his knee, he used his foot to launch himself off the ground and at the poised axe-wielding figure.  He raised one hand and grasped the figure’s cold wrist, preventing it from bringing the large weapon down on him while the other jammed his dagger into its stomach.  With a grunt, he ripped it across its entire midsection, disemboweling the foe and tossing it aside with his other hand still grasping its wrist.  
Now armed, he stared down the last three figures, who seemed to have realized the odds were now no longer in their favor.  Using their hesitation to his advantage, he attacked one of the swifter sword-wielder, catching it by surprise.  His aggressive moment caused the other two to come to their comrade's defensive, although it was too late as Ray bypassed its sword, severing its hands before slitting its throat with a flick of his wrist.  One of the figures maintained its attack, using its smaller sword to strike quickly at Ray.  Given the size of the weapon he was wielding, he decided it was wisest to avoid challenging the blade, sliding backwards and out of range.
Impatient, the figure lunged forward, inadvertently blocking off its fellow soldier and causing it to come in range of Ray’s dagger.  The human stepped into the attack, letting the strike slide right past him as he instead rammed the knife into the collar of the figure.  It paused, dropping its sword to reach for its punctured throat.  Watching the movement, Ray retracted the knife and instead stabbed it through the figure’s head, ending it and leaving him with one remaining enemy.  Ray eyed the remaining figure, casually twirling the knife between his fingers as he waited for the inevitable.
As predicted, the figure attempted one last desperate spear charge, but having no allies to cover its attempt, Ray easily sidestepped it.  Letting go of his knife with one hand as he stepped aside, he grabbed it with the other and twisted it into the left side of the figure's chest.  Using one hand to stabilize the figure as it died, he brought it to the ground before wrenching his blade from it, shoving it to the ground.  He let out a sigh of relief walking over to one of the older corpses to retrieve his kharamh as he sheathed his dagger.
“Was that all,” he softly asked, eyeing the surrounding mist for any signs of a break.  However, there was no response, only the slow flowing of the mist wall.  Furrowing his brow, Ray narrowed his eyes as he scanned the small space he’d been given for the fight.  Slowly, several figures emerged from the opposite mist wall, followed by even more figures, until a dozen of them had culminated.  Biting his lip as he sized up his enemies, all armed with swords and spears, he muttered, “So that’s how it’s gonna be then, eh?”
Without missing a beat, he launched himself from off the ground and into the fray, his kharamh knocking one of the figures weapons asunder and splitting its face.  He jerked his hook to the left, cutting another figure’s arm off at the elbow while simultaneously slitting the figure now behind him’s throat as he whirled through the enemy.  The group scattered at the whirlwind of death that Ray had become as he lunged forward and impaled the incapacitated foe.  Noticing the positioning of the figure behind his current victim, he continued the thrust, his hand entering the figure’s cold stomach as he rammed his spearhead through the other figure’s chest.  
Not requiring the slightest glance back to know what was transpiring, he pulled his kharamh all the way backwards, letting the bodies drop as he impaled yet another foe that had attempted to take advantage of his back being turned.  He didn’t have time to confirm where he had stabbed the foe, however, as he was forced to tear the butt out of the figure and whip it around to defend from a downward strike from a sword-wielding figure.  Wincing as the impact bounced through his nearby hand, he noted that the movement had caught another figure in the stomach, causing it to buckle.  Still blocking the persistent figure’s downward push, he shifted his grasp and let the power of the figure’s attack fuel his strike, causing the butt of the kharamh to go through the faltering figure’s head. 
Realizing he was swiftly being surrounded by the remnants of the group, he shoved away from the figure, and turned, swiping at one of the figure’s legs, the body of his kharamh solidly breaking its leg.  Ducking under a strike from behind, he glanced back and quickly spun back around to catch the aggressive figure with his hook, the blade sliding between the ribs and into its vitals.  Growling, he ripped it out as he ducked under yet another strike, spinning about and standing up, viciously ramming the hook into the offending figure’s stomach.  It curled into the hit, but Ray didn’t have time for a proper finishing strike, instead simply removing the hook and whirling the body of his kharamh to knock it aside.
Noting that the figure he had temporarily neutralized was attempting to stand, he casually thrust his spear sideways, impaling it through its back.  The figure spasmed as it died, the remaining three figures formed a triangle with two in front and one behind, all keeping their spears pointed at him in a small, but nearly impenetrable formation.  Frowning at the three, knowing he would have to wait for them to strike, he retracted the kharamh from the figure, allowing it to slouch to the ground.  His eyes darted between the three left standing as he shook out his sore hand, knowing there was some sort of fracture in one of the metacarpal bones.  
Finally, the figures began to move, all three maintaining their formation as they began to close in one Ray.  Realizing it wasn’t safe for him to attempt to close the gap and that there was no way to prevent them from closing it themselves, he used the sore hand to suddenly whip out his knife, throwing it haphazardly into the midst.  The dagger missed hitting any of them, but the two figures flinched away from each other enough for him to use the opening.  With a yell, he thrust his kharamh forward and, using the hook, spun the middle figure’s spear out of its hands.  
Panicking, the two armed figures both attempted to spear Ray.  In a split moment, he dodged to the right, his shirt tearing from the spear of the enemy to his left.  Ignoring the close call, he dove forward, the kharamh held horizontally and catching the figure by the neck, sending both to the ground as intended.  Pushing off the body of the kharamh, he crushed the figure's throat as he stood, spinning and using the hook to behead the disarmed figure as it desperately reached for its fallen weapon.  The final figure attempted to back up desperately, but Ray knew well the smell of victory, pursuing the retreating foe and ramming his spearhead through the body of its smoke weapon and into its core.  With a grunt of exertion, he ripped the three pointed head out of it, panting as he watched the torn body stumble to the ground, dead.
As soon as the enemy was felled, however, he heard the rustling of footsteps in the short grass, anger burning in him as he turned to find another dozen enemies emerging from the mist wall to his right as seven more emerged from the left.  Baring his teeth at the new arrivals, he flexed his grip on the kharamh, his fingertips sore from the amount of rubbing they had done on the leather grips and metal body.  Sweat poured from his face, his hair a wet mess and his clothes torn from the various strikes and wear from moving along the ground.  Still, he was in a good enough position to continue, not a scratch on him and more than enough energy to finish off these new arrivals.  
“Time to get a bit crazy,” he muttered to himself between pants of breath.  The figures seemed to have learned patience from their fallen comrades, the dozens of bodies already littering the ground a grim testament to Ray’s advantage over each individual one.  Slowly, the two forces began to merge together, wanting to become one much larger force that would overwhelm him.  Knowing that if all nineteen were able to form one massive unit he would be torn apart, he moved quickly to the left, where only the seven currently were.  
The movement caused the group to turn their attention from combining to defending their current unit, causing confusion among the area where the two groups had begun to converge.  The confusion gave him ample opportunity to face off against only three figures as the next nearest were stuck in an attempt to form a cohesive formation.  With a grunt, he overwhelmed one of them with a few quick stabs, landing one in the shoulder and another in the gut, the figure stumbling helplessly to the ground. The other two both rushed him at the same time, perhaps expecting backup, but their lack of support allowed Ray to duck under one strike and ram his spearhead through one and the butt of the kharamh through the other, the two standing parallel to each other.
Finally, the other group had formed their unit, but it had cost them enough that Ray was able to back up before any group movement could be made.  He retook his defensive stance, glaring down the largest group of figures he’d ever faced, attempting to identify any weakened individuals.  The unit refused to give him a chance, however, moving slowly but sternly towards him, a gentle arc forming to slowly squeeze him into a corner.  Frowning, he could tell that it would only take a matter of a few seconds to be completely enclosed, so he acted rashly.  
His eyes had picked up the slightest glint of metal on the ground in the direct center of the unit, the knife he had practically thrown away earlier.  Licking his lips, he suddenly vaulted forward, knocking aside one spear and sliding against the body of another to prevent it from turning on him.  Whirling his kharamh swiftly, the hook and sharpened butt of the weapon caught both advancing figures with its deadly spin, beheading one and slitting the throat of another.  Having fulfilled the sudden attack, he ducked to the ground, launching his spearhead into another figure through its chest as he rolled across the ground.
When he came up, it was with his dagger in hand, much to the surprise of the fourth figure defending the center of their formation.  Ray stabbed the blade through its leg, reaching up and grabbing its sword arm to pull it down to his level.  He pulled the dagger from the leg and used it to cut through the figure’s throat as he stood, letting go of the figure as it died to grab his kharamh.  Holding the weapon one hand and the dagger in the other, he stared at the now split-in-two unit, six on either side of him.  With a slight shake of his head, he licked his dry lips and went to work on the group to his right.
Straightaway one of the figures was caught off-guard by Ray dual wielding weapons, the hook making way for his dagger to slit its throat.  The second figure was much more prepared, however, he was able to block a counter strike that nearly caught one of his fingers.  Hissing at the close call he stepped back and blocked a strike from an approaching figure to his left, the pressure from both sides closing in on him.  He was forced to drop his knife so he had both hands to defend a top-heavy strike from a figure that had moved in front of him, even as another attempted to circle around to the limited space between him and the mist wall.  Yelling in fury, he whipped his spear around wildly, attempting to make any sort of breathing space for him.  
The unpredictable swinging managed to slice through one of the figures, sending it to the ground without its head, but the space made by the kill was immediately filled. Defending from yet another pounding strike, he kicked the offending figure’s knee in, using the ample time to bring the hook down on the back of its head.  The attack unintentionally opened up an opportunity for another figure to his left to attack, forcing him to back up without his weapon, the kharamh stuck through the figure and into the ground.  Roaring, he grasped the spear before it could be retracted, pulling the figure into a shoulder ram.  
The figure fell backwards without its spear, but once again Ray was penned in by the other figures, unable to find a finishing blow with nine figures all around him.  He spun the misty spear as if it were a kharamh, causing him to lose grip on it and send it flying, though the chaos of it all was enough to allow him to retrieve his weapon from the propped up corpse.  With a feral growl, he fended off another flurry of harsh strikes, until suddenly he saw his only opportunity to escape the savage barrage.  Watching the stance of one of the figures, he saw it widen slightly, just enough that when he fended off a strike from it, he was able to immediately sweep the kharamh down and sever the leg at the knee.  
He pushed past the falling figure, grabbing it by the neck and pulling it with him as a meat shield, protecting him from its nearby comrades.  Realizing the figures didn’t acknowledge the threat, he ran it through from behind, shoving the body at one of the figures now to his left.  The fallen figure had recovered its weapon and seemed to want vengeance, its face ever empty as it recklessly charged him.  The bold attack blocked one of its allies from finishing an attack, providing Ray ample time to dodge the opposite direction of the swift engagement.  
Shouting angrily, sweat flying off his skin, he swung his kharamh wide with a single hand, catching the attacking figure’s arm with his hook.  Pulling the hook towards him, he pulled the figure into his knee, withdrawing the weapon enough to finish it with a quick slash across its throat.  Seven figures remained alive, all thrusting their spears at Ray off-timed and uncoordinated, allowing him to back up into the open center of the mist dome, eyes darting between the figures.  Biting his lip, he tried to weigh his options, but the seven were able to quickly form a spear wall, applying pressure and attempting to force him back into another corner.  
Rolling his sore shoulders, he held up his kharamh parallel to his face, widening his stance defensively as the spear wall approached.  Without a second thought, he lunged forward, probing the integrity of the formation.  His spearhead bypassed several of theirs, but it was still a couple feet from the nearest figure, forcing him to leap back to avoid a counter probe.  Licking his lips again, he glanced around, but there was no respite or clever move to make now.  He was going to be forced to use brute force to escape the interlocked position.  Sighing, he lowered his kharamh, preparing himself for an offensive.
The motion caused several of the figures to thrust their spears out towards him, warding off any possible attack momentarily.  However, as one of the figures attempted to retract its weapon, Ray struck out, lodging the hook in the base of the spear and tearing it out of the figure’s hands.  Having been disarmed, the figure stepped back and allowed another figure to move in to take its place, but before it could, Ray was there, blocking a horizontal thrust by its ally to ram his spearhead through its midsection.  Having broken into the impenetrable formation, he turned his spear to the disarmed figure, cutting through its raised hands to sever its head.  
The rest of the group scattered as they took losses, circling around Ray to try and surround him completely, but his blood was boiling and the advantage was not solidly his, momentum snowballing him into battle.  Roaring hellishly, he charged one of the encircling figures, holding his kharamh along its body, sending the both of them to the ground.  Pinning the figure beneath him, he didn't even bother disarming it, the spear it wielded obsolete in close quarters combat.  He pushed the left side of his weapon, slamming the spear into its collar bone, the blade at such an angle that it pierced downward and into its heart.  
He whirled around to his left, still on the figure as he removed the hook and jabbed the spearhead forward to where another figure had been approaching from.  The surprised figure had no time to react to the sudden movement, instead simply being stabbed through its right midsection.  Standing up, Ray continued to rip the kharamh across the figure's midsection, the serrated hook allowing him to halve the figure.  He pulled the weapon back firmly into a two-hand grasp, charging at the others, all of which unable to form a defensible rank. 
Straining to continue to whip the heavy kharamh around as such, Ray forced one of the figures away from its comrade with several quick strikes, knocking the spear from its hands.  With a growl, he brought the hook down on the figure as if it was an axe, the hook cutting through from the shoulder down to its chest.  The figure collapsed beneath the brutal strike as Ray turned from the spliced body, knowingly blocking away the desperate stab of one of the remaining figures.  The figure attempted to take a swift step back to disengage, but Ray was more tenacious than it could have predicted.  In an instant, he leapt forward, sweeping his kharamh across the ground, severing its feet by the ankle.  
The figure fell backwards onto the ground, its weapon falling out of its hand.  Turning his attention briefly to its last companion, he faked a jab at it, giving him enough time to step backwards over the fallen figure and ram the butt of the spear through its face.  A small smile came across his face as he stared at the final standing figure, knowing exactly how to end this confrontation.  Letting go of his kharamh, he flexed his fingers, and stepped away from the body, his weapon sticking out of its face like some sort of forbidden ocrea.  The final figure underestimated him without his weapon, seeing it as an obvious opportunity to fell him while he was disarmed.  As expected, the figure lunged forward, leading with its spear, but a simple sidestep allowed Ray to grab the weapon's body, using it as leverage to pull the figure towards him.
The figure was caught by surprise by the pull, stumbling forward and giving Ray the chance to reach forward and grasp the figure by the neck with both hands.  Knowing he couldn’t actually choke the creature to death, he lifted it up instead, his muscles straining as he picked up the heavy figure.  With a triumphant smile, he circled around the body on the ground as the figure desperately clawed at his hands, kicking to try and break free from the deathly grip.  Ray held tightly though, and as soon as he was in position, he threw the figure forward, releasing his grasp and letting the figure fall from his hands.  The plunge was deathly, however, as it landed on his kharamh, the spearhead piercing through its back and sticking out of its chest as it slid down the body until it rested on its dead comrade's face, perfectly impaled.
With a wary glance around for any signs of a fourth wave, Ray raised his hands and grunted, tired beyond using words, awaiting another challenge.  Instead, the mist slowly began to dissipate, revealing the sunset on the distant horizon, beyond the castle and mountain.  Raising his hand, he wiped away the sweat on his brow, feeling more replace it as soon as his hand left.  He reached forward, removing his kharamh from the two figures as they too faded out of reality, the dying sunlight warming him ever so slightly as he turned towards where he expected Twilight and Discord to be.
Confused, he couldn’t find them, and looking around at his surroundings, he didn’t find any sign of them.  Frowning, he narrowed his eyes, half expecting this to be another visit from the Spectre, but thankfully he didn’t feel any of the pain that had preceded its visit.  Rubbing his chin, he looked around again, genuinely unsure of what he was supposed to do now.  
Before he could become too concerned, however, Twilight suddenly teleported in a flash of her purple magic.  The alicorn stared at him momentarily, a look of shock and disgust barely hidden behind her worry.  Still, the expressions were present, causing Ray’s brow to furrow.
“What is it,” he asked, concerned.  He glanced around once more for any signs of what could be so disconcerting, but there was nothing, leaving him drawing blanks.  
“Did you even notice it,” Twilight questioned, causing him to look back at her.
“Notice what,” Ray inquired, tilting his head in confusion at the way the mare had asked the question.  “Did I miss something?”
“The blood,” Twilight cried as if it were obvious, looking distressed.  “The blood and guts of those things you were cutting through.  Almost an hour of fighting those things, killing forty-five of them, and you didn’t see a droplet of blood or a glimpse of tendon?”
“Well, I didn’t mind them,” Ray replied evenly, still vexed by the alicorn’s strange attitude.  “There’s blood and guts, broken bones and shattered bodies, the most brutal and terrible of sights in war.  What of it?”
“What of it,” Twilight repeated incredulously, smacking a hoof against her forehead as she stared hollowly at him.  “Ray, those were fake, made up by Discord, but he made sure that there were… innards.  Things inside the things.  We wanted to see your reaction to true brutality but… you didn’t react…”
“Why would I?  I’m supposed to be fighting like this in only a few short weeks.  I’m not going to let minute details like that get to me, not in the heat of battle or afterwards.  It’s part of killing, Twilight.  Destroying the body and releasing the soul, sometimes in ways that disfigure and distort.”  Ray paused, stepping toward her.  “I don’t see why it’s such a big deal.”
“Ray, it is a big deal,” Twilight responded, her voice suddenly hard.  Her jaw set as she told him, “I wasn’t able to continue watching after the first few kills, but Discord could and did.  That is, until he saw what you did to finish off the second wave.  He couldn’t even bear to describe how you did it, he just sent in the next wave and waited for it to end.  He left as soon as you finished the last one.  I’m not quite sure what you're doing in there, while you’re fighting, but it isn’t right, even for war.  It’s inhumane.”
“Then it’s a good thing I’m not on Earth,” Ray replied coldly, crossing his arms over his chest.  “You brought me here because you needed a human to fight and kill for you, to do the things you couldn’t.”
“That doesn’t mean doing everything that you can do,” Twilight countered.  “You can’t forget that you still have more than one part to this battle.  You and the Fallen must fight the minotaurs and keep the peace.”
“By exterminating the minotaurs we destroy any possibility of repercussions or counter attacks out of vengeance,” Ray swiftly stated.  “There is no need to keep the peace if our quarry is with corpses.”
“I never said anything about exterminating the-”
“Stop beating around the bush, Twilight,” he demanded. Practically slamming his kharamh into his back as he returned it to its carrier.  “What are you getting at?”
Twilight paused, collecting her thoughts as her tendency was, slowly shaking her head.  Finally, she waved a hoof for him to follow her, the order less strict and more of a request.  Frowning at the mare, he reluctantly began to follow her around one side of the castle, to where the gardens were.  She led him down a small path between trees and bushes, to a small cement bench that overlooked the lower echelons of the garden.  With a deep sigh, she sat herself on the bench, patting the spot beside her to invite Ray to join her.  Glancing at the mare out of the corner of his eye, he followed suit, resting his tired legs.
“I brought you here because of everything I had seen in my short search, there wasn’t anything quite like humanity,” Twilight suddenly explained.  “When I discovered your species, I was equally disgusted and astounded by you.  Humans are such a diverse, indecisive, and indescribable species that you can never quite identify correctly, because no matter how you attempt to generalize them, they have more of them to prove that wrong.  I knew humans would be the best option for saving us, in spite of their flaws, because I know my world as well, and how healing it is for the mind.  I overestimated that ability severely, and that was my mistake, but I also overestimated how much pressure Skalos would put on you to train you.”
“Is that why he isn’t here,” Ray questioned.  “Because you no longer agree with his teaching methods?”
“What he has taught you is undoubtedly valuable, given the self confidence it has given you and the raw battle prowess you’ve shown, but it’s flawed,” Twilight corrected.  “His views of this world are centuries old and misguided, the concept of life long gone from him.  He’s learning, though.  Zecora has slowly been reminding him of what it means to be a living, loving creature, and her help is probably why he didn’t turn you into a heartless killer like he once thought to.  But regardless of what he’s learned, he is a stubborn stallion and maintains that you should have no other concern than the war.”
“I shouldn’t right now,” Ray responded.  “We fight this war and live in the moment of it, every painful second, so that we can look to the future.”
“But the way you’re living right now eliminates the bright future for you,” Twilight rebutted with a pointed hoof.  “You keep searching for the most brutal way to end a conflict, the blunt exclamation mark to each fight that ends all other possibilities.  It’s how you kill, and the more I’ve paid attention to it, how you kill is how you live.  You’re no longer the Ray that I brought from Earth, and while there are many advantages to that, you also aren’t the Ray you thought you were becoming.  I needed the dark, brutal side of humanity for this war, but you still need the glistening bright side of it that made you choose to help us to come home.
“You’ve grown these past ten months into something that truly could win us the war, a formidable, intelligent force that leads the Fallen as if they were your family,” Twilight complimented him, resting a hoof on his knee.  “But you’ve forgotten your real family in order to achieve that.  We told you you may have to make sacrifices to become the warrior we all said you needed to be, and you did that too perfectly.  The fault is mine and Skalos’ for transforming you this way, and now that I’ve realized our mistake, I need to fix that.  So, as the Princess of Friendship, I’m ordering you to schedule something into your plans while on that side of the world.”
Twilight’s horn suddenly glowed, her magic teleporting something into the air in front of him.  The new item looked vaguely similar, though he didn’t get a good look at it before Twilight grabbed it from the air. 
 “Seeing as your friends and family back in Ponyville will have no way of communicating with you, I’ve decided that there must be a way for you to see them,” Twilight declared, presenting the item.  “It isn’t perfect and can only be used at night with a full moon, but it works much like the waypoint pendant Skalos built for you.  As long as you hold it towards the moon, you can rotate it between the same three positions as the other one.  However, this can be used multiple times a night, so long as the moon is full, which means you can visit Ponyville overnight instead of having to wait several days.  Every night that the moon is full while you are away, you will visit Ponyville, even if it's only for an hour or two.”
Ray carefully took the proffered amulet, carefully rotating one of the intricate metal discs until it clicked into place, looking like a miniature of a waypoint.  There were tiny metal shapes and hieroglyphs that perfectly matched the waypoint in front of Zecora’s house.  “You said it doesn’t need a waypoint base to help it,” he checked, glancing at Twilight to find the mare nodding.  “Thank you.  I… I’m not sure how I can repay you.”
Twilight scoffed at the statement, raising her eyebrow as she pointed out, “You, the general of the Fallen and savior of Equestria, don’t know how you could repay me for providing you a way to visit your friends and family while you fight our war?”
“I’m fighting it of my own volition, just like you gifted this to of your own volition,” Ray corrected her with a pointed glance.  “Really though, thank you.  I don’t think either of us know how much I’m going to need this.”
Twilight smiled sadly at the comment, resting a hoof on his knee.  “It’s my utmost honor to work with you.”
Ray nodded, licking his dry lips and reaching for his waterskin, his hand brushing against his empty dagger sheath.  His mind scattered briefly, three different thoughts at once shooting through his head as he grabbed the waterskin and took a drink of the warm water.  The first was that his dagger was still out in the grass near the dueling grounds, that there was nothing to worry about, he only had but to retrieve it later.  The second, however, panicked as it remembered the Spectre, the scar fresh in his shoulder tingling slightly at the thought as he took a deep breath to dissipate the worry.  The third reminded him that he still needed to bring the topic up to Twilight, and hopefully being the one to cause him the least worry, he decided he would dismiss the other two.
As he opened his mouth to ask, however, Twilight spoke up herself, still staring distantly into the sunset.  “Do you think you’ll ever find love,” she questioned almost absently.  Ray paused, his thoughts scattered once again by the unexpected question.  “I know you were pining for Fluttershy after you first arrived, but you’ve obviously given up on that.”
“I didn’t give up on her,” Ray denied.  “I just…”
“Let it slide away from you and focus yourself on something else to distract you from any emotions relating to her,” Twilight finished knowingly, giving him a questioning stare.  “You’re still trying to hide your true emotions from everypony else.  I’m not one to judge, though.”
“Well what about you,” Ray countered, shifting so he was facing the mare.  “You’re an adult now, why haven’t you hit the scene?  Royalty hit you that hard in your social life?”
“Yeah, the tabloids can be brutal, but that isn’t why,” Twilight agreed.  “No, it’s, uh, why I can’t be one to judge, ‘cause I did the same exact thing that you're doing.  Focusing on something else rather than my special somepony, and then suddenly they're gone and married off and I’m alone in my big fancy castle.”
“Oof, yeah, that’s rough,” he replied with a slight wince.  “My bad for bringing it up.”
“No, not really.  I poked the beehive and got a sting from it,” Twilight reprised.  “Besides, I’m not bitter about it or anything.  Just somepony I lost out on.  I have a long, long time to find a special somepony though, so I’m not too worried about it, and with everything going on right now, I doubt I have time for romance either.”
“Guess we’re in the same boat then,” Ray absently agreed, his mind drifting back to the Spectre’s words.
“Your likeness is that of the grime of mortality… but I can change that. All you need to do is let me in…”
What the hell did that even mean?  He couldn’t begin to know as he failed to hear Twilight’s voice, only hearing the deep rumbling of the Spectre. 
“Comprehension was never yours to grasp.”
Ray grit his teeth at the ceaseless voice in his head, until suddenly he felt the cold chitin on Twilight’s hoof on his bare shoulder.  Looking up from his hands, only then realizing he had pressed his face into them, he failed to hear her words even as he stared at her concerned face.  He knew what she was asking though, the situation evidently out of his control and his brain splintering at the onslaught of memories from only a few days ago.  Breathing in deeply, he pushed himself to focus, opening his eyes wide and staring intensely at Twilight.
The voices suddenly silenced, a single moment of clarity as he opened his mouth and heard himself ask, “Have you ever heard of the Spectre?”
> Aspects Unseen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight flipped quickly through the pages of the old books of the castle’s library, frantically searching for the reference she needed.  Dust flew off the ancient paper as she fanned past page after page, her frown deepening with each meaningless one.  Surely it had to be around here somewhere, right?  Of all the places and books she could think of, the Spectre would be recorded in Starswirl’s Guide to the Cosmos of Equestria.  Still, there wasn’t a single mention of it in the countless S-named beasts, demons, and anomalies recorded by her idol.  Groaning in frustration as she finally flipped to the Sph- section, she slammed the book shut and slid it carefully onto its shelf.
“Nothing,” Ray questioned sympathetically from behind.  
“Nothing,” she answered, shaking her head as she turned to him.  He looked as if he had somehow expected that, almost like there was more to it than he was letting in on.  Of course there was.  Whatever he was attempting to identify was something he was so scared of, he hadn’t given her straight answers, in spite of his oath for only truths.  Licking her lips, she finally dared to inquire, “What is it you’re expecting to find?”
Ray paused at that, his eyes darting away and across the room, scanning for any potential company.  Finding none, he bent over, gesturing for Twilight to move in closer, so close that she could feel his soft breath rustling her fur.  The human licked his lips, eyes darting around suspiciously one last time before asking hushly, “Do you Equestrians have gods?”
Twilight’s brow furrowed in blatant confusion, both unsuspecting of the question and perplexed by why he would ask something so outlandish.  Rubbing a hoof against the side of her head, she attempted to recall anything from the books, but there was absolutely nothing about either gods or the Spectre.  The only thing she could think of was…
She couldn’t tell him that, though.  It didn’t even pertain to him!  He was a human, a foreigner from another world, completely and utterly alien to this world.  There was no way in the wide world of Equestria that it could be them, already searching him out for their design.  The Spectre didn’t sound like them though, the countless folds and its destructive, imposing demeanor the complete antonym of their essence.  
“Twilight, what're you thinking,” Ray questioned harshly, obviously knowing something about her thoughts had to do with him.  “It’s a yes or no question.  Are there or are there not gods in Equestria?”
Swallowing the lump in her throat, she remembered her oath.  Only truths.  With a slow shake of her head, she replied even quieter than he had asked, “There are no gods in this world… but alicorns aren’t exactly the only powerful creatures in Equestria.  In fact, one could say that alicorns only exist because of these other… aspects.”
Ray’s brow furrowed as leaned in, softly questioning, “Aspects?  You mean like hints?”
Twilight bit her lip.  She had probably said too much already, but there was nothing to prevent her from speaking more.  At this point, she had to tell Ray the truth, because if he had experienced an encounter with an aspect before he had been transmuted, it could prove deadly for him and disastrous for whomever the aspect wouldn’t care for.  Without a manifestation to stem its interactions with Equestria, the entire universe could collapse under the weight of its unfiltered powers.
“Ray, what I’m about to tell you, I only learned about myself a few years ago, just a little after I became an alicorn.  I never thought it too important for Equestrians, let alone you, since it hardly even involves us mortals.”
“The Spectre used that word too,” Ray pointed out darkly.  “Mortals.  So there are gods?”
“Gods is too simple a term for what occurs throughout all reaches of existence,” Twilight corrected, not daring to glance at Ray.  No matter his expression, she knew there was no way to prepare him on such notice for what she had to tell him.  “In this universe, this timeline, there was nothing at the beginning.  Like all things, it started with the first creation, and continued with the first destruction, gradually building until the first Light and first Dark.  Light and Dark were the first aspects in the Equestrian universe, but many more followed.  Life and Death.  Friendship, Love, Hate, Fear.  These all attempted to become the sole Aspect of the universe, the Aspect in charge of it all.  Thousands of years ago, before Equestria’s first ponies were even born, they fought for the domain of the fresh universe.  The end result was a shattered world roamed by smidgens of these Aspects left behind, the Timberwolves and Windigos, the sun and the moon.  Magic, namely.  When ponies, intelligent life- if you will- came into existence, the Aspects decided to allow smaller life to grow and die out on this planet before they continued their campaign for control.
“That was, however, until Celestia and Luna were born, and the Aspects realized they could at least interact with us through lesser means.  They granted Celestia and Luna their alicorn forms to ascend them to higher magic and be able to survive within their limited presence.  Most of what we know about them are from those early days, before the fight with Discord and Sombra.  The two sisters believe that something about the mortal conflict warded off the presence of Light and Dark, which they had come to know as friendly.  Most Aspects are, at least to us mortals, because they have no need to fear us.  To them, we are…”
“Grime,” Ray finished unexpectedly, nodding in understanding to himself.  “It makes sense now.”
Twilight whipped around to him in confusion.  “No, I was going to say ‘pets’.  Why in the hay would you think that?”
Ray glanced up to her now, his eyes darkening as he explained, “The Spectre said something about me being among the ‘grime of mortality’.  It was offering to make me ascended.”  Ray paused as his eyes widened, suddenly standing and grabbing his head frantically.  “It told me to let it in.  Holy hell, it was trying to transmute me right there.”
“What, no, that’s impossible,” Twilight claimed, standing with the human as he began to pace.  “Raymond, in order to become an alicorn, or whatever it may be in your case, you have to go through something that proves your worth.  When I became the Princess of Friendship, Friendship itself told me that of all of the trials I had and would face, the one I had just conquered proved myself as a worthy avatar of its glory.”
“That sounds like some real godly talk right there,” Ray countered.  “I don’t think this one cares too much about etiquette.”
“Once again, they aren’t gods,” Twilight clarified.  “They carry out only what they are, such as with Friendship only able to do anything of the sort.  It did not fight with any of the other Aspects, and is really the one that is holding all of them to their agreement to let us live out our lives here.”
“I’m going to be real with you on two points here, Twilight,” Ray said impatiently, pressing his hands together as he stopped pacing in front of her.  “One, the image of a friend god holding everyone to their word is kinda funny.”
“Aspect, not a god,” Twilight sighed.
“Two, the Spectre doesn’t stand by any rules,” Ray continued.  He reached up to his tunic and pulled down the neck to reveal his right shoulder and a surprising star-shaped mark on it.  
Gasping, Twilight questioned loudly, “Is that a scar?  Did the Spectre give it to you?”
“Yes, and, somehow, yes,” Ray answered slowly, crouching back down so they were eye level.  “I was standing on the bowsprit of Garish’s ship four nights ago, when I suddenly had a headache come over me.  I closed my eyes and attempted to force it out, thinking it was just because of the usual stress or dehydration, but when I opened them again, I wasn’t in Equestria.  It was a dark place, no sun, no light, and everything seemed to be made of solid blue smoke.  It was completely surreal in the most evil way.  There was this voice, then, the Spectre, and suddenly it was the world.  I’m not sure if the form it took mattered, seeing as in general it didn’t seem to keep its image completely intact.  It was just… It felt like it was inside my head, which is impossible, because I know everything that occurred went down in my head.  Adant said she saw me standing there, unresponsive.”
“What happened there, in that other world,” Twilight softly asked, trying to keep him focused.  She had never heard of anything like this, not even from the Pillars or the Princesses.  For all she knew, this was the first time in recorded history that somepony had interacted with a mindscape demon.
“Well, it attempted to allure me by presenting its power, or, at least, I think it was.  It kept mocking me for worrying about ‘mortal things’.  I think it was attempting to make me forget about the war.  Seeing as I didn’t know what was going on, I acted tough, tried to get under its skin to see if it would reveal anything.  It worked, but it also saw right through me.”  Tapping his scar, he muttered, “It gave me this.”
“Anything else,” she pressed, leaning in.  Sweet Celestia, she wished she had a quill for this…
“It told me that it chose me,” Ray recalled.  “It kept referring to me as more than mortal and that I had potential.”  Ray paused for another moment, rubbing his chin as his eyes once again slowly began to widen.  “It called itself ‘power’.”  He looked up into her eyes, his own suddenly set with realization as he inquired, “Is there an Aspect of power?”
Twilight thought for a moment, but she had already listed all of the Aspects she knew of.  With a sigh, she answered, “No, there isn’t.”
Ray muttered a curse, finally plopping down to sit on the floor in front of her, his arms wrapping around his knees as he leaned back slightly.  His breath hissed out between his teeth, slowly rocking on the floor as he whispered, “There isn’t a damn thing about this damn Spectre anywhere.”
“Well, we might not know anything about a Spectre, but maybe it's something we can figure out,” Twilight reminded him.  “A spectre is something unknown that is feared, right?  The shadow of darkness, per se.”
“So it might be the Aspect of Fear,” Ray surmised, sitting up and snapping his fingers.  His enthusiasm was doused quickly as he asked himself, “But what would the Aspect of Fear want with me?”
“Well, were you afraid when the Spectre came to you,” Twilight asked quickly, chasing their first real lead hopefully.  “Were you thinking about making others afraid of you?”
“No, I was actually at peace for the first time in a while, just enjoying the ocean,” Ray reminisced absently.  “I was thinking about fish.”
The two fell into contemplative silence as they continued to theorize possibilities, before Ray softly asked, “Aspect of Pain?  That headache came outta nowhere and hurt pretty badly.”
“If it does exist, I don’t know about it,” Twilight replied honestly.  Tapping a hoof against her chin, she decided to think outside the box.  “Maybe it wasn’t an Aspect.  After all, we ponies may accept you as Equestrian, but because of where you come from, maybe the Aspects can’t even talk to you?  Perhaps they don’t even realize you exist.  It’s a bit of a stretch, but maybe the Spectre is a new mindscape demon?  It would explain how you were the only one affected…”
“But what about the scar and my knife,” Ray questioned with a shrug.
“You’re knife,” Twilight asked with a confused glance to his belt, where a knife was clearly clasped in its sheath.  “What about it?”
“Not this one, but the one I left Equestria with,” Ray elucidated.  “In the other realm, when the Spectre stabbed me, I decided to stab back.  It didn’t do anything to it, but the Spectre seemed to appreciate the gesture for some reason and decided to let me go.  Well, when I came back to the real world, I realized I had left my dagger in its side, and it wasn’t with me.  That and this scar prove that there is something more to it than me going crazy.”
“Hmm, that’s a fair point,” Twilight allowed, sighing in defeat.  “Whatever the Spectre is, this isn’t going to be the last time you see it.  My recommendation would be to have somebody with you at all times, no matter what.”
“Bathing included,” Ray challenged with folded arms.  
Teleporting herself a glass of water, she took a sip considerately, before replying firmly, “Yes.”
“Well, I guess that won’t be too much of a problem,” Ray responded with a shrug, standing up.  “Most’ve ‘em have seen me naked already.”
“I don’t want to know why, but I was actually hoping for something else,” Twilight told him sternly, sipping again.  “Just because we have this-” she gestured to his shoulder- “to deal with, doesn’t nullify what we discussed earlier, about you losing your humanity.  I want you to be reminded that while the world isn’t black and white, there are white spots in it.  Live in Ponyville the next few weeks, with some of the others, even.  Have the CMC over, hay, even invite Fluttershy over.  Celestia knows?  Maybe fall in love again.”
“You’re really trying to get me laid, aren’t you,” Ray questioned with a knowing, brazen smile.
“A) Inappropriate, and B) no,” Twilight declared sharply, in spite of the blush at the connotation.  “I just need you to have something to live for, because at the end of the day, I want you to come back with as many Fallen as you can.”
Ray’s smile fell as he stared at the mare, a different, thoughtful expression coming over him instead of his usual cold wall.  Slowly, he nodded, saying, “That was really sentimental of you, Twi.  Thank you.”  The human slowly began to stand, but seemed to realize he had forgotten something, and crouched back down.  Before she could ask, he had suddenly scooped her into a surprisingly soft hug, his warm, long arms wrapped around her from under her front hooves.  “I’ll stay in Ponyville for a week or two.”
“I could’ve hoped for more, but I’ll take it,” she replied keenly, wrapping her hooves around his neck in kind.  They stayed like that for a few moments before Ray pulled away, a small, sad half-smile on his face.
“If things go south, know that I’m just glad that you knew how to manipulate me so well.  Without that, I don’t know where I’d be.  Sometimes I’m just too damn headstrong for anybody’s good.”
“Well, for as good as my manipulation worked, we’re still having problems with your language,” Twilight teased with a smile.
“Hey, I’m keeping it PG.”
Twilight raised a brow at him, still smiling.  “I’d beg to differ.”
“Regardless, I’ll be needed back at the dock tomorrow, and considering it’s probably actually today with how late it is, I feel it would be easiest to teleport me back there,” Ray referred summarily.  With a sweeping hand, he asked, “Care to do the honors?”
“Like I have a choice,” Twilight responded with feigned fatigue.  “Very well then.  Begone, human!”
Lighting her horn, she focused on him and the location he would be needed, right where she had watched him board those boats eight days ago.  With a slight push of power through her horn, she sent him to the spot, watching the particles of her magic drift to the ground from where he had stood.  The warmth of their banter faded as quickly as the little sparkles, leaving her sitting on the cold stone floor in the cold stale air of the Forbidden Library.  Sighing, she glanced to the book she had reshelved, shaking her head slightly and taking another sip as she questioned, “Are we helping the world, Ray, or only hurting it a bit more?”
> In the Face of Truth...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Ponyville summer sun burnt brightly in the sky, but as with everything else in the town, the warmth was soft and welcoming, a gradual wrapping of heat and not a glaring spotlight.  In spite of the river that ran smoothly past the outskirts of town, the humidity remained low thanks to the relatively open fields and streets of Ponyville.  Little foals ran about happily in the midst of their summer break from school, and many mares and stallions spent time outside instead of indoors thanks to the beautiful weather.  The streets, though slightly crowded by the amount of citizens enjoying the outdoors, remained clear for Ray as he attempted to casually walk through town.
It may have been months since the announcement of Ray’s true purpose, the reason such a strange creature had suddenly appeared.  Though it put down the rumors that he was a tamed demon who had escaped from Tartarus, it only fed those that had supposed he was a secret monster.  While in general, the public was only interested in him for the sake of knowledge of something that seemed relatively distant to them, the residents of Ponyville had lived with him for close to a year now.  Though many just eyed him differently, they still held conversations with him and maintained their friendly attitude.  In spite of that, their mannerisms had changed, a meekness overcoming them whenever he was around, as rare as it had become these last few months.
Now, ponies welcomed him with smiles but kept their distance at the same time, eyeing the gear he now wore, the thick tunic and belt that served as a multipurpose carrier.  Most obviously was the way they flinched whenever he moved too quickly, a step back here or the flick of the tail nervously there.  He had tried to ignore those minute movements, but with the streets so crowded, there was no way to.  Whenever he smiled, they would nervously return the gesture, afraid of offending him in any way.  He almost wished for those days when they had simply been wary of him in the beginning, but clearly those days were long dead.
With a soft sigh, he took a turn down the main street, past the town hall where Emerald Joy stood, silently watching the procession from the steps.  She was the first today to give him a genuine smile, accompanied by an equally warm wave of the hoof.  He returned it with his own simple smile and nod of acknowledgement, both retaining from speaking and drawing attention to themselves.  Not that the attention would actually leave Ray so long as he was in town.  It felt like the entire town had stopped whatever they had been doing to watch Ray go about the menial task of checking up in the drugstore for more sleeping pills.
Finally arriving at the store, he crouched and reached for the door, giving the townsfolk watching him one last halfhearted smile before turning the knob and entering.  The cool air of the store within was somewhat of a relief from the sweltering gaze of the ponies, though as quickly as he entered, he wished he could leave.  The store owner let out an audible gasp and the only other shopper dropped their basket as he closed the door.  So much for the subtle reactions, he mused to himself, making his way to the little section in the back where he knew the medication was kept.  The other two got back to whatever they had been doing before he had entered, the customer swiftly picking up her basket and rushing to the clerk to check out.  
Whatever conversation they held was whispered as he could barely catch the sound of moving lips between the aisles.  Casting aside the thoughts of their staring, he searched the small shelves for the pills, but soon realized that there was nothing there for him.  Frowning, he checked again, but once again came up short.  Letting out a slight huff of disappointment at the lack of having anything to show for his short parade through town, he made his way to the front desk.  The clerk instantly stiffened up as he approached, his eyes darting around as if he hadn’t been staring at the human.  Ray resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he rested his hands on the counter, hoping that by showing them the clerk wouldn’t get nervous about the weapons in his belt and on his back.
“Do you guys have any sleeping medication in stock,” he questioned as casually as he could with the poor shopkeeper sweating like a pig.  “There weren’t any on the shelf when I checked.”
“Let me check to see if we have anything in the back real quick,” the stallion responded all too quickly, spinning around and shoving himself through the door.  Ray sighed as the door slammed behind the stallion, shaking his head at the tentative clerk’s actions.  He glanced out the window, catching sight of a pair of young foals who had been peeking through the shop window.  As soon as they realized they’d been caught, they darted away with yelps that he could barely hear through the glass.  He waited for a minute longer, staring out the window at a pair of teenage-looking ponies sharing a picnic under a tree in front of a two story house.
Suddenly, the door the clerk had vanished behind reopened, the stallion walking in with a much more collected expression than he had left with.  The pony had a bag of something sparkling and blue in his hoof which he set on the countertop in front of Ray’s hands.  “We didn’t have any of the pills left, but we do have a dissolvable sleeping powder that works a bit more effectively instead,” the clerk informed him with a nod.  “You simply put a teaspoon of it in water or tea and mix it around until you can’t see it and take it before going to bed.  Personally, it's the one that I recommend to my customers 'cause it’s a bit cheaper and more effective.  Was gonna replace those old pills anyways.”
“Oh, thanks,” Ray replied with a smile in kind, grateful for the almost sincere conversation, as mundane as it was.  With a sudden realization, he reached down to his belt for his bag of bits, asking, “How much is it?”
“I don’t know yet, actually,” the shopkeeper responded earnestly with a shrug.  “I usually charge three bits, but prices everywhere are dropping, and I can get five pounds for two bits now.  What you have is probably about a fourth of a bit, so if you have any coppers, I’ll take two for it.”
“Um, I’ve lived in Equestria for about ten months now and still have never heard of coppers,” Ray admitted, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.  “Is that like a subdivision of the bit?”
“Oh, of course, that’s my bad,” the shopkeeper replied, ducking under the counter for a brief moment before tossing a few of the coins onto the desk.  “One Equestrian bit is equivalent to eight Seaquestria coppers.  They aren’t widely accepted across town, but here I take anything.  I’ll give you a few dozen in exchange for some bits if you need some.”  
“Sure,” Ray agreed, prompting the stallion to reach under his desk and pull out a bag full of the coins.  “Interesting that I never heard of coppers while I was with the seaponies training…”
Ray trailed off as he noticed the stallion’s discomfort at the direction his sentence had been heading, but he moved along quickly from it, commenting, “Well, with the Storm King’s invasion of their home, the value of their currency plummeted and many use the bit instead.  Still the official currency of Seaquestria, but no longer the most used.”
“Huh,” Ray replied, recalling what the Apples had told them about that particular adventure.  He dismissively placed a handful of bits on the table, the generous amount Twilight had claimed was payment for his time more than enough to live off of.  
“Um, you only needed to give me five bits, six including the division of your sleeping medication,” the stallion pointed out, shoving the extra dozen bits back towards Ray.  
“Consider it a tip for your helpfulness,” Ray replied.  With a slight frown and a sideways glance at the shadows cast by another group of foals staring through the window, he added, “You’re one of the few ponies in town that still treat me like a citizen.”
He as turned to leave, the shopkeeper grumbled, “Ponville’s a strange place that accepts everything and everypony in their own way, but the ponies themselves are a superstitious lot.  Zecora was once an outcast just because she was a zebra, and now everypony can’t think of the town without her.  You’ll find your place here as soon as ponies realize you aren’t…”
“A monster,” Ray finished for him with a look at him over his shoulder.  The clerk nodded, huffing slightly.  The human smiled sadly, reminding the stallion, “It’s because they all know that I’m a monster that they don’t quite accept me, and the reason I need this sleeping powder is the reason I know I’ll never be able to accept myself here.  Don’t blame yourselves.  It’s only human to be afraid of the truth.”
Ray pushed open the door without waiting for the shopkeeper’s response, scattering the gathered foals like they were a flock of birds, all running with little shrieks as he slowly stepped out onto the street.  He looked around at the small spectacle caused by the startled foals, but decided to not mind the stares, treading the path back towards the center of town.  He intended to return home for a moment to either catch up with Otolo or have a lunch break.  Instead, however, he found himself being yanked by the hand away towards another corner of Ponyville.
Yelping in sudden surprise at the abnormal strength and speed he was suddenly being dragged away with.  The town blurred in his eyes, making him ever so slightly dizzy as a familiar bright voice squealed, “Ray, I’m so glad I could catch you on your first day of break!”
Planting his feet in the ground and bringing the dragging to a halt, he looked down with a surprised smile as he exclaimed incredulously, “Pinkie Pie?”
“In the flesh,” the pink mare proclaimed, extending her hooves for a hug.  He stooped down and pulled the mare in with a chuckle.  
“Only you could drag a human three times your size while pregnant,” he complimented with a shake of his head, patting her back and pulling away.
“Uh, correction, I’m not a pregger pony anymore,” Pinkie Pie replied with a raised eyebrow, pointing at her flat belly.
Ray slapped his hands against the sides of his head, eyes wide at the sight of the no-longer pregnant pony, sputtering in surprise.  “Oh my gosh, Pinkie, I’m so sorry I missed it all!  When did you give birth to your kid?”
“Oh, only three days, seven hours, eight minutes, and thirteen seconds ago,” the cheerful mare answered dismissively.  “Besides, you just got back yesterday, and how were we supposed to know that the silly foal would come a whole week early.  All you missed was a slimy little foal.”
“Yeah, I didn’t need that image in my head,” Ray grumbled, rubbing his forehead to try and force the imagery from his head.  “I’m glad you were able to deliver so easily, and my, the recovery has shown.  I mean, a few months ago alone, pulling me across the street would have been impressive alone, but I’m nearly one seventy now, which is crazy for you to pull!”
“Meh, I guess it’s just ‘cause I’m so darn excited to see you again after over a week,” she exclaimed, throwing confetti from out of her ever puffy hair.  “And at the perfect timing too!  I need somepony to help me catch up with all the baking I fell behind on while on maternity leave!”
“Wait, you're off maternity leave,” Ray shouted in surprise.
“Shhhhhhhh,” the pink mare hushed him, jumping up and wrapping her hooves around his mouth.  “It’s supposed to be a secret!  Cheesy will get all suspicious if he hears you talking like that!  I mean, I gotta throw a birthday party for Lil’ Cheese and a ‘You’re a Father Now’ party for Cheesy.  If he knows I’m cooking already, he’ll put a stop to it, and I won’t be able to throw him the bestest party in the world!”
“But, like, jeez Pinkie, you just gave birth,” Ray whispered with a wary glance around at the few staring ponies.  
“Well duh, that’s why I need you,” she pointed out with a poke in his chest.  “I mean, all this jumping around and celebrating has me aching like crazy, and a poor new mother can’t be able to bake twenty pies and a baker’s dozen of a baker’s dozen of cookies!”
Pinkie’s pupils eyes widened as a small pouty face was shoved into Ray’s face, her hooves pressed together as she begged him for help.  Smiling at the slightly absurd expression, he asked, “Are you trying to play my sensitive side?”
“Maybeeeee,” Pinkie hesitantly answered, a sheepish little smile breaking her puppy eyes clearing.  “Is it working?”
“Mmm, not particularly, but heck, I wouldn’t mind spending a few hours with my favorite pink pony,” Ray replied, attempting to mimic her cheerfulness.  For the first time, he looked away from the ponies around them and at the buildings, surprised to find themselves in front of Sugarcube Corner.  “Wow,” he breathed in disbelief.  “How far did you drag me?”
“Only a few hundred pans across town,” Pinkie answered nonchalantly.  She bounced to her hooves, prancing towards the door as she persisted, “Now c’mon, we gotta be real quick about all of this!”
“Alright alright,” Ray said, standing with a laugh and following the mare, glancing up at the sign over the shop one last time before entering.  “Hey, what’s a baker’s dozen of a baker’s dozen?”
“Oh, that’s cookie slang for thirteen batches of thirteen cookies,” Pinkie responded keenly.  “Really, you cook your own meals!  How do you not know this stuff?”
“Just an amateur, I guess.”
“Well then, we have a lot more work than I anticipated us having after all!  Grab an apron or four and open the fridge.  Tonight, the ponies will eat cake!”

******************************************************************************************

Thirty minutes and a flurry of sugar, spice, and everything nice later, Ray found himself leaning against the counter, disregarding the small pile of leftover flour from rolling the cake dough.  If he wasn’t a bit more used to hard labor, he would be panting immensely right now.  He chuckled to himself at the thought that he counted the immense amount of baking he had just assisted Pinkie with could be counted as “hard labor”.  Shaking his head a little, he glanced over to where Pinkie was gently closing the oven door on the last batch of cookies and cake.
They were both smattered with a dusting of flour and blotches of different batters on their aprons.  Noticing a couple chocolate chips stuck in the pink mare’s cotton candy mane, he reached over and carefully picked them out, jokingly asking, “How did we end up with enough ingredients when half of them ended up on us?”
“Oh, you think I would forget to add inevitable messes into the equation,” Pinkie retorted lightly.  “C’mon, who do you think you’re looking at?  You?”
“Okay, shots fired,” Ray replied, respecting the witty sting.  The only time he had ever had someone over for dinner was Pinkie Pie, who randomly showed up with extras for him.  He had invited her in because he was making dinner.  Forgetting he was trying a new recipe, he had served the two of them the worst meal of their life consisting of too-dry noodles and over the top spicy sauce.  Wincing at the memory, he complimented, “That was a good one, I’ll say.”  After a moment of pause, glancing around uncertainly at the messy, but otherwise empty kitchen, he questioned quietly, “So what now?”
“Well, the Carrots always say that waiting for the goods to bake is the best part, but I mean, that’s from two married bakers, and who knows what happens during their freetime,” Pinkie pointed out.  
“Did not need to be thinking about that,” Ray commented with a slight shake.  “Don’t you ponies have normal talk-time or are you guys always so….”
“Carnal,” Pinkie guessed.  “Nah, it’s just I’m the Element of Laughter, and by extent joy, and most ponies are the happiest when they're with their special somepony, especially under not PG circumstances.”
“Yep, okay, with that point, we are moving on,” Ray rushed with the slightest blush on his face.  He blinked to himself, almost astonished by his own reaction to the pink mare’s words.  He had faced off against people and ponies who had wanted to kill him, and heck he had killed.  The whole reason he was even here was to kill and defeat, and yet, when Pinkie brought up the topic of romance and physical affection, all he did was stiffen up and attempt to ignore the insinuations.  In only a couple short months he would be in the front lines of combat, and that prospect didn’t frighten him, but for some reason love had become a stinging conviction in his heart.  
Maybe it’s because I know I won’t ever have somebody to share myself with, he thought to himself bitterly.  A land full of friendship, friends even, and here I am, doomed to live alone even if I survive this war.
“Hey hey hey hey,” Pinkie cried, suddenly springing up in front of his face, clacking her hooves together loudly.  “I see those sad eyes!  Whatever happens in Sugarcube Corner, it isn’t sad eyes!  There will be no pouting or self-pitying in this bakery while I’m around!  Now c’mon, we have to do something while we wait so you don’t get your head all clouded up with stormy thoughts.”
Ray laughed dryly at Pinkie’s determinedness, finally nodding in agreement.  “Alright, alright, no moping about while the stuff bakes.  What’re we gonna do?”
“Well, you could meet Lil’ Cheese, but he’s probably still taking a nap,” she told him.  “Then again, he hasn’t really opened his eyes all of the way yet, so he might not even recognize you later.”
“Nah, it’s fine,” he replied with a dismissive wave.  “Your kid is yours, and it’ll be better if he meets me after the whole war thing goes down.  Just makes more sense if he got to know me less as a general and more as an actual person.”
“Sure, I mean, I guess that makes sense,” Pinkie agreed, though she seemed more distracted as she stared at him.  
“What, what is it,” Ray asked, patting his head for anything that might be in his hair.  “Are there chocolate chips in my hair too?”
“No, it’s just…” Pinkie trailed off as she continued to focus on his hair.  After a second of reconsideration, she said, “It’s just that you aren’t Ray anymore are you?  You’ve changed so much in these past four months, and it doesn’t feel like you’re the same Raymond that arrived here.”
“I…” Ray began, caught off-guard by her sudden assault on him.  “I don’t… think you’re wrong, but you… well you aren’t quite correct.”
“Huh, you’re actually owning up to it,” Pinkie wondered with slight pride.  “The old Ray would simply shake it off, play it off like some sort of joke or something.  You take the hits open faced though, don’t ya?”
“Yeah, I guess I’m changing for the better,” Ray replied with a shrug.
“Not for the better of yourself,” Pinkie pointed out, her words poking through him.  “Ray, I may be the Element of Laughter, but even I’m not always happy.  It’s okay to be sad or disappointed.  You don’t need those walls.”
“Why are you saying all of this,” Ray demanded, realizing how harshly that had come out.
Pinkie didn’t even flinch away from him at his raised voice, simply tilting her head to the side, the pony answered softly, “Because you aren’t happy with your own changes.  Your hair is all rough these days, but they used to be soft, silky even, like everypony else’s mane a few weeks after you arrived.  Now you constantly look haggard, like you’ve just been dragged through the mud and know you are about to again.”
“If you haven’t noticed, Pinkie, I have been and am going to be,” Ray rebutted, pointing a finger to the scar in his stomach.  Her eyes briefly darted to the spot, knowing well what lay beneath his tunic.  Then, without hesitation, she reached out and wrenched his knife from its sheath, holding the weapon up to him.  
“This is not the Ray I know, a tall scary human that walked around with weapons on him in Ponyville of all places, even on a break,” Pinkie shot back with a slight glare.  “Do you think nopony else has noticed?  Obviously not, because you can see the way they all stare at you, unsure what you’re about to do because you aren’t the person we threw a welcoming party for.  I don’t care if you think you’re doing this for our sake, because I and everypony else only cares about you.”
“And that’s the problem with you ponies, the fact that you care more for one single person than your entire race,” Ray exclaimed with a sweeping motion.  “I don’t care about myself because beyond this war, what is there for me?  Existing for everyone else to care about and feel bad for, that I had to suffer through war for them?  I will not be pitied the rest of my world, looked at like a hero and a kicked puppy at the same time.  There isn’t even another human in this world for me to fall in love with or even just befriend.  I don’t care about myself because my one and only purpose now, and maybe ever, is to protect these ponies, ‘cause in the end, who gives a damn if I die.  It wasn’t like I had anything else to live for.”
“That’s disappointing to hear,” Pinkie muttered, looking to the ground sadly.  Wait, ground?  
In a flash, he realized that he was no longer in the bakery, the walls and roof gone with the tiled floor that was replaced by dry dirt.  Looking around rapidly, he gasped at what he was staring at.  Everything around him was sinuous and smooth, clouds of what looked like space dust surrounding him.  Gasping with realization, he pulled his kharamh out from behind him, using the hook to disarm the still present Pinkie, his knife landing in the dirt with a soft thud.  
“No, not this place again,” Ray shouted, holding his weapon against the calm mare’s throat.
“I’m not what you think I am, Ray,” she said, her voice eerily not her own.  There was a resounding tone of control and superiority in her voice, almost royal…  
“Wait a minute, Luna,” Ray questioned, lowering his kharamh.  The pink body of Pinkie Pie suddenly shuddered as the coat changed to a night blue and her body grew in size slightly.  In only a few short seconds, the Princess of the Night was revealed to him, standing only chest high.  The human shook his head slightly at the ruse as he softly muttered, “Another test then, Twi?”
“Yes, it was, and I’m afraid the results we found were lacking,” Luna informed him with a sad frown, her eyes meeting his.  “Ray-”
“I’ve heard it all before, Luna,” Ray interrupted, raising a hand to silence her.  “I know what everyone else’s thoughts of me and my choices are, and while I appreciate the concern, I know this is the path to victory.”
“Regardless of self harm,” Luna challenged.
“Regardless of myself,” Ray corrected.  “Twilight sent me back to Ponyville only to be tested once again, didn’t she?”
“No, but she was concerned that even after your talk you would still not change your ways,” the Princess of the Night replied.  “I find myself disappointed to see that her worry was correct.”
“Look, I listened to Twi, and even considered putting what she said to the test, but my ways won’t change so long as I think that my path is the path.  So far, I haven’t found or had the time to find a different, better way to go about all out war than what my training has taught me.  I know you are all worried about me, but I’m a singular person, who, quite frankly, is more concerned with hundreds of thousands more lives.  My concerns outweigh yours, and if I have to sacrifice myself for those lives, then so be it.  I couldn’t be happier with that ending.”
“Because then you wouldn’t have to face yourself afterwards,” Luna finished the unspoken sentence.  “You’re afraid of the recompense for your own actions.  You’re afraid that if you keep living, you’ll become something else to fear in whatever new world is borne from this war.  You’re afraid of the you that will be borne from this war.”
“Because you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain,” Ray replied soundly.  Luna shook her head slightly, closing her eyes with her head downward.  
“We each have our own views on how this war will run and what your future will be, but unlike Twilight, I believe that we shouldn’t obstruct it, to force you to become something acceptable to ponies, because no matter what, you won’t ever be able to live as a true Equestrian.  I know somepony just like you, lost in their difference and inability to change, their belief that they have the right path.  I love them like they were my own child, but it is so painful to watch them stumble and struggle to find their own path.  Especially when it comes at the cost of others’ lives.  I don’t want you to end up like them, stuck in a circle of confusion and death.”
“A circle only ends when someone destroys it,” Ray answered darkly.  “Luna, you and Twilight have different views but the exact same idea.  You think that there are other ways than my death to secure Equestrian peace, while I think it is the only way.  It isn’t about hating myself anymore, and you don’t understand that.  It’s about accepting that I’ve evaded death for far too long, and that if my life continues without facing it, I’m going to destroy everything I want to protect.  It’s why I fear it… why the Spectre is correct about everything he said.”
Silence overtook them as Ray stared distantly at the Dreamscape ground, the soft dirt that his knife knife lay in, impacted by his boot marks.  He couldn’t know, for nobody had seen the land itself, only the sheer cliff faces and a few mile stretch of rocky beach, but perhaps this is what the minotaur’s land looked like.  Dry, deficient of life itself.  He would know soon enough though.  No use worrying about it now.
“Ray, there’s a difference between you and the pony I spoke of,” Luna suddenly spoke up.  “Only one, but it is a strong one.  When you kill, you make peace with those who are affected by it.  You may both see it as an answer, a cure-all even, but you know the effect it has on those closest to whomever you kill.  Even my dear pony cannot see that.”
Ray stiffened up at what she had said.  Memories, hidden from him, buried and expelled by the wall peeking through the cracks.  The parents of Kaleb and Jackson in the hospital as he apologized for killing their sons.  The mare kneeling in the field crying softly over Cohin’s grave as he begged for her forgiveness.  He had even apologized to Pharynx and Thorax for destroying their mother, though the two didn’t have many harsh feelings for him.  
“Yeah, I clean up my messes, but that doesn’t make me any less of a murderer,” Ray responded candidly.  
“But thinking yourself as the villain, recognizing the action you have taken, that is what proves that you aren’t simply a mass-murdering machine,” Luna retorted with a slight lilt.  “You realize your actions do have more than just the blatant outcomes and consequences of killing somepony, and that allows you to debuff the effects it has on your morality.  Recognizing your mistakes shows the true maturity of your character.  That is only heightened by the fact that you are finally being honest with us about your fears.”
“Us,” Ray questioned, looking around and expecting to find Celestia and Twilight.
“Well, I’m sure you’ve realized that nothing said here is truly private,” Luna explained.  “I will tell everything I see fit to tell Twilight about in this dream of yours, but we are indeed very much alone here.  Now, what exactly did the Spectre say to you that you believe is true?”
Hesitating for only a few seconds, Ray sighed and answered, “That I fear absolution.  He’s wrong about why I fear it, but I… I can’t dare to think about it… to face it…”
“Well, the fact that you can tell the difference between death and absolution is an assurity of your insight.  Perhaps it is the most godly of fears to have, the fear of the ultimate end, beyond death, beyond destruction, and beyond the end.  I guess you simply were forced into that process of thought, considering your circumstances and all.”
“Yeah,” Ray responded hollowly, still looking around at the Dreamscape sky.  “So was this the plan then, put me to sleep and then make me have a dream with Pinkie in it to lower my guard?”
“The part about having a dream with Pinkie, yes, but you fell asleep of your own accord, in the middle of Twilight, Celestia, and I’s meeting.  I took the opportunity there and then to test Twilight’s theory.”
“Well, that explains the suddenness of this testing,” Ray muttered.  With a small smile, he told her, “You have a spot-on Pinkie impression.”
“Thank you,” Luna replied with a grateful nod.  “I do think I’m a better actor than my poor older sister.”
“Well, I’m missing a bit of context for that joke to stick, but I’ll take your word for it,” Ray responded, causing the Princess of the Night to chuckle.  
“Yes indeed, it’s a much more mundane and funny story than most of the ones concerning her, truthfully.” Luna agreed.  “You’ll have to have Twilight tell you the story sometime.”
Ray nodded, about to add something else when he started with realization.  “Wait, was that you in the shop as well.  Were you the kind shopkeeper too?”
“I’m… not sure what your talking about, frankly,” Luna said uncertainly, giving him a confused look.
“Oh no, then that means,” Ray began, before the Dreamscape suddenly began to shake.  
“Hm, you’re waking up now,” Luna noted calmly as the ground broke and the sky fell.  “Sorry for interrupting your nap.  Hopefully it will be a long while before I have to-”
Ray woke up on the ground, covered in dirt and surrounded by the sounds of distressed ponies.  Opening up his eyes sharply, he hastily shoved himself up from off the ground, reaching to his knife.  Feeling it there, and not stuck in the Dreamscape, he sighed thankfully, glancing around at the startled townsfolk.  They all gasped at his rapid actions, stepping back as their muttering grew louder.  
“Oh for Celestia’s sake ponies, haven’t any of you heard of a power nap,” a familiar pink pony cried as she shoved her way towards the standing human.  As Pinkie Pie came to Ray’s side, she whispered to him, “Though this wasn’t exactly the best place to take one.”
Too many different emotions filled his head and heart for his mouth to move, so instead he simply laughed, nodding.  “I guess I’m just a little bit tired,” he managed to choke out through an overpowering smile.  He wasn’t so sure why he was so happy, but looking down at one of his oldest friends in this world, he couldn’t help himself.  Kneeling down, he scooped up the mare in a big hug.
“Oh, okay then, well, glad to see you too,” Pinkie accepted, wrapping her own hooves around him and squeezing hard.
Smiling cheerfully, Ray asked, “Hey, do you need any help baking?”
> Contingency Plans
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So, as you can see, I believe that the Spectre is attempting to catch me when I’m alone and when I start drifting away from normal thoughts,” Ray finished explaining, his finger pointed at the crude diagrams and drawing on the large whiteboard provided to him by Fluttershy.  “That’s why I need at least someone with me at all times, so that I don’t get taken back to that place and potentially killed.”
“Well, that’s awf'ly grim,” Applejack muttered, a hoof tapping her chin steadily.  With a slight pause, she looked around at the others in the room, each with their own concerned or shocked expressions.  Ray had left out the whole Aspect theory out of the talk, along with the other theories he and Twilight had come up with, since they were theories and he had no clue what was actually going on.  Besides, Twilight had seemed touchy about telling what the Aspects were, and knowing her, it was probably best to let her explain it if it needed to be taken into consideration.
“Well, I for one wasn’t going to let you leave my sights while you were on your break anyways,” Rarity declared.  “You are far behind on any sort of fashion and your tunic and boots certainly need a touch of customization.  After all, if you go into the war looking like that, the enemy will laugh themselves dead before you even touch them!”
“Rarity, I don’t think bloodthirsty monsters give a flying hoof what Ray wears when he kills them,” Rainbow chimed in.  “After all, it isn’t every day that they see a human wielding the wackiest spear in the world charging at them with a horde of glowing pony soldiers.”
“Point taken,” Rarity replied softly.  “Though customization can’t hurt.”
“Girls, should we really be worried about fashion right now,” Pinkie questioned as she cradled her little colt in her hooves.  Luna hadn’t lied about Pinkie giving birth only a few days ago while he was gone, heck she had even given Ray the right name, but it was still somewhat of a shock to see.  “Ray, what’s the plan?”
“It’s not perfect, but I was thinking that, for the moment, if it wouldn’t disrupt anybody’s schedules too much, I would spend the day with one of you and then have you come and stay at my house for the night,” Ray explained, erasing part of his diorama he deemed useless to draw out the plan.  “So long as you all are comfortable with it, of course, this should be a cakewalk.  No demonic possessions or otherworldly abductions.”
“Well, that’s certainly a good plan,” Rarity nodded with strained appreciation.  “The only problem is that I’m not sure if we alone could stop this thing from taking you over even if we are around.  I mean, something that could give you a scar while still in your mind is…”
“A whole lot more powerful than a pony,” Applejack finished for her.  The mare glanced over at Rainbow, who was also giving Ray a concerned stare.  “Ray, whatever this is, it ain’t somethin’ we’ve ever heard a’ or dealt with before.  We have no clue what we’re doing.”
“Welcome to the party,” Ray replied coldly.  Taking a deep breath to soothe his stress, he explained factually, “It hasn’t gotten hold of me in the few days since its last visit, but with what happened today, we can’t risk another encounter.  I’d call Twilight for some assistance, but we’ve already discussed this in great detail and have failed to come to a consensus.  For now, she believes that the best course of action is for me to spend time with you guys… before the opportunity to do so is too late.  In my opinion, this attack only proves her theory correct.  The attempted possession was a last-ditch effort before I once again surrounded myself with friends and family.  It must mean it either can’t or won’t reach me while I’m around those I care about.”
“Well, if you have faith in this plan, then so do we,” Rainbow cried enthusiastically.  “Hay, why don’t I take the first shift anyways?  I won’t be able to do it Thursday or Friday ‘cause a’ Wonderbolt training, but I can definitely hang with ya today, Ray.”
“Yer, not jus’ sayin’ that because it’s already night and yer shift would be to stay here ‘till somepony else takes over tomorrow mornin’, right,” Applejack questioned keenly, a knowing smirk on her face as she leaned in.
“What, pfft, no,” Rainbow denied, pushing the encroaching mare away with a blush.  “I’m doing it for the good of our friend Ray here, I’ll have you know!”
“Oh oh oh oh oh, and since Ray super stong and I’m still a bit sore from pushin’ a baby outta me, he can help me with deliveries tomorrow, and Lil’ Cheese’ll need some extra handling, so Ray can help me there,” Pinkie interrupted.  “It’ll be great for him to get used to how mobile his mama is early, and with Ray’s help, it’ll mean the world to Cheesy, since he’s gotta run to the Canterlot Gimmicks Convention!”
“Well, we’d be glad ta have ya back on th’ farm fer a day,” Applejack said with a beaming smile.  “Only problem is that we’ll be runnin’ orders all over the place ‘till Saturday, so we won’t be able to stick together very well.”
“Guess that means that you get Ray Thursday, Flutters,” Rainbow quipped, giving the silent mare a little nudge.  The pegasus had remained silent the entire conversation, steadily watching as Ray had drawn out the Spectre and strange dimension it had created for him.  She didn’t even seem the slightest bit phased by the small tap, staring intensely at the drawings with occasional glances over to Ray.  After a brief moment, she simply nodded with the slightest hum of agreement, the only noise she’d made all day.
“It’s right in time for tea day, as well,” Ray added with a small smile, attempting to receive any sort of verbal response, but the mare instead looked away to the ground.  Sighing, he shoved his… well, he didn’t know the feeling quite, but he pushed it away regardless, focusing on the task at hand.  “I still need somebody for Friday.  Any of you available?”
“Actually, I was just thinkin that there’s a cert’n group a’ fillies who haven’t seen ya in a hot minute,” Applejack mentioned with a sure smile.  “And it jus’ so happens ta be summer break as well.”
“Are you sure you want to get the CMC involved with the Spectre,” Ray asked firmly, taking a step towards her.  “That thing nearly killed me in my own head.  Something this dangerous should be dealt with by the adults.”
“Of which, you aren’t one,” Rarity keenly pointed out.  “You turn sixteen in but a few months.  Hardly the age I would think you should be to deal with the invasion of a monstrous force.”
“Yet I’m able to do so because of my strength and skill, physically and mentally,” Ray responded.  
“You’ve been ta Zecora’s a half dozen times with injuries of all sorts that coulda killed ya,” Applejack rebutted.  “And we’re here right now ‘cause a’ some strange bein’ that’s messin’ with your head.”
“And this plan will cure that,” Ray finished, crossing his arms.
“Which brings us full circle to the CMC being able to prevent that, and- by your and Twilight’s theory- preventing any danger,” Rainbow concluded with a raised brow.  “It may be safer for everyone for those three to be with you than anywhere else.”
Ray took a deep breath, pushing down the fight for the moment so he could think.  Rubbing his temples as he did so, he came to realize that the others were most likely right.  The CMC were the most innocent ponies he knew in Ponyville, and considering there would be the three of them to occupy his time and thoughts.  Besides, while he didn’t want to say it out loud, he had the feeling that if the Spectre did take control of him, it didn’t matter if the girls were close to him or not.
Letting the breath out in a sigh, he looked back up to the other five, nodding his head as he said, “Alright, then.  The CMC will be with me this Friday, but not a word of what is really going on up here,” he commanded as he tapped a finger to his head.  “As far as they know, this is a rare opportunity for me to not be training and spend time with them at a sleepover.”
“Right,” four voices agreed in unison.
> His Heart
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two days and two nights had gone by as smoothly as Ray and the others had hoped for.  Tuesday with Rainbow had been a whole bout of fun sports and a carefreeness that Ray hadn’t expected to ever feel again, and at night he had slept dreamlessly with the help of the shopkeeper's sleeping powder.  In the morning he had made his way to Rarity’s boutique by racing the pegasus, nearly beating her in spite of her physical prowess.  They proceeded to race to Sugarcube Corner, and while he hadn’t beaten the wily pegasus in the sprint, he did take pride in the fact that he had barely broken a sweat in the process. 
From there, Pinkie Pie had used him as a glorified packing mule to carry as many baked goods as possible to as many different houses as possible.  Unlike the Pinkie Luna had conveyed, the real deal hadn’t even waited a day to begin baking again, though because of her condition, she hadn’t been able to start moving around until a few days later, she was behind on deliveries.  Thanks to the countless hours of training, as well as the numerous exerting outings he had gone on, he was able to carry the whole load the entire time, the pair and newborn foal crossing through the town in only a couple of hours.  From there he had assisted her in baking several treats for them and some of the others who lived and worked at the bakery, while also “properly” meeting Lil’ Cheese.
Then came today.  
Ray stared at Fluttershy’s house with a deep sigh, the nameless emotion almost completely consuming him as he stared at the cottage on the outskirts of town.  He didn’t quite know why he dreaded this day so much, but it was undeniable that there was some sort of rift that had begun to form between him and her, beyond their conflicting views of his mission.  For some reason she had expressly avoided talking to him, beyond just in the meeting, but outside of it as well.  He couldn’t read minds, but he knew that most likely it had to do with more than just the severity of the Spectre’s presence in him.  
Shaking his head, he forced a final sigh out of him and straightened his tunic, offhandedly fingering the knife in his belt as he raised a hand to knock on the door.  There was no need, apparently, because as he went to bang on the old wooden door, it opened broadly, Fluttershy standing in the doorway.  He gasped slightly at seeing her so close to him, only a few feet away, compared to at the meeting, when she wouldn’t stand less than ten feet away.  The moment was lost as she silently took a few steps back to allow him entry.  
Clearing his throat from the sudden rush of emotion that had overtaken him, he bent down to clear the doorway.  He hadn’t remembered needing to duck down as low before, but that was the effect of time on him.  Closing the door carefully behind him, he watched as the mare simply walked away, towards the back of her house.  Ray opened his mouth to say something but was immediately distracted by a small ball of white fluff moving towards him in a most aggressive way.
“Oh, hey Angel,” Ray asked with a cocksure smile as the little bunny leapt at his feet.  “I can see that hibernation didn’t do anything for your spirit.  Unfortunately, I don’t have Ohs with me today.  She’s probably busy fixing up the nest in the little flower bed Fluttershy set up outside my bedroom window.”
“They're called window boxes,” Fluttershy suddenly spoke, walking back into the room with a tray occupied by two cups and a teapot in her hooves.  “It isn’t a very fancy name by any means, but you don’t want to get that wrong in front of an earth pony.  Especially with a gardening Cutie mark.”
Smiling at the sudden and welcome sound of Fluttershy’s soft voice, he took the tray from her and set it on the small table in the living room.  “Well, I would hate to offend anypony in their field of work,” Ray said.  “I mean, where would we be without gardening?”
“Well, we wouldn’t be happy, that’s certain,” Fluttershy answered honestly.  “No yummy tomatoes or carrots, nice heads of lettuce or any of the other greens that we ponies rely on.”  A familiar shy smile was allotted to him for a brief second before she suddenly glanced away as if spooked.  “We don’t have to worry about that, though.”
His own smile faltered as a sudden cold overtook the room.  Reaching for the teapot, he poured out some of the steaming liquid into one of the cups, offering it to the cream mare.  She took it silently, sipping the tea without a glance up at him, that same expression from a couple of days ago plastered on her face.  What he had done to deserve the sudden silent treatment, he didn’t know, but allowing himself to believe it was just the usual shy, awkward tension between the two of them, he nodded in feigned understanding and took a sip of the tea itself.  
His lips pursed ever so slightly at the sweetness of the tea.  Apparently Fluttershy had already added the sugar to the tea, in spite of having probably never done that before.  Squinting slightly at the liquid, he asked, “Is this jasmine?”
“Rooibos,” the pegasus responded softly, dipping her own cup back to her lips.  “It needs the sugar or else it will be too bitter to drink.”
“Huh,” Ray muttered with a sideways glance as he raised the cup to his lips once again.  Without thinking, he bit back, “Bitterness never did anything to me.”
Fluttershy paused as Ray bit down on his cheek, instantly knowing he had pressed the point too quickly.  The mare glanced at him from beneath her long pink hair before lowering her eyes back down to her cup, taking a sip.  As soon as she swallowed, she stated, “I feel like there’s a double meaning to that.”
“And I know there’s a double meaning to this whole tea party,” Ray retorted, setting his cup to the side as he prepared for what was surely to come.  “So, why don’t we stop beating around the bush and face the beast itself instead.  Why are you being so difficult?”
“Is it really that hard of a question to answer,” Fluttershy rebutted, practically slamming her own cup down.  “Do you really think I’m the one at fault here for the miles between us right now?”
“Well, I mean, you have been the one going out of her way to avoid talking to me,” Ray responded with a slight hand wave.  “The others were perfectly fine with me explaining everything about the Spectre and the danger I believe it could pose to everybody if it possesses me.”  There was a pause for a brief moment as he saw Fluttershy’s stare harden into something that wasn’t quite a glare, but just as dangerous.  “Is that what it is then?  Are you afraid that the Spectre changes everything about me, that it is going to make me into something worse than what I already am?  Or are you worried that the actions I take to protect everyone from it will change the plan and possibly destroy me?  You know, I remember a time when we agreed to talk these things out.  Since when did you get so cold about what’s going on in my head?”
“Since you decided to completely cut me out of your life,” Fluttershy instantly responded, a cold frown to go with it.  “I’ve only given you a taste of what you put me through.”
“That’s ridiculous, I haven’t and would never do anything to hurt you,” Ray told her, shaking his head at the absurdity of what she was saying.  “You’re one of the most important parts of my life.”
“Then when was the last time you talked to me,” she inquired simply, folding her hooves as she stared him down.  
Ray paused for a moment, his mind instantly searching for the last time he could remember talking to her.  At the docks, surely, right?  He knew she had been there with the others; he could swear he had seen her there… but maybe they hadn’t ended up talking with the chaos of embarking.  Slowly, he thought further and further back, straining for a memory of talking to her in the past month, then the past two, and then three.
“It’s been four months since I’ve heard a word from you, Ray,” Fluttershy suddenly said, her voice wavering as she hid behind her hair.  “Four months of you going on and on, constantly training and preparing, pushing forward to become the best soldier and general you can while leaving everything and everypony else behind.  I thought for sure you would realize at some point that you were no longer attending our Thursday tea parties.  I thought for sure that next week that extra spot would be taken.  Every week I was wrong, though.”
Ray felt a frigid wave sweep through him, his chest tightening with sudden guilt at everything he had done and not done.  He remembered now, the last time he had talked to her.  It had been while he was preparing to go back down into the Harkening for a long training exercise that would take weeks.  He had teased her that this time he was returning back down there announced so she wouldn’t have to worry.  And now, four months and a little longer later, he was finally talking to her once again.
“Fluttershy, I am… I am so sorry, I didn’t realize…” Ray trailed off, biting down on his lip.  With a deep sigh, he shook his head at himself, lowering himself and resting his elbows on his knees while putting his face in his hands.  “There’s no excuse for that.  I never meant to be so… ignorant.  What… what do you want from me?”
Before he could realize what was happening, Fluttershy was suddenly wrapping her hooves around his chest, her fuzzy head and soft mane pressing into his neck in a tight hug.  Inhaling sharply at the sudden embrace, Ray slowly dropped his own arms around the mare and pulled her in closer, licking his lips as he stared over her head as he processed what was going on.  Of course the Element of Kindness would be so forgiving, but in his heart he knew he both didn’t deserve her forgiveness this quickly and that she would need proof he wouldn’t leave her like this again.  With a slow lowering of his head, he put his mouth next to her ear, he once again asked hushly, “What do you want me to do for you?”
Fluttershy took a moment to talk, simply tightening her own grip around his chest as if she were afraid he was going to end their embrace.  Finally, she whispered back, “I want you to bring me with you to the Harkening the next time you need to go down there.”
Grimacing at the request, he reminded her, “The Harkening is in the bottom of Tartarus, where both light and life come only from the small plants that manage to grow there.  It is not meant for ponies to visit, much less stay.”
“I’ll follow you there anyway, even if you don’t want me too,” the mare said determinedly into his chest. 
“I didn’t say no,” Ray told her.  “I was just giving you a fair warning.  There are things and creatures you will see on your way there that you must simply keep moving past.  Life in the caves of Tartarus is not life, but survival, and as such, a much more bare and rugged patch of Equestria.”
“You make it sound exciting,” she joked, giggling into his chest.  Smiling down at her, he let one of his hands slowly pat her neck, scratching her fur how he had learned ponies liked it.  A soft silence fell between them as they shared the embrace for a long moment, Ray staring at the ceiling over their heads as Fluttershy leaned into him.  His smile slowly became a frown as the inevitable thought of how soon he would have to leave crept into his mind, but Fluttershy must have sensed his mood becoming drearier.  She sat upright, pulling back slightly to look him in the eye as she smiled and said, “Our tea is getting cold, and rooibos isn’t a tea you want cold.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” he replied, leaning back as well to allow her to leave his embrace.  He reached over as she bounced off him, grabbing his cup and tipping it to his mouth, taking a small sip of the sweet beverage.  After Fluttershy had settled back into her seat with her own cup, he commented, “Ohs has her own chicks now.  She decided to build her own nest and everything to prepare for spring and whatnot.”
“I know, she told me the day after they hatched while she was searching for worms,” the mare replied, smiling.  “And her mate, Cunning, I know him too.  He was raised in a nest on this very tree.  I got to name him since the mother couldn’t think of six different names at once.  He decided to keep it even after he grew up.  Did you know Cantolina wrens mate for life?”
“No, I didn’t even know what the name of Ohs’ species was,” he admitted with a sip of tea.  “But that’s pretty nice.  I guess I’ll be seeing a lot of him then, too.”
“Yeah, hopefully he gets along with you just as well as Otolo does,” she told him with a smile.
“Oh, you mean randomly pecking my face and pulling out my hair for his nest,” Ray questioned with a chuckle.  “If he is the opposite of Ohs, then we’ll get along splendidly, but then again, I don’t doubt Ohs is gonna teach her kids exactly who I am and how to mess with me.”
“Yeah, exactly, I don’t know what there’s not to look forward to,” Fluttershy beamed smugly.  “Honestly, I think you don’t love your avian friend as much as you claim.”
“Well, I mean, we can have differing views, but that doesn’t mean we don’t care about each other,” he replied absently, smiling at the mare as he took a sip of tea.  “I guess we all have to learn to accept the differences of others at some point in time.  It’s how we move on, after all.”
“Yes, that’s very true,” Fluttershy agreed wholeheartedly, sipping from her own tea.  “You know, we don’t have to sit around and talk all day.  It’s a beautiful day outside, and the lake will be warm this time of summer, so if you want, we can go swimming down there.”
“Are you just saying that to get a peek at what’s under my shirt,” Ray teased, expecting the shy mare to blush at the jest.  
Instead, she merely shrugged, commenting, “It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.  I guess you did add to it, though.  Why do you care?”
“Gah, it’s a human thing,” he waved aside, realizing it wasn’t really worth the effort to try and explain what humans were attracted to.  “Usually, a guy as in shape as I’ve gotten would be considered a ‘jock’, which some girls would find attractive and whatnot.  Humans are weird though, so just don’t mind what I said.”
“Well, I’ve noticed that humans are rather strange,” Fluttershy teased, pointing a hoof at him.  “After all, you aren’t quite anything like any animal, pony, or creature I’ve ever seen before.”
“I mean, being from another dimension feels like a cheat card in that aspect,” Ray pointed out, downing that last of his tea.  The conversation halted as he watched Fluttershy take another miniscule sip of her own beverage, half of her cup still remaining.  Taking a moment to actually think of her offer to go to the lake, he finally said, “I don’t necessarily want to go to the lake.  Like you said, it’s a perfect day, which means about half of the town will be there as well, and considering how I look physically, well I don’t think it would be very wise to go there.  Besides, everybody in town who doesn’t know me still treats me… weird.”
“That seems to be a human thing too, attracting attention.”
“It’s a byproduct of it for sure, but also considering that my behavior would be considered… bizarre in my world, it’s a personal quirk,” Ray replied with a smirk.  Fluttershy giggled at the statement, sipping from her cup one last time and draining the remainder of it.  
“Well, I’m done with my tea now, so you don’t have to wait on me any longer.  What do you want to do together?”
“Honestly, talking like this is exactly what I want to do, but maybe we could go for a walk while we talk.”
“I would enjoy stretching my legs some,” the mare agreed as she stood, flexing one of her hind legs as she set her cup aside.  “It’s admittedly been a very long time since I’ve taken any sort of walk, even though spring was just a couple months ago.  I guess I’ve just been a bit preoccupied to enjoy the smaller moments like a nice nighttime walk.”
“Nighttime,” Ray yelped, alarmed at how much time they had taken with their tea.  Whipping around and looking out the window, he saw that, in fact, it was barely noon, only about an hour from his actual arrival.  “Geez, you scared me, making me think our time was up already.”
“Time does have a tendency to shorten our fun, but luckily there’s a long while before we have to turn in for the night,” Fluttershy reassured him with a beaming smile.  “I was just saying nighttime because it is my favorite time to take a walk, under the stars and in the cool when all of the lightning bugs come out.”
“Yes, I’ve grown rather fond of night here in Equestria as well, the strange and unique sky,” Ray agreed.  “Back in Pittsburgh, I was never able to see the stars ‘cause of all the light pollution from the city.  I only saw our true night sky in campy photos plastered in cheap ads or in science books.  At this point, I’m more familiar with the Equestrian night sky than Earth’s.”
“Is that… a sad thing,” Fluttershy hesitated to ask.
“No, I don’t think it is.  In fact, the distinction is kinda nice.  Even in Canterlot, Equestria’s largest city, I’m able to see every star at night.”  Ray paused, glancing towards the mare and gesturing slightly towards the door.  “You good to go right now, or do you wanna grab something?”
“I’m ready to leave whenever,” she replied brightly.  “I want to walk around towards the back forests to the west, not in the Everfree.  It gets much too humid and muggy under the canopy to enjoy, and usually a cloud of mosquitoes follows you the whole time.  It’s just a bit more of a walk, if you don’t mind.”
Giving her a smug smirk, he spread his arms in a soft display of his body, replying, “I’ve been doing nothing but training for hours on end for weeks on end.  A few miles are my warmup.”
Fluttershy nodded acceptantly at the response, though as she passed him to get the door, she asked keenly, “Then why do you keep losing those silly races to Rainbow Dash?”
“My goodness, you’re on a roll with the sharp banter today, aren’t you,” he laughed, turning and opening the door for her, following her out into the bright sunlight.  The mare didn’t respond, simply smiling at him from over her shoulder, causing him to chuckle even more.  “Not just banter, then.  I guess it’s my just desserts.”
“I guess I’m just a little vengeful about being ignored, but that’s now past us,” she said, looking up into the sky.  Ray’s gaze followed hers, staring at the bright blue sky dotted occasionally by fat, puffy white clouds.  One had drifted in front of the sun, shading them briefly as they began their journey, walking off the path and downhill towards the creek bed that ran along her house.  They stepped through the cool water side-by-side, ascending up the other side of the hill and facing towards the calm forests only a couple miles west.
They took their time walking towards the inviting canopy, conversation rising and dying from time to time, but they traveled happily even in silence.  In the past weeks, Ray hadn’t had a moment to be alone save for sleeping, but nonetheless he realized that he had been feeling more and more lonely.  Now however, talking with Fluttershy as they navigated towards the forest, he felt fulfilled once again, the hollow solitude he had wrapped himself in while he focused solely on his mission had slipped off.  He smiled earnestly now, feeling the warmth of the sun and of the kind, tender mare he shared the day with.  
He was very quickly coming to terms with his feelings for Fluttershy, the way he truly needed her in a different way than either of them expected.  He loved her, but in a way that was not so obvious or romantic as Discord, rather, he loved her the way that a man loves a drink of water in the desert.  When he arrived, she was the first thing he attached himself to, the anchor he required to ground himself in a world he had been thrown into.  Maybe it was the chaos and confusion of arrival, or because he was simply a kid who wasn’t very good at compromising with his emotions, but he had fooled himself into thinking he was in love with her.  It was blatantly obvious how untrue that was, now that he was looking back on it.  The painful truth had actually been an alleviating cure to his emotion sickness that had plagued him endlessly. 
In truth, she was not his true love, nor was she even a romantic attraction anymore, but something much more important to him.  She was his guiding light, the one he could barely see through the darkness and constantly struggling to follow, but there whenever he looked.  He needed her, elsewise he would end up becoming what Twilight feared he might be and what the Spectre wanted to turn him into.  It was clear now that he had been, and still was, lost to the darkness of his own mind and actions, a heartless wretch that would have become worse save it for one thing.  He had found something to replace his heart, something too beautiful and too kind to be born for war.  And now that he discovered it, he swore to himself that even his body and spirit were shattered, his heart would continue beating without him.
> The World Weaver
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fluttershy took a deep breath in, holding it for as long as it was comfortable, before letting it out with a soft sigh.  She breathed in again, this time through her nose, trying to slow the pumping of her blood through her veins as she let this breath out as well.  Swallowing hard, she repeated, breathing in deeply, feeling her lungs fill and her chest broaden, then, facing her fears, she allowed the air to escape her, imagining herself breathing out the fear and paranoia from within her.  She could do this, she could face what was coming, what there was going to be very, very soon.
“Hey, you don’t have to follow me, you don’t have to come to the Harkening,” Ray’s voice assured her as a hand gently rested on her head.
Opening her eyes, she stared at the entrance to Tartarus, the doorway into the prison of the most evil and monstrous beings in Equestria past and present.  Behind that gate was everypony else’s worst nightmares, terrifying beasts that had ravaged the world, tyrants with unspeakable power, and being beyond understanding.  If only that was what she was afraid of, something so simple as a monster that would eat ponies like her for fun.  If only the truth behind why she was here, the reason that she could hear her heartbeat like it was thunder, was something everypony else understood.  If only they knew that if Ray was upholding his promise, it meant that soon he would be gone, across the sea and potentially dying for them all.
Fluttershy breathed in deeply, keeping her eyes open, looking up to the human with a determined stare as she let it out, assuring him, “I’m ready.”
Ray hesitated for a moment longer, searching her eyes for any signs that she might retreat from the idea at the last moment, but he didn’t even realize why she hated this moment either.  He was ignorant in perhaps the worst way, not even realizing that what he was doing, contradicting his own character to provide her with what she wanted in spite of his own wants, was exactly why she now dreaded this trip.  Sweet Celestia, why did she have to open her big mouth and ask him to bring her down to Tartarus, to the Harkening?  Wasn’t it enough to just have him apologize and swear to do better no matter how dire it was?  Apparently not, because here she was, watching Ray reach to the cold stone and run his fingers along the figures graven into the doorway to Tartarus.
Suddenly, light enveloped her, unbelievably bright and warm, as if a summer day had manifested physically into her very eyes.  She gasped at the light show as orbs of the pure white warmth suddenly began to hover all around the two of them, until suddenly, it was all gone, replaced by darkness.  The warmth was immediately dissipated as they were brought into the holds of Tartarus, the humid cold of the cavern cutting off the blissful experience swiftly.  As soon as she felt the ground beneath her hooves, she sensed it, the terrible evils that lay here, the sadness and loneliness that the banished faced.  Darkness itself had its grip here, and Fluttershy felt it coldly.
“Why did we come this way,” she asked the human as he began to nonchalantly walk down the narrow path.  She looked around warily, unable to see the roof of the cavern or the bottom of it, only the cages that held hidden monsters.  “Wouldn’t it have been easier and quicker to use the wayport down to the Harkening?”
Ray noted where she was looking at, before solemnly answering, “It’s best to remind you of who else is down here, and why its first pony inhabitants deserved to be among them.  That is how everyone else is introduced to the Harkening.  Its name isn’t without purpose, you know.  The Fallen, the Princesses… heck, even me… we all want others to harken back to why there are so many of us damned to this place and what we need to do to leave it.  Like everything else in Tartarus, the Fallen were an evil force sent away to never harm Equestria again.”  Ray paused, staring down into the darkness almost forlornly.  “Maybe the redemption of the Fallen will prove that there is no way to be truly evil, just lost.”
Smiling at the human, Fluttershy stepped forward, resting a hoof against his knee gently.  “You and your ponies have already proven your true character,” she told him, her forehead coming to rest against the side of his leg as well.  “Equestria knows who you truly are.”
“Yes, well, we don’t, so good on them,” Ray responded sharply, causing Fluttershy to jerk away, stung.  Instantly, Ray’s palm smacked against his cheek, and continued to wipe down his face.  “Sorry, Fluttershy, ignore that.  Dark thoughts have a tendency to become words down here.  I know you want to try to help me by talking through this with me, but trust me, the silence of Tartarus is where the healing truly happens, not through conversation.  Besides, I don’t think you'll like talking much on the elevator.”
“The elevator,” she questioned, cocking her head to the side.  Ray winced as he nodded, simply gesturing for her to follow him.  Understanding suddenly the dread and solemnity of the motion, Fluttershy moved quickly to obey, practically dashing to his heels as she warily glanced around.  Many of the cages seemed to be devoid of life, empty, craggy stone and steel that held nothing but darkness.  The few that were inhabited were of strange creatures that didn’t seem to be dangerous behind the bars of their cages, save for the strange glint in their eyes that suggested otherwise.  Deciding it better to not stare, she looked to the ground instead, following Ray’s feet to something near the center of the path.
A large stone platform jutted out of the side of the path, hanging over the cloudy darkness below.  Swallowing, she realized this must be the elevator as Ray stepped onto it.  He reached for a strange rectangle that stuck up from the side of the elevator, a simple set of buttons and some dials were the only decoration on it.  The human glanced down to her before he turned the knob all the way down and pressed a button, the platform instantly beginning to move.  Ray casually stepped over the small gap between the path and the slab, Fluttershy following suit hurriedly.  As soon as they both were on, the speed of the elevator accelerated, though not to a speedy degree.  
A single hoof-sized crystal lit their journey down into the depths of Tartarus, and within seconds she felt the darkness wrap around them.  They were in the middle of the broad cavern now, the walls, roof, and ground concealed from them in the dark, feeling as if they were miles away.  Fluttershy shuddered at the thought of being stuck here alone, with only the light allowing her to see some distance while whatever may be out there stared back without her knowing.  She unconsciously took a step back, bumping into Ray as she did so.
“Woah, easy there,” Ray warned as he rebalanced himself.  “Falling this height would be lethal for me.  
R-right,” the mare nodded, staring into the depths of darkness.   Another shudder rocked her, vibrating against Ray’s leg.  “It’s just…”
“Scary, I know,” Ray replied, staring calmly out into the misty darkness.  “Sometimes I wonder who and what is staring back at me, wishing it was them on this platform, in the ample light.  I wonder if they deserved the darkness they were condemned to, if what they did was enough to take away the sun from them.  However, I know firsthand some of the things down here are not the kind or forgivable type.  It’s very faint, but you can hear the screaming and growling of some of those beasts far away.  Most of the time it’s covered up by the sound of the wind blowing through.”
Fluttershy strained her ears, and indeed faintly, she heard those animals calling out to her, though not in the screams that Ray had described.  She could hear something- no, someone- calling out to her from across the divide, someone who was shouting a whisper out to her.  Squinting, attempting to see the disembodied voice she couldn’t quite understand, she leaned over the edge of the slab.  It was out there, whoever they were, and it was attempting to get their attention.  Frowning, Fluttershy spread her wings, preparing to launch, when suddenly Ray’s hand was resting on her back.
“What the heck do ya think you’re doing,” he hissed, his eyes scanning the surrounding darkness fearfully.
“I was… I was going to follow one of the voices,” she responded, glancing between him and the darkness.  “There’s someone out there who wants to help us.  We’ve got to go find them and see what they mean.”
“Fluttershy, there is nothing out there but darkness and monsters, and I know you can understand them, but that doesn’t make them any less dangerous,” he warned harshly.  “Skalos told me about some of the things down here that share the depths with them.  They were some of the largest and hungriest monsters to roam Equestria before the Princesses, huge beasts that snacked on entire villages and leveled mountains.  There were tricksters and mind benders too, ones that wanted only to consume and control.  They don’t want to help; they just want another victim.”
“But the voice is soft and helpless, Ray, and I can barely hear it,” Fluttershy argued.  “Whatever it is, it's weak and can’t hurt me, even if it tried.  I can tell.”
“It’s a trick, Fluttershy, a deception to get you closer to it and to harm you,” he stubbornly stated.  “We can’t risk losing ourselves to the unknown down here, because the unknown, the darkness, wants us to become lost.  I’ve made this trip plenty of times to know that there is no possible way whatever you’re hearing is something to be calm about.  Ignore it, force it out of your head.  It’s safer like that.”
“You're not listening,” she countered, pointing out into the depths of the black underworld.  “Not to me, and not to it.  You have to trust me on this one.  We have to go and find it and discover why it’s calling.”
“And how do you propose I follow you to this unknown voice,” Ray questioned, pointing to the empty space on his back.  
“You’ll have to let me go alone,” she responded without thinking.  
Instantly, Ray’s face darkened, his jaw setting as he crossed his arms, brows furrowing as he said, “You know that isn’t an option.  I can’t let you simply leave the elevator to go find some mysterious voice that’s calling to you from the darkness.”
“Then I guess you won’t let me leave,” she answered coolly.  Without a second thought, she stepped sideways, plummeting off the elevator even as Ray leapt to grab her, missing by a hair’s breadth.
“No no no no, Fluttershy, listen to me,” he cried from the platform, still attempting to reach her, but that was the last she heard as the rushing air was suddenly caught in her wings, causing her to suddenly lift into the air from the drag.  Momentum and gravity coincided to let her shoot across the open cavern air, slicing through the dark cloud determinedly towards the calling voice.  In an instant, all of the light was gone, her eyes attempting to adjust, but having no light at all, simply leaving her in darkness.  
Letting a breath out, she allowed the voice to guide her as it rapidly began to become more and more clear.  “Come hither, child of magic, come hither,” it called softly.  No, she called softly.  The beckoning voice was feminine, but very old, and incredibly wise.  “Posthaste, child.  The time draws near when your mortal brother reaches Absolution’s cold premonitions.  My assistance is required in this mortal conflict for the eternal conflicts to begin.”
“What do you mean,” she shouted into the darkness.  “I don’t understand.”
“The arbitrary lines of mortality grow dim, existence aging these concepts and loosening them.  The headlong flight of dimensions shifting has opened a voidfull rift into Absolution’s well.  The ending of this conflict is one and punctual.  Ensure you live to see it.”
Fluttershy came to a halt at those words, the hint of amused warning in the voice the only sign of the wall she was about to collide into with her hasty flight.  Panting slightly in exertion, she stared at the stony face, only able to see it thanks to a slight tint of light provided by moss.  Squinting at her surroundings, she realized the faintest gray light covered the surface of any stone, spindly moss surviving in the cracks in the stony faces of rock.  Frowning at the ground beneath her, she slowly brought herself down, looking around warily.  
“Fear will not aide your survival here, child,” the voice warned, now very close to Fluttershy.  The mare shuttered and glanced around, unable to tell if it had come from in front of or behind her.  “Child, my creations require you alive, rather than be passed on mortally.  Fear not darkness.  It is merely the absence of light.”
“Where are you,” she asked, suddenly feeling more frightened than when she had looked out over the dark.  “Why can’t I see you?”
“You have no need to see me child, for I see you.  The grand mystique of this petulant prison is only of mortal construct, an illusion of imprisonment.  Here, the mind is truly freed and allotted the time required to work through the enigmatic creations of we cosmetic welders.”
“I don’t understand, why did you call me, then,” Fluttershy asked the surrounding blackness, desperately searching for the source of the voice.  “I need to see you to understand you and trust you.”
“That is merely your own mind confining itself to a mortal’s ambitions, child, but if it eases you, it would be most amusing to reveal myself, though valuable time may be lost to your mortal reaction to such things,” the voice calmly responded.  
Suddenly, the ground around her shook as a great scratching sound caused her to crinkle down and cover her ears, eyes wide as suddenly the gray lines of sinewy moss moved upwards and away.  A large form suddenly was standing before her, the wall she thought she had been staring at suddenly staring back with eight, ruby red eyes, each the size of her head.  Fluttershy’s jaw dropped as she stared into the face of the large, spider-like creature, large mandibles mere inches from her but nearly as long as she.  The area suddenly began to glow distinctly as the body of the spider moved away from where it had been laying, revealing a massive web of glowing white silk that lit up the cavern and horrendous spider around it.  
Instantly, Fluttershy’s jaw began to quiver at the sight of such a large creature, one almost a hundred times the size of Celestia stood over her, its head level with her body yet still looming over her.  Its legs were extended to what seemed to be miles away, long hairs poking out that were half the size of the hapless pegasus.  The spider seemed keenly interested in the miniscule pony, its head tilted ever so slightly to the side as its eight eyes stared into Fluttershy’s very soul.  Realizing it was useless to do anything, she plopped down into a sitting position, overwhelmed by the massive creature that had revealed itself to her.  
Slowly, one of its massive feelers reached out towards her, causing the poor pony to squeeze her eyes shut and jerk her head sideways, bracing for the end.  She felt the hairs of the arachnid against her own equine, rough, yet somehow soft, like grass, brushing across her cheek carefully.  However, instead of pulling her towards the ginormous mandibles of the spider, it reached slightly higher, gently patting itself against her head in an almost loving manner.  Opening her eyes, looking up at the face of the spider, she saw the tiniest amount of joy and care in the red orbs, something she had never expected to see in even common garden spiders.
“Fear, child, is a useless emotion.  I would never hurt a child of magic, nor an Element of Harmony.  The balance you bring to this feeble world enables my sustained existence upon this mortal plain and expands my understanding of the philosophies of mortals.  Curious that one such as you fears one such as I, whose powers and might are unknown to you, but who knows to whom I address.”  The large spider head nodded in agreement to her own words, the feeler retracting as she muttered, “Strange you are indeed, child.  Stranger still, though, your companion.  Orphaned from the cosmos, without any birthright.  I should like to meet him very much.”
“W-w-w-wait, w-what… What are you,” Fluttershy dared ask, her neck straining as she looked up to the topmost eyes.
The head looked back down at her befuddled, as if unexpectant of the question.  “Queer that mortals forget power such as majestic as my own so quickly, but remember the meaningless conjurings of their own for centuries.  I am the Matriarch, or the World Weaver as I was once called by your eldest ancestors.  You may simply call me Gahslyconalislhum, if it pleases you.”
Fluttershy blinked, dumbfounded by the spider’s words, genuinely at a loss for words by what all she was experiencing.  She had never heard of the Matriarch or the World Weaver before, and as such, had never even realized that this creature had once roamed Equestria’ surface.  The concept was so alien to her, that trying to imagine what the Matriarch must have looked like in broad daylight only served to dumbfound her even more.  Noting the confusion on the mare’s face, the spider’s head rotated again as she sighed, “Twenty-three thousand years and mortal humor is still a lost art to one such as I.  How humiliating.  Oh well, many thousands more to come, if the plan is completed by my approximations.”
“Th-th-the plan,” Fluttershy stammered questioningly.  Shaking her head, feeling dizzy, she giggled, “I don’t have a plan.”
“Well of course not, child, you never would have realized you needed one if it wasn’t for me,” the spider exclaimed incredulously.  “The World Weaver’s eyes are hardly ever dimmed, but some two thousand years ago, I came to the realization that I needed some time to make devoid the distractions of my mortal cousins.  I came here, to the realm of damned souls and trapped bodies to clear the muddled corners of my mind and reassess.  It’s a fortunate thing that I did, elsewise creation itself may have been halted entirely in a short time from now.  It may still be regardless, but it is scarcely my concern now.”
“What are you talking about,” Fluttershy asked, still unable to understand a single thing the large being was speaking of.  “Creation itself?”
“Hm, child, you are not the plan, simply the path by which it occurs.  I have watched and sensed you, your emotions and purpose fulfilled time and time again in the minute wars of Harmony and its opposition.  You have proven yourself an indispensable ally of peace, however, your contributions to the cosmos are… inconsequential, unfortunately.  I know the feeling of being obsolete, and would not wish that upon any mortal, thus, I turned to you as the source by which my freedom came to pass.  Lo and behold, here you are, child.  As with all that I have envisaged, you are a fulfillment, promise, and covenant all in one.”
“You… you made me want to come here, to Tartarus, and you made me come to you… to free you,” Fluttershy slowly pieced together, ducking her head away in shame.  “Ray was right, you are just a mindbender who wants to use me to break free of Tartarus.  I was stupid to doubt him.”
“Not foolish, child, but wise,” the Matriarch corrected, reaching out a feeler and lifting the mare’s head with it.  “The Cosmos’ Orphan is a strong-willed and hardheaded individual, capable of many things, but comprehending his worth was still beyond him when he arrived.  You were the path by which his eternal journey has begun.”
“Wait, you’re talking about Ray,” the pegasus exclaimed, stepping backwards.  “Ray is here to save us ponies from the minotaurs, not to help fulfill some divine plan!”
“Yes, the reason for which he brought here is mortal, but the reason he stays is seraphic.  You, however, will know not of the plan’s face until the map of all eternity unfolds before you.  In this regard, you will be blind until the time you watch your and your own’s destiny play out in front of omnipotence.  Your Ray will become the stabilizing force on which this solitary universe shall balance, and you, the catalyst to allow me to assist in his goal.”
“I still don’t understand,” Fluttershy protested.  
“Do not worry, child, for you never will, not until the day passes when the plan is fulfilled and the map is closed,” the Matriarch assured her.  “Until that time, your only purpose will be to bring me to the Cosmos’ Orphan so that I may provide my physical power to the realms of battle which he shall fight in.  An ally such as I should accelerate his efforts and provide him an equal chance against the force he would presume to defeat.”
“That’s, that’s kind of you, I think,” Fluttershy attempted, earning a rapid clicking sound from the Matriarch, her large mandibles vibrating together in laughter.
“While I may not have much care for mortals beyond that of amusement from their qualms, great beings such as I do feel emotions the same as our mortal cousins.  Love for this world and the cosmos is what stems my actions, not search for dominion and control.  Only the wily and young of immortals seek such trivial paraphernalia.  I have long ago discovered I could conquer this world within a day’s time, and as such have no need to, for what I can do is not a challenge to one such as I.  What I can’t do intrigues me, and what is beyond me I attempt to reach,” the Matriarch explained, bemused.  “Perhaps, if all immortals thought alike, there would be no need for immortality or mortality, simply life, but alas, agency robs us the opportunity, but grants us all others.”
“I may never understand exactly what you’re saying,” Fluttershy admitted, “but I can understand that you’re a friend.  Ray will know everything you mean to say to him.  The only real question is how we get to him from here.”
“Well, as I have only confined myself here by my own will, I have had the luxury of physical freedom for whenever my legs wish to wander with my mind.  There isn’t a part of these depths that are foreign to me, even the Harkening, though I forbid myself from interference there for fear of ruining the peace those poor, foolish souls have briefly found.  Aside from the random vacuous and inept escapee that I feed upon, there is very little communication between I and the others.  Even Tirek had no clue my eyes had searched his evil body for the semblance of a soul when I was scarcely a hair away from him.”
“So, you know how to get to Ray,” Fluttershy concluded.  “That’s wonderful, but unfortunately I can’t see in the dark, and without you guiding me, I might hurt myself like I almost did.”
“Fear not, child, for you can simply ride on my fovea,” the Matriarch replied cheerfully, lowering her head and shaking the upper part of her abdomen to indicate the position.  “Your quaint size will hardly hinder me at all.  It would be phenomenal if I even noticed you while I moved.”
“Okay, if you’re sure about this,” the pegasus muttered unsurely.  She stared at the patch of fuzzy exoskeleton warily for a moment before noticing the almost eager joy in the eight eyes of the spider.  Letting out a breath, imagining herself breathing out her fears, she opened up her wings and lifted off the ground, briefly hovering through the air before landing on the indicated spot.  Forcing herself not to shudder at the ticklish hairs of the spider, she settled herself on the spot, sitting down just in time for the Matriarch to launch forward, her long legs spanning hundreds of spans forward and carrying them across the rugged wall.  As soon as they were off the small ledge, the tilted practically vertical to the ground, causing Fluttershy to need to grasp onto the Matriarchs back to stay on, but as soon as she had settled herself where she was, they were suddenly level again and traveling across the bottom of the cavern, toward a distant, yet distinctly familiar light.

**************************************************************************************
Ray cursed again, slamming the base of his spear into the ground as he continued through the darkness, roughly towards the area where he thought he had seen Fluttershy flying.  He had no clue of knowing now, as it had taken at least another ten minutes to reach the bottom of Tartarus, in which time the pegasus could have easily been killed in a hundred different ways.  He was so stupid to have brought her here, especially this way, using the actual entrance instead of the wayport.  Another curse escaped him as he stubbed his toes on an unseen rock, the pitch black concealing his pair.  How he expected to find Fluttershy in a light level similar to the darkest reaches of space, he had no clue, but he had to try.
Wiping away sweat, he glanced behind him, making sure he was still perfectly in line with the distant crystal light of the elevator.  He didn’t know exactly from how far away he would be able to see it, but as soon as he lost sight of it, he knew he would have to head back.  Gritting his teeth at the possibility of losing Fluttershy to Tartarus of all things, he forced those thoughts to the back of his head, focusing instead on his surroundings.  While he couldn’t see anything for the life of her, he could hear plenty well the distant sounds of screeching and clicking, though thankfully they didn’t seem to be intensifying.  Gripping his kharamh tightly, he pointed it out into the darkness, using it as his unseen guide to prevent him from running headlong into anything.  
Moving forward as quickly as he could, he soon found himself stepping through something that was both damp and sticky.  Fearing the worst, he bent low, looking around him as if he could see in an attempt to ward off potential unforeseen enemies.  Reaching down while keeping his head up, he felt the substance, realizing it was only a patch of moss formed from what must have been moisture trapped in the stones.  Sighing in relief that it wasn’t anything worse, he slowly stood again and continued to move forward, diligently checking each step along the way.  After another hundred, he turned to look back.
Cursing profusely under his breath, he searched for the light, but by now, he had lost it.  Holding back the urge to shout another stream of foul words, he simply picked his feet back up and began sprinting straight backwards, hoping beyond hopes he hadn’t somehow gotten himself turned around in the darkness.  After a hundred steps straight, there was no sign of the light, and with the running becoming louder and louder as he pushed himself to find the light, the more paranoid he became.  Something out here was listening, he could tell, searching for him, following the sound of his footsteps.  
Coming to an abrupt stop, feeling the eyes of countless monsters held within the depths of Tartarus on him from all sides, he crouched low.  Holding his kharamh up level to his face, he turned looking around him from all sides, straining to see where the foe was.  Growling softly as he felt the pressure rise with his heartbeat, he jerked his head left and right, desperately searching the blackness for anything.  Finally, deciding he had to be the one to make the move, he let out a ferocious shout and lunged forward, slicing through the dark air around him with the hook and spearhead alike, looking for any purchase.  
Finally wearing himself out after several minutes of engaging the darkness, he came to a stop, panting furiously.  His jaw set hard, he reestablished a stance, gripping the kharamh with both of his hands.  If that display hadn’t attracted the attention of the prisoners that he knew were nearby, then most likely they were dead or too lost at this point to be a danger.  Still, he had to maintain this stance, if not for defense, then for show, to show that he would not give into this darkness.  Glaring into the black, he slowly began to back away, towards where he could only now assume the elevator was.
Suddenly, he felt himself bump into something very large, and very, very hairy.  Jumping away while also whirling his weapon around, he moved to strike whatever it was when his weapon was wrenched from hands by an unseen and incredibly powerful force.  Freezing where he was, he stared into the black where the hairy wall had been, unable to see anything.  Then, as if whatever it was had read his thoughts, a bright white light suddenly flashed out from in front of him.  Shouting in surprise, temporarily blinded by the flash of light in the dark, Ray lifted his arms to cover his eyes as he stumbled backwards. 
As soon as his eyes had adjusted to the new light, he knew there was not much it would help him with.  Staring upwards, he found himself facing what he could only describe as a massive tarantula, its eight red eyes glaring down at him from a head larger than he stood.  Letting out a soft sigh of discontent, he raised his spear, preparing himself to most likely be eaten by the massive arachnid.  At the very least, he was going to make this spider hurt.
Before he could charge however, the spider tilted its head sideways, its mandibles clicking together in a distinctly amused way as it hissed into the darkness.  Unable to understand what the hiss meant, he took the opportunity to take a small step backwards, watching the enormous head for any sign of hostile movement.  
“Yes, he does have a tendency to fight instead of flee,” a very welcome and familiar voice agreed from somewhere behind the spider, answering an unheard response.  Without any warning, Fluttershy suddenly landed in front of him, the light from behind the spider illuminating everything save her face.  Tightening his grip on his kharamh, uncertain about if the mare he was staring at was actually the Fluttershy he had entered Tartarus with, he took another step back.  
“Fluttershy, what’s going on,” he asked carefully, treading lightly on his own words.  “What’s going on?”
The mare looked up suddenly with a sheepish smile, the light finally illuminating her cream face and pink mane.  “Ray, don’t be afraid.  This is the Matriarch, and she’s a friend.  She wants to help with the war.”
Ray narrowed his eyes, squinting at the pegasus’ face for any signs of abnormal behavior or anything to suggest the mare wasn’t the Element of Kindness.  “I don’t understand, Fluttershy.  This spider wants to help me?”
“Perhaps it’s best if I explain myself, child,” a wise, ancient voice suddenly called from behind Fluttershy.  Ray felt his eyes widen as the Matriarch carefully stepped over the mare, leaning its head down so that one of its eight ruby eyes was level with his head.  “I am the Matriarch, the World Weaver as some have called me, and the Mother of Monstrosities as others have called me.  I have been around since the first life on this plane, though I was merely the common offspring of a much greater being to begin with, as with you.  For two thousand years, I have confined myself to these depths, to meditate on the plan laid out before me and you and have come to realize the value of your mortal time here, Orphan of the Cosmos.”
“Orphan,” Ray questioned, leaning in towards the Matriarch’s face, furious.  “I have a family here.”
“Yes, indeed, you have found yourself roots in this otherworldly soil, but being an orphan is not your mortal status, but your ethereality.  You come from a universe and world dissimilar from Equestria, and with it, have severed the connection to all other universes.  An isolated individual from distant realms and allocated presence here, in this arcanic freeland.  You are a homeless nomad who has traveled unwillingly across the dimensions, leaving you without your true home world and true species.  Thus, the Cosmos’ Orphan you have become.”
“So you intend to insult me until you join my cause,” Ray spat, looking the Matriarch up and down.  
“These are not insults, but misunderstood achievements,” the Matriarch explained patiently.  “You are no longer leashed to the world you called home, nor are you bound by the laws of this world you find yourself presiding over.  You are truly the freest of creatures in these cosmos, for there are none save you who are unbound from the flowings of the ethereal strand.  Do you see it?”
“Yes, I think I understand,” Ray nodded in sudden realization.  This thing, the Matriarch was obviously much older, wiser, and smarter than he ever would be, which made her equally informative and out of touch with what she was explaining to him.  “But why do you want to help with a war between mortals when you have obviously seen so many pass before you.” 
“Honestly, lordling, do you need to ask such a question?”  Ray gasped, stepping back in surprise as he dropped his kharamh, the moniker given to him by the Fallen sounding alien from the Matriarch.  “If you are involved with this conflict, if the tearing of the weaving of the world and a disruption in the flow of the universe is required for this mortal qualm, then by all accounts it must also involve the culmination of immortal, mortal, and ethereal beings.”
The head leaned in very closely to Ray, some of the Matriarchs hairs touching his own as it whispered harshly to him, “Why you are the centripetal force behind the movements of the cosmos are still unknown to me, but those in the void, the masters of Equestria, do know.  I may never find out, but I will serve their grand purpose by assisting you in the field of this mortal conflict.  By giving you the chance to move beyond this frivolous conflict, it will allow you to truly save those who matter to you, and allows me to serve my masters.”  The large arachnid paused for a moment contemplatively, twisting its head to where Fluttershy had finally emerged from behind it.  “Perhaps they will allow us insight into the map of eternity beyond the plan.”
“How…” Ray questioned, falling into a sitting position, overcome by everything the Matriarch had revealed.  “How can there be so much more to this than I ever knew, and more than Twilight ever intended?  I don’t understand how you could know all of this.”
“Lordling, the first threads were sewn by me and created the world of Equestria long before the ponies or minotaurs or other inhabitants existed.  I was one of the four first mortals to ever be created by those Aspects Twilight the Princess of Friendship informed you of.  After your slaying of Tirek, I am the last of them to remain alive, the wisest of them and the most careful.  With the time I have been granted upon this plane, I have amassed the knowledge of my creators and even seen beyond their voidfull veil, glancing at the map of eternity for the briefest of moments and understanding nigh none of it but the plan, this plan.  With the reign of chaos and bloodshed of two thousand years ago, I had to conceal myself from the world in the safest of places so that I may be of use to you when the time came.  Now the time has come for me to reveal myself to this world and remind my creators of their last prophet.  Now is the time for you to fulfill the destiny placed before you, planned for but shattered by your arrival.”
“I’m the point on which all of the universe pivots, then,” Ray slowly concluded, hollow from the realization.  “Everything I do now and onwards, everything I have done, will decide what occurs next.”
“Yes, and with your resistance to the Spectre and its wishes, it seems you are properly equipped for the obstreperous conflict of the Aspects,” the Matriarch encouraged.  “To meet you in the flesh as well, to have your lance pointed to my eyes, ready to fight me in spite of your lilliputian size compared to my grandiose, to see the fire in your eyes and soul…”  The Matriarch trailed off, simply staring as Fluttershy glanced back and forth between the two.  Finally, the Matriarch finished, “Well, I must say that I am simply lacking the description for you I am looking for, consummate one.”
Running a hand through his hair while loosely grabbing his kharamh from the floor with his other hand, he muttered, “This is all so much more than I could have ever expected.  I mean, I’m talking to a giant spider who’s thousands of years old.  I… am I ready?”
“Ray, all that you fear is what makes you the candidate the cosmos desired, and all that you do not fear makes you the candidate that mortals require.  The balance within you is upheld firmly on your own conscience, of which, like unto the rest of you, is in the best of conditions for such characteristics.  You may never feel ready or worthy, but all sides of the veil dictate that you are.  You needn’t not fear the dangers you face, for the time will never come that you are alone in your conflict.”  Then, with a bit of smugness, the Matriarch added, “Besides, with a mammoth monster such as myself backing your cause, what need do you have to truly fear?”
“Fair enough,” Ray answered with a laugh, glancing over to where Fluttershy was standing patiently, watching the two of them talking without complaint.  “She can’t understand us, can she?”  Seeing approval from the Matriarch, he allowed himself, “I guess I was right that you were a powerful and dangerous creature trying to get her to release you, but I was wrong on why.  I’m not sure I’m mad at her anymore, knowing that she found you of all creatures and beings down here.  But don’t tell her I said any of that.”
“True danger has long feared to walk these caverns, for while Cerberus guarded the doorway, I was the true keeper of peace within Tartarus.  Any and all dangers that failed to respect me or my dominion were… appetizers for my hunger.  Alas, those tales are hardly entertaining and are for another time, when we can afford to share them.  I believe that it’s about time for you to introduce me to General Skalos and inform him of his second army.”
Ray let out a laugh, a full belly one that echoed in the dark lit up by the spindles of the World Weaver.  “While you are a powerful ally and undoubtedly large, I think it’s a bit of a stretch to call yourself a whole second army!”
“Oh, lordling, you mustn’t have realized it,” the Matriarch chided sarcastically.  Suddenly, a sound, soft and distant, almost unnoticed through the conversation, began to be louder.  After only a few more seconds, Ray could scarcely hear anything but the scraping, scuttling sound that echoed through the depths of Tartarus.  With a gasp, he watched as hundreds, then thousands, then hundreds of thousands of ruby eyes were suddenly illuminated by the bright light of the World Weaver’s silk as they approached.  “A matriarch is nothing without her myrmidons.”
> The Liar's Price
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Well, as surprising as this twist is, it isn’t an unwelcome surprise,” Skalos muttered, staring up at the spider.  He and the human alike stared at the enormous figure of the Matriarch, fully illuminated by the cavelight of the Harkening.  Ray could hardly believe the true size of the Matriarch, even while consciously knowing that her head alone was as large as him.  Perhaps it was because of the grand scale of the spider in general, or perhaps because he had become too used to being the largest thing around but seeing the Matriarch in the open like this had left him speechless all over again.
“It will be my pleasure to assist the cause with my children for the children of vengeance,” the Matriarch nodded politely, a large feeler reaching out to gesture to the breadth of the Harkening.  The scuttling of hundreds of thousands of spiders followed the statement as suddenly the children of the Matriarch began to climb up the nearby walls and onto the ceiling of the grand cavern.  Ray watched with astonishment and some level of horror at the sight of them all, spiders of varying sizes spreading across this side of the Fallen’s home.  The human side of him shivered at the sight, but the rest of him resisted the urge to back away from the horde of arachnids.  
“Do not fear, and let your soldiers know to not fear, my children obey my word and thine alike,” the Matriarch ensured, staring up at her spiderlings.  “Unfortunately, the vast majority of them are far too young to have learned the art of tongues or adopted manners of the mystic arts.  However, they are quite hardy and well prepared to assist in any conflict to befall them and easily understand the words you speak to them.  Much like the Fallen, their lives for the majority have been spent in the darkness of Tartarus, and it has shaped them into a silent, yet quite proficient force.  Given the princess Twilight’s permission, I should like to take my spawn above ground shortly to inhabit a spot of woods to adjust them to the light and soil.”
“Well, I’m sure Twilight will be most pleased to see a horde of spiders on her grounds without any prior knowledge,” Ray joked, crossing his arms.  “I can ask her, but I’m not quite sure when the next time I’ll see her is.  It may be a few days till I get back to you.”
“Hm, I suppose my sudden appearance on the above-world would cause quite a stir, enough to draw her attention, correct,” the Matriarch pointed out keenly, a glint of mischief in her ancient eyes.  
Smiling at the joke, Ray shook his head no as Skalos stated, “The time between now and the invasion is slimming quite narrowly.  Two weeks until we launch, and then we will land eight days afterward.  From there, Celestia guide us and our blades to success.  We need these few days to introduce our two armies together and help the Fallen such as myself get used to, well you, World Weaver.  We’ve seen plenty of strange and wonderful things, but frankly, you are terrifying to the common mortal.”
“Yes, I quite understand my… immense size and its effects on the much more miniscule life in Equestria.  Perhaps it is wisest to worry less about our own physical comfort and focus more on the unification of our two species as one force, united under our lordling,” the Matriarch ruled with a thoughtful reach of her feeler to tap the ground.  “The war we are about to fight, while mortal in conflict, most certainly pertains to the cosmos also, and in some way, it will affect our universe, as our universe’s creators most certainly have a hand in this.  A complete and thorough understanding of this will not be comprehended by my children, for too few have my developed understanding.  However, if somehow you could inform the Fallen of the piece they play in the Aspect’s works, then mayhaps it will allow for a more cohesive uniformity in this army.”
Ray cringed slightly at the Matriarch’s sudden request, the delicate topic of the Aspects brought up in front of Skalos and Fluttershy.  Skalos glanced sharply over at Ray, a questioning arch in his brow as the mare did the same, although less reserved as she gawked at him.
“I thought we agreed no more lies,” Fluttershy cried, sitting down to point an accusatory hoof at him.  
“Yes, and that’s why I didn’t tell you anything I couldn’t confirm,” Ray quickly explained, holding up a hand to the Matriarch to ward off her interruption.  “Twilight and I have come up with several theories of what the Spectre may or may not be, however, since none of this are solidly founded on fact, we have simply decided that, until more information is disclosed, the Spectre is simply, well, a spectre.  Not quite explainable but something to be feared and cautious about.  One of the theories Twilight had, and one I’m partial to, is that the Spectre is an Aspect, one of the powerful beings that represents a piece of Equestria through itself.  Whether it is or not we cannot confirm and doesn’t seem all too likely, but it’s the closest bet we have in my opinion.”
“I’ve never heard of these Aspects before,” Skalos muttered, also taking a seat as he rubbed his chin incredulously.  “Most ponies don’t even really think about life after death, since Celestia has assured us of its existence after her transcendence to the throne.  Are you saying that Celestia has been lying to us this whole time?”
“I doubt she has,” Ray assured the Fallen, the grim expression on his face slackening.  “I just don’t think she told you about the Aspects for fear of angering them, as Twilight warned me, they are far more powerful than anything here on Equestria.  When she was telling me about the existence of the Aspects, she seemed paranoid, almost as if by telling me she was putting us in danger.  Whatever is going on, the Matriarch has confirmed that the Aspects are involved in some way, which is why I guess it’s best if you learned now.  Sorry for how messy this came out, but you have to believe me when I say that I know nothing but that there are some higher powers, and that there is nothing I can say or do to stop them if they get involved, so for the moment, the less people that know, the better.”
“This goes nowhere, then, not even to Twilight,” Skalos agreed with a sharp nod.  Glancing to Fluttershy, he told her strictly, “What you have heard is undoubtedly concerning, if not terrifying, and as such, you will not spread such fears through your friends.  There’s already mass paranoia over the oncoming worldly war, and if we accidently involve these Aspects as well, it could mean the loss of society as we know it.”
“If I may add my knowledge to this discussion, I would like to point out that the Aspects are the very same things that created this universe,” the Matriarch objected, a feeler stroking along the ground.  “The Aspects created me as one of the first four living creatures, an oracle for this world to warn and assist any champions of the cosmos, such as Ray.  I could not oblige to hearing the Aspects called warmongers as you suggest, in spite of the nature of some.  They are beings who would not destroy their own creations, their own children even.  Slandering their name is only but a quick path to having them turn their backs to you.”
“We aren’t calling them good or evil, and I’ve noticed that you’re doing the same,” Fluttershy spoke up, the other three turning to her.  “We can’t call them enemies or allies because for thousands of years, we haven’t seen hide or hoof of the Aspects.  All we know is that they are now part of this, whether or not we wanted them to, which means we have to be wary of them.”
“Precisely,” Ray agreed, looking back over to the Matriarch.  “I’m not quite sure what your relationship with the Aspects is and why you find yourself in their service so diligently, but I can respect it.  However, if you are going to involve yourself in our war, you are going to have to prioritize this fight over whatever loyalties you have on high.  We trust you and your judgments of the cosmos, but we can’t trust however higher loyalties are to, seeing as how the Spectre has proven we mortals are merely ants to immortals.”
“You stereotype the Aspects based on the thesis of one capricious immortal,” the Matriarch demanded furiously.  “The Aspects are greater beings than the amassment of all mortals to have ever lived in their realms.  We cannot dare to oppose their impediment into this conflict, for if we anger them, there is very little any of us can do to stop them from turning their wrath on us.”
“Then we don’t try to stop them, but we don’t allow them to pierce our ranks with their grand scheme,” Ray allowed.  “If we can’t stop them, we will simply do as we need to survive both the Aspects and the minotaurs, and if that means allowing the Aspects to be involved in some way, so be it.”
“In theory, however, we may be able to mask the conflict, if you feel the required actions to be hidden from the Aspects’ eyes,” the Matriarch commented.  Ray gave the arachnid a quizzical look at the sudden helpfulness of the comment.  Noting his glance, the Matriarch stated, “You asked me to put my loyalties into the fight with the minotaurs, and as such I shall do my best to assist you in that manner, even if it means shading the truth from the Aspects.  They know much and everything, but they are admittedly vulnerable to their own eternal strivings.  I have come to appreciate the smaller and shorter lifespans of the creatures that roam their world, and as such will indulge myself in this conflict not only for your sake lordling, but for the ponies too.”
“We thank you greatly for your input and assistance, then,” Skalos thanked with a respectful bow.  “Now, World Weaver, please, go on.  Share with us how we may shield ourselves from the sight of the Aspects.”
“Well, Skalos, the involvement of myself and my children will certainly draw some attention to the Aspects, as while I am also but a mortal, I am the first of Darkness’ creations and the only still living.  However, if I were to be concealed within the folds of the army and my children divided up and dissolved into the units of the Fallen, then mayhaps they will be unable to detect my substance amongst you.  I can hide myself physically from the sky, however it will take more than visual elusivity to conceal my presence from the Aspects.  For that, we will need something else to be distracting the Aspects’ sight, preferably something here within mainland Equestria.  I would request that Twilight would be the distraction, as her Princesshood grants her a power and connection to the Aspects, however, she was also the one to stir the flow of the cosmos to bring you to us, and the connection could easily be made, and from there, revealment.”
“We don’t have time to figure out a way to distract the Aspects from an actual war without using another conflict that’s going on right now,” Skalos pointed out.  “By tomorrow, the Fallen will have finished packing up the Harkening and will leave it forever.  We have only an ample couple of weeks to establish a base camp here for any possible retreat, refit the boats, and cast off.  Combine that with a continued training of amphibious assault, and the lordling and I will have no time to place our focus elsewhere.  We need an outside influence to assist us with this cause, someone that isn’t connected directly to us or Twilight.”
“There are a great many dealings in the world that concern me,” the Matriarch suddenly began to speak.  “I have long listened to the winds of change and watched as the surroundings of this world became… chaotically peaceful.  A dark presence resides in Equestria, hidden away from the natural world, protecting themselves and the ponies of Equestria from each other.  A continual conflict arises between them, however.  Perhaps I can manipulate this situation that has slowly arisen to capitulate on our purpose.  For reasons unknown, even I cannot identify this sect, for they are neither pony, griffon, dragon, or any other Equestrian species, rather, I can sense Darkness’ presence in them, and that is my only acknowledgement of their existence.  I will take my leave and find these forlorn souls to see what I might learn about them and how they may be able to assist us.  If I’m not back before you cast off, my children shall follow you on your boats without question and follow any and all orders given.”
 The Matriarch paused momentarily, her eyes looking out above her and to the sides of her, where the spiders had begun to establish themselves homes in the luminescent light of the Harkening.  Slowly, the Matriarch admitted, “I am not one for personal connections, not even to my own children, but I do request that for the sakes of my spiderlings, you treat them as the individuals and sentient creatures they are, and not as exposable tools.  A good many of them have also lived beyond the life of the Princesses and have only begun learning their potential, the longevity of life shedding light on knowledge and casting instinct away as they develop their beings.  Do not waste the potential of my children on a war, even one so important as to involve the Aspects.”
“You have our word that the spiderlings will be welcome to this army and treated as the individual soldiers they are,” Skalos assured her with a respectful nod.  “The army of Fallen and spiderlings will sweep across our enemies swiftly and secure every victory we might against the minotaurs with minimal casualties, if possible.”
“We trust you and your children and are grateful for your continued assistance in this conflict, and hopefully through the end of it, we may find a way to learn more of the cosmos’ involvement in our lands,” Ray continued for the Fallen.  “As soon as this worldly conflict is concluded, we will devote our time, strength, and attention to this troubling matter of yours.  The Aspects will be acknowledged and the World Weaver will become a seer and general the same to assist us in protecting the Aspects from whatever harm may have befallen them or help them in whatever grand scheme they have.”
“Your words comfort, and your eyes speak truth,” the Matriarch began before slowly turning to Fluttershy. “But your eyes show equal fear to the courage you have shown, child of magic.  I see your discomfort and fear at all that has transpired here today, and all that will transpire in the months to come.”
Suddenly, the Matriarch’s voice slipped away into the hissing and clicking of mandibles as the two’s conversation became individual.  Skalos looked confused for a moment, but Ray quickly explained, “The Matriarch has the power to alter her voice so only an individual she wants to hear the conversation will hear it.  We won’t understand a word the other two say while they talk personally.”
“Hm, I see,” his friend observed, lifting a hoof to rub his chin.  Turning to Ray, the Fallen set his brow hard as he asked, “Do you truly trust this World Weaver with putting our better interests in front of whatever plan she has?”
Shooting a sharp glance over to the Matriarch and Fluttershy, he hissed, “Do you really want to have this conversation right in front of her?”
“Well, obviously she could hear us any other place we might take refuge for the matters at hand, so best to be upfront about it than to try and talk behind her back,” Skalos pointed out sharply.  “I personally do trust her to be a great asset in this war, but beyond that, I don’t believe she has concerned herself all too greatly with the matters of Equestria.  I don't think she cares about the Fallen, me, or even you.”
“You could have at least waited for us to be out of feeler’s reach before you said all of that,” Ray muttered, still staring at the World Weaver, noticing the way her head had turned ever so slightly towards him and Skalos.  Peeling his eyes off her, he replied firmly, “The Matriarch has no reason to not care for Equestria, as all she has done so far is in defense of it and I can trust the sincerity of her words.  I also know for a fact that she is hiding something- no, a great many somethings- from us, but for the moment, she is our greatest ally.  What she has said to me, about everything, about the Spectre, she does it out of concern for me specifically, but along with that, she is concerned with what concerns me.  So, if I want to save Equestria and ensure it remains peaceful, she will do the same to please me, as she has done by joining our cause.”
“And what makes you so sure that she cares so greatly for your condition,” Skalos questioned earnestly.  “The act of joining this war is commendable and was very needed for us, but at the same time, what more does she gain from this than your security?  She has already stated that higher powers are at play in this conflict.  What higher power does she serve that benefits her to assist ‘mortals'?”
“It’s because of me,” Ray confessed, settling down on a patch of mossy rock, setting his elbows on his knees.  “In some way, I’m involved with the Matriarch’s goal to assist some grand plan to play out.  The act of Twilight bringing me here to Equestria disrupted the flow of the cosmos and suddenly found me entangled in ‘the plan’, part of some much bigger course the Matriarch calls the map of eternity.  I don’t understand a word of it, other than that it involves me, the Aspects, the Spectre, and the World Weaver.”
Skalos sat thoughtfully for several long moments, thinking, before he finally said, “The Spectre appeared during our scouting trip four weeks back, didn’t it?  That was why you had fallen overboard, because you were taken from your body and allowed to drift while alone.  Why did you try to hide it from me, Ray?”
Ray was less shocked by the sudden acknowledgement of his lies and more stung by the hurt in Skalos’ voice as he asked the question.  The Fallen looked up at him grimly, his brow set deep not in anger or stoic emotionlessness, but rather in sorrow and pain.  Instantly, Ray was on his feet, stepping to his best friend and compatriot, wrapping the Fallen up into a hug.  For one reason or another, tears stung his eyes as he tried to hold back the guilt and subtle pain of lying to his most trusted ally in the world.
“Skalos, I didn’t need you to be worrying about me any more than you already have been, and I didn’t want to have to worry about another thing taking you away from me,” Ray admitted, holding on to his much smaller companion tightly.  “You’re braver, smarter, and stronger than me in every way, which is why I know that if and when the time may come, you will lay down your life for me.  I don’t want that, though, even though it’s one of your most prudent goals.  You’ve already given me so much in this world that I never had on Earth, and the thought of losing you stings me even when we attempt to keep this professional.  You’re my brother, Skalos, in more than just spirit, but in a way I could never explain with words.  Without you, I and the rest of this world would be lost, and yet somehow, at the end of the day, you never seem to realize your value.
“If you were to learn of the Spectre, I feared so many different reactions, from tired, begrudging acceptance that you would one day have to stop me to an instantaneous cut off of all communication and emotion.  I’ve already lost one family and have distanced myself from another to protect them.  I was worried that if I lost you and the Fallen too, I would shatter and allow the Spectre to take hold of me.  There is nothing in this world that I want to save more than the Fallen, and in order to do that, I need you.  Without you, I remain simply a monstrous boy who will only ever amount to nothing. “
“Almost a year and yet we are still strangers,” Skalos muttered hoarsely into Ray’s ear.  “I think you have it quite wrong about you and me, Ray.  In the seventeen hundred years I’ve called the Harkening my home, there has hardly been a moment of emotion that was not regret, pain, or sorrow.  When you first arrived, a youth blinded by the light of the new world yet lost in the dark, I thought for sure that we were simply given a different species of Fallen.  Then, you opened your mouth and spoke to the entirety of the Harkening, and that speech I still remember to this day.  There were many promises and some falsehoods in there, but none more grievous than you calling us ‘Risen’.
“Every Fallen knew that you were incorrect to say that we were risen from our miserable state, both in a physical and mental sense.  However, when you said those words, in spite of your own knowledge, you sparked a fire in each and every one of us that were listening to earn that moniker, to become Risen.  I listened that day, Ray.  I wished for myself to become something more, and looking up at you, hearing your words and seeing your actions from every day onward, I have felt next to nothing but hope.  
“Lordling, you thought yourself lost without us, but in truth, both you and the Fallen were lost together, unable to find anything through the dark.  On that day, the day you visited the Harkening, however, you lit a torch in this dark and dreary place of the damned.  It allowed us Fallen to see that path we must take to become Risen, and it allowed us to help use your torch to light seventeen thousand more.  You gave us the spark we needed to guide you to your destiny, and while ours may be to end on the battlefield, honorably by your side until the end, the battlefield will not be your end.  For your courage and bravery to be wasted in blood would be a sin to the highest degree, and I know the cosmos will not allow it, but before even that, we Fallen will not allow it.  We don’t lay down our lives so you may live, we live our best lives so that we may rise, to become the closest thing to you we may ever be able to achieve.
“Our quest, lordling, is to not die in battle, but to rise to the occasion to redeem ourselves in the eyes of the only person who has come to matter to us.  You, Ray, lordling, are our quest, our oath, and our freedom from the hell of hells we’ve trapped our damned souls in.  The truth of my heart is that there cannot be a world without you in it, even if it means laying down my regained life for you.  We don’t and will not give our lives away for the vanity of honor, but for the greatest respect and admiration we have gained of you.  This is the truth, Ray.  These are the true emotions I and all of the other Fallen have hidden from you so that we can continue to feel this way about you without your guilt.  As much as you have hidden from me, the entirety of the Fallen has hidden their truest love and admiration for you, Ray, my brother.”
Ray swayed slightly as Skalos finished his words, the broadest, brightest smile he had ever seen on the stallion’s tear-streaked face.  Slowly, the human reached out and placed his hand on the Fallen’s cheek, wiping away one of his wet, translucent tears.  Speechless, he stared at his hand, the wet mark on his fingertips left by Skalos’ tears.  Unable to remain hallowed by his words, Ray watched as several more drops landed on his cupped hands, tears blurring his vision as he was overcome with emotion.  For several long moments, he felt the world crumble away to just him and Skalos, tears falling quicker than his beating heart as he began to cry for the first time in many long months.  
Before he could say or do anything but blubber, Skalos reengaged, a tight hug around his neck, his cold skin rubbing against Ray’s warm skin.  Ray wrapped his arms back around the Fallen, holding on tightly as he allowed the words to roll over and over him, rocking him from the deep dark sea he had stranded himself in.  All of these months of callous training and dark preparation for the war to come shattered in an instant, his professional act crumbling to dust.  This, these tears, his emotions, were the truth and guidance behind his actions, beyond duty, and now he swore through tears that he would not allow himself to become what he had.
Slowly, the emotions began to subside, Ray sniffing as he leaned back to wipe away his tears.  The two gave each other a brief look before laughing sheepishly at the sudden breakdown, Ray saying, “Sorry, I think I cried into your back a little.”
“Aye, you may want to clean that tunic when you can,” Skalos suggested as he also wiped away his tears.  Clearing his throat, the Fallen regained some of his composure as he punctuated, “Ray, what I just told you is not just my emotions but the emotions of every Fallen who calls themself your soldier.  I hope you know that, and I hope that means that we can gain your trust now that our truth has been shared.”
“Well, I would say that you will always have my trust, and I must ask forgiveness for breaking yours,” Ray replied humbly.
“Ray, what you did was not to lie for the sake of self-fear, but for the fear for us, your friends and comrades.  There is nothing that gains more trust than the protection of those who you love through such drastic measures as to hide it from them.  I, we, the Fallen, forgive you of a trespass that only progressed our path and did not defile it.”
“A common mistake of allies is to bicker and hide truths from each other, causing rifts and discretion against one another until the peace tears and hate flow,” the Matriarch keenly interrupted, sticking her head in towards the two suddenly.  Her large red eyes stared at the two intently, the judgment and curiosity evident as she studied them.  “How interesting, the actions of mortals so mature that they may be eons old.  Keen of you to set aside such words and worries, allowing complete transparency to forge truthful, lasting bonds.  Such is the way when you do not have time as your healing aide…”
“Pardon us for our display,” Skalos replied, ducking his head in a respectful bow. “As you see, we both had something we needed to reveal before we could continue with our purpose.”
“All is well, general,” the Matriarch assured with her own nod. “Emotions are a heavy toll on those who have little time in life to feel them sincerely.  Those bright sparks through the moments of time that allow one to feel the raw power of any singular emotion often overpower we mortals for a season.  There is a reason why love and hate both have places in the eyes of the Aspects as surging power.  Princess Cadance, the Princess of Love still living, and Sombra, Prince of Hate, deceased for but a few years now.”
“Wait, so Love and Hatred are two of the Aspects,” Ray exclaimed, his attention suddenly drawn straight to the Matriarch’s words.  
“Why yes, they are two of the weakest Aspects, but they do have two of the great universal emotions,” the Matriarch commented offhandedly.  “Emotion itself stems from different variations of hate and love, the root of all emotion, and as such, the two are the constant to each other.”
“So, all Aspects have an opposite to another, a conduit and controlling power for the opposite,” Skalos questioned.  A nod of affirmation left Skalos with a simple, “Interesting.”
“I believe that I must take my leave at this moment, seeing as the day is passing quickly and my time to act is running short,” the Matriarch said suddenly, looking up to the ceiling of the Harkening.  “My children will not be contentious with the Fallen here, and with the proper explanation, I believe neither will they.”
“It’s been an honor to meet you, World Weaver,”  Skalos politely acknowledged with a nod.  “And it will be a continued pleasure to fight beside you and your kin in battle.”
“Farewell, Skalos,” the Matriarch responded before her speech slipped into incomprehensible skitterings for a few private words with the Fallen.  Ray licked his lips as the Matriarch turned her large head to him, saying, “And to you, Orphan of the Cosmos, I wish the best of favor to be upon you.  The cosmos needs your survival for this universe to continue to resist the dark forces that threaten it from a distance.  While there is no doubt in my mind the perfection you are for this purpose, your soul’s turmoil will be the downfall of you over any blade cast against you.  Remember this in the times that most matter: you are that others may be.”
Ray nodded slowly, looking down from her red eyes and to the rocky cavern ground.  Without a sound, the Matriarch finally turned over to Fluttershy, warmly departing, “Goodbye, child of magic.  You already know my thoughts of you.”
“Until we meet again, Matriarch,” Fluttershy smiled kindly, ducking her head reverently.  
Ray watched as the spider turned, her long legs expanding hundreds of feet forward, bringing her to the exit of the Harkening almost instantly.  Though her body was large, the Matriarch was able to slide her way into the tunnel that led into the main sprawl of the Harkening, and without the slightest pause, the Matriarch was through and gone.  Looking around him at the hundreds of thousands of different spiders that now inhabited this side of the Harkening, setting up webs or scrambling across the rocks for better positions, Ray couldn’t help but let his jaw slacken.  Shaking his head at the sight, at everything he had just witnessed, the bizarreness of the Matriarch, he turned to Skalos, who shared a similar expression.  Wordlessly, he stuck a thumb out towards the nesting spiderlings, shrugging his shoulders.
Shaking his head in the same wonder as Ray, he muttered, “Quite frankly, lordling, there are no words for whatever this is.  How do you keep finding yourself in the most unusual situations?”
“Well, I wasn’t the one who brought me to Equestria,” Ray replied with a chuckle.  “You’ll have to take it up with Twilight.”
> Honesty
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a windy day, the flags of the camp billowing loudly as Ray walked between the tents.  As had been planned, the focus of yesterday and today had been gathering the last of the Fallen’s few possessions and establishing an above ground camp.  Considering the neat organization and planning done by Skalos and two other Fallen Ray hadn’t quite gotten the names of, the task had gone by quickly considering the size of the army.  In only thirty-two hours, the last of the Fallen had left the Harkening and pitched their tents, leaving the Matriarch’s children as the last inhabitants of the ancient city.  
Ray’s purpose right now was to simply monitor and assess any potential problems that may occur, though there hadn’t been any that couldn’t be easily solved.  A misplaced tent here, an overcrowded one that required deviation, and a few missing pieces of equipment found elsewhere.  Nothing that would be outright concerning if it occurred upon their first landing.  The only thing he would change was the flags, their tall, billowing cloth loud enough that he was sure the inhabitants of Ponyville were able to hear it, and if they could hear it, he didn’t want their position to be revealed to the minotaurs through their patriotism.  
The flags weren’t inherently Equestrian, but rather a multitude of different flags that represented different nations or even different armies and divisions within the Fallen.  Many had been handcrafted by materials donated or found by the Fallen over the course of their rapid rise in publicity, however, there was one particularly special flag flying at the entrance to camp.  Looking up at it, sad that he was about to order it to be taken down, Ray stared at his flag, the black emblem of a kharamh and open hand inked into the fresh, glowing silver silk of the Matriarch’s kin.  
Upon learning of the Matriarch and her children’s presence in the Harkening, Zecora had rushed to the underground to investigate the new allies.  Among the things she found out about them, some with Twilight’s persistent assistance, was the genuine uses of the silk they produced.  It was soft and easily weaved, and after only a few hours of weaving, she had produced the patch of cloth for him to decorate as his own flag.  While he hadn’t had the time to personally decorate it, somehow Garish had, “borrowing” some of the ink Twilight had brought with her for notes and added the characteristics.
With a sigh, he glanced around at some of the older and more colorful flags that had been around for weeks or even months in anticipation of the invasion.  Looking to a trio of Fallen who were dutifully cleaning their weapons, glancing occasionally at him, he asked, “Which flag is yours?”
“The yellow one with the pale blue stripe down the center, sir,” one of them, a blueish stallion, replied with a sharp salute.  Looking over his shoulder in the direction the stallion had indicated, Ray nodded keenly.  The stallion quickly explained, “It’s Rohan’s flag, the flag of the Third Spear Legion.  My name is Umron, sir, captain of the second unit within it, and these two are my friends and seconds, Garet and Hammer.”
“Pleasure to meet the three of you,” Ray said with a smile, reaching forward and shaking the captain’s translucent hoof firmly.  “Rohan was the first Fallen I met beside Skalos and a dear friend.  It’s a pleasure to finally meet some of the strong stallions he commands.  You all prepared for the journey ahead?”
“Well, sir, if I’m being frank, I don’t look too kindly at crossing the sea,” one of the other stallions, a light green unicorn, answered honestly.  
“Garet here ain’t gotten his sea legs yet, sir,” the other one, Hammer, laughed as he clapped a hoof against his back.  
Garet gave his companion a short glare before defending, “I may lose my fight with the ocean, but you can be sure as the sun will rise that I’m punching a hole the size of my hoof through the first minotaur I see.  Them bastards ain’t gonna be able to see what hit ‘em before we send them straight back to their creator.”
“That’s the plan,” Ray nodded, smiling at the determination of his soldiers.  Crossing his arms, he glanced back over to the company’s flag, informing them, “Well, I haven’t given it as an order yet, gentlemen, but just be aware that when we set camp in the new world, we aren’t going to be able to set our flags out.  Considering the lack of knowledge we have of our enemies, we don’t want to give away the position of our camp with our patriotism.  For now, though, they’re fine to fly, and we may even just post them up on our boats when we cast off.”
“Yessir,” Umron snapped, a salute from him and the other two confirming the message.  
“Alright then, you guys have a good rest of your evening,” Ray departed, turning and walking down the rough paths beaten out by countless hooves walking across them.  Glancing from tent to tent, noticing the different activities of the dozens of Fallen he saw, he finally emerged from the edges of the camp, to where the road to Ponyville suddenly appeared from between two hills.  Though he had no intent to stay at his house for the night, he did want to visit the town briefly to catch up on the gossip spreading about his army.  Already it had attracted half the town’s population, the spectacle of encampment catching their attention quickly and holding it for hours on end.
Right now, the crowd was much smaller than it was this time yesterday, though he credited it more to the windy, sunny day than the lack of any more movement between Tartarus and the above ground world.  They had scattered the waypoint they had used between the Harkening and the camp, officially closing off any way for a large number of people to pass between the two worlds.  The thought caused him to sigh sadly, the fond memories he shared of the Harkening with the Fallen were numerous and powerful.  Saying goodbye to his adopted home, however, was inevitable, and so he had left it without any regrets.
Many of the Fallen, if not every one, had shared a few tears with their company upon returning to the surface, leaving the Harkening for what may have well been the last time.  With a shaky breath, they had pushed forward to dutifully complete their task however, the coldness of leaving home well familiar to Ray, leading them to the future.  They would leave their home once and look back only with the fondest memories and with the desire to return should they survive.  Skalos had made his division swear to him that they would not think to return to the Harkening until they had received their restored bodies, and considering the tradition of the former Grims, Ray hardly doubted they ever would.
Biting his lip as he approached the town, he felt every eye on him as he crossed the small stone bridge over the creek and into the town.  Some peeked at him from behind curtains, others stared wide from the street vendors, and a few kindly greeted him.  Boy did he need those few kind greetings over those cold and fearful stares.  Looking to one of those friendly familiar faces, the shopkeeper that had given him the sleeping powder, he smiled and dipped his head in a thankful nod.  The shopkeeper, who Ray still regrettably didn’t know the name of, returned the gesture in kind, an understanding curve to his smile.  
Refusing to note the fear of the others, he allowed himself to be confident, knowing that for better or for worse, he was here for a purpose beyond the favor of the ponies.  He was here now to save them, if he could, and whether they appreciated his actions or not, he would do so.  It wasn’t a question anymore of if he could, but rather if they would allow him, though knowing the timid nature of the residents of the small town, they wouldn’t even think to get in his way.  A lifetime of being the victims of countless oddities and enemies had trained them to hide and fear while someone else saved them, and as bitter as the fruit was, there was a hint of sweetness within.
Striding through town square, eyes locked on a certain shop that held the distinction of all Equestria, Ray climbed the stairs to the shop in a single step, knocking softly on the door.  Before a breath had passed, it was pulled open, Rarity staring up at him with the slightest upward curve of her lips.
“They’re staring still, aren’t they,” Ray asked, both of them knowing full well the answer.
“But of course they are, dear,” she replied cheerfully.  “After all, with such a dashing ensemble accented with your astounding height and fabulous weaponry, how could anypony resist such charms?  Although, I do have to say, you have had better looking days.”
“Well, you’ll have to forgive my appearance, Rarity,” Ray apologized, stepping inside and seating himself on the nearest couch.  “I haven’t slept in some sixty hours, I think, and haven’t had the time to wash myself in longer.”
Rarity did a visible double take at the statement, whipping around from where she had been walking to give a hard stare.  “You’re telling me you haven’t slept all week?”
“Well, with the craziness of the past day and a half of unpacking the Harkening and establishing ‘base camp’, along with the turmoil and preparation for the task, nope, I have not gotten a wink of sleep since Saturday,” Ray answered earnestly.  “Oh, on the topic of turmoil, don’t pester Fluttershy too much about what all occurred down in the Harkening.”
“Wait wait wait, you brought her to Tartarus,” Rarity demanded to know, her face terrified at the prospect.
“At her own request and with Skalos’ permission,” Ray confirmed with a nod.  
“There’s no way that she would’ve wanted to return to Tartarus, not after what happened the last time we visited,” Rarity began, before raising a hoof to silence both Ray and herself.  “I know, she’s a mare that can make choices for herself, and I don’t doubt that she did join you in the journey, but my real question is why?”
“Well, if I’m being honest, it’s because I wasn’t talking to her, or hadn’t been talking to her for months because of everything I’ve been doing down in the Harkening,” Ray honestly replied.  “I guess it was a way to see why I took so much time to myself down there and never returned home, or why I had grown to love the depths of Tartarus, and I think she found her answer.  Funny that she learned why I love the Harkening the day before we left it, isn’t it.”
“Hm, yes, I see, but in this matter, I think I’ll remain blissfully ignorant,” the mare noted.  “Now, a second question, why are you here, exactly?”
“I need a shawl to cuddle with at nights when I’m missing home,” Ray sarcastically answered with a smile.  “No, I need to check up on what everybody is saying about the army coming up and encamping a mile outside of Ponyville.”
“Well, mostly they’re all saying the same thing, which is absolutely nothing,” Rarity explained.  “Everypony seems equally scared and grim about what this means, the fact that what they were told is true, in spite of all hopes otherwise.  I mean, even I must admit that the exodus from Tartarus is quite… awakening.  I’ve known you since the first hour you’ve been here, but I must admit, the day felt so long from then that, now that it’s happening, the gathering of your army and the assembly of your navy to take you across the sea, I find myself caught with my tail up.  I can’t even begin to understand what you have gone through to prepare yourself for this day, these coming days, but I can see it in your eyes.  You know how this conflict will end, how you will completely decimate our enemies and save us… even if it means going down with your ship to do it.”
“You know me too well, Rarity,” Ray smiled sadly, shaking his head.  “The plan isn’t to die saving, or even die trying, but to end this war on our terms, ensuring the safety of Equestria for days to come.  While there is undoubtedly the risk of me not coming back, that shouldn’t be the main concern of you or anybody else in Equestria.  Your main concern should be continuing to live as if nothing is happening.  The Fallen and I have it under control, and no matter what happiness out there, it will not affect this land.  I’ve given my word that I’ll fight for this land, and now I promise you that I will defend it as well.”
“That’s not very comforting,” Rarity admitted, sitting down across from him and nervously flicking her tail sideways.  “I’m worried that you haven’t said anything about coming back home from the war, even if you do survive and win.  Why do you refuse to say that you’ll come back when you know that we want to hear it?  Even if it’s true, it’s much more comforting than simply having your fate be open ended.”
Ray sighed deeply, looking away from the mare as he confessed, “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to return to Equestria after what happens out there, in the war.  Beyond the obvious that I will have become a killer the likes of which nobody alive has ever seen, but also because the end of the war is not the end of my work.  I doubt we’ll ever be able to completely eradicate the minotaurs, so instead I must dedicate myself to nullifying them elsewise.  The Fallen have been promised new life and restored bodies once the war is done and I intend to uphold that promise and send them back to Equestria to live the lives they once gave up.  I, however, promised to fight for Equestria for an indefinite period of time, and now that I’ve promised to fight for and defend it, there is no changing the trajectory of my eternal life here.  I will defend Equestria after the war and long after… long after you die…”
Rarity flinched at the sad statement, staring at Ray with pinprick eyes.  Slowly, she stammered, “You… you’ll never return, ever?  Not to visit us, even after everything we’ve done together, the time we’ve shared and the memories we’ve made?  You would just forget it and never return home?”
“Rarity, Equestria- heck, Ponyville- was never my home, even as I tried to fool myself that it was,” Ray explained grimly.  “As much as I’ve come to love the ponies and town that Ponyville is, the ponies that you, Fluttershy, AJ, Rainbow, and Pinkie are, it isn’t a place for something and someone like me.  I’ve seen it in the eyes of the ponies on the streets, in your eyes even.  No matter what I do and how long I live with them, I will always be seen as a different thing, a strange creature that was brought from a whole other world to this one.  It isn’t exactly the most… healthy of conditions, even if I were to live here a thousand of your Equestrian years.  Eventually, I would snap and let loose, destroying the world I swore to protect, breaking my oath and soul all over again.”
“No, no there’s more to it than that,” Rarity stated sharply, glaring hard at him.  Pointing an accusatory hoof at him, she claimed, “That’s a surface level excuse, but like you said, Ray, I know you too well.  What are you attempting to hide from me, trying to protect me from?”
Shaking his head, biting his lip, he answered softly, “There’s always more to this than anyone ever could’ve thought.  This conflict, the war I’m about to wage, is the catalyst for something bigger than anything this world has ever seen, or so I’ve been warned.  I can’t go into it knowing how dangerous the true enemy may be, but let’s just say that the Spectre is only a surface level threat to a much deeper and more dangerous enemy than we ever could have imagined.  This threat… it’s centered around me, and if the worst were to come to pass and the Spectre manifested itself through me, terrible things would happen.  I refuse to return to Equestria when I’m virtually a ticking time bomb of some overarching being with indescribable power and unbelievable intelligence.  I can fight it now, but once my Fallen pass on, once you guys, my first friends and family here, die, I don’t think I can continue to win this fight.  If I can’t prevent my fall, I have to prepare for it.  I’m sorry.”
Rarity stared at him long and hard, visibly rolling his situation over and over in her head as she wiped at her eyes.  Finally, after several long seconds, she finally asked, “You won’t ever return from the war, but you will visit during it, yes?”
“Of course,” Ray confirmed with a firm nod.  “In fact, it may be the only way to stabilize myself through the battles and killing.  Why?”
“Then we can visit you once the war is over,” Rarity stated factually, drawing herself up in a dignified manner.  “We can come and visit you every month until the day we die, and you can have those memories and interactions to remember, to keep you going for as long as you can.”
Ray swallowed hard, taken aback by the kind offer, having expected protesting or arguing to follow.  Instead, the white unicorn stood up and walked over, resting a hoof on his knee as she stared up at him.  “I know you too well to think that I can change your mind or convince you to compromise with this situation.  I also know that everything you do is to protect the world that isn’t your own, and all I can do to show my support for your bravery is to uphold you and support whatever decision you make.  As the Element of Generosity, I have found that there are none so courageous and courteous as those who would willingly give up their time or self-importance to those who do not care or are ungrateful for their actions.  Everything you do, Ray, I watch with admiration, and all I can ever say is this:  Thank you, you brave, charming, insurmountable man.  May Celestia favor you in all your doings and may your strength outweigh even that of the most powerful creatures.”
Without hesitation or warning, the mare wrapped her hooves around his stomach, pressing her head into his sternum solidly.  Holding back a sad sigh, Ray accepted the embrace, gently wrapping his arms around her as he felt her take her own deep breath, attempting to hold in her emotions.  Somehow, he had known something like this was coming, the goodbyes he had to say before he left overcoming him with emotions over and over as he prepared to depart.  Still, such profound emotions following each other so quickly had suddenly left him feeling hollow, as if those emotions would remain with the words said, left in those places as he walked away from them.
Still, he couldn’t help but feel his eyes begin to tear up as their embrace continued longer.  Breathing deeply, Ray ducked his head down into her mane, letting out a shaky exhale as he allowed the emotions to fill the hollowness left from his conversation with Skalos.  The cool blue of sorrow, loneliness, and all of the frigid emotions that could be attributed to the grim sadness he felt, filled the void within, freezing him from the inside out.  Pulling himself around her, seeking out the warmth from her fur, he began to thaw himself, to rid himself of the emotions that coursed through his blood.  
After a long moment, Rarity muttered with a soft laugh, “I’m trying not to cry because I’m afraid my mascara will stain your tunic.”
Ray chuckled at the joke, feeling the coldness warming.  “I wouldn’t worry too much about staining this tunic.  After all, I doubt it’ll survive too long out there.”
“Fair enough,” she replied promptly, leaning back away from him.  Giving him an apologetic look, she explained, “Ray, as much as I wish I had the time to continue talking with you, I didn’t realize you were going to give me a visit, especially not at this time.  I have a meeting with a shareholder of vast importance that I must take in only a few minutes, and I doubt you’ll be treated as you should be with him around.  As much as I dislike the stallion… he does give me a lot of bits for his part, which is why unfortunately I’ll have to ask you to leave at the moment.”
“Oh of course, don’t let me intrude on your plans,” Ray quickly assured her with a strangely genuine smile.  “I was here for information, and you gave me that and much more.  Thank you for having me, and best of luck with this shareholder of yours.”  The human began to depart before a wicked idea popped in his head and he gave the mare a glance over his shoulder.  “If he needs a little roughing up to be more compliant, I do happen to have four feet and seventeen thousand soldiers on him.”
Rarity shook with laughter at the rhetoric, shaking her head as she told him in between fits of giggles, “Oh, Ray, I don’t think I’ve ever heard somepony ever dare to make a joke of that caliber.”
“Comedy’s my specialty,” he replied with a wink before stepping out of the door and into the street.  As soon as he stepped outside, he was assaulted by a flurry of feathers and fury, Otolo circling his head as she pecked at him endlessly.  The door slamming shut behind him as he tripped down the steps, swiping at the ruthless bird, he laughed, “Dammit, Ohs, what’re you on about now?  I can’t understand you when you’re twittering like a wild animal.”
He finally caught the little bird with one of his swipes, holding on to her firmly but not tightly as he lifted her to his face.  The little bird attempted to peck at his hand, to which Ray responded by lifting the bird to his face and blowing a puff of air into her.  Otolo blinked multiple times at the sudden burst of air, staring at him in shock at his sudden actions.  Pointing a finger at her little face, he chided, “Hey, you attacked me at random, consider it a blessing I like you enough not to just cook you for dinner tonight.”
The bird let out a short burst of chirps in response, a mean insult laced with guilt tripping.  Rolling his eyes in response, he muttered as he began to walk away, “Going for the low hanging fruit, are we?  Well, you are probably just some dumb little rabies-ridden bird who miraculously hasn’t ended up as somebody’s meal.  You got Fluttershy to thank for that last bit because, as you keenly pointed out, I’m not a very good pet owner.”  Starting in realization, he laughed as he smacked a hand over his forehead, “Wait, you just called yourself my pet!  And after all these months of denying it as well!”  
Glaring up at him, she pecked at his hand again, this time a little sting piercing his calloused skin.  Letting out another puff of breath into the bird’s face, he snorted, “You just aren’t a very good learner now, are you?”  A defiant twittering both confirmed and denied the allegation at the same time, causing Ray to chuckle again.  “Come on now, Ohs, how can a bird who flies through the skies be beaten by a single breath of air?”  You’re just holding me still.  “Okay, fair point, I am using my hand, but you were also using your wings with your beak and little talons.”  Your hand is twice the size of my body.  “True also, but honestly, it was your fault for picking a fight with an actual giant compared to you, right?”
Suddenly, the bird fluttered in his hand, escaping his grasp in an instant, but thankfully she simply landed herself on his shoulder, chirping contently.  Smiling at the little bird, he accepted the peace offer, reaching up his pointer finger to rub the little bird’s head.  Chirping happily, the two set off back towards the camp, silently enjoying the midsummer day.

*****************************************************************************************

Fluttershy finally let out a breath as Ray shut the door behind him, allowing herself to peek out from the kitchen, where she had been hiding for the duration of the human’s brief visit.  Making eye contact with Rarity, she apologized, “I didn’t mean to intrude on such an emotional moment.”
“It’s fine, darling,” Rarity dismissively waved.  “You were here first after all.  There was no way either of us could have known Ray would drop by for such a visit.  I did tell him the truth, however.  Prince Blueblood will be arriving sometime in the next half hour, and I don’t want anypony else to be around that vile stallion but me.”
“Okay, I understand, I’m glad to have talked,” Fluttershy replied, looking down at the ground in vague disappointment.  She had wanted to say more, to ask more, and most of all to try and understand why Ray had said what he had to Rarity.  Pausing at the door, too frustrated by the vast amount of information she didn’t know, she turned back to her friend and inquired, “Rarity, why did Ray come to you, and why was he so frankly honest with you when half the time he shrouds his thoughts whenever talking to me?”
“Fluttershy, Ray and I have a strange relationship I can only describe as being siblings, in a sense,” Rarity explained, her brow scrunching as she attempted to illustrate further.  “I find that we fashionistas grow our relationships with our most frequent clients because very quickly the decency of a pony- or human, in this sense- as we have to measure the curvatures and lines of our clients' bodies.  The awkward barrier of our physical sex is broken away with such simple actions as measuring for a dress or suit, allowing for the body to not hide the mind.  In this sense, I’m guessing it’s why Ray and I have formed such an understanding bond, and an honest one at that.  We’ve broken beyond his strong, tall, formidable body and are able to communicate one on one from mind to mind.”
“Hm, I understand how, but I don’t understand why he won’t ever tell me his true intent and emotions,” Fluttershy stomped frustratedly.  
“Darling, he is being honest with you about the vast majority of things he says, but that doesn’t mean he won’t continue to defend you from the truth of the situation,” Rarity emphasized, reaching out and resting a hoof on her shoulder.  “You are his heart right now, and the body protects its heart until it slowly comes to a halt.”
> Cast Off
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ray somberly began to roll up his wool sleeping pad, the night of sleep he had gotten- or rather lack of sleep- completely forgotten.  As much as he was looking forward to this day, to finally get it all over with, it was almost like burying a body.  He was glad to do so, to put it all to rest, but at the same time, he felt the same sorrow and remorse as he would for the burial.  With a sigh, he stuffed it all together into his sleeping sack, glancing around at the empty tent for any pieces or extra things he might have forgotten.  Noting there were none, he stood up slightly, not being able to do so fully in the tepee.  Ducking out of the flaps, he stepped out to the noise and chaos of a camp packing up and preparing to embark.
In one quick glance, he could see at least twenty tents going down in the blink of an eye as the camp efficiently carried out the order to embark.  The camp had received a fair bit of summer rain in the past two days, the rain having greeted them as they completed their march to the Las Pegasus port.  Mud had been a nuisance, however, the entirety of the army disregarded the weather and poor conditions the march had gone through, swathes of mud and terrible off-road traveling forgotten at the sight of the sea.  
Many of the Fallen had grown to love the sea, and given they had actually arrived before schedule with their march, Ray, Skalos, and the other Fallen generals had decided there was to be a reward.  The vast majority of the rest of the day after the camp was established was spent in the warm waters of the southwestern coast of Equestria.  Ray had, for the most part, participated in the games and horseplay, however it was cut short by the expected responsibilities of being a general.  Still, it was the first time he had ever gone swimming in Equestria and the only time in his life that he had gone swimming in a natural body of water.  
Now, however, the coastal position proved to be a right nuisance, as the tropical climate of the ocean meant constant storms in the summer.  If the pegasi had anything to say about it, though, the clouds would be cleared completely by noon, right on time for them to cast off.  According to Twilight, the wind westward picked up around that time and only abated by midnight, giving them plenty of speed at the start of their journey.  The math had added up last time, and given he didn’t really want to prolong the inevitable until the nighttime, he had agreed regardless of the facts.
The bitterness of today, the cold sadness and overwhelming dread, all had him unable to eat his breakfast, so he had focused his energy on packing up.  Before he even knew it, his tepee was collapsed and packed neatly away into his specialized pack.  Sighing, realizing there was nothing left to do here, he turned and began to hurriedly help other nearby Fallen pack away their tents and miscellaneous supplies, constantly checking the gloomy early morning sky as the pegasi got to work.  It was roughly six in the morning, but his true help wouldn’t be required until sometime around seven, leaving him with unwanted free time to think.
Forcing himself to focus on the tasks that his Fallen required, he found himself entering bland conversations or doing small, menial tasks that did little to distract him.  He felt that many of the Fallen were doing the same, talking but not really thinking about their words or work as they glanced at either the sky or the fleet in the harbor.  Ray didn’t have the courage to look over that way, so see the slowly growing crowd on the streets, rooftops, or even in the sky.  It wouldn’t be for another several hours to cast off, and already hundreds had begun to gather, distracting the soldiers and causing the entire camp to be silent as mist.
The translucent figures that had long hid themselves in the darkness were now highlighted through the foggy morning as they moved, the soft glow of their different colors moving constantly as they completed their tasks.  The somber silence was a read of how all within the camp felt, the splash of cold water that was the truth.  It was real now, the ships preparing to take them across the sea, to land on a different continent, to fight a war.  Their training had prepared them all for the fighting, but there was nothing in this world that had prepared them for this tension, the foreboding thought that they may not return to this place alive.  
Ray knew the feeling all too well by now, the grim purpose for his being here only a further testament to the dire situation they were about to throw themselves headlong into.  It was as if everything else that he had done before was meaningless suddenly, dread and fear clouding the training and courage he had built.  Even the Spectre seemed to have left him today, the dark presence of it having left him in the place of cold truth.  He almost wanted that dark aspect to return to him, to let the rage and mystique of it confuse him and distract him from cold emptiness.
No, he thought to himself, he wouldn’t allow himself to let this fear discard his determination or his purpose.  In spite of what he felt now, cold resignation to a gloomy future, he wouldn’t allow himself to fall victim to complete fear, to allow himself to become anything less than what he was now.  He had to push himself, now, more than ever, to become what the world needed to survive, and more importantly, what his Fallen needed to lead them to victory or through defeat.  As isolated and dreadfilled as he felt, there was an absolution in the future.  There was no turning back, no giving up, and no chance for defeat.  He wouldn’t allow it.  
Throwing his bag roughly over his shoulder, he turned and began walking down the beaten down paths made within the camp over the course of their brief inhabitation of the area.  About halfway down the path, he reached the only tepee that remained up, though he knew the reason why well.  Rolling his eyes as the slightest amusement broke through his gloom, he peeked inside to find that, indeed, Garish’s personal tent was abandoned.  As soon as he stepped out of the tent, Garish was there, panting from his sprint, his spear haphazardly strapped to him.
“My apologies, lordling, I didn’t mean to take so long to get back from…” Garish trailed off, a sheepish smile crossing his face.  “From helping out my wife pack up.”
“Yeah, I bet that took all night, didn’t it, commander,” Ray questioned with an arched brow as he moved to help the Fallen pack up his supplies and tent quickly.  Disregarding his comment, Ray got back on track, instructing, “What I need from you is to tell every other commander you come across today to not allow their soldiers to remain silent for too long.  All of this thinking is making everybody nervous, and having our nerves frayed in front of all Equestria is not the best image we can convey.  Understand?”
“Yessir,” Garish replied steadily, pulling down the tent and packing it away in the matter of only a few seconds.  “My own troops have a… surprise planned for the ponies who’re watching and our own comrades.  Or at least, those who didn’t get a peek at it before.”
“Please tell me it’s appropriate for young audiences,” Ray demanded, giving the stallion a knowing look.
Waving the comment away dismissively, he replied, “It’s not at all like last time, alright.  Besides, the little’ns didn’t understand what we were doing, and all the older folk just laughed at us.  It was the perfect mood brightener, and you know some mares went home to-”
“Young audiences,” Ray rebuked with a firm point.  “I’m still technically a minor, so flashing your translucent butt at me is a felony.”
“Oh, come on, lordling,” Garish laughed.  “We both know that you’re not a real minor.  You're more adult than most of the Fallen in your army.  I mean, Celestia’s sake, you and Skalos seem to be in a battle to not show your emotions no matter what.  The only reason you aren’t a complete emotional copy of him is because you know what having fun is.”
“And yet Skalos ended up with a wife quicker than you,” Ray stated sleekly.  Garish’s eyes went wide as his mouth dropped in surprise.
“Wow, you really just did that… okay, I underestimated you,” the stallion admitted with a shrug.  Slinging his pack over his shoulder with one hoof, he glanced around at the strange sight of the thousands of Fallen scuffling about on the muddy terrace without any tents remaining up.  “Tartarus, this really does look like a proper tight army.  Well done, lordling.”
“Couldn’t have done it without the lot of you,” Ray replied genuinely, sharing a broad glance around the area at the moving sea of almost silent translucent bodies.  “The Fallen really are the best Equestria has to offer, and somehow you find a way to prove it in everything you do.”
“Well, thank you kindly, lordling,” Garish nodded, looking up at Ray.  “We couldn't have done it without the best the universe has to offer.”
Giving the stallion a light punch to the shoulder, Ray smiled as he said, “Ain’t have to go buttering me up, Garish.  You already know you’re my favorite commander married to an archery commander.” 
“Very specific, but I’ll take it,” the Fallen laughed, starting to walk away.  “I’m going to go join my unit for the time to complete the packing process and centralize before we move out.  How long do we have?  An hour?”
“Yes, roughly,” Ray confirmed, returning to a more official tone.  “We will enter the port and embark by ten in the morning, and from there, we will carry out whichever procedures we deem necessary.  From there, we most likely will have some sort of ‘surprise’ ceremony to send us off on a good note or something of the sort.  Most likely there will be some formal note from Twilight, and from there we will cast off and… and begin our war.”
“Oof, yeah, hearing that said is… faltering,” Garish agreed, shaking his head.  With a wave of his free hoof, he departed with, “Welp, I’ll be seeing you then.”
Ray nodded silently, watching the Fallen leave with a simple few steps away, vanishing on the crowded path.  Licking his dry lips, he looked around over the top of the crowd that moved quickly yet steadily, searching for one of the hundreds of minute stations, places that provided provisions in small proportions, including water refills.  Emptying his waterskin in three quick gulps, he began treading the empty grounds where tents had once stood not even half an hour ago.  The Fallen had impressively removed the traces of their camp save from the minute stations themselves, instinct or discipline the root of their efficient speed.  It was an appreciative stare he gave the grounds, one that satisfied him in a strange way, knowing his hardworking soldiers had done their jobs dutifully.
Refilling his waterskin at the minute station, something suddenly caught Ray’s attention.  In the distance on the edge of camp, he could barely pick out a lag in the constant movement, Fallen stopping and looking away from the camp.  Knitting his brow in confusion, he watched as the neat order was suddenly broken as the Fallen began to step backwards and away, the line flattening as they faced outward.  Concerned, Ray began to rush in the direction of the disruption, hand subconsciously going to his knife as he ran.  Several Fallen noticed the direction Ray was running and the concern on his face, many turning and beginning to follow suit quickly.
As Ray approached the edge of the camp, he suddenly stopped, staring in disbelief at what the discrepancy actually was.  Dozens of foals were standing across from the wall of Fallen, staring wide wide eyes and dropped jaws at the soldiers, who seemed equally shocked by the sight of the little ones.  Some of the fillies and colts noticed Ray too as he approached, pointing their hooves silently or nudging their friends and nodding to the towering human.  There was an unbelievable silence that permeated the air as the two groups stared at each other long and hard, neither side unsure what the other would do.
Suddenly, a light green Fallen stepped forward, towards one of the fillies, a little pink unicorn with a purple mane.  The stallion reached out a translucent hoof to the foal, careful not to frighten her as he crouched down.  Slowly, his hoof came in contact with her cheek, rubbing it softly as he whispered something to her, his eyes filled with tears.  Unable to hear what the stallion had said, Ray could only watch as suddenly the two embraced in a hug as if they were lifelong friends that had just reunited.  As soon as the two embraced, the silence was shattered as the colts and fillies suddenly rushed forward, talking to whichever Fallen they could.
Ray laughed in spite of himself, watching the sudden chaos as living and damned, young and ancient began to talk as if there were no boundaries built between them through time and situation.  Before he knew it, another group of young ponies, some accompanied by adults or older siblings, were emerging from behind a nearby hill by the beach, joining the fray as conversations broke out and laughter filled the air.  Ray looked around expectantly, assuming that this was some sort of scheme by Twilight to boost morale, but to his surprise, he didn’t see the alicorn or any ponies he recognized.  
Before he could ask himself any more questions about the nature of this sudden crowd, however, he felt something tapping his foot.  Looking down, he was astonished to see a little colt staring up at him, eyes wides with amazement.  Ray was stuck by how small he was comparatively, his tiny body only as tall as halfway up his shin.  Crouching down with a smile, Ray reached out to the colt with his hand open, offering for a shake.  The little colt hesitated for a second, staring uncertainly at the completely alien shape of his hands and fingers before finally lifting his own hoof.
Taking the tiny hoof in his large hand, Ray softly said, “Hello, my little friend!  What’s your name?”
“C-Cloudy Gales, sir,” the tiny colt reverently answered, staring at the human’s hand.  “G-g-golly, your hoof is weird.”
Laughing at the earnest statement, Ray explained, “That’s because it’s not a hoof.  Humans like me don’t have hooves, we have hands, and on those hands.” 
The colt watched as Ray wiggled his fingers for emphasis.  “Wow, you’re nothing like the other foals were saying you’d be like,” the colt shrilly stated, grinning up at Ray.  “They said you were gonna be a big, scary thing who would eat those minotaurs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!  You're just a friendly ogre is all!”
Ray roared with laughter at the statement, and some nearby Fallen who had overheard the conversation joined in, a hoof slapping his back.  Controlling his laughter for a second, Ray gave the colt a little pat on the head, telling him, “Well, I’m big and scary, but I’m no ogre.  You can go ahead and tell your friends that!”
“Yes sir,” the colt exclaimed excitedly, suddenly turning and weaving his way through the crowd to go find said friends.  Watching the little colt go, he shook his head in disbelief, chuckling again at the colt’s naivety.  He hadn’t ever talked to a colt or filly as young as him, which was probably why he had been so caught off-guard by the colt’s words.  Still, he found himself pleasantly surprised by the arrival of the young ones, and inspite of an inability to keep track of where they were going and what they were doing, he didn’t think too much about it mattering.  They seemed like a curious but obedient group, and besides, with the way the little ones saw him described by Cloudy, Ray could probably goad them into leaving when needed.
Standing up, he watched as the Fallen engaged with the eager foals, listening to them, answering their questions, and asking a few of their own.  In the crowd, Ray knew he would be unable to pick out the stallion who had initiated the encounter, but he would attempt to find him later on and thank him.  He didn’t know if anyone had known how much he and the Fallen needed this, the brightness and ignorance of youth to light the darkness that was today.  Whether it was by chance or intentionally, these little ones and the older ponies accompanying them had given the Fallen and Ray something they didn't wake up with.  Purpose. 
Unfortunately, checking the sun, Ray could tell it was almost time for the required task of centralizing the commanders so they could gather their ranks together and form up to begin the process of embarking.  Trudging his way backwards through the crowd, waving and nodding to some of the Fallen as they moved eagerly towards the crowd of foals, he made his way across the grounds towards where a small make-believe stage had been established for announcements.  There stood Skalos and several other generals, expectantly waiting for whoever had not arrived yet.  Nodding to the group as he stepped onto the wooden stage, he crossed his arms.  
“Well, friends and comrades alike,” he began, realizing that indeed he was the only one necessary who hadn’t been present.  “The time has come for us to gather our armies and embark, this time not to sail the seas, but to sail to war.”  
Ray paused grimly, staring at the familiar faces of the Fallen one by one.  Skalos, Yarem, Pelios, Harbor, and Kraven, he had learned their names and ambitions, had learned their hopes and dreams.  Some of them were married, some of them hoped to be.  It was humbling to know them and terrifying to command them now that they were all his friends.  But, staring into their milky eyes, their translucent bodies glowing even as the morning fog dissipated, desire to listen and obey shone in them.  Biting his lip, he took a slow deep breath, and began to give orders.

********************************************************************************************************

 Apple Bloom hated today with every fiber of her proudly Apple body, glaring out at the city of Las Pegasus from the wagon.  For some reason it wasn’t until today that it hit her that Ray, the darned human she had claimed to adopt, was leaving Equestria and may well never return.  Every time she thought that, she was forced to push away the stinging tears in her eyes, the threat of wetting her face too early.  All around her, at school, in the town, even at home, ponies had been asking if she was okay or if she needed something.  Why did she always have to say no?
Sitting alone within the wagon, her siblings pulling the vehicle, she grit her teeth and swallowed down her feelings again.  All she wanted right now was for Ray to hug her and tell her it was okay, that he wasn’t leaving today, that he wasn’t going to leave and become a monster like he had warned her.  Kicking a hoof against a crate until it hurt, she let her head fall back against the wall and rested it there, taking slow, deep breaths.  If only she had been smarter, somehow able to trick the world into stopping the horrendous future from arriving.
In spite of provided rooms in Las Pegasus and a royal carriage awaiting them, Big Mac and AJ had insisted on bringing their own wagon down to the docks at the very least.  While it meant that they may get down there quicker and with a few less ponies following behind them, it provided her with this cursed silence and loneliness.  She hated being alone with her thoughts like this, being allowed the time to complicate herself even further and cause herself even more misery.  If only Taps were here, his shy goofiness able to cheer her up a little and his adorable face to distract her wandering eyes.
Something outside the window caught her attention, a large movement out on one of the grassy beach hills.  Rolling to face the movement, she stared at the large gathering of ponies out on the beaches and within the camp itself.  She had been able to see the camp basically ever since they had left the suburbs of Las Pegasus, the expansive army taking up an open field beside the port itself.  The strange thing was that, even from this distance, she had almost missed the actual inhabitants of the camp.  In spite of their vast numbers, the transparent soldiers often looked more like a strange luminescent blob than a crowd of individuals.
Sighing, she knew she couldn’t pick Ray out from the crowd at this distance, even though he would be looming over all of the others.  Frowning, she finally realized that most of the ponies conversing with the Fallen were small, or at least, smaller than she was.  Foals?  Confused, she popped open the top hatch of the carriage and pulled herself up in spite of the bumping of the rickety wagon.  From the new vantage, she was able to see much more, including the fact that every single Fallen seemed to have surrounded the normal ponies in a wide circle.  While most stood still and watched the foals or waited for them to intermingle, some stepped out of the formation and towards the center.  
“Sure are a pretty sight, ain’t they,” AJ suddenly asked from the front, glancing back over her harness at Apple Bloom.  “T’ain’t ever expected ta say that about such strange fellas, but they certainly are.  I mean, so many colors an’ hues, Rarity is pro’ly tryna take notes.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” she conceded softly.  Wind whipped through her mane, the overcast gray clouds above remnants of the summer storms and adding a fitting chill to the day.
“Ray’s gotta do this, Apple Bloom,” Mac suddenly stated, also looking over his shoulder as the wagon came to a halt.  “There ain’t no way ‘round it.  All we can do is be strong fer ‘im an’ be there for ‘im.”
Apple Bloom clenched her jaw again, taking a deep, shaky breath at the sting of tears threatening to overwhelm her.  “But what if… But what if I’m not strong enough fer even myself?”
AJ gave her sister a hard stare, contemplating her for several long seconds.  Finally, she answered, “Then show ‘im how scared you are.  Tell ‘im that yer worried fer ‘im, that yer gonna miss ‘im.  Most importantly though, tell ‘im you love him very much an’ that you can’t wait ta see ‘im when the moon’s full again.  Ray’s the kinda stallion ta feed offa that.  He’ll never say it, but he needs ta hear it from ya.  That’s what’ll get him home.”
“An’ what about fer me” Apple Bloom asked in a whisper, scarcely daring to reveal her true emotions.  
“Well, you have us, an’ whether we like it or not, ya got that darned colt too,” Big Mac reassured.  Shrugging off his harness, he added, “Now, come along.  Wagon can’t go too far ahead, we gotta dismount now.”
“Okay,” Apple Bloom agreed shakily, hopping off the wagon.  As she did so, she noticed they actually weren’t on the road anymore, having gone slightly up a gravelly hill.  The road did continue forward, but one glance at the number of Fallen and crates ahead virtually blocked it.  It was still a half mile to the makeshift docks ahead, built specifically to cast the fleet off today and receive them if… whenever they returned.  
Apple Bloom had to resolve herself for a second to not think of everything that could go wrong, walking silently beside her siblings as they began the light trek to the docks.  Her eyes flitted over to the crowd of normal ponies mingling with the Fallen as she walked.  They seemed to have already practically packed up everything into crates being loaded onto the boats, the last of the supplies that needed to be stored.  Even with thousands of Fallen pausing to talk to the ponies, there were still thousands more helping with the final preparations.  Much like other things, it was only now striking her how large the force crossing the seas was, their camp alone twice as big as Ponyville.  For just under a year, she had known about the force, and had even heard some obscure numbers, but it was only in broad daylight that she saw their true size.  In her mind, the Fallen had been maybe two thousand strong, enough to fill one of Canterlot’s streets, not a whole quadrant of the grand city.
Shaking her head, she focused on her footing, the road taking a slight downward slope to the ocean.  The wind whipped the long seaside grass, her own long red hair blowing across her face and obscuring her right eye.  Being able to still glance down at the Fallen, she wished it were her left.  Celestia, today was an awful day.  Shivering slightly with the wind, she ducked her head and finished the little downhill stretch, noticing her siblings lagging a bit behind her.  Over her shoulder, she caught a glance of them whispering somberly, AJ biting her lip as she listened to whatever Big Mac was saying.  In her heart, she knew it was about her, but Apple Bloom shrugged it off.  Whatever it was was to help her, and if they thought it would work, she would let them try unbiased.  
The walk was over sooner than it had started, reaching the outskirts of a gathered crowd.  Already, some hundreds of ponies were gathered around makeshift wooden stalls that provided scant shelter from the wind and occasional drop of rain.  Beaten muddy paths marked the most traveled route by which the ponies were moving, though most kept a few dozen paces away from the actual preparations.  
They moved past the crowd, drawing stares given their family had become synonymous with Princess Twilight’s ascension.  Blushing at the number of ponies giving her long glances, she picked up her hooves and passed through the muddy paths and onto firmer ground.  Here, there were some tall tents and even magically put together structures for the royal guards that stood side-by-side with the Fallen to keep young foals out of the way.  Apple Bloom caught a brief glance at one of the tent flaps closing, a tail she could recognize a mile away slipping out of sight. 
Not wasting a moment, she darted towards the tent, shouting questioningly, “Sweetie Belle?”
Right as she reached the tent, the head of her friend popped out of the flaps.  Unable to stop in time, she ran headfirst into her, the two tumbling into the tent in a jumble of shouts, limbs, and tails.  Narrowly avoiding her friend’s horn, Apple Bloom, pushed up and rubbed a fresh bruise on her head as Sweetie did the same.  
“Gosh, sorry Sweetie, I thought I saw you-" Apple Bloom began before being cut off with a crushing hug from behind.  Letting out a soft grunt at the tight squeeze, she reached out a free hoof and patted Scootaloo on the shoulder sentimentally as she wheezed, “Hi, Scoots.”
“Well, didn’t expect to literally run into you, but it’s great to see you, Apple Bloom,” Sweetie said with a laugh, reaching out a hoof to help her up.  Scootaloo released her grasp on the filly and helped lift Apple Bloom from the ground with a smile.
“Hey girls, what’re y’all doin’ here already,” she asked, happily confused at her friends’ sudden appearance. 
“Well, Rarity has had some more important business stuffs going on up in Canterlot, so it made sense to just come down from there last night when she was done,” Sweeties explained.  “I’ve been going around with her because she says I’ve ‘transformed into a fine young mare’.  I think it's mostly because she likes to imagine she’s me when I model for her since I’m practically the same size of her now.”
“Yeah, and the Wonderbolts had a show here in Las Pegasus, so I tagged along with Dash,” Scootaloo explained.  Speaking softer now, she added, “I’m kinda surprised you weren’t the first one here.”
“I… I’m strugglin’ ta stay here, if I’m bein’ honest,” Apple Bloom muttered, kicking the ground sadly, looking away from her best friends.  “I… never expected to… I never wanted this day ta come, an’ now it has and I ain’t prepared at all.  Ray’s been real great as a brother, if a strange human creature, an’ now he’s gone jus’ when we all got ta start knowin’ ‘im.  I jus’ feel, cheated an’ sad an’ I can’t even think of what might happen to ‘im without- without…”
“Shh shh shh,” Sweetie Belle consoled, wrapping a hoof around her neck and patting her.  “We’re all a bit sad today, but it will be fine.  I know it will be in my heart.”
“T’ain’t make it none easier,” Apple Bloom complained into her friend’s neck, smiling sadly at herself.  “I jus’ wish Taps was here with me.”
“Well, you shoulda said so earlier,” a nervous voice behind her proclaimed with half-hearted confidence.  Whipping around, knowing the colt’s voice by heart, Apple Bloom leapt at him, her brain unable to tell if she was mad at him or not.  Tender Taps caught her in a big hug, and without thinking much at all, she laid a big one on him.  The colt squeaked cutely beneath her as her heart took over for her brain and decided it didn’t matter if it had taken him this long to reveal himself.  
Pulling away with a slight blush, feeling the smirks of her friends on the back of her head, she gave him a small whack on the nose, beaming as she exclaimed, “Taps, you goof!  How did you get here?”
“Well, Applejack doesn’t know, but Big Mac helped me get a ticket to Las Pegasus and Rainbow Dash took me down here.  Sweetie and Scoots helped me get a bed to sleep in last night,” he answered, smiling back, his cheeks red.  His smile dimmed a little as he added, “They all figured you were gonna need some help with today and I didn’t want you to deal with it alone.  I’m so sorry you hafta go through all this... but know that I really like Ray and think he’ll make it back no problem.”
“Aw, ya dorks, alla ya,” she remarked, her smile softening as she reached one hoof out to her friends and another to Taps, bringing all three into a group hug.  For a brief moment, she felt happier than she could have ever guessed just moments ago.  She simply held those closest to her against her, fur rubbing fur, content to stay there until something else interrupted them.
“Galdarnit, Big Mac, what in th’ hay are ya on about,” Applejack shouted from much too close.  Before they could completely scramble apart, the tent flaps were torn asunder, AJ storming into the entrance, trailing off as she called, “Apple Bloom, what in th’...”
There was a cold, startling moment when her eyes locked with Taps, the poor colt frozen in place, Apple Bloom’s hoof still on his shoulder.  Knowing he was caught, he stood there still as stone as he awaited Applejack to do or say anything.  For a brief second, rage flashed across her face like every time before, but Big Mac’s arrival through the tent flaps stopped her from entering a raged frenzy.  The stallion cringed as his eyes flicked between his two sisters and the colt, a nervous sweat breaking out on his brow.  AJ turned slightly and glanced at the eldest Apple, then back at the youngest, and finally stared hard at the ground.
“Y’all planned this, didn’t ya,” she asked softly, shaking her head as she knew the answer.  With a deep sigh, she turned her hard stare directly to Tender Taps, begrudgingly stating, “Look, I don’t think much a’ colts an’ th’ such, but if Apple Bloom needs ya today, then who’m I ta tell her no?  However, there ain’t no way in tarnation th’ two a’ ya are leavin’ my sight, ya got it?”
“Yes ma’am,” Taps replied fervently, nodding in tandem.  Apple Bloom couldn’t help but let a smile sneak past her, mouthing a thanks to her older sister as she glanced at the filly.  In spite of herself, Applejack had the smallest of knowing smirks, rolling her eyes as she turned her back on them.  Using the momentary aversion of her sister’s gaze to the fullest, Apple Bloom snuck a peck on her special somepony’s cheek, causing him to break out blushing again.
Sweetie and Scoots both snickered as Taps muttered under his breath, “You’re gonna get me killed, Blooms.”
Apple Bloom didn’t respond, simply giving the colt a cheeky grin and wrapping one hoof around his.  Glancing forward, she saw Big Mac waiting expectantly as he held the door open for Sweetie and Scoots, the young mare took a deep breath.  Stepping out into the cold, windy world would be painful, and facing Ray may be even more so, but sharing a look with Taps, she stepped forward.  
With one hoof out the tent, she swung her tail to the side and caught his, wrapping it around his.  The colt stiffened in her hoof at the bold move she had never made before, such a sentimental action catching him by surprise.  Not daring to stay the moment any further, she stepped out into the windy street.

********************************************************************************************************

Ray grimaced as the wind swept across his bare chest, his sweat freezing in a second.  Grunting, he pulled the rope downwards, lifting up the last of the crates, and marking the end of material embarkment.  Some ponies in the crowd cheered, as did some among the Fallen.  Most, however, remained solemnly silent as the human stood up to his full height, grabbing his tunic from Skalos’ hooves.  He turned to the crowd of thousands, all but those on the wooden dock normal ponies watching the spectacle.  Inevitably, it had become very much a spectacle to them, hearing of the gathering of nations and their leaders coming to bid his farewell.  Gritting his teeth, he put the shirt back on, ignoring how little it did to nullify the cold.
Every ship but his own had cleared the dock already, waiting patiently a few hundred feet out in the ocean as the head of the fleet completed the impromptu ceremony.  For some reason, all of the emotions Ray had felt earlier, the anxiety and cold relief, had dissipated to almost nothing but stone-cold determination.  Today had to get done and over with, and then tomorrow and the week afterward, and then the war after that.  Maybe then he would allow himself to feel some sense of victory, but today he had to present both rank and intent to every nation.  After all, actions spoke louder than words, and silence was one of the harshest deeds he could do right now.  
Without breaking his stare over the crowd, he stepped precisely down the gangplank and onto the dock, refusing to allow himself to be intimidated by the tens of thousands of eyes that followed his every move.  Twilight stood at the head of the dock, respecting the space many Fallen had requested between themselves and the normal ponies.  She was in full ceremony attire, contrasting his simply, rugged shirt and pants poignantly.  Many ponies wouldn’t be able to grasp the truthfully dire situation if it weren’t for blunt visuals and plain speaking, all of which Ray would only happily oblige.  The strange thought of wearing the same garment he had when meeting the royals of Equestria now struck him, but he quickly threw it out.
His friends and family stood to her right side, the Apples all staring with teary eyes as he approached their sovereign, even Tender Taps there with Apple Bloom clinging to him.  Rarity and Sweetie Belle stood side-by-side with two older ponies that must have been their parents and Scootaloo stood with Rainbow and her family.  Pinkie was strangely absent from the group, but where he had expected her to be, Mayor Mare, Silver Quill, and even Emerald Joy, occupied.  In spite of having had no interaction with them for months, they were here.  Then, on the farthest end of the group, stood Discord and Fluttershy.
The mare had obviously been crying, but she was holding herself together in almost a cheerful manner, smiling proudly at him as he stepped up to Twilight.  The simple smile, the glitter of a tear in her eyes as the wind whipped her mane sideways, and Discord dutifully standing by all threatened to break down the dams.  Ray’s throat clenched, but returning his focus to the Princess, he regained control of himself.  
To Twilight’s left, the leaders of Equestria stood, but he didn’t even give them a second glance, only daring to notice little Flurry Heart standing to the side.  The poor filly seemed both cold and uncomfortable, forced to appear by her parents as part of a budding member of the Royal family.  Still, the filly’s little eyes did remain on him, big and round, curious and naive.  If only, he thought to himself, coming to a strict halt only a couple feet from Twilight.
“Raymond,” she declared simply, not allowing a moment more of silence to be wasted.  “You stand before us because of a self-proclaimed oath and a fate forced upon you.  Your heroics within this world are beyond the knowledge of most, even me, and your future is ripe with victory and bravado that Equestria shall never forget.  Yet here you stand with us, here you stand for us, and here you fight for us.  We pony do not deserve person you are, much less the champion you have come.  All we can do is watch as our savior, the human who stands above us all, as Equestria’s Ray of Hope, goes forth fervently and does as no living being has ever done before.  With my respects and your blessing, we bid you the warmest of salutations, and hope for the quickest of returns.”
Twilight’s booming voice had barely finished echoing before the crowd, in earnest, began cheering vibrantly at the farewell.  Twilight levitated Ray’s kharamh into the air before him.  Waiting the briefest of seconds to grasp his trusty weapon, he took it and turned his back on the crowd.  Stepping back onto the wooden dock, he raised the kharamh above his head and sliced downward, cutting cleanly through the rope tying the ship to the dock.  It seemed a bit silly, as the connection wasn’t what was keeping the ship in harbor, but symbolism and whatnot.  Looking up, he shared a grim nod with Skalos and the other commanders aboard his ship.  It was done.
He tossed his kharamh up to his friend, who caught it in his magical grasp, before turning once again to face Twilight and the crowd.  The Princess and and those around her, friends, family, and rulers alike, stood somberly, staring at the dangling rope.  The Fallen had left Equestria’s land, and Ray would join them in mere minutes.
Over the din, however, a voice, soft but piercing sliced through the noise.
“Oh, small ones of the Equus Plains, Mountains, Oceans, and Desolate Places, you know not the thing which is done before you, the binding of the Cosmos in the severing of a thread.”  In an instant, Ray recognized the tantalizing voice of the Matriarch, and within only a few seconds, the spider revealed itself grandly in the daylight.  While the sun itself was filtered through thick, lingering gray clouds, it still glittered from every long hair of the massive arachnid.  The ancient creature stood at its full height as it crested one of the nearby hills in several long strides, its many spawn following in its shadow like a rolling dark wave.  
Mixed gasps and shrieks from the crowd were silenced as soon as they began, the World Weaver suddenly beginning to spin thread as it walked.  Even Ray was struck in awe at the sight, what looked to be the very rainbow being spun by the tactless work of the Matriarch.  Two long threads drifted outward and apart, catching in the wind and, in an instant, the world stilled completely, the threads casting the same glow as the Harkening upon everyone.
“Little ones of Equui Majora, Great Ones of these Kingdoms, and Beings of the Aspects Themselves, your knowledge is great, and your purpose is clear.  I come not to prophesy as I once did to your eldest of ancestors, but to fight for the Orphan of the Cosmos and the Free One of all Creation.  Know this and learn it well little ones, the journey forward is one of great treachery and suffering if you do not now swear yourselves to Ray and His cause, not only now, but in the nearest of futures.  The being before you is one of flesh not of this or any other world in our universe, but neither is it alienated from the world he now calls home.
“The Princess’ grand words of farewell do not nearly encapsulate Ray’s essence of being, but they are the closest any of us mortal beings could wish to achieve to describing the same such being as the very Creations Themselves.  Even with thousands of years of foresight and tens of thousands more in experience, never has such an indomitable spirit become nearly as synonymous with Creation as the one who meekly stands before you.  If any of you have doubts about the success of this mission, than know it now that your fears can be cast off and your mind can be freed of such things.  The Man of Worlds has come to the aid of Celestia’s children and Luna’s kin.  The enemies that face you have no chance.”
The Matriarch silenced, an expectant stare at the crowd before her.  Realizing she had astounded the ponies into silence, she turned her eyes to Ray, who was equally starstruck, but slightly more used to this kind of dialogue from the Matriarch.  With a large nod of her many-eyed head, the World Weaver softly stated, “I take my leave with you, lordling.”
Composing himself, Ray turned and began to walk up the plank and onto the awaiting ship, resolved to leave all over again.
“Wait,” a desperate plea escaped the crowd, the sound of hooves thudding dully on the wooden dock turning Ray back around. Apple Bloom wrapped herself around his leg, almost buckling him with the unexpected hug.  Ray froze up, emotions he had repressed welling up instantly.
He had hoped to avoid this, to save his words and sharp emotions for if he returned on the next full moon.  Now, all of the fear, loneliness, and longing to stay began to build inside him, threatening to overwhelm him like he had ignored.  
Apple Bloom looked up at him, and though there were tears streaming freely down her face, she managed a courageous smile up at him as she told him, “Go get ‘em, Ray.  Go show ‘em exactly why ya are what th’ spider said ya are.  But then, please come back home.”
Something inside of him was tugged loose, a knot blocking his thoughts and emotions, unraveling the conduct he had held himself to for just a moment, allowing him a brief smile as he reached down and patted Apple Bloom’s cheek.  Within himself, he drew out a simple answer, telling the little mare, “I’ll see you all again when the moon is full.”

********************************************************************************************************

Ray stood at the front of his ship, the wind whipping through his hair as he faced away from the slowly fading Equestrian coastline.  Behind him, Garish’s fireworks were going off like crazy, but to the human, the noises were dull and the flashing lights dim.  The Matriarch and her children, stored away in large vessels made by the World Weaver’s silk, flanked either side of his ship.  Skalos stood beside him, dutifully staring out over the horizon, Zecora behind him slightly.  In spite of everything, in spite of what they were doing even now, sailing away with the wind blowing into their sails, he could still feel Apple Bloom’s grasp on his leg.  Smiling into the horizon, several tears slid down his face as he and the Fallen sailed headlong into their fate.
> Clear Skies and Open Seas
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Staring out over the waves, Ray still had trouble processing that it was finally happening.  Equestria was six days behind them, hundreds of miles away now, and yet there was still the thought in the back of his head that he would turn around and find it there.  It had him on edge, but perhaps that was for the better too.  In spite of the sea ponies scouting out the way to and from the minotaur’s continent, there had been no renewed scouting efforts for fear of losing them to the stormy seas.  Right now, the skies were clear, but that didn’t quite mean safety, as the seas tended to get choppy of their own accord.
There was also the relatively small amount of knowledge they had on their opponent’s naval capacity, but given there had been no settlement on the only stretch of coast suitable for disembarkment, they had all hoped that they would not come across minotaur ships.  As a precaution, though, eight ballistas had been installed on each ship, four below deck and four on deck.  While probably not as effective as the weaponry the minotaurs might have, it still gave them something of a chance.  That, their sheer number of ships, and the little amount of time between the last scouting mission and now to prepare a formidable fleet gave Ray and the Fallen the confidence to continue forward.
Besides, they had trained for ship-to-ship engagements as well, and while it was certainly sloppier and more difficult than on the ground, it worked well enough.  They also had not only the spiderlings and their spawn-mothers, but the Matriarch herself to assist in the fighting.  His biggest fear, however, was that a storm would randomly blow through later on tonight, after sunset.  While there weren’t signs of one yet, clouds had been gathering more and more every night before dissipating in the morning.  To be caught in a storm just a day out from the coast could be devastating, but the entire campaign had to hinge on this risk.  
Reaffirming his grip on the rope, he leaned outwards, letting the cool spray of the ocean wet his face as he clung to the side of the ship.  He was basically naked, as he had been for the past few days, wet clothing chafing him and the sun made him uncomfortably humid.   Down here, in spite of the roaring of the ocean, the constant clamor of the deck and occasional strange or inappropriate disruption was completely drowned out.  The wind howled and waves crashed, but it was a strange symphony of natural sounds that Ray found himself enjoying the melody of. 
He caught the movement of a shadow under the waves, the massive form of the Matriarch several dozen feet underwater as she swam with the group.  Her nature in and of itself allowed for her to rebel against what might be expected or even possible from a giant spider.  However, it didn’t make it any less strange or terrifying to see eight glowing eyes and eight expansive legs beneath them.  The worst part was that, for some reason, the Matriarch had felt the need to inform them that she was merely protecting them from something of true danger beneath the waves.  That, to her immense surprise, only helped serve as fuel for rumors of krakens and fear of the water itself.
Sighing, shaking his head, he glanced upwards.  It was midnoon, almost time for him to get back onto the deck and run his various analyses on the fleet.  Deciding there was no time like the present, he swung inward and grabbed the rope firmly, climbing it quickly up the side of the ship.  He pulled himself up right next to pair of Fallen that seemed mischievously more intent on each other than on whatever task he supposed they had been given.  Both came to attention awkwardly blushing as Ray raised his brow at the pair, noting neither were in the commanding ranks of his ship.  Shaking his head in disappointment, waving them off with a glare, watching them quickly separate to their separate tasks.
Ray pursed his lips.  Leaving the shores of Equestria had made the decision to fight real for everyone in the fleet, and while most had decided to reaffirm their discipline, there were a select few- even on his ship- that had taken a more hedonistic approach to the impending fight.  On every ship so far there had been some sort of instance of… less than idealistic public displays of affection.  With everyone sleeping in the same place as well, it had only added an awkward layer of silence whenever there was retribution for such actions.  It wasn’t even that those activities were disruptive to the flow of the army, but rather the message that it sent.
Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die, as he remembered it.  
Walking across the deck, he earned an appreciative whistle from Gaz, a Fallen who often worked the center mast of the ship.  Ray had gotten to know the stallion a bit during their last expedition, and especially well now that he was up on the deck as long as the sun shone.  He was a humorous Fallen, one who was disciplined on duty and easy-going off duty.  Laughing slightly at his flirtatious joke, Ray waved the Fallen off, both smiling as they went.  
It was gratifying to know that, while still immensely respected by almost every Fallen, they had lessened his status as a nigh-on deity to that of a normal soldier.  Or at least, as normal as it could be with a human leading a translucent army.  While most of the Fallen had heard the Matriarch’s grand speech about Ray and his purpose, many of them simply took it as buttering up the pony population to his grandiose.  Only he, Skalos, and Zecora had understood the full meaning of the Matriarch’s speech, but they had agreed that they had to take one thing at a time.  Still, it didn’t help that both Pelios and Kraven had grown presently suspicious of Ray’s true purpose.  While each had come forward privately to discuss the matter, Ray had ensured them that his first loyalty was to the Fallen and not whatever the Aspects happened to be.
Reaching the end of the quarter deck, he began carelessly strolling up the bowstrip.  If it weren’t for the noise of the main deck being so constant and mechanic, dangling his feet over the edge of the long wooden pole would have been his favorite pastime.  Instead, he simply gave the ocean a quick, sweeping glance, inspecting it and the distant horizon for any discrepancies.  Seeing nothing but slow wave after slow wave, he nodded his head slightly and turned back around, leaving the bowstrip.  One small task done, a dozen more large ones to go.
At least everything was perfectly on schedule, which included the fact that Yarem had arrived for his maintenance reports and Kraven with his forecasts.  For some reason, Garish had joined the pair, whether by request or not, he couldn’t know and frankly didn’t care.  Stepping down from the quarter deck and onto the main one, Ray gave the three saluting generals a return salute, setting them to their neutral positions.  
“All functions of the left flank have been going accordingly, however, there had been almost thirty different incident reports today alone, most of them during the early hours of the morning,” Yarem snapped with the utmost discipline.  There was a hint of disgust in the way he reported the disruptions, but Ray forced himself to dismiss those as well.
“You say all functions are running accordingly,” Ray questioned, crossing his arms over his bare chest.
“Yes, sir,” the Fallen answered swiftly.
“Release those charged and get them to whatever duties they may have without punishment,” Ray responded, giving the stallion just enough time to begin to object.”
“Sir, an officer was in their midst this time, a strictly unprofessional and embarrassing disgrace to the leadership of our army.”
“And an endorsement of the backbone of our army,” Ray sharply retaliated, giving the strict general a raised brow.  “I don’t much appreciate their actions either from a certain standpoint, but if it is what makes them happy without disrupting our cause, then so be it.  You did just point out everything is running accordingly, yes?  I will give our soldiers the benefit of the doubt that it is because of these recreational activities.”
Yarem bit his lip for a moment, thinking, before finally saying, “Yes, lordling, I believe you may be correct.  All individuals will be released to duty without retribution.”
“Very good then, general,” Ray approved with a smile.  Noting Garish’s somber silence and lack of some type of crass smile at his comrades' actions, he questioned, “Garish?  What’s with the solemnity?”
“Casualty report, sir,” the stallion responded hollowly, his jaw clenched.  Ray’s brow furrowed in an instant, but not wanting to interrupt the commander with questions, he simply rubbed his chin with a hand.  “One dead.  She cast herself over the side of the ship willingly.”
“Who,” Ray inquired immediately after the stallion went silent, giving him an impassioned stare.  
“An archer of the fourth brigade, under Adant’s command,” Garish answered with respect, though noting his superior’s dissatisfaction with the answer, he sighed and added, “Hornet, Cohin’s lover.  She strapped her archery equipment around her and dove over the edge of the boat before anypony could unravel what was happening.  She didn’t resurface.”
Ray fell silent, staring at Garish first, then at Kraven and Yarem.  Even eight months later, Cohin was still a sensitive topic both among some of his former followers and Ray himself.  Pushing down his immediate emotions, however, he noticed Skalos in the corner of his eye.  His friend seemed as shocked as Ray felt, but also held his composure well enough that it could only be seen in the stallion’s eyes.  Returning his gaze to Garish, he finally asked, “Body recovery?”
“There were some initial attempts made to retrieve her but considering the suddenness of her actions and the weight of what she was wearing when she went overboard, it was deemed impossible.  Besides, this was almost an hour ago.  I only now was able to reach your ship through the fleet.  Orders?” 
Ray felt a rage began burning within him at what the commander informed him.  “Announce the loss of a comrade to all ships,” Ray growled.  “I’ve got a spider to talk to.” 
Without warning them, he turned over his shoulder and stomped up to the ship’s railing, looking over it for a brief moment, scanning the waves.  Indeed, some forty feet beneath the ships, the Matriarch was swimming, her dark silhouette scarcely illuminated at all.  Wrapping one hand around the railing, he flung himself over the edge of the ship, diving into the water with a splash.  
While not cold, it certainly wasn’t the warmest, but keeping his eyes trained on the figure of the giant swimming spider, he began to dive deeper and deeper.  Ray was not inherently the best swimmer himself, but given all he had to do was propel himself downwards, he made quick progress.  Ignoring the building pressure in his ears, he didn’t stop pushing himself towards the depths until his hand brushed the large arachnid’s hairs.  Grasping onto one of them, he pulled himself completely onto the back of the Matriarch’s thorax.
The World Weaver’s massive head turned backwards to face him, eight glowing eyes locking on him, and for a moment, he was rather frightened at the sight.  The last of his air escaped him, but seeing it, the Matriarch quickly produced a bubble of air around herself.  Breathing in deeply, collecting himself, he stood up on the broad back of the ancient one.  Then, summoning the rage from before, he exclaimed, “You knew about the mare that threw herself into the ocean and you did nothing about it?”
“Such a correct presumption, that I would be watching our own seas,” the World Weaver admitted, her eyes ever steadily trained on him.  “It would have done no difference, me saving her or not, if that is what you wish to know.  One way or another, her death was predetermined by the loss of her will.  Her grasp on mortal value shattered with a previous death, your first kill in this world.”
“Just because she’s a mortal, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t care if she dies,” Ray responded bitterly.  “There isn't any right in letting her die, and I doubt that there’s much wrong in letting her live.”
“Yes, correct you are, but the Aspects put her in her place for her exquisite uses,” the Matriarch evenly countered, voice steady as always.  “Even in the brief moments you actually interacted with her, her purpose was truthfully fulfilled.  As I said, her death was predetermined by her and allotted by the Aspects.”
“I don’t give a damn about the Aspects or your prophecies, Weaver,” Ray spat, glaring at her in the nearest red eye.  “What I care about is bringing back as many Fallen as I can home.”
“I’m no prophet, Orphan of the Cosmos,” the Matriarch rebuked softly, for once sounding something like emotional.  Accusative, perhaps?  “My incredible gift in foresight allows me the power to foresee some things through deductions and experience, however, the prowess is only that of a seer.  I cannot see truthfully what the Aspects have in store for us, but I know their comings and goings well, the flow of time and pattern of change they follow.”
The Matriarch paused, seeming to notice that what she was saying wasn’t what Ray was looking for.  With something like a sigh, the Matriarch explained, “I am a fervent disciple of the Aspects, one of their first and only remaining children who remembers them.  I do seek to convert you through my help in this mortal strife, to peel back the veil that shields your eyes from the immense importance of your arrival, but alas, I know of your goals and mine, and they do not align perfectly.  I will, for the brief years this conflict may last, suspend my ambitions and pursue in earnest your desires.”
“Thank you,” Ray thanked coldly, the damage done still stinging.  At the very least, however, he had managed to earn something of the Matriarch’s commitment.  “And the poor mare’s body?”
“Lost to the creatures that dwell below us, I fear,” the Matriarch commented mournfully, looking away from Ray briefly to glance at the depths. “Unfortunately, they have been watching our movements ever since we passed the chasms deep below, and as soon as there was something that dropped from us, they took it happily.  I don’t believe they will ever attack us, given my presence and the grand number of us, but I would recommend that we do not allow any of our allies to lag behind.  A singular ship would certainly be picked off, if the monsters below wished.”
“Well, now I’m kinda scared of swimming back up to the ship,” Ray admitted, glancing to the depths below them.  There was only darkness, an endless twilight of the deep sea.  Shuddering slightly, he averted his gaze from the depths and back to the Matriarch, noticing the way her head had rotated to look forwards. “What do your eyes see out there?”
“It’s quite strange, but I believe I see ships ahead of us, two of them,” the World Weaver muttered curiously.  After a moment's consideration, she said, “Yes, there are indeed two ships out there.  I can hear the grunts and bleats of minotaurs as well.  How curious that we should encounter them out here.”
“Wait wait wait,” Ray stammered, his pulse picking up in an instant.  “Minotaurs?  Two boatloads of them?”
“Yes,” the Matriarch affirmed quietly.  She seemed more inquisitive about their presence than concerned by it, staring off silently at the watery horizon.  “They- by my calculations- are about thirteen miles away, directly sailing towards us.”
“They don’t know about us then,” Ray presumed instantly.  Looking up at the distance he had to swim to reach the surface and remembering the Matriarch’s words about what lay below, he asked her, “Can you get me to the surface?  I need to inform my generals immediately.” 
“Presently,” the Matriarch answered soothingly.  “I wish to observe them further before engaging.”
“Well, can you lift one of your legs up to my ship,” Ray questioned hurriedly.  “That way, you can remain watching and I can prepare for battle.”
“I see no problem with that,” she responded, her gaze still on the distant ships.  However, she did as requested, the leg closest to Ray raising in the water and breaking the surface.  Gulping one last breath of air in, he began sprinting up the appendage, leaving the air bubble.  As it rose through the water, he had to quickly grab the hairy leg and cling on as suddenly he was pulled out of the water above the ship.  Holding on with one hand, he wiped the water from his eyes with the other, staring down at the deck of his ship.
The Fallen on deck stared up at him, some of them gaping in shock and others shouting jokes that were lost with the splashing water.  Staring at the distance for a brief moment, he sighed and grasped the leg with both hands.  Swinging forward, he leapt from the spider’s appendage and fell towards the deck.  The fall wasn’t that large, but he still landed hard on his feet, rolling through it before slamming into one of the Fallen observers on the deck.  The stallion managed to stay on his feet and stopped Ray from rolling further, two hooves wrapping around his shoulders.
“Howdy, sir,” the orange Fallen greeted cheerfully.  “What prompted you to drop by?”
“Happenstance,” Ray responded brusquely, realizing in an instant that this was the wrong ship.  Standing up, shaking some of the water off himself, he glanced around and asked, “Where’s the commanding officer of this ship?”
“Commander Rade is below deck, sir,” the Fallen responded, pointing to the door that led to the cabins.  
“Well, go inform your commander to prepare for combat right away,” Ray commanded the Fallen with a firm stare.  “The minotaurs have been sighted some thirteen miles from our current position and are headed straight towards us.”

*******************************************************************************************

Staring out over the waves, he could barely see the two shapes on the water that were the minotaur’s ships.  Reaching down, he took the binoculars offered by Skalos, looking through the instrument.  From this better perspective, he could catch the first glimpse of a real minotaur.  
They were everything he had imagined they would be, tall even from this distance and big enough that he could pick out their actual physicality.  Each seemed to look the same as the next, tall, gray, shaggy beasts with something that weren’t quite cow heads, but rather cow-shaped faces.  Their horns were not nearly as big as he had feared, but still present and lethal looking, if they used them right.  Each of their arms were bulky and muscular, much like the rest of their body.  Even with the help of the binoculars, he couldn’t tell him their arms ended with hands or hooves, but whichever it was grasped some sort of weapon.
Many of them held large axes or swords, which seemed to be the weapon of choice for almost every minotaur.  They moved back and forth like ants on the ship, though it didn’t seem to be for frantic preparations like what was occurring on Ray’s ship.  Instead, they simply seemed to be a large group of restless marauders, impatiently buzzing around the ship.  There had to be thousands of them stuffed onto both ships, barely an open patch of wood on the deck with the vast number of minotaurs that inhabited the vessel.  Strangely, though, there didn’t seem to be any naval combat equipment on the boat, only the minotaurs themselves.  
Handing the binoculars back to Skalos, Ray let out a deep sigh.  It was happening, here and now, on the ocean.  They hadn’t even reached the mainland and already they were preparing for their first battle.  Behind him, on the main deck and below, the Fallen were preparing the ballistas, checking the weaponry for any last-minute issues and stocking the large bolts that served as their ammunition.  After several long minutes of Skalos observing the minotaurs through the binoculars, he set them aside, sighing as well.
“Well, lordling, this is it, I guess,” he muttered, uncharacteristically simple.  His friend looked up at Ray, the slightest smile on his face as he asked softly, “Are you ready for this?”
Ray took a moment to consider, glancing back out at the minotaur’s ships.  They were something like four miles away and still showed no signs of turning back or attempting to outmaneuver them after almost two hours of being within sight of each other.  They knew about the Fallen’s fleet and were preparing to fight in their own way.  One way or another, there was going to be a fight.  Taking a deep breath, he answered, “No.  I don’t have my bow on me.”
Skalos nodded appreciatively, turning with Ray as they swiftly made their way across the bustling deck.  Reaching the cabin door, he pulled it open and ducked through, entering the little room that was strictly his on the ship.  There was nothing but a bed that rested atop a chest and a plank of wood that served as a writing desk as furnishing.  Pulling the bed up and reaching into the chest, he pulled out his bow and quiver full of arrows, swinging the latter across his bare shoulder.  Turning back, he left the room, patting the door as he closed it.  I may never open it again, a voice inside him said.  
Shaking off the feeling of dread momentarily, he made his way back onto the deck.  Right outside the door, Skalos and Zecora were talking softly, the zebra resting her head on her husband’s, staring into his eyes.  Ray walked right past them, trying to allow the couple some measure of privacy even as he noted Skalos’ legitimately fearful eyes.  
Clenching his jaw, he turned to a group of Fallen that were loading one of the ballistas, struggling slightly with the rocking of the boat.  Needing the distraction, he crouched down next to them and offered his assistance, steadying the weapon as they locked the bolt into place.  Silently, the group nodded in acknowledgement of his help before dutifully returning to a different task.  Ray stood again to find that many of the Fallen on the right side of the ship were staring over the edge of the ship.  Concerned, he rushed over to them, leaping over another group of Fallen dealing with some scattered bolts.  
“What the hell’s going on over here,” he demanded as he arrived, earning the attention of most of them.  
“The minotaurs, sir, we can finally see them,” Gaz responded grimly, making his presence in the group known.  “They are some ugly bastards, ain’t they?”
“Yes they are, but you’ll get your chance to gawk at them when they’re dead, soldier,” Ray rebuked sharply.  “In the meantime, return to…”  He trailed off as he actually noticed how close the two enemy ships had gotten, the four miles slimming to what couldn’t have been more than a mile in a matter of minutes.  His heart jumping into his throat, he roared, “Fallen, to your battle stations!  Ballistas, take aim!  Fire on my command!”
Ray raced to the bowstrip, pulling an arrow from his quiver and placing it against the bowstring.  Slamming himself against the wooden pole to steady his aim against the rocking of the ship, he ripped the bow upwards and trained his sights on the rapidly approaching boat.  The two ships were a bit off-center, the one closer to Ray’s ship ahead of the one to its left.  They were closing in on the center of the Fallen’s right flank, and while it meant many of the ships would most likely not even engage the enemy, Ray hoped it wouldn’t matter.  The minotaur’s reckless approach meant that half of the fleet was able to try and circle them, the ships it seemed to be targeting slowing down, while Ray’s ship and several on the far right continued.  
Even with the perilous repositioning, the minotaurs pressed forward, and while certainly surprising, Ray remained dead set on the ship only a few hundred feet from his own now.  Time seemed to slow as the gap closed, the minotaurs staring, growling, bleating, and clamoring at the sight of the Fallen.  All across the fleet, however, was silent anticipation, the Fallen staring patiently at their enemy, waiting for Ray to give the order.  As soon as Ray’s ballistas opened fire, theirs would too.  Ray knew this well; he had given the order some three hours ago, when he had first made his way back to his flagship.  Now, he felt the weight of it on him, his arms straining as he kept the arrow primed.  Silently, he let it slip as he yelled, “Fire!”
The arrow arched through the air gracefully, propelled by the tight string as it flew speedily towards the close ship.  Ray hadn’t been aiming at any particular minotaur, simply loosing the arrow into the ship with the hope that it would serve as a signal to open fire.  Nevertheless, thanks to the crowded nature of the minotaur’s ship, it was almost guaranteed to hit something.  He watched carefully as the arrow descended into the crowded ship, jolting to a stop within the broad, ragged chest of a minotaur near the edge of the crowd.  Red blood shone in the light of the setting sun as it sprayed from the wound, the minotaur releasing an inhumane bleat of pain as it lurched forward and fell from the boat, splashing in the ocean.
The click of mechanisms and the sound of rushing air as the bolts from the pair of ballistas on deck were released shattered the ship's silence.  Ray didn’t need to look around the ship, trusting completely in the Fallen’s capabilities to efficiently run the weaponry.  Instead, he watched the bolts from the top and bottom ballistas arch through the air.  Three of the four bolts came short, gliding into the water around the boat, plumes of water shooting into the air.  The fourth bolt from the ballista below him, however, soared perfectly through the air and plunged into the lower hull of the ship.  The wood splintered, punching a hole into the underbelly of the ship and opening it up.  The shrieking bleats of minotaurs escaped from within the ships as minotaurs and pieces of them fell out of the new breath in the ship, the bolt lodged firmly in its hull.
In a matter of seconds, the other ballistas opened fire as well, steel-tipped bolts as long as Ray was tall zipping through the air all around the minotaur ship.  He watched as several struck the ship from a variety of angles, sending wood and minotaurs flying in all directions.  He almost laughed at the sight as half a dozen minotaur were sent overboard as a bolt struck the deck.  The bleating of minotaurs, shouts of Fallen, and sound of wood splintering filled the air.  Drawing back another arrow, he aimed it towards an upper portion of the ship that had remained relatively untouched by the barrage.  Letting it fly, he followed its trajectory, losing sight of it in a crowd of minotaurs.
Letting his weapon fall to his side, keeping himself firmly leaning against the bowstrip, he observed as the battle unfolded.  Calling it a battle was probably incorrect, the complete massacre of the minotaurs on both ships easily displayed as the ballistas on his ship opened fire again, this time all of them hitting the remnants of the boat.  There were still some minotaurs that clung to the back end of the ship, being that it was still mostly intact.  This second barrage targeted a particular piece of the middle of the ship, tearing it asunder.  With an ear-splitting crack, the front half of the ship suddenly splintered away, tipping forward as it began to sink.  Several more bolts crashed through the back end of the ship, one of them grazing over the top of the deck and taking dozens of minotaurs with it as it splashed in the water on the other side of the ship.
After what only felt like a few minutes, the bombardment slowed, the stern of the ship thoroughly damaged with only a few hundred minotaurs desperately scrambling around the broken bodies and wreckage of their ship.  By this point, Ray’s ship and many of the others had surpassed the sinking wreck, prompting Ray to dash to the back railing of the stern.  From the new vantage point, he could see quite clearly that there was no chance of the minotaurs escaping.  Even with a vast majority of the fleet passing by the ships, the ones in the back that hadn’t engaged were now taking potshots at the remains of the ship, occasionally landing another devastating hit.  The other ship was in a much worse condition, however.  All that remained were some large planks of wood with far too many minotaurs clinging to them.  Some of the ships passing by with archer divisions on board were firing on the floating minotaurs, killing the remnants of the slaughtered crew.  Within twenty or so minutes, the entire battle was over.
Smiling to himself, he glanced around the deck quickly to assess the damage.  Unexpectedly, there was nothing to report, not even a stray arrow or loose bolt rolling around the deck.  Slowly, the Fallen around the ship began to look around at each other as well, seemingly coming to the unbelievable realization that, for all of the damage they had done, they hadn’t even been touched.  Looking around, his smile breaking out into a beam, he softly stated, “Well, soldiers, I think we have a victory to report.”
Cheers broke out all across the ship, the celebratory roaring louder than the battle that had occurred minutes ago.  Ray found himself letting out a slow sigh of relief at the results of the battle, hoping that the damages done on the other ships would be the same his boat had suffered.  He raised his bow into the air with one hand, cheering with them jubilantly.  Distantly, he could hear other ships doing the same, and turning to face a ship that trailed them by only a few dozen feet, he cheered with them too.  They had won their first engagement.

**************************************************************************************

Across all of the ships, the celebrations continued well past dark, though Ray and the generals didn’t participate.  Instead, they sat together in Ray’s cabin, counseling together about their ship’s engagement with the enemy.  While some minotaurs on the second boat had gotten the opportunity to fire on Harbor’s ship, none of the arrows had even touched the ship.  Thus, there was a grand total of zero dead and very limited injuries, all of them minor and self-inflicted.  It was a complete victory, and by Kraven’s rather broad estimates, they had used over three hundred ballista bolts to sink the two vessels, killing some unknown thousands of minotaurs in under half an hour.
Ray and the other generals celebrated privately in the cabin, sharing their own view from their ships.  Kraven lamented both that his report of clear skies for the night had gone unheard thanks to the minotaurs’ sudden appearance, much to everyone else’s amusement.  Pelios shared in missing out on all of the action and left with only floating chunks of wood and minotaurs to shoot at, his boats being the ones at the back of the fleet.  As the night wore on, Zecora and Harbor’s wife joined the group, and while it made the space a bit more cramped, it also increased the merriness tenfold. 
After an hour or so, however, the conversation died down, everyone but Skalos and Zecora leaving to return to their soldiers.  In spite of the massive victory of tonight and the huge morale boost that it had given everyone, it meant that tomorrow had to be even more organized.  Every general knew that, had it been a similar sized force they faced, they would have taken some serious damage.  Given that these ships had to come from somewhere, there was no doubt in their mind that there had to be a port where there was once the only landing.  Armed with that knowledge, they had to prepare their troops for the amphibious landing they had trained for.  
Sitting alone with his two closest friends in the army, Ray stared at the couple silently.  Tomorrow, everything would change, and the war would officially begin.  With that thought looming over the entire fleet, the three listened as the celebrations finally died down, soldiers going to bed in preparation for the fight tomorrow.  Ray wanted to leave his cabin and talk with the Matriarch one last time before he went to sleep, but he figured the Matriarch already knew what he would be thinking and saved it for tomorrow.  Instead, he met Zecora’s eyes and asked, “How are you holding up?”
“It is hard to say with the things I have seen, but I know upon whom I lean,” the zebra answered, her head resting on Skalos’ shoulder.  The Fallen seemed, for the first time in months, truly relaxed, a soft smile on his face as he stroked his wife’s hair.  “Besides, I am where I’m most needed.  There are plenty of wounds to be treated.”
“Yeah, that’s true enough,” Ray muttered with a nod, noting how she hadn’t really given an answer.  “And you, Skalos?”
The stallion gave Ray a slow stare before answering, “I found today to be a delight.  We killed some minotaurs without getting killed ourselves.  What more could you ask for?  The real question is how you are holding up after killing the first minotaur and our first fatality.”
Ray paused, giving Skalos an annoyed frown, moreso because his friend knew him as well as he did than because of the question itself.  With a shrug, he answered, “Well, I ain’t the damnedest.  I’ll deal with it when I’m not worried about the lives of my soldiers.”
“Hm, well if that’s the case, then we’ll take our leave for the night,” Skalos responded evenly.  As he and Zecora stood, he gave Ray a knowing look, saying, “You should probably go to sleep as well.  I’ve got a feeling that sometime tomorrow you’ll end up on the front lines regardless of mine or everyone else’s wishes.”
> Disembarkment
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ray’s heart was in his throat as he sat on his bed, the ship rocking back and forth slowly.  All across the deck and throughout the fleet, the cries of “Land ho!” were echoing back and forth.  Some Fallen cheered at the call, some Fallen fell completely silent, but each of them moved quickly to their jobs.  Ray rubbed a hand over his face, staring out the small porthole that provided him limited light and air.  He needed air.  
Tussling his own long hair, he stood up and pushed through the cabin door and out onto the main deck.  In spite of a surprisingly restful night of sleep, he suddenly felt tired, unprepared for what today was bound to bring.  Setting his jaw, though, he made his way past the bustling Fallen as they dutifully prepared the ballistas for a potential engagement.  Yesterday’s victory made everyone move with a certain confidence, even in those who seemed notably shaken by what they may face today.  Biting his inner cheek, he took the wooden stairs up to the wheel on the starboard side of the ship.  He hadn’t really been up here much and had barely interacted with the ship’s captain, but upon arrival, he found the stallion already at attention.
“At ease, captain,” Ray dismissed, stopping short of the wheel itself.  “How far out are we from the designated landing zone?”
“Ten miles exactly, and about four miles north of it,” the captain responded smartly.  “We’ll arrive in two hours’ time, given the cast of the wind.”
“Approach the landing zone head-on, captain,” Ray ordered.  Distantly, he could pick out where the sea ended and the land began.  Pointing to the faded ridgeline that barely poked out of the horizon, he remarked, “We don’t know how well the minotaurs are prepared for us, but we do know how defensible their position is.  If they have any sort of defenses on those cliffs, we’ll need to approach directly to suffer the least casualties.  Besides, I don’t want to risk grounding any ships close to those walls.”
“Yessir,” the captain responded with a quick salute, instantly twisting the wheel to the side slightly.  
His job done, Ray turned and left down the stairs, endless thoughts racing through his mind.  For the first time in what felt like years, he thought about what he should be doing right now, what a normal human boy would be doing at his age.  He would be learning to drive most likely, if his family could have afforded the gas.  Mags would have been in high school by now, probably earning scholarships or something already.  His face scrunched up as he realized he didn’t know how old he actually was.  Was he still fifteen or was he sixteen now?  
Running a hand through his hair, he shook his head.  Hell, he might have a girlfriend if things were normal, but now, the thought of any romance now was… dead.  This world had nothing that wasn’t artificial or impossible to look at in that perspective, let alone act upon it.  Everything seemed foreign now, the world he had spent the past year and longer living in embedded into him now more than the old one had ever been.  There was nothing that seemed normal now, and looking down at himself, not even the need for clothing had stuck.  He had spent more and more time these last few months walking around in scarcely more than a loincloth.  
He had lost his humanity in more senses than just his lifestyle.  It almost seemed like Equestria was a whirlwind and Ray was caught in it, his body and mind stripped down to its bases the longer he decided to stand amongst it.  He could barely recollect what he had been living for in his old life other than his family, the grating process of keeping his home afloat deadlier than what he had faced here in Equestria.  On reflection, he considered himself lucky that he had snapped beneath the tension of Earth in Equestria and not at home.  As strange as it was, coming to know Twilight and the world she was attempting to protect, he had completely forgiven her.  However, beyond that, getting to know himself truly, beyond the hollow shell that stalked the tumultuous city in hopes to gain scraps, he had come to respect her for it.  
“You’re in your own head,” Skalos softly informed Ray, appearing suddenly at his side.  The Fallen grabbed his hand with a luminescent hoof and tugged him aside, back towards Ray’s cabin as he muttered, “And so am I.”
“Whaddya mean,” he asked the Fallen, ducking under the frame as he entered his small room.  “What’re you getting yourself worried about?”
The stallion chuckled pitifully to himself, running a hoof across his smooth skull.  After several long seconds of Skalos’ ashamed silence, he finally managed, “I’m worried about Zecora.  It’s getting to me, and I can’t be facing that on the most important day of my life.”
“Well,” Ray began, though he quickly fell into silence too, not quite sure how to counsel his friend.  “I’m worried about Skalos, and I’m sure she is too.  We both know and love you very much, and we both know exactly the lengths you’ll go to defend us and the Fallen.  I’m worried about who I’ll lose in this war more than I am about returning home myself, but that’s my flaw.  I think that your flaw is that you’re concerned about the balance of love and duty.  I haven’t had to face that yet, so I’m not sure what to tell you other than that Zecora will forgive you for however your fate turns out.”
Shaking his head sadly, he complained, “You shouldn’t have let her join us in person.”  
“Wait, I thought you were the one that let her on,” Ray refuted with a confused stare.  Skalos looked up from the floor, both friends blinking at each other as they came to the same conclusion.  Ray let out a little laugh while Skalos simply smiled, both of them outsmarted simply by the zebra’s inaction.  Shrugging with an embarrassed smile, Ray remarked, “Well, I think that alone speaks volumes to her will to be with you.”
“Doesn’t make me any less worried,” Skalos sighed, sitting down.  “It’s as if I’m only now realizing things that I came to accept a long time ago.  For some reason, everything I knew would happen is happening and I’m completely unprepared for it.  I want this all to be over with and the fighting hasn’t even truly begun.  I know I’m most likely going to die in this fight, I believe every Fallen has come to that realization that the likelihood they will be the one to die is high.  Now, though, I’m finally feeling the weight of the responsibility of my own life.  I know you’re feeling quite the opposite, resigning yourself to be the leader I trained you to be months ago.  It feels like I’m betraying the stallion from them and lying to the boy I made a general.  My first task was complete, but now I don’t want to complete the mission.”
Grasping the Fallen by his shoulder’s Ray stared into the stallion’s milky eyes, the soft blue shine of his translucent skin lighting the cabin’s tight space.  He remembered when he had once been scared of these eyes, this Fallen body that shone with ghostly light and bore the inner workings to all who looked.  Now, he was familiar with it, accepting of the way their bodies had transitioned with centuries of darkness.  Somehow, in a world like this, he only found himself as strange in the world, as if knowing that he was the odd piece of the puzzle.  Without a word, he pulled Skalos into a hug.  
The Fallen grunted slightly at the tight embrace, his hooves pinned beneath Ray’s arms.  Still hugging his friend, staring at the grainy wood of the cabin, Ray told the stallion, “Down in the Harkening, you told me about your tradition of saying goodbye to people long before they had to leave so that it alleviated the pain when the day actually came.  Well, you said your goodbye, but I never got the chance to say mine, for when either you or I leave this world.  I want you to know Skalos that you have only done the best any creature in any of the worlds could have done.  Whether you meant to or not, I got to know the stallion behind the Fallen, and the stallion there is the bravest, kindest, and most honorable person I’ve ever had the pleasure of befriending.  Know that I speak from the heart when I say there is no other thing in these worlds that I would rather fight beside than you, Skalos.  Goodbye.” 
Clapping his hand against the Fallen’s back, he took a deep breath to withhold the tears he felt.  They were the same ones he had sworn he had seen in Skalos’ eyes those months ago, glistening with forlorn joy at the past and hopeful, if darkened, continuation into the future.  Pushing the stallion back and giving him a warm, searching stare, Ray patted a hand against his cheek.  Skalos was past the point of tears, several wet streaks glowing from the shine of his smooth skin.  His friend looked up at him and managed to choke out, “Strange how the more you encourage me, the more I fear going out there.”
“The fear of death is one of mortality’s many flaws,” Ray felt himself say from deep within, his heart thudding slowly as he said so.  Those words had been his own, he had thought them and spoken them, but strangely, they felt compelled out of him.  He brought Skalos in for a quicker, reassuring hug to take his mind off it, the stallion this time ready for the embrace.  
As they parted, the door opened, Zecora walking through and quickly shutting the door behind her.  Skalos attempted to wipe his tears away before his wife could see, but the zebra caught his hooves before he could remove the evidence.  
Glancing up at Ray with a knowing look, she comforted Skalos, “I know the cause of your tears for I overheard your greatest of fears.  Know this, love of my life.  Living or dead, I will always be your wife.”
The words broke Skalos, the stallion reduced to tears as he melted into his wife's hooves.  Ray didn’t know whether to smile or not for Skalos’ sake, but recognizing his friend’s emotional turmoil, he decided to leave the cabin and allow Zecora to work her magic on the stallion.  Locking eyes with the zebra as she gently stroked her husband’s head, he nodded to let her know he was leaving them alone.  She smiled at him and mouthed a quick thank you before planting a kiss on Skalos’ forehead.  Clenching his jaw, he pulled himself out of the cabin, softly shutting the door behind him.  
There was serene quiet on deck as Ray began walking to the stern of the ship, his usual spot on the bowsprit beckoning him.  The distance between the fleet and the coast had already closed enough that he could distinctly see the cliff wall that made up almost all of the new continent’s coast.  While still distant, he could guess that the cliff faces were several hundred feet high, at least as tall as some of the mountains closest to Ponyville.  They were imposing, certainly, but there was something so strangely unique about the rock formations that made Ray wonder how they had formed.  Regardless, they served as a formidable defense against coastal invasions like their own.
It would have been impossible to mount this attack save for the small gap that appeared abruptly in the middle of the line.  While small at this distance, it was still about as large a gap as there was between Ponyville and the base of the mountain that hosted Canterlot.  The broad space, while limited considering the extent of the entire coast, was still large enough to land all of the ships at once if there were no dangers present in the space itself.  However, the two ships from yesterday’s brief encounter gave them knowledge that there was at least some sort of naval presence in the small harbor area itself.  
“Sir, we’ve sighted the coast for the first time,” a voice suddenly called from behind him.  There was a certain grimness to it that Ray had never heard from Garish before.
Turning to face the stallion, he asked, “What did you see?”
“Well, they have something out there on the water,” Garish responded grimly, looking out over the waves at the gap.  “We think it might be an incomplete ship given its closeness to the shore and the general dishevelment of its shape.  From our vantage, we can’t see the actual lip of the cliffs, but that means that, at the very least, there aren’t any large pieces of equipment that can strike us from above.  That doesn’t rule out the brazen individual but given that we’ll be landing in the direct center of the gap, we don’t believe they’ll present any danger on disembarkment itself.  Our biggest concern is that there seems to be an established dock itself and what we can only assume to be tents nearby.  We’re not certain if they have any equipment to see our approach either, so we may face any level of preparedness from the enemy.”
Ray rubbed his chin for a moment, his jaw and lip clean shaven thanks to a cut this morning.  If he was going to die today, he wasn’t going to die with scraggly face hair.  Ray shook that thought off as he quickly commanded, “Keep infantry ships in front, but bring some archers on each infantry ship to help with disembarkment.  We can afford to have fewer soldiers on the ships to our rear.  Keep every ship that we remove soldiers from out of the initial landings to cover the possibility of a naval flank.”
“Yessir,” Garish responded sharply, a quick salute given before he dashed off to quickly spread the word between ships.  Clasping his hands together behind his back, Ray began to return to his trajectory, when he was stopped yet again by someone calling his name.  Looking around, he couldn’t locate the source of the voice, confused as he was certain he had heard someone yell for him.  Scrunching his brow, he looked around the entire ship, only to gasp in surprise as he saw the Matriarch’s head popping up on the left side of the ship, four of her eyes peering over the railing at him.  
“Jeez,” Ray hissed, his heart briefly stopping at the sight.  Around him, Fallen yelped profanities or obscure phrases at the giant spider’s sudden appearance, but recognizing the strange creature, they went about their own work quickly.  Hurrying over to the Matriarch, Ray exclaimed, “You could’ve been a bit more subtle with that.  You’re still a giant spider thing.”
“I’m the first of my kind, before we were known simply as spiders,” the Matriarch remarked as Ray jumped the rail, landing on one of the World Weaver’s prepared legs.  He steadied himself on her hairy exoskeleton just in time for her to duck beneath the waves, diving deep into the water.  Ray watched with mild curiosity as the air around him remained, a pocket in the water that he and the Matriarch’s head inhabited.  Having completed the act and cleared out of the way of the boats, she finished, “It would be much the same as me calling you a child.”
“Huh,” Ray asked, confused at first.  Recollecting what the Matriarch had said previously, he muttered, “Oh, right.  My apologies.  You’re just terrifying is all.”
“A useful tool against mortals that fear such things,” the World Weaver remarked with a confident nod of her large head.  “I wish to offer my services to you, Ray.  My mind has heard what you spoke with on your ship, the concerns shared between you and all Fallen.”
“Aren’t you already assisting us,” Ray questioned, lost amidst the constantly shifting subject of the Matriarch’s mind.  There had been very little time to actually pick up on the Matriarch’s language ever since meeting her, and while it was easy enough to understand when Ray was leading the conversation, when the Matriarch began to explain her own thoughts, things quickly became confusing.
“Yes, but I mean to demonstrate to you and your army the truthful might of my spiderlings and I,” the Matriarch patiently explained.  “Your soldiers have already greatly presented their attributes to me and my own, now we wish to return the gesture.  Yesterday’s battle was a keen spectacle for my watching children, and such vivid action has… inspired a wholesale impatience amongst even the simplest of my children.  They wish to be unleashed on the foe in the most spectacular of fashions and allowed to demonstrate their comradery, the one they built amongst the plains and caverns of Tartarus’ depths.”
“Of course your spiderlings can help with the fight,” Ray laughed, still perplexed by the Matriarch’s questioning.  “Isn’t that why they’re all along with us anyways?”
“Hm, how do I explain this,” the Matriarch wondered aloud, reaching one of her feelers up to rub across the top of her head.  “What I mean to say is that they wish to take the field alone, without the assistance of Fallen.  They were presented with a spectacle and now wish to treat you to one as testament to their duty.  Do you understand?”
“Yeah, I think,” Ray responded, befuddled.  The spiderlings wanted to fight alone on the very first battlefield in the new world?  He could somewhat understand the sentiment, but the idea that his soldiers wouldn’t participate in the initial landing left a bitter taste in his mouth, and he was certain it would leave one in his soldier’s.  
“Look, the offer is kind and honorable, but my soldiers won’t stand by idly while your spiderlings do all of the fighting,” Ray explained kindly.  “After the excitement of yesterday, they’re thirsty for more, to do the job they were assigned to long ago.  For most of them, yesterday was a surprising victory, one without consequence or loss.  They want to use that momentum to launch a successful attack straight at our enemy and defeat them swiftly.  They were expecting to never return, at least most of them, but now we all see that there’s a good chance many of them will return and become normal ponies again.  So, while your offer is courteous and your spiderlings brave, my soldiers need to fight in order to feel like they’ve fulfilled their promise.”
“Perhaps a different arrangement, then,” the Matriarch pondered, looking back to the coast.  “We’re not even three miles from the coast and surely our enemies have spotted your forces, but my spiderlings are hidden beneath the waves in their sarcophaguses.  What if I took myself and my children ahead of the fleet to assault their forces at their… harbor… and cleared the way for the Fallen to land safely.  From there, you would form ranks and march up the land to vanquish whatever forces may lay beyond my sight.  It would provide the most effective and least dangerous course of action, fulfilling both our needs.”
Ray paused for a second, thinking about the prospect.  There really seemed to be no negatives to taking the Matriarch up on her offer, and as the shore got closer, the quicker someone had to take action.  With a quick glance at the ships above their heads, he agreed, “Alright, let’s do it then.  Your spiderlings and you will clear that landing and we will clear the land.  Now launch me, if you please.”
“Of course, lordling,” the Matriarch agreed with the most mirth Ray had heard the World Weaver allow in her sober voice.  
The leg he was standing on suddenly extended upwards through the water, shooting him up alongside his boat.  Thankfully, the Matriarch had learned from last time to drift beneath his ship, so now when he surfaced it wasn’t a nightmare of hopping between boats to return to his.  The leg barely broke the water, droplets spraying from it and the nearby ship as it broke through the ocean.  Wiping the seawater from his eyes, Ray only took a second to see he wasn’t too far from his ship.  Shrugging to himself, he leapt from the leg and smacked against the side of the ship, his hands managing to catch the ropes attached to it as he knocked the wind out of himself.  Wheezing slightly, he pulled himself onto the deck.
“Welcome back, lordling,” Garish greeted, though as Ray stood up, he saw the stallion wasn’t looking at him, instead staring grimly at the approaching landmass.  The human glanced at it briefly, noting that the small gap had now widened considerably with the closing distance.  “You’re just in time for the real action to begin.  The ballitas are all set and ready for affirmative action upon arrival at the coast.”
Ray nodded at the stallion’s dutiful stoicism, a rarity that had become more common with the war they now stared at.  Reaching down to rest a hand on the stallion’s prepared spear, Ray instructed, “Ease off, soldier.  Prepare for a peaceful disembarkment after a wonderful show, courtesy of the Matriarch and her spiderlings.”
“What do you me-” Garish began to ask before the roaring of water interrupted him perfectly.  
While unintentional and unexpected, the Matriarch emerged from the depths of the water several hundred feet in front of the fleet.  The sea cascaded down her enormous body, her legs reaching out from below like some sort of insectoid kraken.  With one large step, a singular leg crashed through the ocean, sending waves in all directions.  The boats of the fleet rocked slightly at the massive arachnid’s movements, every Fallen watching in silent awe as their ally charged forward to the new world.
Distantly, he could pick up the sounds of grunts and bleats, minotaurs on the makeshift dock that had come into sight scrambling.  Many dotted the wooden shape in the water, and with the fleet closing in on the shore quickly, they could all see now it was a halfway complete ship, alone and isolated on the dock.  Some brave minotaurs dared attempt to put up a resistance against the World Weaver, raising strange instruments in their hands and shooting miniscule projectiles at the hulking spider.  Whether any of them actually could have done damage was questionable at best, the few that landed snapping against the Matriarch’s exoskeleton.  
Without even glancing at the dock, the Matriarch swept a single long leg across the water, scattering the boat and dock like they were simply piles of sticks.  The action sent dozens of minotaurs flying through the air, some even splashing into the water relatively close to the fleet as it approached cautiously.  The sweeping leg of the World Weaver sent a large wave laden with broken wood and minotaurs towards the shore, which was quickly filling with minotaurs.  The beach was rocky and gruff in nature, small tufts of rough grass poking out occasionally, which made the minotaurs have to spread out awkwardly in a scattered position.  
The wave struck several feet up the beach, minotaurs crashing into each other or getting knocked over by the water.  Several were impaled on various pieces of debris, their bleats of pain and gurgling death cries drowned out as the beach water foamed up.  In an instant, several black pods as large as the Fallen’s ships washed ashore, bashing through the already scattered lines of the minotaurs, crushing those still flattened by the initial wave.  The sound of tearing and skittering shrieks drowned out all other sounds as the pods burst open, hundreds upon hundreds of spiderlings of various sizes springing out.  They swarmed over the ground, the smaller spiders rolling over the larger ones as the arachnid army charged the minotaurs.
The minotaurs attempted to fight back, swinging their large weapons at the swarm, but the large spiders were difficult to kill with their hard exoskeletons.  Even when a minotaur landed a killing blow, there were still dozens of more spiderlings to deal with.  In a matter of seconds, the entire beachhead was blackened with spiderlings, minotaurs that hadn’t managed to escape the cascade of arachnids falling beneath the swarm.  Many of the spiders stopped to feast upon their kills, the sickening sights and sounds of their feasting disturbing and disgusting.  Ray looked away from the visceral sight, as did many of the other Fallen observing from the railing.  
Even the Matriarch indulged in the feast, reaching one large feeler out and grabbing several retreating minotaurs.  They attempted to resist, thrashing around and clanging their weaponry against her hard carapace, but she simply squeezed them together, their snapping bones echoing across the battlefield.  With a flick of her feeler, she tossed their broken bodies into her mandibles.  
Ray didn’t watch the Matriarch finish her meal, instead turning to the bewildered crew of his ship and shouting, “Don’t mind the spiderlings, soldiers.  Prepare for armed disembarkment.  The Matriarch and her children are clearing the beachhead, but we need to still secure the territory around it.  We only have six hours to make sure we aren’t booted off this continent the day we arrive.”
“Yessir,” the hundreds of Fallen on deck responded loudly, briefly overpowering the other noises on the beach.  In an instant, the entire boat was moving, Fallen forming ranks as they had organized and practiced many times before.  Ray quickly moved to the closest ballista to the gangplank that would let them off, where he would meet his arms bearer.  He hadn’t really liked the idea of having a designated soldier to carry around his weaponry, but after a few times of legitimately needing someone else to bring him his weaponry, he had grown accustomed to it at least.
Surely enough, Kembil was making her way across the crowded ship, bow strapped across her back and kharamh in hoof.  The mare arrived by his side just in time for the boat to grind to a halt, the bottom of it striking the rocky coastline beneath the waves.  The boat shook as it stopped, but thankfully, it held firm, and there were no cries from below about any critical damage.  Glancing over the side of the boat, Ray noted they were still something like eighty feet from the shore itself.  While it meant an easy time for him, the Fallen would have to dive to the bottom and race across the seafloor weighted down.  
Grabbing his weapons from Kembil, Ray slung the bow and quiver of arrows over his shoulder, keeping the kharamh in hand as the gangplank lowered.  They used a piece of wood not built into the ship originally, the one used for boarding normally much too small and flimsy for a swift disembarkment.  Instead, a broad plank of wood was made to slide out of the side of the ship, about twenty feet wide and as long as the boat was wide to decrease the otherwise harsh slant into the water.  Taking a deep breath, Ray watched as the plank slowly came into contact with the waves, a mechanical clicking locking the plank firmly into place.  
It was time to go now, to charge down the ramp, jump into the water and rush to the shore.  Ray knew that as he took a step onto the plank, testing its security.  Perfect, just as it had been a hundred times before.  He lowered his kharamh and took another step, the air around him warm and thick as he slowly made his way down the plank.  His head slowly looked up at the beachhead, which thanks to the fleet’s head-on approach, was perpendicular to the plank.  It was only then that he realized the world itself was moving slowly, not just him alone.
The Matriarch had begun to devastate the camp, torn fabrics fluttering through the air alongside minotaurs flung aside.  Some of the largest spiderlings as well were engaging the forces that had either survived or were absent from the beachhead assault.  Their battle seemed frozen to Ray though as he slowly felt himself take another step.  There were no thoughts in mind, the uproar of emotions and flurry of ideas from this morning dissipated as he relied solely on the skills he’d spent his life in Equestria learning and honing.  Now, as his foot dipped into the warm beach water that surrounded the last of the plank, he felt in his blood the realism of it all.
Ray jumped from the plank and into the water, sinking with both the weight of the equipment he wore and the power of his landing.  He allowed himself to sink until, for the first time in eight days, his feet touched the ground.  Crouching, knowing he had to be at least fifteen feet below the surface, he launched himself off the ground, feeling the sand give as he did so.  The rush of water filled his ears as suddenly, his head burst from the water, a great gasp for air escaping him.  Knowing well enough how far off from the coast he was, he dove straight back down, landing on the bottom quicker than before.
Repeating the dive-launch technique a couple more times, he quickly found himself standing in the water, head, chest, and shoulders above the waves.  Disregarding everything else, he opened his eyes as he charged kharamh first at the beach.  He barely even noted the lack of enemies as he did so, everything he had been training for embedded deep within.  In his eyes, he only saw the objective, to reach dry ground and push onwards.  Grunting as he lifted himself out of the water more, legs sluggish as they cut through the ocean, he finally emerged completely from the waves.  Roaring furiously, he stormed up the beach, charging past the wreckage of the Matriarch’s attack.  
He ignored the scattered remains of minotaurs, empty husks or stripped bones left over from the spiderlings feast.  Instead, his eyes scanned upwards, the steep slope leading up from the beachhead, a large hill at least a mile long to crest before it was at the same height as the surrounding cliffs.  There were some minotaurs that remained, perhaps two hundred that gathered on the far end of the hill, but they were surrounded by spiders completely, the Matriarch holding them in their position.  The enormous spider turned her head to him, a question in the wave she held two of her legs above the captured minotaurs.   
Without any hesitation, Ray shouted to her, “No prisoners.”
With the command given, the World Weaver slammed her legs down into the bunched-up crowd, crushing the last of the resistance on the beach.  Seeing the remnants of the minotaurs being quelled, Ray’s furious pace slowed to a jog as he turned over his shoulder.  He hadn’t realized it, but his dutiful charge up the beachhead had led him a good ways into the land, leaving a considerable gap between him and his army.  In fact, he stood exactly between the two different forces, the Matriarch’s spiderlings climbing their mother as she halted near the top of the long upward hill.  Some of the larger ones, the eldest of the World Weaver’s children, stayed on the ground and collected their own children.  Watching the gathering of the forces, he guessed it was their way of counting their dead, of which there were a few.
With a quick glance around, he counted four spiderlings dead in his vicinity, though the beach was dotted with spiders either crushed or split open.  Much more frequent, however, were the remains of the minotaurs.  Standing where he was, halfway up the beach, there were hundreds of scattered corpses or barren bones.  To his right was nothing but the skeleton of a minotaur, while just a little to his left was one halfway crushed.  It was almost startling to see the path the Matriarch had taken, large indents in the rocky ground often marked with death of some sort.  
Having nothing more to assess from the initial contact on land, Ray allowed himself to finally come to his senses in the new world.  The rocky ground of the beachhead was grayish, dotted occasionally with pathetic tufts of grass that looked as if it had died yesterday.  The wind whipped through the gap and was probably the reason they had closed in on the landing zone so quickly.  Save for the new wooden wreckages, there seemed to be no infrastructure to speak of, not even a beaten-out trail.  It was curious, but ultimately, almost befitting of the brutish nature the minotaurs had displayed so far.  
Tossing his long, wet hair out of his face, Ray watched as Skalos and several other generals approached him, all panting from their own rushes up the shores.  Down on the beach, the Fallen who had already made it to shore were helping their comrades up onto the beachhead.  The entire coast was bubbling with the movements of thousands of Fallen swimming to land.  For a brief moment, Ray was worried about how many might not make it, weighed down by their equipment or stuck in the sand of the shore.  However, inspecting the Fallen as they began to form ranks, he noted quite distinctly that they were, in fact, completely intact as a unit so far.  The five different divisions were forming a few hundred feet from the shore, granting enough space for new arrivals from the ships.
“Well, Ray, it appears Celestia’s on our side,” Yarem called out cheerfully, stepping up towards the human commander-in-chief.  “Not a Fallen lost on arguably the most dangerous stretch of our journey.”
“Of course she’s on our side,” Ray responded, stone-faced as he watched the armies arranging.  “Alicorn aside, she’s still a pony.  Skalos, report of the first division?”
“Zero casualties on disembarkment to report so far,” the stallion promptly addressed.  “Minimal equipment losses as some Fallen dropped their weaponry from their persons in order to avoid drowning.”
“Replaceable losses, then, and only provisional,” Ray summarized, less of a question and more of a presumption.  Noting all five generals had gathered around, he ordered, “Prepare all ranks and units for combat post-haste.  We crest this hill in fifteen minutes’ from the last Fallen reaching shore.  Understood?”
“Resoundingly, sir,” Harbor answered for the group, the Fallen each sharing a look.  
“Soldiers,” Ray began, catching their attention before they could turn about face to fulfill the orders.  Having their attention solidly, Ray crouched down to them, restarting.  “Friends, it’s truly been an honor to learn from each of you.  I look forward to fighting beside you now.  I’ll see you all on the other side.”
“Yessir,” all five saluted in tandem, grim determination etched into each of their faces.  Without hesitation, they turned and ran down towards their respective divisions.  Ray let out a breath.
It was happening today.  He had found himself thinking that a lot recently.  It was true.  One day, it was leaving Equestria, the next it was fighting minotaurs, and today, it was landing on the new continent.  Still, as true as it was, there was always something new brought along with the thought.  Excitement at leaving Equestria and fulfilling his promise and the Fallen’s destiny.  Fear of loss when facing the minotaurs at sea.  Today left a bitter taste in his mouth, though.  He wasn’t afraid or excited.  In fact, he had a distinct identification for what he felt.  Ray was simply afraid of naming it. 
Today, he dreaded the future.  Not the fighting, not the killing, not even the losses.  He dreaded what he may have to face.  Loss?  That was inevitable.  Killing?  That was his job.  Victory… a goal.  But now, with two massive victories behind him and the prospect of another just over the hill, he had to ask himself a question Fluttershy, Apple Bloom, and even Twilight had asked him.  What afterwards?
Gripping his kharamh firmly, he began to trudge uphill to where the Matriarch and her children awaited reinforcement.  Twilight had told him that the future changed with his every action.  He was the independent variable in the entire makeup of this universe.  Befitting that he could only hope for the best when the planned future ended, when the road no longer ran but he had to keep walking.  
“I could be your future,” the Spectre spoke from somewhere within his mind.  It had been very prevalent before casting off, but it had grown strangely silent once they had entered the open waters.  Still, Ray did his best to remain unnerved by the Spectre’s haunting voice at such an inopportune time.  
Taking a deep breath in, he muttered, “Shut the hell up.  If I wanted something both unknown and dangerous in my head, I would have invited you to this mess of a party.”
“Now now now, lordling, such brash ignorance isn’t usually tolerated,” the Spectre chided distantly.  Its voice was strangely far off, like someone shouting from a mile away.  Maybe it was just imagined, but something about the Spectre where to shove it seemed to make it less of a pressure and more of a nuisance.  
“I mean, you’ve been ignoring me saying no for a couple months now, you prick,” Ray muttered under his breath.  “You’re a persistent bastard, I’ll give you that, but a bastard regardless.  Now let me go about my naive, mortal business.”
Based on the lack of response, Ray guessed either the Spectre had given up or was simply too annoyed by his admittedly childish reaction to its return.  With a smirk, Ray looked up to the Matriarch, who had undoubtedly heard his side of the exchange.  She leaned down curiously towards him, though thanks to her immense size, her head still hovered a few feet above his.  
“The enemy speaks to you again, hm,” the World Weaver questioned knowingly.  “Tis a strange dealing, its, but one that you are wise to set aside.  I had thought that, mayhaps, my mere presence and the objective I represent would have warded it off further.  Alas, I’m incorrect.”
“For once, yes,” Ray agreed.  “Disregard that, though.  It’s not important yet, and boy do I hope it stays that way.  Now, what do you have to report?”
“Seventy three of my children are dead,” the Matriarch informed mournfully.  “All of them are of the smallest and youngest of my spiderlings’ and their spiderlings’ children.  There are no wounded; any wounded are consumed to sever their mortal pain and reuse their strength.  However, beyond this hill, there is something of concern.  Two hostile entities exist there, a large group that currently is residing in a deep hole I know not the purpose for, and the other inhabits the plains in their tents.”
“How far apart are they positioned,” Ray questioned, raising a hand to his chin.  Two different enemy bodies would be difficult to deal with unless they split their troops, and even then it ran the risk of a singular enemy escaping and informing whatever controlled the minotaurs of the Fallen’s arrival.
“The tent dwellers are but over this hill, on the plain that stretches from this point.  The ones within the earth, however, are perhaps four miles from where I stand.  Their distance from each other is great, however.  A large hill obscures one from the other and broadens the distance between the two immensely.  By my sight, I would say seven miles distance them from each other.”
“Then I would say that, if your spiderlings are ready, you take your forces and attack the ones in the hole in the earth, whatever it may be,” Ray instructed.  “My Fallen will attack the nearby army, since we haven’t quite centralized yet.  Worst comes to worst, you finish off those within the whole and circle around to assist my forces in finishing off the other army.  Can you give me a number?”
“Mmmm, I would say three or four thousand minotaurs dwell among the tents,” the Matriarch guessed.  “It is hard to say; they are moving about quickly.  They may have heard the sounds of their brethren falling here and are preparing for conflict.  I would advise quick action before they too are prepared for conflict.  I shall move right away so there shall be no such preparation from the ones within the earth.”
“Thank you, and good luck,” Ray responded, giving the Matriarch a salute as she stood up to her full height.  Without warning, the enormous arachnid began trampling forward, her footsteps each shaking the ground slightly and leaving small indents in the rocky earth.  The World Weaver was practically sprinting, over the hill in seconds and off to the distant, unseen conflict.
Turning around, Ray was greeted by the sight of the Fallen, ranks formed and prepared, the very last of them already running to their places in their divisions and units.  Spears glittered in the burning hot sun, the wind whipping the flags that flew from the ships still.  This was the sight he had been preparing a year for, the sight of his army, equipped, ranked, and most importantly prepared for combat.  They were marching up to meet him, gradually closing the distance as he simply admired them.  He could remember when he had first seen them, the large crowd of glowing ponies sitting in the Harkening’s mausoleum.  He remembered thinking Skalos was a ghost at first, of being furious at his appearance.  How the times had changed, he reminisced as the stallion approached him.
There were no words shared between them, a simple meeting of their eyes telling both all they needed to know.  Ray reached his kharamh out and tapped the spearhead of it against Skalos’ spear, a salute he had learned in the Harkening.  Now, the touching metal beamed in the sunlight.  Silently, the human stared out over the grand army, all of which had come to a halt now that they stood behind Ray.  Raising his kharamh as high into the air as possible, he began whipping it around in the air over and over.  Finally, his heart in his throat, he turned to the hilltop and thrust the kharamh at it.  With the order, they began to march.
There were no voices, a nervous tension filling the air as the drumming of hooves against the rocky ground and clanking of metal reigned supreme.  Beside him, Ray could barely hear Skalos muttering something under his breath, a prayer for him and Zecora.  Tightening his jaw, Ray set his gaze up, to the hilltop that was approaching much too quickly.  He felt his jaw begin to quiver as each step made the hill begin to even out, plateauing and giving him a firm view of the new world.
For as far as the eye could see, yellow hills rolled gently across the plains, unbroken completely.  His eyes flitted towards a black patch moving quickly, the Matriarch and her kin distinctly approaching a wide, visible hole in the ground.  He wondered if the hole actually mattered, if there was something in there contrary to the unexpectedly mundane scenery of the new world.  Golden grasses and rolling hills, an obscure reflection of Ponyville, as he saw it, save for the distinct lack of distant mountains.  
That, and the minotaur army amassed near the gentle slopes of the hill across from them.
> The Bloody New World
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was something serene about the way the wind blew across Ray’s back, his hair fluttering across his eyes now and then.  It almost seemed to be attempting to relieve him from the blazing sun, actively staving off the heat.  The golden grass at the top of the hill brushed against his calves, feeling like regular, healthy grass in spite of their sickly appearance.  It tickled slightly, the edges of their golden blades softly dragging across the skin of his leg, sentimental to the touch.  They reached for him, grasping him in what felt like an attempt to prevent him from taking these steps forward, to stop him from looming over the edge of the hill.
Down below, one large body of minotaurs was forming up, a group that looked small compared to the forces amassed behind him, but an army nonetheless.  Ray’s grip tightened, his teeth grinding as his eyes swept over the breadth of their ranks, attempting to understand their strategy.  Frankly, it looked as if they were simply lining up in a square-shaped formation, the edges were horrendously rounded.  Perhaps it was because of the suddenness of the Fallen’s landfall, or perhaps it was simply that the minotaurs themselves did not care for war tactics, but they were more ragtag in formation than the Fallen had been on day one.  Still, minotaurs were an enigma of a foe so far, their tactics and mannerisms foreign and unknown to his army.
In spite of their disheveled formation, they at least seemed to be perfectly content in holding their ground, refusing to advance up the hill or retreat to the top of the hill behind them.  Given, it was probably too late for their retreat, but not even one of the minotaurs seemed to falter as Ray and the very front line of his army appeared on the rim of the hill they faced.  There wasn’t even one retreating from the battle to spread the news, the open slopes and plains around them remaining barren of individual minotaurs.  It was nerve-wracking, the sheer determination the minotaurs were showing at the sudden appearance.  Ray decided to credit their deftness over their bravery for his own sake, though he would be lying if there wasn’t something to learn from their presentation itself.
Glancing left of the force of gathering, he saw their camp, a much larger but equally disorganized assortment of tents much like the one at the gap.  There were still a few hundred minotaurs rushing from the tents to join the left wing of the force.  Scrunching his brow, scanning the terrain beyond it, he found that they were pitched against nothing but an open plain, and by what he had seen on the beachhead, he formulated a quick plan.  They needed to ensure a swift, perfect victory that finished wiping the minotaurs from the Fallen’s landing zone.  In order to do that, the minotaurs had to not only be defeated, but completely eradicated.  The longer it took for their enemies to send reinforcements to the area, the more time the Fallen had to establish themselves and recover from the damage of this first fight.
Turning over his right shoulder instantly to Skalos, dutifully by his side, Ray ordered shrewdly, “Prepare forces for a five wave side-sweeping attack.  I want all three infantry divisions seamlessly in line on this hillside.  Each wave will be connected to the waves of the other divisions.  The waves will launch after the one ahead of it is halfway down the hill.  No mercy, no prisoners.  Have our messenger brigade spread the message.  Archery divisions will march around this hill to the right and move to intercept any retreat attempts.  Yarem and Kraven will command their archers as they see fit, but same conditions as the infantry.  No prisoners, no mercy.”
“Understood, sir,” Skalos snapped, before turning around and pushing past several spears to reach the messenger brigade’s leader and give the orders.  
In the meantime, Ray looked up from the front line, to the Fallen all around him.  They stood there, by the thousands upon thousands, gleaming spears strapped to their sides, jutting out into the air.  They had never looked like this before, a swarm of battle-ready, deadly mares and stallions, their eyes hard set upon the open space before them.  Many of them couldn’t see their enemies like the frontline could.  Some seemed nervous, others simply mouthed prayers or curses, and some looked almost emotionless, staring hard at the head in front of them.  The sounds of marching and clanking metal had ceased, the light breezes and heavy breathing not nearly enough to fill the silence.  Ray needed time to let the orders pass through the lines, but the Fallen needed something during that time that would keep them from cracking.  Realizing what had to come next was inevitable, Ray let out a sigh, planting the sharp butt of his spear into the sturdy dirt, the loud crunch gathering the attention of those who weren’t already distracted by his giant frame of their horizon.  
“Fallen, we have come a very, very long way from home, haven’t we?  For years, you have been preparing for this moment, knowing the inevitability of it, knowing that one day, you would find yourselves bravely on the shores of a new land.  For years, you have built the skill, determination, and brotherhood between you and your fellow Fallen that would allow you to become the army Equestria needed.  For years, all you have done is to help protect Equestria and the innocent ponies that reside there, the joy and harmony that resides there.  
“But today is not about them, my friends.  Today isn’t about the years you have spent preparing for this day or about the ponies who you will protect with these brave actions.  Today is about redemption, fulfillment, and most importantly, commitment.  To hell with the world that we left.  To hell with expectations and treaties, to agreements of the distant past and promises of the future.  To hell with continuing to be seen as the saviors of Equestria.  The wishes of the entire world are with us in heart, but today, here and now on this hill, they mean nothing.  Today, here and now on this hill, is about us, about every single one of us Fallen.
“Today, we cast off the titles that Equestria gave us, the names they thought gave us power or made us more than we were.  We are Fallen!  We are warriors and soldiers of our own accord, a force that will be reckoned with on this world and honored in the other.  There shall be no mourning of our sacrifice, no woeful wailings of our losses, and no memorials to our lost lives.  We live!  We live today of our own accord, fighting and dying as only we could have ever wished!  We live, kill, and die today to prove ourselves as individuals, a people long forlorn and forgotten becoming the legendary force we always have been.  There is no other option but war, no other path but violence, and no other outcome but victory!”
Ray had intended to say more, his heart swelling and his mouth filled to the brim with what he wanted to tell the Fallen, to congratulate them and encourage them even further, but the roaring of their cheers drowned them out.  The silence shattered to the cheers and war cries of seventeen thousand Fallen, their spears bristling in eager anticipation.  The wind whipped through them, their restless feet wishing to carry them with the torrent of air as the cold dread and gall of battle melted with the rallying of the Fallen.  Raising his kharamh above his head, he cried, “For the Fallen!”
A tumultuous uproar was his response, thousands of voices all raising to echo the words that escaped him, heeding them without worry.  The Fallen, his friends and closest family, were devoted to him, and as he turned to face the foe again, he let the power of his army course through his veins.  It fed him, his very blood boiling over with the power and loyalty of the people he had come to call his own.  He didn’t need any magic, he didn’t need any other control, and he didn’t need the Spectre.  He had his people, the people mixed and misfit, torn asunder by their mistakes and patched together by their creed.  And they had him, their general, the ruler, Ray the Fallen.  
With all of the pent-up rage he felt, the vindication he felt at these minotaurs beneath him that would dare threaten the innocent world, he shouted senselessly, charging down the hill.  His feet thundered, his hair whipped in the wind, and the army behind him rose up and followed after their general.  In spite of his larger legs, they were much better equipped for such a charge, and with the rush of might that had been pumped into them, the Fallen descended once again, rolling down the slopes of the golden hill to fall upon their enemies.
In only a matter of seconds, the first wave was at his side and slowly overtaking him, their elite equine bodies faster and more easily able to handle the descent at full speed.  Still, Ray pushed himself to stick with Skalos and the first wave as they rushed to battle.  The thundering of hooves filled the air, but even that became merely a background drumming to the absolute fury that was the Fallen’s battle cry, a howling of more voices than he had ever heard before.  His eyes locked onto the minotaur’s front; he felt a strange joy in watching the minotaurs begin shifting nervously at the rush of soldiers.  
A second cry joined the midst as behind him, Ray heard the second wave led off and charged downhill.  It was the only indication Ray had that the first wave was halfway to their destination, the building charge relieving the participants of all concepts of time.  Nevertheless, Ray remained fervent, even as the gap between him and the first wave began to broaden significantly.  While it did separate him from the protection of being in a group charge, it was to be expected and planned for.  Even if he arrived at the same time as them, he would simply have been targeted because of his unique size and appearance compared to the rest of the Fallen.  If he was lucky, he would arrive before the second wave, allowing him some desperately wanted solo action.
However, from behind the lines, he was able to watch acutely as the first wave made their approach, the distance between them and the minotaurs miniscule.  Ray watched with anticipated pants for air as he charged, knowing what was coming next as the Fallen swiftly closed the margin between Fallen and minotaur.  Even with the rapid approach of the first wave, the minotaurs held ever firm, attempting not to budge an inch at the impending wall of spears.  Inevitably, there was nothing left to do for them but bunch together, axes and swords and spears clutched defensively, staring the force head-on.  
Even as he ran, Ray smirked at what it would mean for them.
Only some ten paces from the minotaurs’ lines, a shrill whistle echoed across the golden plains, a death note to all of the minotaurs on the line.  In the blink of an eye, the Fallen suddenly slanted left, their spears turning from the minotaurs directly in front of them to their neighbors.  Half a second after the sudden direction change, before any of the minotaurs could react to the shifted attack angle, the Fallen crashed into the enemy.
The sickening sounds of bones crunching and metal grating filled the air as suddenly the minotaur forces found themselves being struck from the side, being swept across the front like water through a gate.  Minotaurs were impaled from their right by the orderly attack, killed before they could react and left with nothing but dead and broken soldiers.  Howls and shrieks of pain mixed with the constant drumming of the charge, minotaurs being flung left and right as their bodies were removed from the spears of the first wave.  Minotaurs that hadn’t been stabbed directly were far and few between, all of which were simply trampled by the crushing charge of the first wave.  As swiftly as the first wave had struck, they were leaving, running from the middle out to their left or right, finishing off any minotaurs that dared remain in their destructive path.
The Fallen cleared out completely just in time for Ray to arrive, his own charge a solo follow up to the crippling damage the first wave had brought.  A few of the minotaurs noticed Ray’s advance, stepping over the dozens of corpses left in the wake of the Fallen to challenge the singular soldier.  Ray himself had to navigate over a few of the minotaurs, the reach of the Fallen’s first wave at cutting several soldiers deep into the minotaur’s lines.  Still, a few dead minotaurs couldn’t keep Ray away from his target.
The first minotaur to challenge Ray wielded a crude, blunt axe.  The beast attempted to rush Ray, raising its weapon as the human jabbed the spear several times at it, slowing its movements down.  Having the minotaur exactly where he needed it, Ray jabbed to its side, twisting the spearhead so that the hook at the base of the point was behind its leg.  The minotaur, not realizing the maneuver was intentional, raised its axe high in preparation for a lethal downward strike.  Before it could bring down its weapon, Ray ripped the kharamh backwards, the hook catching the back of the minotaur’s leg and taking it off at the knee.  Collapsing beneath its own weight, it was now at the perfect level for Ray to jab his weapon straight through the minotaur’s chest.  Putting all of his weight into the kharamh, he launched it through the flesh and bone of the beast, feeling the muscles and tendons give as he impaled his foe.  
Ray didn’t have the time to wait, ripping the kharamh out of the dead minotaur without care, spraying blood across himself and the battlefield.  He didn’t have the time to inspect his kill, a duo of minotaurs approaching him with malicious roars.  One was closer than the other thanks to the way the bodies around the human lied, giving him time enough to deal with it first.  Knowing the only way to incapacitate the minotaur before the second one was a threat, Ray swung his kharamh like an axe, hook prioritized.  The minotaur moved to block the attack with its sword, but it was too close at this point to effectively block the hook.  Instead, its sword clanged against the shaft of the kharamh while the hook proceeded into its shoulder, sinking all the way in. 
The beast howled in pain, but Ray disregarded it, pulling the kharamh with him as he took a step backwards, ripping a long gash down the minotaur’s entire right arm and splitting its hand.  The force of the pull brought the minotaur to its knees before Ray, the beast grasping its spliced limb desperately.  Without a second though, Ray whipped the shaft of his kharamh up, striking the minotaur in the head with the solid metal pole.  Something like that sound of a watermelon breaking echoed dully from the minotaur’s head as it snapped back, a spurt of blood spraying from its nose as its skull split.  
Ray stumbled backwards a step, barely managing to block the close-range strike of the second minotaur’s sword, the hasty block sending both off-balance.  The minotaur’s momentum carried it past the human a few steps, but it managed to ward off a quick jab from Ray.  Both parties balanced themselves quickly, but Ray now had the advantage with the minotaur unable to strike him without risking an easy kill.  Regardless of the fact, though, the minotaur brazenly lashed out at him, sweeping its mighty axe horizontally as if to take Ray’s head.  The foolish maneuver ended with half of his kharamh sticking through the minotaur, lunging into the beast, its axe dropping from its hand as it slumped forward.  
Facing away from the minotaur army, Ray found himself staring down his allies charging only a few dozen feet away.  As he had quickly come to realize, he did not have any time to observe, simply kicking the minotaur’s fresh corpse from his weapon.  Hearing the snorts of a minotaur much too close for his liking behind him, he thrust the butt of his kharamh behind him.  Almost perfectly, he felt it sink into the flesh of a minotaur, a squeal of pain echoing the success of his guess.  Keeping one hand firmly on the body of his weapon, he spun around it, facing the minotaur that had attempted to strike his turned back.  With a satisfying grunt, he drove the butt all the way through it, soaking the last dry metal of his weapon in minotaur blood with a crunch.
In time with this minotaur’s death, the second wave struck, the minotaur’s lines still attempting to form.  If the first wave had been devastating, then the second wave’s strike was fatal, dealing the killing blow to any hopes for the minotaur’s to resist.  On the front lines himself, he was able to watch as the minotaurs were trampled, each one earning at least three different spear strikes as the Fallen charged through.  He watched with strange contentment as the minotaurs nearest to him fell backwards, stabbed, gashed, or crushed by the charge.  They seemed to be cut down before they were even able to raise their weaponry, the deadly speed at which the Fallen struck crippling their ability to deal any damage.  
Then, the lines broke, vanishing completely in some places as Fallen charged completely through the minotaur’s.  There was mild confusion at first as they suddenly faced completely open land instead of more enemies, but the effectiveness of the first and second waves had dissolved the minotaurs.  All around Ray lay dead, and realizing the fighting was done where he stood, he looked around him, scanning the field of battle.  His breath caught, the concern of how many of his allies he might find dead around him.  The more he searched, though, the more he only found red blood and hairy corpses, dead minotaurs blanketing the ground.  His heart began to pound, worried his eyes were deceiving him, but no, there were no dead Fallen.  
Slowly, he let out a breath, looking around him further to his left.  There still seemed to be some fighting a few hundred feet away, but the mass of Fallen and dust kicked up by it confused what he saw.  Panting, he planted his kharamh’s butt into the patch of clear soil he stood on, unable to do anything but stare at his surroundings.  
It was done now.
For weeks, he had done nothing but think about how it was inevitable, a subtle doubt in the back of his mind begging the question of if today would ever come.  Even sinking those ships, or charging the beachhead, or charging down the hill, there was still the subtle feeling that he would wake up from it all.  Now, he stood, bloodsoaked and weary, four minotaurs killed in front of his eyes by his very hands, their dying breaths brushing his cheek and their blood on his hands.  From the feel of it, he noted, it wasn’t only on his hands.  Sighing, he leaned against his kharamh, still catching his breath from the exhilaration of combat, the effort of everything he had just done draining.  In the distance, the last of the retreating minotaurs were suddenly trampled by the third wave, ending the battle with finality.
> Alone
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight paced back and forth in front of her throne, a thousand thoughts racing through her head every second.  Every situation was dire, every thought painful, and every guess a terrifying one.  It felt impossible in these hours, knowing what should be going on, but being completely unable to do anything about it.  There wasn’t even any way of knowing that any part of the plan past the embarkment had succeeded, a fact that had kept her from sleeping for days on end.  For all she knew, if she fell asleep, she would awaken to a world of blood and fire.
Her stomach rolled at the memories of the future she had seen, dug up from the back of her mind by the thought.  There was still time for that future to be fulfilled, a few days now from the date she foresaw the invasion coming.  
She took another shallow, shaky breath, circling back on her steps.  
What if she hadn’t prevented it, but instead promoted it, sending Ray and soldiers preemptively and instead starting the war rolling through Equestria?  The question had crossed her mind every day since she had brought Ray to Canterlot.  She had asked herself that question over and over these past eight days, restless thoughts of the blood on her hooves.  It seemed like a cruel irony that after all of the threats she and her friends had faced, it would be one that meant the death of ponykind the Elements of Harmony could not erase.
The Elements changed things, growing the seed of good in an individual to help them achieve harmony with themselves and those around them.  She had seen the horrors and atrocities the minotaurs would do to her people, the horrible fate of what they could do to them all.  It was something none of them had ever imagined, even underneath the subjugation of Discord, Christalys, or Tirek.  Death was something that only happened in a pony’s sleep, not on a blade and not in such a bloody and brutal manner.
Another turn in her steps, wearing down another layer of the marble in front of her throne.
Perhaps they had made it, landing on the shore and fighting through whatever they faced there.  What if they charged through enemy after enemy winning the day and saving Equestria.  What if the enemy had far greater numbers than they, whittling them down in a long and arduous battle, until everypony was dead.  They wouldn’t know for almost a week, until the lack of Ray’s appearance at the full moon informed them of his passing.  Twilight’s heart stopped, the very thought sending a piercing bolt of regret and guilt through her.  If he didn’t return as he warned he would, she didn’t know if she could ever face herself… let alone her friends.
She let out a ragged sigh, shaking her head as she turned again. 
A short scream escaped her as claws suddenly grasped her shoulders, breaking her nervous reverie.  She hit her head on Spike’s chin as she attempted to look up at the one who grabbed her, sending them both apart.  Twilight reached up and rubbed her sore forehead while glancing sheepishly at the drake, who was rubbing his chin with a pained groan.  Twilight opened her mouth to apologize but went completely stiff as a small drop of purple blood rolled out of the corner of his mouth.  The drake stretched out his jaw, opening it widely and letting the droplet roll down his chin and drip from his scales.
“Jeez Twi, that horn is something tough,” Spike groaned, closing his mouth and swiping away the little trail of blood.  Twilight didn’t answer, staring at where the small drop had collided with the silver and blue tiles of the throne room, an inkblot of Spike’s interior.  Her legs begin to quiver and her eyes begin to lull, her vision quickly becoming tunnels at the sight of her closest companion’s blood.  
As she was about to fall sideways, however, Spike yelped and reached out to catch her, managing to cup both arms beneath her.  Realizing his mentor was passing out, the drake scooped her up, shouting, “Twilight!  Hey, back to the real world!”
Her head still spinning, the alicorn blinked several times, trying to orientate herself from falling to being picked up.  Groaning, she came to the embarrassing realization that she had almost fainted in front of her throne.  In spite of herself, though, the combination of days without sleep, endless worries, and shocking embarrassment, Twilight wilted in Spike’s grasp.  For the first time in what felt like forever, she broke down crying, softly whimpering into her dragon’s shoulder as he stood there, unsure of what to do.
Twilight’s guilty conscience only grew as she realized the situation she was putting poor Spike in, but there was nothing she could do to stop the crying.  Awkwardly, the drake began to pat her on the back of the head, looking around for any sort of help with the unprecedented scenario he found himself in.  Unfortunately, as was habit with the alicorn, she had dismissed all of the guards to allow herself to pace and talk to herself without judgement.  Knowing he was on his own, Spike took a deep breath and slowly sat down, holding Twilight as she had once held him.  Stroking her mane as he’d learned ponies liked, he gently began to hush her like a baby. 
“Twilight,” Spike began, stopping because he didn’t even know what to say.  Hoarsely, he asked, “What are you thinking about right now that’s making you cry?”
The question gave Twilight pause briefly, as if making her brain work on anything but what it was feeding itself gave her solace.  The mare sniffled, glancing up at Spike with teary eyes as she murmured, “Everything.  It’s all going wrong, isn’t it?”
“No, Twi, it isn’t at all,” Spike reassured her, drawing upon every happy memory he had with her to prepare himself.  Celestia, all he’d come in here to do was get her to eat.  Twilight was prone to the occasional nervous breakdown, but something of this level… even he hadn’t seen this, not in all of their years together.
“Everything is going wrong,” Twilight insisted, shivering.  “Ray and the Fallen are all going to… to… Sweet Celestia, I can’t say it, but they’re going to!  And then all of my friends who are alive will hate me and know I doomed us all and got someone as great as Ray killed.  Celestia and Luna will hate me for dooming their ponies, everypony will die, and you’ll hate me because I hit you all the time!”
“Twilight, you tapped me once, I’m not gonna hate you,” Spike replied bluntly, dealing with the most obvious first.  Luckily for him, Twilight’s self-destructive rant wasn’t too different from what she went off about during her nervous breakdowns.  Deciding to fall back on a tried and proven method of comforting the mare, he lifted her up and set her on the ground.  Well, that part was new thanks to his growth now that he had been spending some more time with other dragons, but the rest was the same.
“Twi, what made you bring Ray here in the first place,” he asked.
As with before, the mare’s pout became a frown as she thought of a response, finally muttering, “Because we needed him…”
“Wrong,” the drake answered, giving the suddenly bashful princess a firm stare.  “That’s why you brought a human to Equestria.  Tell me why you brought Ray to Equestria.  I want every fact, feeling, and hunch that made you choose him out of literally infinite possibilities.”
“Well, the possibilities weren’t infinite,” Twilight began shakily, sitting back on her haunches.  She seemed to be coming more to her senses, hinted at by her blush and refusal to look up at Spike.  “There were only so many universes that actually worked with ours given their different cultures, environments, biologies, ideologies, and so on.  There were roughly seven thousand, eight hundred, and thirty with inhabitants that would coincide with Equestria’s atmosphere, and it just so happened that humans were the most common sentient species that could inhabit Equestria.  Unfortunately, they exist in only some four hundred universes, and of which, three hundred and seventy were either too advanced, too violent, or too dissonant for habitation.  That whittled it down to twenty-eight universes.”
“And why did Earth call to you,” Spike goaded, reaching out and resting a claw on her shoulder.  
Finally, she looked up, biting her lip as she recalled her choice from three years ago, the fate she decided was Equestria’s best hope.  “Earth was a perfect mix, violent but with the hope for peacefulness, advanced but not to all consuming levels, and its people strangely adaptable.  I still don’t know why, but I think Earth was made to host and raise Ray, to prepare him in one way or another for something.  The people around him were all that failed him, really.  Not his family, but the people around him, the people in his city that refused to look twice, the people of his nation that refused to understand, and the world that wasn’t fond of forgiveness.  Earth was a contradiction of itself.”
“And Ray,” Spike pestered, leaning in.
“I mean, where do I begin,” Twilight laughed nervously.  “He was raised to be a kind, loving, caring older brother who was responsible.  Then, he raised himself as the one issue in his family’s lives.  He took the burdens, mistakes, and hopes of his family on himself and used it as fuel for himself to become the best he could to repair that.  Someone with that level of determination only comes about when their heart is stoutly in the right place but their mind tricks them into the wrong lifestyle.”
Twilight paused, her eyes going wide as she stared at Spike, a smirk escaping the drake.  With a huff, the alicorn grumpily admitted, “Alright, you tricked me.  I’ve now said what I needed to hear.”
“Yes and no,” Spike replied with an even smile.  “Let’s be frank with each other; what just happened has never happened with you before, not even with your most intensive and desperate inquiries.  That was something that was as heartrending as it was scary to deal with, Twi, and I can’t imagine how it’s still tearing you up on the insides.  So, I want you and me to hear why Ray will come back next week.”
“Well, okay,” Twilight sighed, taking a deep breath in.  “I saw enough in him to know he was a potential choice, but it wasn’t until I saw his past, the things he’s done to survive and the things he has survived, that I realized he was the one.  He’s fiercely intelligent, but like with every good thing about himself, he’ll never acknowledge it.  He also has a hidden strength in him with his sharp wit, though I don’t think either of us have seen the full of it like the others have.”
“Remember day one,” Spike reminded with a short chuckle, remembering a smaller him shriveling before the menacing human.
“Well, that was more raw rage,” Twilight deflected with a shrug.  “That was another thing; he’s almost unstoppable when he’s enraged, something both his past and present has revealed.  He’s fiercely loyal, refusing to acknowledge any wrongs with those around him, even when there are some… glaring ones.  He’s not quick to forgive, not nearly.  I know he’s forgiven me, which is flattering because I know he believes solidly in what is undoubtedly right in his mind, even if it means setting aside the past.  He was always stubborn, but we were shown the harsh side of it with his complete takeover of these past few months, everything going his way and his way only.  
“Then there’s the one I was most concerned with.  It could be a strength and a weakness, but his need to connect with something, to give him purpose and not leave him free to act.  However, he fears himself and the agency of freedom, which is something we both need to allow and control in measures for a general.  He needed to be able to connect with the ponies of Equestria, but he also needed to be able to learn to become his own person at last from them.  I was worried he would latch onto them and become their beneficiary and nothing else, enslaving himself to the labor instead of liberating himself to work with it.  For a few months, in the beginning, it looked like it.  Then Skalos changed it.  I may never know how, but we received the general we needed from it.  Funny he wasn’t at all how I thought he’d become.”
“Is that better or worse,” Spike questioned softly, finally hearing the full of Twilight’s thought process.  
“It means that he will save Equestria,” Twilight acknowledged glumly, “but he will never save himself.  In this world, he will never find something that he truly needs, even with all of my assistance and Equestria’s resources supporting him.”
“And what is that,” Spike asked, afraid to know the answer.
“Something that nopony realizes until they cannot have it,” Twilight muttered, her head staring down.  “Someone to share the burden with.  Someone to live and love with.  A spouse.”
> Tally
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sunset of the new world was some spectacular beauty that, for some reason, was more spectacular than the ones back in Equestria.  The way it gleamed across the golden grasses with a softly shining glow gave the setting sun the impression of the hills being alive with starlight.  With the setting sun came cold, which somewhat shocked Ray as he was still pretty sweaty from the effort of returning up the hill, waiting for the Fallen to clear the field.  Thanks to the swift and excessive fighting of the day, charging up the beach and hill, then down it, he was feeling the wear of it all as his adrenaline subsided.
Now, fear took hold as he glanced across the battlefield.
It was completely layered with the bodies of minotaurs, many condensed in a thirty foot area considered to be the front lines.  There wasn’t a singular minotaur left alive, or at least not that they had discovered.  At the moment, some three thousand Fallen from the last two waves that hadn’t seen action were sweeping the field for any survivors and putting them to the spear.  His eyes drifted between the slow wave of glowing Fallen and the distant form of the Matriarch and the sea of spiderlings that circled the hole.  From what he could tell, the fighting was over and the feasting was done, the Matriarch herself once again joining in the gruesome celebration.
Grunting, he sat himself down on the crest of the hill, finally letting his weary legs rest.  Staring out over the dip between hills, Ray finally allowed himself to stare at the left wing of the field, where the most minotaurs were piled up.  Amid those bodies, he saw soft glows and shimmers of varied colors, the signs of dead Fallen mingled among the many slain minotaurs.  His heart fell further, a grim absolute that had to be fulfilled.  The battle couldn’t have gone any better if they had tried, and though he didn’t know or dare guess the number of dead Fallen, it was a slim fraction of what they had dealt.  Still, the thought of who they may be burying tonight hollowed him out.
At the very least he knew it was none of the generals, having seen all of them on their various tasks of rounding up their armies and tallying their losses.  The two archer armies had seen no action whatsoever, not even having the task of cleaning the field, and were currently establishing a camp in the small plains between the beach hill and the distant hole.  Ray was still vastly curious about its purpose, and once the Matriarch and her spiderlings cleared it, he would lead a division to explore and take control of it firmly.  
Another division from the fifth wave of Skalos’ army was currently clearing the beachhead of the dead and debris brought on by their violent landing.  Whether or not the makeshift port had survived the onslaught didn’t matter, as the plan was to prevent the minotaurs from invading Equestria, and following such orders, both the port and any ships would be destroyed after their complete encampment of the new world.  Still, any secretive or otherwise useful information on the beachhead had to be searched out, and there were hopes that perhaps there were some clues in the camp as to whom the minotaurs were commanded by.  
One of the shocking mysteries of the minotaurs was a surprising lack of obvious leadership.  There was almost nothing to distinguish one minotaur from another, the only variety being in what weaponry their foe wielded.  In fact, one of the duties of those fanning the field of battle was to find the least damaged body and bring it back to camp for dissection and studying.  There was great curiosity whispered amidst the Fallen already about the strange resemblance between their leader and their foe, the only mammalian bipeds that roamed their world.  It was natural for them to ask why the similarities existed, but Ray was both too tired and too preoccupied with his determined mission for such sidetracked curiosities.
A group of fifty or so Fallen walked past his position on the hill, off to help begin the long task of establishing a camp.  As signified by the slowly setting sun, they probably were going to be working through the night and the next day before everybody had a place to sleep, let alone all of the accommodations and supplies necessary for a smoothly run camp.  After the action today, though, Ray doubted many Fallen would complain about menial labor, given there was much less risk involved with it.  
It was obvious the army had suffered losses; there were already several dozen Fallen in mourning over comrades they knew had perished in the battle.  Several names had floated around, some of which he recognized, but Ray refused to listen in.  He would be in denial of anyone lost until Skalos’ word confirmed elsewise.  Unfortunately, he was easily able to pick out the stallion as he talked with Pelios and Harbor, the generals of the other two infantry divisions.  There was a small but distinct nod amongst the group and then Skalos turned and left.  He began climbing the hill straight towards Ray.
With a deep, steadying breath, Ray stood once again, crossing his bloodied arms as he prepared for the grim news.  It didn’t take long for the stallion to be within earshot of Ray, but for some solemn reason, he stayed quiet until he was roughly a foot away from Ray.  Oh no, he thought to himself.  Someone had died that he knew, perhaps a friend.  A quick list of possibilities flashed through his mind, Garish, Gaz, Linium, Pelvis… at least Pelios, Harbor, and Skalos were confirmed to be alive.
“Lordling,” the stallion gruffly greeted, sitting himself down on the stiff ground.  
“Skalos, good to see you in one piece,” Ray returned, sitting down as well.  There was a pause of silence before the human realized he had to be the one to start the grim conversation, so, dutifully, he asked, “Report?  What are the numbers?”
The stallion scanned Ray’s face for a moment, the unsaid but certainly asked question of how bad it was premiating the air.  Slowly, Skalos began, “According to the first counts, four thousand, eight hundred and thirty-three minotaurs were slain.  That’s not counting the number eliminated on the beach or in the Matriarch’s engagement.  Our forces suffered two hundred and eighteen casualties, with one hundred and thirty slightly wounded, forty-six severely wounded… and forty-two fatalities.  The only fatalities we suffered were in the Reformed Third Spear led by Captain Rohan in the first wave.  A small group were… surrounded and massacred… Captain Rohan among the dead.”
Ray’s heart fell in an instant, recognizing the dead stallion’s name as the first Fallen to greet him in the Harkening.  Of all of the names he had thought of, Rohan’s was not one of them… and he felt devastated by it.  The captain had respectfully maintained that he would command the Third Spear even as he was offered a promotion to be commander of the Reformed First Spear Division.  While not a friend like the others had been, the captain had been instrumental in helping ease tensions after the divisions between the insurrectionists and the loyal forces.  Still, as much as the loss stung, Ray breathed it in and let it all out.  He would mourn this loss, but he could move on.  
Glancing up at his friend, Ray noticed the way Skalos was biting down on his lip, obviously pained by the losses.  While Ray had come to know the Fallen over the last year, it wouldn’t surprise him if Rohan was the only name he recognized among their dead.  For Skalos and the other Fallen, though, they had lived for over fifteen hundred years together, and the camaraderie between them had been obvious even with their divisions.  Reaching out a hand, he patted Skalos’ shoulder, knowing exactly the bitter taste the death would leave in the stallion’s mouth.  While a stinging introduction of war to Ray, this was a ravaging reminder for the stallion of what this war would cost them.
“Hey, Skalos, whaddya need,” Ray questioned softly, forcing the silent stallion out of his hollow silence.  
Looking up, the Fallen gave the human a pitiful smile, his voice hoarse as he muttered, “I’ll survive.”
“Not what I asked, general,” Ray surmised, taking on his instructive voice.  “Take the bodies of our dead and bury them on the slopes of this hill with as many attendees as there wish to be.  Then, go and find your wife.  I have a feeling you both need each other’s comfort after everything that has occurred today.”
“And what about you, sir,” Skalos asked, daring an upward glance.  “Where will you find solace tonight?”
Ray paused, glancing around.  Darkness was settling in, the first night on a new world all over again.  There were so many new stars in the sky, and so many new sights in the dark terrain.  Indeed, the continent boasted a night that rivaled the starry skies and peaceful breezes of an Equestrian night.  He may have even considered it better, save it weren’t for the solemn days ahead.  Still, he had no better thing to turn to.  
“I think I’ll enjoy the night, observe a thing or two.  Perhaps learn something new of this continent.  Besides, I have many things to organize in very short order.  A second battle was fought today that I still need to attend to.”
“That wasn’t an answer to the question I was asking.”  Skalos frowned at him deeply as Ray looked back down at him, his eyes torn from the stars.  “A night as dark as sharp as this one won’t provide much comfort.”
“Perhaps… It’s the only answer you’ll receive in any case, general,” Ray responded shortly, pushing himself to his knees.  “I’ll attend the funerals as soon as I can, however, my attention may be needed elsewhere for the moment.  I trust you will give the dead their due diligence and proceed with the utmost honor to them.”
“Of course, sir,” the Fallen replied, reluctant to return to his charge as general.  “I’ll begin preparations for the bodies posthaste.  We will plan for them to be buried… well, whatever time midnight here is.  And what of the minotaur dead?”
“Leave them until the camp is set up,” Ray answered without discretion.  “I want to see if their corpses pick up any birds or carrion creatures.  It’s uncanny to think you’re the only living creatures out here.”
“Of course, sir,” Skalos dutifully replied.  The stallion seemed to have something more to say, but Ray left before he could protest anything else.  For both their sake’s, he felt there needed to be a third party involved, someone to serve as a vent for the stallion other than his general.  As much as Ray wanted to help his best friend’s troubled state, there was so much more to do in ensuring they were rooted on the continent that he couldn’t give him the time he needed and deserved.  With a sigh, the human began to descend this hill and walk towards the hole out across the plains.
The Matriarch had begun to slowly move towards the beachhead once again, seemingly because she had to round up her kin after the feasting.  He didn’t doubt that she had picked him out from this distance, but hopefully she wouldn’t make him walk even half the distance to her.  His legs were threatening to crumble like brittle sandstone beneath him, aching from so much action after so long cooped up on the boats.  His shoulders had also begun to hurt, the result of his violent exchange with the minotaurs.  Upon self-examination, he was surprised to find that he was uninjured, simply sore from the action.
In spite of himself, he glanced over his shoulder to where a large number of Fallen were gathering on the hill, their beautiful glowing skeletons glimmering all over the slopes of their first conquest.  Wherever his heart had fallen before, it dropped further.  He had spent over a year learning to be their general, while at the same time becoming their friend.  Now, he had to rein in each of those sides, needing to somehow put duty before the friendships to keep his friends alive, but also somehow keep them as his friends.  He had quite unintentionally made the whole war harder for himself in a way that Skalos had attempted to warn him.  Ultimately, both of them would pay for it.  Ray just needed to make the pain worthwhile.  
Sighing, he turned back and stopped dead, a sea of spiderlings racing towards him, the Matriarch looming overhead.  As always, the giant spider was a spectacular combination of terrifying and mystifying, her black form like the night itself as it snuffed out the stars above.  Eight massive, glowing red eyes peered down at him as he stood at the bottom of the hill, curious and knowing as ever.  
“Lordling,” the Matriarch questioned, leaning her head down to him.
“Of course,” Ray answered wearily, hearing the exhaustion in his voice.
“Hm, yes, I see that and more.”  The Matriarch paused momentarily, watching her children swarm around them, passing by in a skittering, clicking mass of dark forms and reddish eyes.  “Business first though, as you wish.  The battle was rather short-lived by my account.  There are exactly five thousand dead minotaurs in the depths of the hole, though uniquely, four hundred and fifty-eight of them were long dead before our arrival.  I believe it may have been the conditions of their living and working down there.  There were a great number of raw minerals in the depths that by my eyes seem to have been plundered and extracted from their home deep in the earth.”
“A mine,” Ray realized with a hushed breath, a hand rising to his face.  His thoughts raced, hard pressed with the sudden information the Matriarch brought to him.  One task at a time though.  “Do you remember how many minotaurs were slain on the beach?”
The Matriarch paused briefly, recollecting the previous fight, before answering, “Seven hundred and eighteen minotaur felled by my children and I.  We’ve slain five thousand, two hundred and- “
“Yes, I can do the math,” Ray dismissed thoughtfully.  “Can you count the number of dead in the plains that I and the Fallen have killed?”
With a brief glance to the open field, the Matriarch quickly responded, “Five thousand, two hundred and ninety-four dead across the field of battle.  None in the camps or surrounding areas.  Your soldiers dealt incredibly with the foe and suffered less than a one thousandth of the losses.  Most charming indeed.”
“And your casualties,” Ray questioned, still deep in thought.  
“Four hundred and… and thirty-four of my spiderlings, including a broodmother,” the Matriarch recalled.  Ray eyed the giant arachnid questioningly, the lack of words a first from the World Weaver.  Noticing the human’s questioning, the Matriarch quickly explained, “Your lack of focus distracts me, Orphan of the Cosmos.  It is rare that you are distracted to the point of coldness.  What ails your mind to have such disconnection?”
Ray blinked, looking away from the spider and out towards the darkened landscape.  The new horizon.  “These numbers, the numbers of the army and whatever that force in the mine were, they have to mean something.”
“Such as,” the Matriarch probed, tipping her head slightly.  
“You said there were exactly five thousand minotaurs in the hole, right,” Ray checked.  The Matriarch nodded affirmation.  “However, both actual forces we faced on the beach and in the battle weren’t nearly so precise.  It may be coincidence or not, but I have to guess something about the number in the mines is intentional.  Were they armed down there?”
“With equipment for mineral extraction, whatever you call them,” the Matriarch informed.
“You don’t know what mining tools are called,” Ray couldn’t help but question.  
“It’s always been a personal belief that the riches buried deep in the earth should be left there, but it has clearly been a singular ideology.”
“Well, we’re going to have to break that personal code of yours.”  Ray paused, glancing out over to the hole in the distance.  “A mine could be very useful for us depending on what resources we can extract from it.  For the moment, though, we can’t send a force down there.  The mine’s existence proves that the minotaurs are much more centralized than we had hoped.  At the very least, they aren’t just roaming groups of warriors.  The fact that they had a port, army camp, and mine all within close proximity of each other just proves both their intentions with Equestria and their organization.  There has to be some kind of leader that is ordering these things to be.”
“A chieftain, perhaps,” the Matriarch speculated.  “It isn’t surprising that they would follow some elevated member of their society.  I suspect that, in the wake of these battles, the minotaurs will tip their hand, so to say.  There is a large congregation of them out here, but as far as I can see, there are no others.”
“They probably don’t live this far out, then,” Ray guessed, glancing around at the dark hills.  For miles in all directions, there was nothing, no trees, buildings, or even roads.  Just endless golden grasses illuminated strangely silver by the waxing moon’s light.  “Perhaps that’s what brought about all of this, then.  Maybe that’s why Twilight saw the future we disrupted today.”
Ray took pause at that, the slow realization that, indeed, they had prevented the invasion from occurring when it did settling deep within him.  They had done it.  For now, at least, Equestria would be safe.  Now they had to move on, to secure that.  
“We’ll need to scout our surroundings quickly,” Ray informed the Matriarch.  “Your eyes and children would serve us well in scouting the northern reaches of the continent.  My soldiers can be dispatched in small numbers to explore southward.  We need to be careful in progressing forward, across the continent in earnest.  There’s no way of knowing where our enemy is scattered across the plains and hills.  Most likely, given the strange bleakness of our surroundings, they don’t live out here in large numbers.  
“I don’t know much about land and fertility, but I’m guessing by the dry grass this is a fairly hot and arid area, not right for permanent dwelling.  If we’re lucky, there won’t be any major settlements or camps out here beyond what we discovered here.  If we’re extremely unlucky, we’ll find that this is just a small patch of terrain and that we are surrounded by minotaur settlements.  Either way, we need maps quickly.”
“My children and I can scout far outwards from here, especially now that we’ve had our feast,” the Matriarch confirmed.  “I, too, fear that our surroundings may be filled with traveling bands of minotaur warriors like these.  It’s become clearly obvious where their weaponry originates from, this mine most likely one of many, but their forges and smithies were not to be found.  Unfortunately, it seems the only trail my eyes could pick up was the one connecting between the mine and encampment.  It seems that we won’t find any reasonable connection between these establishments to others.”
Ray sighed deeply, recognizing the work that was ahead of them, beyond simply what was needed to be done to establish a camp.  It was one of the nightmares of invading the new, violent continent.  They had no way of seeing what was around them, fighting blind in this dangerous territory.  As much as they needed the vision, they also had to be extremely careful with the way in which they explored.  The fact that their landing had been so easy and efficient would work greatly for their morale, but ultimately it hinted at something that could either be very helpful or very lethal to their cause.
This continent was vast, with either the minotaurs having just discovered this area as an area from which they could travel from or only just now having the capability and intent to do so.  Based on the lack of development in even their most established areas, resources out here were scarce, perhaps even unavailable save through transportation.  Staring at the starlight grasses, there was almost a taste of emptiness in the way they stretched to the far hills on the horizon.  Anything could be out there, but Ray couldn’t say whether he wanted there to be something or nothing.  His force, invasive in nature, was incapable of an extended campaign, a threat they had known from day one.  Seventeen thousand and twenty had landed on this continent.  That was all they had.  No reinforcements and no replacements.  It gave every death an added sting.
Glancing back up at the inquisitive World Weaver, Ray told her, “I think I need a moment to… process.  Tell your children that I and the Fallen found your battling most impressive and most appreciated.  We will mourn your dead as you mourn them.”
“We eat our dead,” the Matriarch replied blankly, giving Ray pause.  “More accurately, their broodmother eats them so that their body’s energy may be returned into another spiderling kin.  Should one fall, it would rather another take its place than return to dust.”
“Then… I guess we will simply observe their deaths with honor,” Ray revised.  With a curt, respectful nod, he added, “I’ll leave you to it.”
“Thank you, lordling,” the massive arachnid graced, standing back up to her full height.  “Do not be dissuaded by the vastness of our task, Orphan of the Cosmos.  Your might and my eyes will serve us well in the following battles to come.  Congratulations on your first bittersweet taste of victory.”
Ray raised a brow at the Matriarch momentarily, though before anything could be said, she had turned away and begun to take long strides back towards the landing zone.  Pursing his lips, he took a look around him.  He was at the base of the hill, completely alone save for the Matriarch’s last few legs, though those passed by quickly.  It was dark now, the halfmoon providing a quaint amount of silvery light on the strange golden grasses.  Breathing subtly, he faced forward and began approaching a hill to his left, opposite of the wide plains to his right that led to the mine.
“How remarkable, the first blood of battle,” the Spectre suddenly whispered in his mind.  
“Come to gloat,” Ray questioned testily.
“Of course not,” the Spectre hissed, voice as hollow and dripping as always.  “Contrary to your beliefs, I’m cheering you on.  Today was your success wholly and I too wish to congratulate you.”
“You’re discrediting my soldiers,” Ray gruffly warned, beginning to ascend the hill.  
“Your pawns,” the Spectre corrected with a wicked whisper.  
“My friends,” the human snapped harshly, stopping halfway up.  “For something that really wants my cooperation, you certainly don’t know how to butter up to me.”
“This isn’t about you being coerced or tricked into trusting me,” the Spectre drawled, a dangerous taint of anger to its words.  “Whether you wish to or not, you must acknowledge my correctness.  The assertion that I am… an evil entity has already set deeply in your mind.  It’s difficult to convince a mortal such as yourself that my intentions are for the betterment of the future.”
“Your future, I’m guessing,” Ray replied sharply.  “Besides, when you take me to your dimension, attempt to kill me, and give me a scar for my troubles with vague threats of self-assimilation, I can’t help but come to that conclusion.  Your case isn’t helped by the fact that everyone else who knows about you has the same sensible fear and concern of your presence.”
“You come to trust the World Weaver much too quickly,” the Spectre growled.  “The demon of the first years was a thoughtless menace to any semblance of creation but reformed herself into some intellectual deity amongst the physical world.  Such repulsing actions betray the nature of her existence.  It is… disgusting.”
“So you’d cry hypocrite at the World Weaver while still attempting to gain control of me,” Ray inquired, glaring deeply at the unseen foe.  
“I did not call her a hypocrite, but she would abandon you the instant any of her false gods told her to.  I… I would remain with you through the ages, through the worst even, because I know more than simply heeding the orders of blatantly ignorant beings who control nothing but the worst of the universe.  I wouldn’t simply give you my knowledge and power, I would give you-”
“I’m not taking any of your double-edged offers, fiend,” Ray spat.  “You’d expect me to believe anything you say blindly simply because you were in my head.”
The Spectre fell silent in an instant, though Ray distinctly sensed its bitter annoyance at his interruption.  After a few seconds of deliberate silence, the Spectre finally said, “You are correct, human.  I haven’t given you anything to base my truths on.  Allow me to demonstrate.”
In an instant, the hill became the same smooth texture Ray had dreaded ever feeling again, his surroundings darkening and becoming the twilight blue of the oblique world.  His breath caught as his eyes widened, the terrible place he had been stolen to once already surrounding him completely, terrible sky and all.  Worse, though, was that he knew he was standing on the Spectre directly, not even having the illusion of a platform like the boat.  His eyes darted across the desolate, empty wasteland that had once been a landscape.  
“Oh shit,” Ray muttered as a form suddenly began to form below him on the slopes of the blank hill.
He reached for the kharamh strapped to his back, yanking it out haphazardly, when suddenly the Spectre called out, “No need for a weapon this time.  Besides, we both know it can’t harm me.”
Pausing momentarily to consider, Ray slowly latched the weapon back into place across his back.  As much as the Spectre was correct, he also realized that he was more likely to survive this encounter if he simply listened to it rather than fight it.  The figure became much more real, two legs and arms with a sleek, round head.  There were no true features of course, but it was the most formed body he had seen from the Spectre.  The illusion didn’t comfort Ray, though.  It was disturbing to see the Spectre as if it were one of the practice foes that Discord had trained him with.
“You want concrete proof of what I can do for you, but I cannot give it in your mortal world,” the Spectre explained, its blank face tilting slightly.
“You needed to kidnap me instead,” Ray bit, unable to resist the urge.  As suicidal as provoking the Spectre was, something about making this mysterious godlike creature angry gave him simple satisfaction.
“Indeed, though considering your surroundings now are less hostile than that you were in, consider it my gift to you.  Now, on to the circumventing truth you so desperately ignored.”
At his words, the surroundings began to morph, though surprisingly in a way that was much different than before.  Color animated the hills, the sky suddenly returning to a normal, summer day’s sky.  The sun shone light across a golden field, hills a golden backdrop as another character formed itself out of the mist.  As it quickly came into detail, Ray found himself quickly disturbed as he watched himself stand up before him.  
This Ray was exactly like him, tall, toned, hair long and face… determined.  Ray’s throat tightened as he stared into his own eyes, a strange, alien familiarity.  The juxtaposition of staring at one’s self.  
“What the hell is this,” Ray questioned with a growl, unable to tear his eyes off his own.  
“This is you merely enhanced by my assistance,” the Spectre introduced, stepping up to the illusion.  It regarded the copy of Ray briefly, before flinging a smooth hand outward.  The false Ray turned, a strange glow creeping down his arms like lightning through his veins, the bolts striking the ground.  The false Ray suddenly threw his arms up, the ground tearing in the upheaval of an earthquake as huge chunks of soil and stone were ripped from the ground.  They flew outwards, scattering across the landscape in explosions of earthy debris wherever they landed.  “Imagine what it could do to your enemies.  Imagine how many lives you wouldn’t have to give up if this power was in your hands.”
“I imagine a good few would be saved,” Ray admitted, staring at the turned back of the fake him.  Then, turning his gaze to the Spectre, he added, “But I also imagine the cost of those powers is much greater than their reward.  Whatever twisted motive you may have for me, I’m not budging.  I’m not going to be your ‘pawn’, as you put it.”
The Spectre sighed audibly, a strange sound to come from the faceless entity.  It crossed its hands behind its back, taking one small step forward as it warned darkly, “I could just keep you here until you were convinced.”
“I could just kill myself,” Ray replied with equal sincerity, whipping out one of his knives and pressing it against his own chest, tip above his heart.  “One wrong move and you lose your pawn.”
The Spectre froze, staring in what Ray interpreted as surprise.  Its blank face scanned him for several long seconds, every breath causing the tip to dig slightly into his skin.  They stood like that for a long time, though after a few more breaths, the Spectre took a step back.  It remained silent, lifting its head to stare up at the human in a confounded way.  Refusing to let any weakness show, Ray pressed the knife harder, feeling the skin beneath the blade break, a trickle of blood escaping.  
“Very well then, human,” the Spectre hissed.
Ray blinked and it was all gone, the strange world and the Spectre alike replaced by the normal scenery of the new continent.  He stared at his surroundings, breathless at the sight of the grasses reflecting the moon’s light.  His hand shaking, he let his blade drop from his hand, the grass rustling as it fell.  Slowly, he went to his knees, staring around him warily, waiting for the Spectre’s voice.  
It didn’t come.
Several long minutes passed, each noise, the brushing of grass in the breeze, distant sounds of the Fallen, his own breathing, they all made him jump slightly.  Ray felt cold, hollowed out by his experience with the Spectre.  It had been over two months since the Spectre had taken him to the strange world.  Maybe he should have been more prepared for a return, but knowing the true terror behind the very terrain of the world only terrified him more.  However, tonight’s encounter taught him one thing that gave him peace.  Standing up, he pulled his fingers through his hair, crusted blood flaking off him as he began walking back to the beachhead.
So long as the Spectre could talk to Ray, it wanted him alive.
> Nights Like These
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ray pursed his lips silently as he began to wash the blood from his hands into the barrel of saltwater nearby.  His eyes remained locked on the dissected minotaur, the strange smell of minotaur blood heated up in the tent causing his nose to crinkle.  The display was grizzly as well, the minotaur’s inner cavities exposed to the world.  The tent was quiet since nobody else but Ray was in it, either having better or less disgusting things to do.  Still, this job was an unexpectedly important one, attempting to understand the physical nature of their foe.  
So far, his findings had been quite extensive, ranging from important details to rather strange anomalies.  This one in particular confirmed several theories proposed by Kraven about the individuality of each minotaur.  Thanks to it being one of the very few minotaur’s whose body was perfectly untouched, they were able to pick apart its skin, bones, and muscles.  Compared to other minotaurs, there were slight differences, including what Kraven theorized was a healed broken bone and favor to its left shoulder for weapons, not its right like others.  Unfortunately, the drawback to having an untouched body was that its face was a complete mess, having a spear burst it open like a bloody melon.  
His face, actually.  As interesting as it was that each minotaur was in fact its own individual with some semblance of a personality, they were all male.  Each and every minotaur corpse they had observed had male genitalia and general male body parts, and according to what most Fallen had seen, it wasn’t just the corpses they preserved.  The discovery was one of their first and by far the most important, showing not only that they were facing at least half the numbers that appeared on the battlefield.  Each minotaur had to come from somewhere, and the lack of reproductive diversity amongst the warriors meant that there had to be female counterparts elsewhere on the continent. 
It also meant that there was some sort of social organization in the minotaurs, perhaps a patriarchy with male warriors and female reproducers.  The idea was heavily supported as well by what they had discovered in the minotaurs’ camp and mine.  Rations of grain, dried meats of something, and water storages proved that there had to be some sort of domestic control somewhere as well.  The grain wasn’t too unsimilar from the Equestrian variety as far as he and the Fallen could tell, maybe just harder and more golden.  Unfortunately, it was a clear indication that they were fighting a civilization of some sort, the amount of organization they had and the support of munitions to their army evidence of permanent establishments somewhere out there.
Unfortunately, even with the past week to search the rolling golden hills and open plains between the mounds, they had found nothing.  The spiders had spent almost every moment after their battles scuttling across the continent, searching for signs of life.  In spite of scouring almost eighty miles north of their current camp, there had been nothing but endless golden grasses layering rolling hills.  Worse, however, was that there wasn’t just a lack of enemies, but a lack of life at all.
Even with how huge the killing had been and the relative neglect of the battlefield after the fighting was done, there were no scavengers.  Ray had expected carrion birds or animals to pick through the corpses of the minotaurs and cause issues for studying them, but other than bacteria, there was nothing in assisting in their decomposition.  It was unnerving, the sheer lack of life on this part of the continent, the complete neglect the land seemed to be facing.  The golden grasses seemed to be the only living things on the continent, and even then they were probably golden not for their beauty but from how scorched the land was.
The earth here was hard, almost impossible to indent.  It was causing troubles for the archers, whose primary method was lodging the sharp ends of their bow into the ground and firing their arrows.  In fact, they were already several hundred bows down from them being broken on the tough soil.  Adant and Kraven were working tirelessly with Horum, one of the few scientific Fallen, to resolve the issues before their next battle.  Ray hadn’t been able to keep track of their progress, unfortunately, as he had taken to the dissections personally.  
Thanks to the large bodies and tough skin of their foe, hooves had trouble finding purchase when it came to incisions and the sort.  It seemed they had been correct in changing their method to spearing the minotaurs, as even with serrated blades and a still target, Ray found some difficulty in picking apart the minotaurs.  Skalos had been concerned that Ray was too involved in the matter, but given that after two days of establishing a camp there was nothing else to do, his objections fell silent.  The human was just lucky to have something to still be busy with.
Most of the army had been sitting around after they had established camp, training on the new terrain and getting accustomed to the harsh climate.  The sun bore down on them constantly, turning the ground into sizzling gravel and each blade of grass into a slim brand.  The wind that blew through the hills was hot and heavy, making the sun’s burden heavier.  Their tents weren’t much relief as they had been designed with the threat of rain and snow, made to retain heat instead of ventilate it out.  Most of the time, the soldiers crowded in the slim shade provided by their tents rather than inside of them.  With rarely a cloud in the sky, trips to the cold ocean became a relief that soldiers regularly were granted.  
Sweating profusely in this tent, Ray flicked the water from his washed arms, his chest glistening like his hands.  Huffing in exertion, he made the mistake of breathing in through his nose, cussing softly as the awful stench of cooking minotaur assaulted him.  Shaking his head, he turned back to the corpse.  He had pried its chest open in order for Kraven and the others who were interested to observe while he was away.  Hopefully they could discover something more useful, though Ray had no clue what it could be.  All he knew is that the sun was setting soon, and if he wanted to be presentable at all to the ponies back in Equestria, he had to clean himself up.  
As common as it was for him to go basically naked in the camp thanks to the soaring heat and inconvenience of a shirt, it also meant that he was usually covered in any number of substances.  Today’s concoction just happened to be a healthy splash of blood, mud, and digestive juices that had exploded from the minotaur’s stomach when he had opened it up.  Given his own look and smell had caused his two companions to leave him alone in the tent, he doubted the ponies back home would very much like to greet him in this state.  Grunting, he set aside one of his tools and took out a wet cloth to clean his knife.
Glancing around the messy tent, he wondered for a moment if he should try to clean up the various things lying around.  The only way to preserve bodies out here was with thick layers of spiderling silk, which lay in sticky heaps all over the back side of the small tent.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t that effective at preservation, which meant a few disgusting fluids had leaked into the hard ground, puddling in various places.  There were also patches of removed skin haphazardly placed on top of one of the other tables.  Ray didn’t know if any of the others wanted the skin samples, but he had left them out for them just in case.  Taking a peek at the crack in the tent flaps, he deduced that there was neither the time nor need to clean his mess up.
Sheathing a clean knife, he pushed his way out of the tent and into a large avenue of the camp, he squinted in the setting sunlight.  It was still outrageously hot outside, but an early night breeze alleviated some of the burn.  Right outside the flaps, one of the Fallen who just happened to be walking by let out a gag at the sight and smell of her general, shaking her muzzle to try and get the stench out.  
“Sorry,” Ray apologized with a sheepish laugh, beginning a slow jog away and down the dusty, beaten out path.  Unlike their last camp, this one was both dry and spread out, meaning there was plenty of space on the dusty paths.  There were far fewer Fallen in this sector as well, thanks to it being for strictly miscellaneous tents like the scientific group he had frequented.  Many more of the Fallen would be relaxing in the army and supply sectors, either going to bed or breaking out some food for early dinners.
Shuffling down the path, nodding to the occasional familiar face, Ray made his way towards the back end of the camp.  They had established it as closely to the shore as possible, some of the back parts being established right on the slopes of the hill that led down to the beach.  It had meant a much quicker and safer establishment than anywhere else, and considering how empty the terrain was elsewhere, it was considered the better option.  The dusty path became the dull, loose rocks of the beachhead as he nodded in surprise to Linium, a uniquely normal soldier.  
“Howdy, lordling,” the Fallen greeted with persistent enthusiasm.  He began trotting besides the human, asking, “Mind if I join ya on yer little run?”
“If you can manage the smell,” Ray warned, gesturing to the grotesque display of substances on his skin.  
“Gah, you haven’t smelled anything bad ‘til you’ve helped Orpin through a case of hyper-flagrance,” the cheerful stallion rebutted.  “That stallion turned halfa the Harkening into a toxic wasteland when he tried that damned bullwater soup recipe.”
“Is ‘hyper-flagrance’ even a real word,” Ray questioned with a knowing quirk of the brow.  
“I mean, it hasta be real ‘cuz I said it,” Linium argued.  “Hasta be real if ya can say it.”
“I love your logic, soldier.”  
“It’s a shining beacon of sanity in this chaotic world, lordling,” the purple stallion laughed.  “Full moon tonight, right?”
“Yep, and I’m trying to milk the most time out of it as I can,” Ray confirmed.  He slowed down as he approached the actual water, stepping past a piece of broken wood.  They hadn’t quite cleaned up the beachhead to its full extent, but considering they could be finding debris three miles from the landing itself, they had done enough for what was necessary.  About half a mile north, the fleet floated silently on the little waves of the shore, the ships empty and practically abandoned.  A few Fallen still slept on the ships to make sure nothing happened to them in the nights, but for the most part, they were ready to be scuttled.
“Gotta wash that crap offa you, then,” Linium nodded to the viscera.  
“Precisely, and for that, I’m gonna need to ask you for some privacy,” Ray requested.  
“Gah, you and your privacy.”  The soldier rolled his eyes sarcastically.  “We can all still practically see yer junk there, lordling.  Don’t know why you try ta hide it behind a little cloth.”
“Mildly concerning that you're staring, soldier, but let me have my strange human tendencies, please.”
“Fair point, and duly noted, sir,” Linium replied, but he did turn his back.  “Oh well, I’m hoping somepony’s finally bored enough to finally let me take a shot at their plot, so I’ll be off now.  I think I can pull a few strings to get with Perin again.”
“Best of luck to whoever you flirt with then in resisting your charm, my friend,” Ray muttered, shaking his head in disbelief.  Setting aside his various weapons, he pulled off his pants and dove into the cold water.  









“Hell,” Ray cursed, scrambling through his messy tent desperately.  There had to be something that wasn’t torn or bloodstained to wear, right?  Miraculously, he found a shirt that must have just been rolled through the dirt instead, soot patches and strange golden grass marks staining it.  Well, it was much better that bringing the shirt he had worn into battle or heaven forbid the shirt he’d worn helping move crates off of the ships.  Throwing it on over himself, he desperately fell out of his tent flaps.
Unfortunately, the Fallen had a tendency to be exactly on the opposite side of any entrance, as Ray hit his shin against the side of an unseen ally, sending him tumbling to the ground.  Both parties let out a string of obscenities that brought on laughter from observing Fallen elsewhere on the avenue.  As Ray finally managed to pull the shirt over himself, he glanced to the side, where the Fallen was picking himself up.
“You’re a damned hypocrite,” Garish exclaimed with an exuberant laugh.  “Trip over a fella and then cuss out his momma!”
“To be fair, you are a trip-sized guy standing on the other side of a tripable-sized guy’s door,” Ray pointed out, though he couldn’t help but grin.  Wagging a finger at the stallion, he explained, “You’re lucky I didn’t fall on you and break your back or something.  Woulda been real embarrassing if Adant learned her stallion had died to my tall ass and not bravely in the field.”
“Well, maybe leave the falling part out,” Garish muttered sheepishly.  “I was actually just about to ask if you were ready to go.  Skalos has been getting angsty since the moon came up about fifteen minutes ago.”
“Yeah yeah yea, I know I’m already late,” Ray grumbled. Turning towards the cliffs he added, “Also, hearing the word ‘angsty’ in regard to Skalos has so many implications it gave me mental whiplash.”
“Get a move on it or angsty will become angry,” Garish warned.  With a playful whack to the back of his leg to get the human started, he called, “Go get some tonight, ya here?”
“Only if anyone else says so,” Ray called back, beginning to race past his fellow soldiers.  Over his back he quickly ordered, “Don’t let anyone kill Linium while I’m gone.  He’s looking for trouble outright.”
“Probably too late then, lordling,” the stallion laughed, shaking his head and turning over his shoulder.  
Ray focused on running now, dodging around his small comrades as he hastily made his way towards the cliffside where they had established a waypoint.  It was carefully designed to match any of the three configurations of the pendant that hung around his neck and only with them.  They didn’t know exactly what magic the minotaurs might have on their side but giving them a direct magical port to the throne room or Ray’s lawn was less than ideal.  So, the intricate bronze pendant was the only direct way to Equestria.  Within the next few days, it would be the only way back home, the ships being scuttled as soon as they had removed the last useful materials from them.  
Ducking between some more densely packed tents, he finally escaped the living sector.  Dashing down another barely beaten-out path that wound through a more open spread of tents, Ray checked the sky briefly, cursing under his breath.  The moon was just barely rising over the cliffs, lighting the camp where fires didn’t.  Thanks to the steady upward slope that led to the cliffs, it looked like he was running right at the pale moon, and in a way, he was.  Ray raced past a pair of Fallen who probably had something better to do whoop and holler at him as he ran, but whoop and holler they did.
It was no secret where Ray was going, but thanks to the way gossip had mangled the truth, a rumor that these retreats were more… romantic than what they were in truth permeated the event.  While the Fallen would never be ones to judge, they certainly wouldn’t keep the jokes and jeers to themselves.  The human didn’t give it much thought, however, and didn’t exactly deny the rumors that spread through the ranks.  Strangely enough, the idea that their leader was some fierce romantic fighting the war to defend a hidden love in Equestria boosted morale, and if it benefited them, who was Ray to deny them their strange fancy.
Finally, he burst out of the camp main and onto the open slope that led to the cliff’s edge.  Not too far away, he could see Skalos waiting quite impatiently for his arrival, his blue glow illuminated in the full moon’s light.  Ray skipped the trail completely and ran straight at the spot, golden grass taller than the Fallen whipping his sides.  The stallion gestured for Ray to pick up the pace, but given that Ray was already running as fast as he could, the human simply continued.
“Finally,” Skalos shouted once Ray was close enough.  “You’re almost half an hour late, lordling.  What in Equestria could have kept you so long?”
“Digestive juices don’t just wipe off and the smell is almost impossible to remove,” Ray answered, slowing to a stop.  “Sorry I’m late.”
“It isn’t me you have to apologize to, Ray,” his friend warned with raised brows.  “You better pray to whatever gods you believe in that your friends back on Equestria don’t kill you on sight.  With how late you are, they probably are thinking the worst right about now.”
“Then I really oughta get going,” he quipped, tugging the pendant out and stepping into the carvings on the ground.  Raising the pendant to the moon, he held it so the bronze outer circle bordered the celestial body completely, the inner intricacies enveloped in moonlight.  Carefully, he rotated the inner dial so the figures became more prominent, the first combination clicking into place.  He recognized it instantly as the one that led to Twilight’s castle in Canterlot.  “So, do I-”
Instantly, he felt himself consumed by warm, silvery light as the pendant activated the wayport.  He smiled at the peaceful, comforting sensations of light travel, having almost forgotten perhaps the best magic in Equestria.  Even as he was surrounded by light, he wasn’t blinded, simply staring into a silver void of warm moonlight.  He hadn’t ever traveled by moonlight before, but it seemed to be much the same as traveling through sunlight.  The warmth wasn’t like that of sunlight with its summery heat, but more what a warm spring day felt like, calmer and gentler.  
As softly as it had come, it went, leaving him in the very center of Twilight’s throne room.  He actually hadn’t been here in months, not even during the meeting with the rulers of Equestria.  He wasn’t surprised that Twilight had committed to putting a portal straight in her living room, but the number of changes that had to be made for it was… astounding.  The once domed roof was now more a kaleidoscope into an open-air top, allowing moonlight to fall directly onto the waypoint.  Blinking in surprise, he realized that the painted windows that formed the spiraling shape to the moon were depictions of him.
He smiled slightly at the images, slightly elongated and oddly shaped to try and capture his semblance.  They had definitely shrunk him down for the panes as he stood as tall as the ponies in them, but he was still flattered by the gesture.  Whether Twilight had commissioned those or if they had simply come about by the work of other admirers, he couldn’t tell.  Either way, he probably hadn’t been told about them on purpose, as knowing himself, he would have denied the honor.  Regardless, there they were, three different images.
There was one of him on first arrival in this very room, though he wore more clothes than in actuality.  The palace guards were frozen in time quivering in fear while Twilight shrunk back in her throne as he glared at them.  He felt something twinge in his heart at the sight, ancient memories of those first days resurfacing.  Meeting Fluttershy, Discord, Rarity, the Apples… learning of his purpose.  His jaw clenched slightly at the thought, but then, more memories eased away the pain.  Meeting Skalos, falling in love with the Fallen, living in the Harkening, all those faces cheering with him as he charged down the hill and into the fray.  Those memories far outweighed the other memories, the ones of pain.
The other two depicted him sitting at the table with the leaders of Equestria as he swore to defend their nations with his army.  He wondered distantly how they were, if they awaited his return like he knew his friends and family did.  With a smile, he glanced at the last one, an image of the last of his fleet leaving the shores of Equestria, fireworks from the last ship celebrating their journey.  He laughed at the sight, knowing exactly who would make sure to add the detail.  Garish was going to be pleased beyond words that his actions had been noted in the glass halls of history.
Spinning around slowly, he stared at the dark, empty throne room.  Where was everyone?  Briefly, he wondered if this was some sort of surprise party planned by Pinkie, everybody waiting to jump out from hiding places and yell “Surprise!”  Unfortunately, he knew that if that were the case, his arrival would have initiated them, especially because he had been standing and staring for at least a few minutes now.  
“Hello,” Ray asked loudly, his words echoing slightly.  No answer came.  Sweet Celestia, had he teleported to the wrong wayport?  He slapped a hand over his face, realizing quickly that had to be the only option for the distinct lack of life around him.  Reaching down to the pendant, he grabbed it to try and use the waypoint again, this time to go to his home.  Yelping in pain, he pulled his hand away, the metal burning to the touch.  Well, that ruled out any option of using a waypoint for a few hours.
Before Ray could figure out any other method to quickly get to Ponyville, there was a flash of light.  Discord suddenly appeared a few feet in front of him, his strange head quickly whipping around the room.  His eyes locked on him even as his head kept moving, making his eyes hover out of his head for an instant.
“Ray,” he cried in delight, launching himself into the human for a strange hug.  Wrapping a paw around his neck as he went side-to-side with Ray, he exclaimed, “Oh thank Eris you’re alright.  I didn’t have a doubt in my minds that you’d be A okay, but after you were late, I was worried you might have stubbed your toe or lost your hands!”
“Discord, it’s great to see you,” Ray cheerfully replied, ignoring the draconequus’ strange presumptions.  “Don’t worry, I promised that I would return at the full moon, and I did!”
“That’s not what the others are thinking,” Discord warned with wide eyes.  “Why, the whole town’s worried you weren’t gonna come back after how late you are.  Twilight’s on the brink of tears, and most everypony else is beyond that.  Kind of funny, since you just went to the wrong portal thingy like a goof!”
“Well, let’s not keep them waiting,” Ray commanded, guilt tugging at his gut.  Stupid minotaur guts.
“Posthaste,” Discord exclaimed.  In an instant, Ray’s surroundings were consumed in a harsh checkered black, dirty orange, and dark violet.  The chaotic teleportation was violent compared to the soft transport of the waypoints, throwing Ray for a loop.  Then, as swiftly as it started, everything lurched to a halt.
“I told you,” Discord shouted proudly to a group of spinning, blurred images, the draconequus’ paw resting on Ray’s shoulder.  Chaos comparable to the Lord himself followed his grand declaration, the poor human not even having time to comprehend what was going on or where he was.  He felt himself tackled to the grass by a pile of warm, wet, colorful fur, his kharamh thudding across his back painfully.  
“Careful, careful, careful,” he shouted quickly, raising a hand to carefully cover the exposed blade.  He had completely forgotten about it being there, along with the dozen other weapons he carried on him at all times.  He probably should have thought about those before…
“Oh, goodness, you aren’t hurt are you,” Rarity questioned, pushing herself and the others of him.  “We’re sorry, we were just so excited to finally see you again.”
“I’m not injured, no, quite the opposite, I was actually worried that…” Ray trailed off as he looked around, his eyes focused now.  He paused in heartbroken shock as he took a moment to stare at the ponies all around him, staring gratefully at him as he sat on the ground.  
Discord hadn’t been lying.  Rarity, Applejack, the CMC, even Pinkie, all had bleary red eyes.  Ray’s throat tightened, and without a moment’s hesitation, he pulled the nearest ponies into a tight embrace with one hand, throwing his kharamh aside with the other.  With the dangerous weapon out of the way, the others quickly surrounded him in a huge pile of silent hugging.  Ray didn’t know why, but in spite of his swelling emotions, he didn’t feel the need to cry.  In spite of his friends’ despair and stress, something about being here now, after everything that had already happened across the world, filled him with more joy than longing.  
Realizing that Rarity was the one he had pulled in the closest, he smiled against her mane and muttered, “I’m so happy to see you all again.  You have no idea how much I’ve looked forward to tonight.”
“Oh, Ray,” Rarity squeaked before being overcome by emotion, nestling her head against him.  Patting a hand on her neck, he reached down to Apple Bloom, who was silently crying into his leg.  He began rubbing her ear gently, interrupting a tearful hiccup.  She looked up at him, her teary honey eyes wide and her lip quivering.  
“Hey, I promised you, didn’t I,” he reminded her with a reassuring smile.  The younger Apple grinned broadly at that, nodding vigorously in agreement.  Then, without warning, he felt a light tap on his shoulder as Rainbow Dash punched him lightly.
“Ya didn’t hafta make us worry, ya goon,” she croaked, rubbing some of her own tears away.  A few of them laughed lightly at that, pulling away to actually look him up and down.  “What in the hay didja even need to do that made you so late?”
“Well, I figured ya didn’t want me to… y’know what, nevermind,” Ray revised.  He didn’t want to ruin the moment by explaining exactly what had kept him late and why.  “It doesn’t matter.”
“Ah, golly, I didn’t expect it all ta be this emotional,” Applejack muttered, smiling through teary eyes.  “We can’t waste a second though!  We only have ‘im fer a few hours, so let's make it a few good’ns.“
“Agreed wholeheartedly,” Rarity resolved, picking herself up off him and taking Sweetie with her.  “Pinkie?”
“Already on it,” the pink mare cried distantly, excitement dripping from her voice even from however far away she was.  Ray didn’t even have time to stand up though as suddenly a huge explosion of light and confetti rocked the ground, colorful paper and glowing magic launching right above his head.  He watched with amused wonder, his eyes following the arcanic trails as they faded away.
“A party,” he asked nobody in particular.  
“Oh ya had ta know Pinkie’d be plannin’ one after she missed out on yer leavin’,” Apple Bloom exclaimed.  
“No, I didn’t expect this at all,” Ray admitted with delight.  He didn’t have time to think about it.
“Trust me, this is just the beginning,” Scootaloo suddenly spoke up.  She grabbed his hand with both her hooves, tugging at him to get him to stand up.  
Halfway up, a small, impossibly sharp fluffball collided with his neck, the twittering of a very annoyed bird sharply interrupting his progress.  
“Ohs,” Ray cried with a laugh, reaching up a hand and grasping the bird as she attacked his ear.  “Hell, it’s been so long my little problem-child.”  
The bird twittered fiercely at him, giving him an earful for being so late to the party.  “I know, trust me, it wasn’t a choice.”  Have better control then.  “You should see the other side of the world, Ohs.  Then you’d have nothing to complain about here.”
“Yeah, what’s th’ other world like,” Apple Bloom inquired, tilting her little head.  “Ain’t got any a’ those giant dreamwalker things like Tender’s been sayin’ exist, right?”
Ray chuckled slightly, petting the top of Otolo’s head with one hand while holding her in the other.  “There's no animals on the other side at all, not even little bugs or anything.  There’s just this strange golden grass that covers the endless hills.  It burns like hell out there too, at least forty degrees every day with no clouds in sight.  We don’t go to bed ‘till after the sun sets because our tents become ovens in the sun.  Ground’s rough too, like walking on pavements constantly.  There’s a lotta land out there, but none of it's any good.”
“So, there’s no minotaurs,” Sweetie asked excitedly, begging the question everyone else probably had on their minds.  Ray considered his words very carefully, not wanting to cause a stir but also knowing he needed to both answer the question and speak honestly.  Too many ponies would be able to see right through any lies he made, and he couldn’t afford to cause a panic.  
“Well, not anymore,” Ray replied with the best cocksure smile he could muster.  He watched as the faces of the ponies around him lit up and their jaws dropped.  He had just confirmed they had reason to fear he wouldn’t return.
“So… So you fought them,” Rarity dared to ask.  
“We clashed, yes,” Ray answered as casually as possible.  Still, his eyes sweeping around at all the familiar faces and voices he had begun to miss, he didn’t want to start this conversation.  Especially not in front of Apple Bloom or Fluttershy.  “It was nothing, though, we wiped them out in ten minutes.  Literally, ten minutes!  Which is roughly how late to the party I am!”
“That was half an hour, mister,” Pinkie cried, taking the bait.  
Some of the older ponies glanced at each other warily, but Ray was quick to add, “Ten minutes late to a party that shoulda started half an hour ago.”
“That’s more like it,” the pink mare grinned.  She dashed to his house- which he took a moment to look up and down for memory’s sake- and pulled out a large speaker out of his front door.  How and why ponies had technology like this while also being behind elsewhere was beyond him, but he had stopped questioning it when he remembered where he was.  In a blur of motion, she threw out several tables, chairs, and food stands.  “Let’s get this party rolling!”
“C’mon, Tender, let’s go dance,” Apple Bloom shouted over the sudden cacophony of music that blared from the speakers.  She glanced up and Ray and gave him a piercing wink.  “The adults all wanna talk ta Ray anyhows.”
“Alright,” the colt agreed with an eager smile.  He gave Ray a curt nod, saying, “Nice to see you again, Mr. Ray!”
Ray didn’t even have time to chuckle at the sight of the fleeing couple before Applejack flicked the back of his leg with her tail.  “Don’t encourage them none,” she warned grumpily.  “I still don’t approve a’ their relationship.”
“And ya never will,” Big Mac said simply.  He looked up at Ray and gave him a massive grin, stretching a hoof as high as he could.  As the human took the proffered hoof and shook it, the stallion added, “Welcome back, Ray.  ‘S been a right pain ‘n th’ hip ta wait fer ya ta return.  Sugar Belle made some a’ yer fav’rite pies fer ya.”
Looking over to the purple mare, Ray beamed at her as he remembered the delicious pies she had made for a party not too different from this months ago.  “Sugar Belle, you shouldn’t have!  I’m gonna go home sick tonight!”
“Well, applewood smoked berry pies have kinda become a staple,” Sugar Belle admitted sheepishly.  “Every week I have to make a few dozen pies for ponies who drop by.  It sells better than anything I’ve ever baked before.  I mean, we raised enough money with it to expand the house!”
“Wait, are you expecting,” Ray questioned, his eyes going wide as his mind raced to the conclusion.
“Oh, Celestia no, not yet,” she replied with a meek smile.  Then, taking one of Big Mac’s hooves with her own, she added, “Just preparing.”
“Well best of luck to the two of you, and thank you kindly for everything,” Ray nodded.  Realizing his kharamh was still precariously lying in the grass, he reached down and grasped the leather grip of the weapon with one hand.  A twinge of panic made him freeze as he remembered at the sight of the newly added leather exactly what one of the uses of the minotaur’s hide had been.  He didn’t have time to freeze up though, so forcing himself to remain calm and refuse to acknowledge the admittedly gruesome use of his foe’s corpse, he whipped the weapon upwards and spun it into its strap across his back.
“Whoa ho ho,” Scootaloo suddenly exclaimed.  “That was awesome dude!”
“I’ll say,” Rainbow agreed, zipping down from out of the sky with two drinks.  Handing one to Applejack with a kiss, she commented, “You sure seem to have gotten the hang of that thing down.”
“Well, it’s a bit of a necessity when you do my line of work,” Ray pointed out.  Setting Otolo on his shoulder, he let his hands come to rest deliberately on his knives.  “Besides, I’ve had a bit of time to get used to it.”
“Neat,” Rainbow complimented with a nod.  “How many minotaurs have ya killed?”
There was a beat of silence as everyone around them went silent, AJ slowly turning to look at her marefriend with strange, fearful panic.  Without thinking, Ray answered, “Five, though trust me, they’re worse off dead than when they’re alive.”
“You didn’t get scratched or injured or nothing,” Rainbow questioned, invigorated by the human’s honest response.
“Not even a bruise,” Ray confirmed with that same cocksure smile as before.  “Though it did ruin one of Rarity’s nice shirts.  I don’t think she wants to hear about it.  The shirt getting ruined, I mean.”
There was a moment of silence as his joke sunk in, and then, like pressure being released, Rarity let out a soft little laugh.  
“Well, please, spare me the details,” she dramatically demanded.  “Hearing how such stitchwork was mauled in the blazing sun would absolutely ruin my evening!”
“I think I’ll refrain then,” Ray smiled, ducking his head slightly.  Glancing to an especially temptatious stand of pies, he pointed to it and added, “Besides, I see a lovely distraction.”
Taking his leave, he took a few steps to the table.  Funnily enough, there was one pie in particular that looked like Sugar Belle had attempted to make human-sized.  Grabbing a slice, downed half of it in one slice, physically melting at the mouthwatering sweetness.   Food had and never would be a problem for the Fallen thanks to the great amount of munitions they had brought over, pony preservation tactics, and a lack of life in the new continent.  Still, it meant dull grain and soggy vegetables most of the time.  While for the Fallen that was efficient enough, especially given they didn’t need to eat much to maintain energy, Ray had been drastically affected by the lack of true nourishment.
Disregarding all of that, he chowed down on three more slices before he decided he would be down for the moment.  Licking off his fingers, he turned to find the party was continuing on well without him.  Pinkie did have a talent for parties, but, somehow, she had managed to get a majority of ponies who would probably be fighting for his attention to actually have a good time.  He smiled as he watched them dance, Apple Bloom with Tender, AJ with Rainbow, Sweetie with that one colt, Big Mac with Sugar Belle, and Fluttershy-
Fluttershy was there.
Here.
Discord stood beside her, a paw resting on her back as if in support.  The mare stood silently on the downward slope of the grassy hill next his house, deadpanned even as their eyes locked.  Grimly, Ray made his way around the party as discreetly as he could.  Things needed to be discussed between them.
“You might wanna clear out, Ohs,” he whispered to the little bird as he closed in, eyes locked on the mare.  The bird whistled softly in protest, but he reaffirmed, “Things are gonna be tense.”
Fortunately, Otolo actually listened and left his shoulder, retreating back to the party.  As he approached, Fluttershy softly asked, “Should we do this somewhere else.”
“Well, what is ‘this’,” he questioned in return.  Without waiting for an answer, though, he continued down the grassy hill.  “Is there something wrong?”
“Well, actually, we were about to ask you the same thing,” the mare muttered quietly.  “Is something wrong, Ray?  Why are you so anxious about avoiding what happened on the other side of the world, what’s happening?  Is there something terrible going on?”
“It’s a war, Fluttershy, of course something terrible is going on,” Ray answered with a groan.  Running a hand through his hair, he looked up at the sky, the full moon that was slowly counting down the time until he returned.  The stars were definitely different in Equestria.
“What’s going wrong then,” Discord asked, stepping in front of Fluttershy… defensively?  
“Sweet Celestia, Skalos didn’t…” Fluttershy began from behind him.
“Skalos is fine, and so is Garish and Adant and Pelios,” Ray reassured them softly, staring out across the grassy hills.  It was a bit strange that they didn’t glow with the moonlight like the golden grasses.  Then again, it was strange that they would.  “Everyone I told you about is fine and well.  Like I said, we rolled over their army with almost no casualties.  The only one I knew was Captain Rohan.  I didn’t know him well, but he was the first Fallen other than Skalos that I met.  After the insurrection, he was a very public supporter of mine who helped reunify the Fallen in the Harkening.”
“Do you want to talk about it,” Fluttershy probed, pushing past Discord and sitting down, staring up at him.
“No.”  Ray blinked at the mare, then looked back up at the sky.  “I know you’re trying to fulfill the promise we made to each other, but so am I.  I can say with complete honesty that I don’t want to nor need to talk about it.  The stallion was a good one and he’ll be missed, but he’s not a devastating loss in any regard.”
“And what about the fighting,” she continued to softly prod.  
“Well, it wasn’t anything like Discord trained me with,” Ray admitted.  Giving the draconequus a smirk, he said, “Your guys gave me a run for my money and nicked me a good few times.  These minotaurs are nothing but heavy swinging brutes.”
Pausing for a moment, Ray slowly realized what had been going on, his eyes drifting back to Fluttershy, who finally gave him a shy smile.  His own sheepish grin began to spread as the understanding of Fluttershy’s true intention with this little conversation came to light.  The mare had managed to trick him into saying exactly what she needed to hear to put her mind and his at ease.  And damn it, it worked.  
“Okay, I’ll give you props for that one, Flutters,” he said.  “Why do you have to be such a good friend?”
“It’s part of her nature,” Discord warned with an earnest nod.  “The mare could sweetly talk you into sleeping with her.”
The human’s eyebrows shot up at the comment, his eyes darting between the two of them as he asked, “Pardon?  The hell did I miss while I was gone?”
“It’s just a stupid joke,” Fluttershy protested as she hid her face behind her hair, cheeks flushed deeply red.  “We fell asleep together a few months ago.”
“Oh, my dear Fluttershy, it was much more than a nap,” the draconequus insisted with a wink.  “It was one of my most formative memories to date!”
“It was just a nap,” the flustered mare exclaimed before launching into the air like she was Dash.  Both Ray and Discord cackled as she zipped away to the party, perhaps the first time in her life that she had retreated to the crowd.  Still staring uphill to where the mare had gone, Ray felt emboldened to ask his own question.
“So... when are the two of you gonna tie the knot?”
Discord instantly froze, quite literally as he suddenly became ice from head to toe.  Turning fully to face the Lord of Chaos, he gave the ice sculpture a firm push, making it fall backwards down the hill.  It shattered as soon as it hit the ground, the various pieces melting instantly and forming back into the draconequus.  
“What do you mean, tie the knot,” Discord asked nervously, his hands shaking.  “Do you want a square knot, overhand knot, fisher’s knot, hitch knot, or-”
“Cut the crap, Discord,” Ray told him blankly, crossing his arms.  
“A Gordian knot it is, then,” Discord sighed in defeat, glancing in the direction Fluttershy had gone one last time.  Finally, he turned to stare at Ray, asking him softly, “Why do you care?  I thought you and I were competing for her affection.”
“Maye that was once true, but you should have recognized those days are past us now,” Ray explained, reaching out and resting a hand on his shoulder.  “Once upon a time I loved her like you did, but that was just the sprouting of my growth here.  You’ve lived eons Discord, all here, in this world.  Not only am I young by my world's standards, when I was brought here over a year ago, I had to reestablish who and what I was.  Mistakes were made and I mistook things that occurred.  Once, I did believe that there was a potential for me to become what I needed to be and love Fluttershy.  Those days died the moment I killed Cohin.  The hero you all call me was born that day, and any chance of not becoming a monster was dashed.
“But I’m well and okay with that.  Looking around me, I can see why it needs to happen, and you would be blind to deny that any good has come from it.  But we both know Fluttershy would never be able to let go of the Ray she found crying on a hill outside of Ponyville.  She still wants to believe that I’m something that can be purified, someone that doesn’t have to do horrible things.  Her acceptance is only because she knows the truths I tell her.  What I leave out… would break her heart.  The danger is, I will have to break her heart.  
“One day soon, I won’t return with happy news of an easy victory and minimal losses.  I may not return at all.  On that day, she needs someone she trusts, someone who loves her for being exactly who she is, to pick her up and help her stand again.  You doubt yourself constantly, think you have all the time in the world to figure out how to express your infinite life and love to someone who’s mortal.  I’m warning you now, Discord, that there will come a day, this year, or next year, or the year after that, when I will force your hand.  It would be better for the both of you to move now than move when you have to.”
“Ray,” Discord began hopelessly, suddenly looking like the thousands of years he had lived.  “I’m a monster too.  I’ve done some awful things in my past, even to Fluttershy.  She’s forgiven me, but…”
“But you haven’t forgiven yourself,” Ray finished astutely.  “You’re intelligent, Discord, but you’re also incredibly stupid.  When you said that it was more than a nap, I picked up on what else it could be.  You told her the truth in your own way, playing it off as some sort of sarcastic joke.  It’s how you play off all your emotions, so people won’t pick up on them.  It’s smart, but unfortunately for you, that’s also how most of my soldiers disregard themselves.”
“But that doesn't change the fact that I am a monster,” Discord protested, his gaze dropping to the ground.  “I…”
“You can’t see past the many mistakes in your life,” Ray guessed compassionately.  “I felt the same for a very, very long time.  But then I found people I love, people who listened, understood, and forgave me.  The Fallen took me as I was, flawed and confused, and put me on a pedestal to show me the greatness I could do.  You’ve been on the pedestal a long time, Discord.  Fluttershy has given you the opportunity to see the greatness within, but guilt is blinding you.  I’m not going to repeat myself, but I want you to think of this.  If it weren’t for Fluttershy’s love, I would have shattered your statue along with Tirek and Chrysalis’.”
Discord’s head whipped up to stare intently at Ray, his jaw dropping slightly at the inclination.  With a shrug, Ray stepped away from his friend, adding with emphasis, “That’s the difference between you and I, Discord.  You’re a monster gone good, a monster no longer.  Me?  I’m a monster for good.”
Leaving the draconequus to his thoughts, Ray turned over his shoulder, but instead of heading uphill towards the party, he continued down to another hill’s slope.  Scanning the top of the hill, his eyes locked onto a figure at its small crest, standing silently in the moonlight, watching the whole engagement.  Without a moment’s hesitation, he began to ascend the hill, reaching the top within the minute.  Twilight watched as he approached, silently regarding the human.
“That was profound,” she stated simply when he stopped a few feet short of her.
“It’s true, isn’t it,” Ray countered, folding his arms.
“It’d argue elsewise, but your visit isn’t to argue on the ethics of your situation,” Twilight said with reservation.  Still, as Ray stared at the princess, he couldn’t help but notice how disheveled she was.  There were dangerously dark circles beneath her eyes, her coat was matted, and it looked like she was shaking, though relative darkness hid it for the most part.  Recognizing the front, he crouched down and reached forward, bringing the mare into a soft hug.
That did the trick.
In an instant, her walls came crashing down as she began to cry relieved tears against him, pressing her face into his shoulder as she wrapped her hooves around him.  She attempted to say something, but her hiccuped sobs interrupted her too much for anything understandable to come out.  Smiling in understanding, he simply patted her back lightly.  He couldn’t imagine the thoughts and worries that had kept her up these past two weeks, the lack of information that caused worries that would eat her away.  Deciding to not allow the moment to last for fear of humiliating her, he whispered, “You’re gonna want a notepad.”
The mare giggled a little through her tears, lifting up a pad, ink, and quill that had been set aside for the purpose.  Taking a few more seconds to compose herself against him, she finally pulled away, sniffling slightly.  “Well, what do you have for me?”
Prepping himself, Ray sat back down on the soft, green Equestrian grass.  “Well, your vision was correct.  Day seven on the sea our fleet came across two minotaur ships sailing straight towards Equestria.  It was kinda pathetic, though.  The first dozen ships who engaged, including mine, sank them quickly.  We don’t know how many there were, but we’re guessing between five thousand and seven thousand in total.  Either way, none survived the engagement.  The next day, we landed.  The spiderlings cleared the beachhead with minimal losses and allowed my army to land unmolested.
“There were two more engagements shortly after.  The Matriarch wanted to prove her spiderlings’ effectiveness in combat, so they took on a force to our northwest in a mine while we Fallen centralized on the slopes up from the beach to face a second enemy army.  We engaged none of our archers in the battle, and only nine thousand of our forces engaged the foe in combat, though, more accurately, the first and second waves of spears were the ones that saw the most intense of the fighting.  We estimate that by the time the third wave engaged, some four or five hundred minotaurs remained fighting.  None were spared.
“We suffered remarkably low casualties for our first land combat engagement, suffering forty-two fatalities and one hundred seventy-six injured.  Thanks to Zecora’s presence, all but a few of those injured have made full recoveries and are once again prepared for combat.  We did lose Captain Rohan, though.  In fact, all fatalities were suffered by his Reformed Third Spears due to a small amount being collapsed on after they charged too deeply into the face of the minotaurs.  The casualties suffered by the minotaurs were… unbelievable, frankly.  If we’re counting the minotaurs killed out at sea, then we killed fifteen thousand, nine hundred, and eighty-two minotaurs.”
“Sweet Celestia…” Twilight slowly breathed out, her feather dropping from its magical grasp.  For once, he appreciated her being wrong.  Once, about two months back, she had taken to estimating the force she saw and the force they had with several different situations.  From there, casualties were estimated, and he refused to remember them until now.  Seven hundred to eight hundred fifty Fallen dead on landing in the new world, with as many as two thousand dead in their first battle.  It was theorized to be a five-to-one trade in lives.  “Three hundred eighty to one.”
“Hell yeah,” he agreed softly with a cheeky smile.  “What I think you’ll find most interesting and more… suitable to your tastes, is the many things we’ve discovered about our enemy and their land.”
“Consider my curiosity piqued,” Twilight eagerly agreed, her pen launching itself back onto the pad.  
“The land is terrible, for one, with what seems like endless hills covered in quite literally golden grass.  At first, I had assumed the grass was just dead, but no, the grass there is legitimately gold-colored.  The ground is hard, like walking on pavement, and the fact that there hasn’t been a day that didn’t hit forty degrees means walking, or even living in general, is miserably hot.  Along with being hot, it’s dry, with almost no clouds in the sky and no signs of rainfall yet.  There're also no living creatures in what we’ve started calling the ‘golden plains’.  It’s haunting to have so much empty space around us without any signs of minotaur activity. 
“The minotaurs, however, have proven to us that there is a society or at least some sort of permanent settlement that assists their armies.  Firstly, every minotaur is male with the proper male bits to match.  Their inner biology is strangely similar to what human anatomy looks like, though I’m not really a doctor so I can’t say exactly.  They have two lungs, a heart, a stomach, a large and small intestine, and a bladder, all in relatively the same spot as mine would be.”
“Wait wait wait,” Twilight interrupted, looking up from her notes.  With an inquisitive stare, she asked, “Have you been dissecting minotaurs?”
“Yes,” Ray confirmed, causing the alicorn to gag slightly.  Shrugging, he explained, “It’s necessary.  We’ve learned a great deal about them physically and societally thanks to all of the stuff that’s in them.  I was actually late today because of an unfortunate accident with dissecting one in particular, but I’ll spare you the details.  They have smaller brains than us humans, about the size of my fist, for comparison, so they aren’t very intellectually developed.  That and a lack of strong vocal cords suggests something along the lines of them not communicating vocally very frequently.
“Crucially, though, their diet consists of grain, meat, and milk, all of which have to be cultivated for such widespread use.  This suggests that there are indeed permanent establishments, though none have been found.  They also had a mine, which was the force of minotaurs the Matriarch took on.  We haven’t found evidence of forges within the mine, but from what we’ve seen so far, we’ve guessed they have a specific area where their weaponry is forged.  While it is concerning how centralized our enemy is, based on the battles we fought with them, they both failed to realize Equestria would put up resistance and were unprepared for truthful combat.  While the forces we eliminated totaled close to the number of Fallen in our army, when taken in different accounts, they had two armies of around five thousand and a workforce of five thousand in the mines.
“While underprepared, it does mean that this was a preemptive preparation for an invasion of Equestria.  They moved to take the continent, and from what we’ve seen so far, had the home front backing the cause as well.  With that in mind, we’ve decided the best course of action would be to scout out any establishments possible and eliminate any strategic value they may have.”
“You’re going to attack civilians,” Twilight questioned instantly, her eyes shooting up from her notes. 
“Not the civilians themselves, but anything of value,” Ray carefully detailed.  “Farms, houses, storehouses, barns… infrastructure in general, really.  We want them to lose this war crippled not just by huge military losses, but also devastated morally.  If they have to rebuild, they also will have to face the fact that we were able to not only defend ourselves but destroy what they thought would go untouched.  Part of the worry is that even if we win, we probably won’t be able to completely annihilate them.  If they only lose their troops, some twenty years from now they’ll simply replenish their forces and strike again, this time with the knowledge of what we’re capable of.  We don’t have the troops to fight a second war, and while having the spiderlings helps with the pains of no replenishment, I have doubts about my original plan.”
“The plan you wouldn’t tell me about,” Twilight probed, setting her notes aside.  “The plan where- I assume- you and your Fallen march through their continent and eliminate all minotaurs and occupy it to ensure there are no more threats from over there.”
“Precisely,” Ray revealed.  “The plan you would never approve of.  As much this is about defending Equestria and redeeming the Fallen, it’s also to ensure safety of you and your ponies.  Unfortunately, that means things you would never approve of.  In order to complete my mission, I have to sever myself from the ethical values that prevented Equestria from defending itself.”
“Why do you always deal in absolutes,” Twilight questioned with frustration.
“Because that’s how I see this war, Twi,” Ray grumbled, glancing at the opposite hill where the party seemed to have slowed, realizing the human had been absent for so long.  Indeed, the moon looked like it was already beginning to descend.  “If we don’t do this right, all of this killing and death will be worthless.  We neglected to think about all of the possibilities, and now that we are, Skalos, Kraven, and I all have come to an agreement that this may not be the first conflict between Equestria and the minotaurs.”
Getting to his feet, Ray stated, “I’ve told you all you need to know.  It’s getting late, and by Kraven’s estimates, we’re about two hours ahead of you.  Tomorrow I join our first scouting mission into the continent itself.  The spiderlings went as far north as they could in a week, and there was still nothing but empty golden hills and plains.  We’re hoping maybe there’s something inside the continent, but small scouting parties southward only found the same.  At the least, we hope to find a semblance of roads or picket lines that suggest nearby establishments.”
“So, you’re going, then,” Twilight asked softly.  
“Unfortunately, yes,” Ray sighed, his heart softening slightly.  “I think, in the future, I meet you in the palace first and then have Discord bring me here.  I accidentally visited the throne room today, anyway.  I like what you’ve done with the place.”
“Really,” Twilight exclaimed with a smile.  “Most of it was Discord, actually.  He made all of it the day you left, and some Canterlot officials who noticed it funded a permanent change and three murals of your most important moments of Equestrian history.  They raised enough money on day one from not only the city, but across the world to instantly get the work done.”
“Well, inform everyone I’m humbled and honored,” Ray replied with a thankful grin of his own.  Pausing briefly, he glanced over at the crowd that had calmed down on the hill.  “Could you take me back to the throne room?  I… don’t want to say good-bye again.  I don’t… want to make them say good-bye…”
“I understand,” Twilight muttered with a nod, sharing a look at the party.  “They don’t know I’m here.  You sure you don’t want to stay just a bit longer?”
“I’m preparing for another fight tomorrow,” Ray reminded her.  “During the battle, I didn’t have a thought.  I want it to be the same tomorrow, whether there’s a fight or not.  A miscalculation in emotion tonight is better than a devastating loss tomorrow.”
“I’ll take the fall then,” Twilight offered.  Ray opened his mouth to protest, but she raised a hoof, to silence him.  “It’ll be more believable for me to say that I had to steal you away for information.  You almost missed the opportunity to return because of how many questions I asked.”
Ray remained silent for a moment, regarding the princess.  Finally, he said, “Thank you, Princess.”
> The Dry Mess
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“What the hell,” Ray shouted into the hills, raising his arms in defeat as he stared out over the long stretch of golden grasses that slowly, torturously, raised into another set of hills.  Growling, he slammed the butt of his kharamh into the ground before spinning over his shoulder and grasping at his hair with both hands.  “Nothing new, ever!”
Curses and groans echoed from five hundred Fallen, including Skalos, surprisingly.  The rolling hills these days seemed to be truly endless, not a sight of anything but rolling terrain marked by a few long stretches of plain and several shorter ones.  Grumbling, Ray stared around him one more time desperately.  In spite of the lack of terrain change, he had to hope that there was something unique here, a clue to where their enemy was.  It was strangely unremarkable to what they had just spent the past few days marching through.  
While he didn’t exactly want to enact another battle in such a short time from when they had established themselves, the longer it took to find their foe, the more time they had to build.  It was frustrating to think about what the minotaur’s could be doing at the moment or what they knew, but with the failure to find anything of use in the barren land, it was growing harder and scarier to keep searching.  Nevertheless, he had headed this expedition to travel thirty-five miles inland from the southernmost scouted coastline, because surely there had to be something there, right?
His hands dropping to his side, he reached over and grabbed his kharamh, ripping it out of the hard earth.  Shaking his head, he shouted, “This is the farthest we should go, gents.  We’ll hafta be making our way back to camp now.”
There were more groans at that as another failed scouting mission was confirmed.  There were a few half-hearted protests, a word here and there about just going the next hill over, but it was no use and they all knew it.  For three weeks now they had been scouting out the land around them, and each party came back with reports of nothing.  There were simply fields and hills of golden grass with no other color, the shining of the sun beating down on each expedition.  It was almost depressing how much work they had put into being safe from attack during their first vulnerable weeks, but they had far overestimated their enemy and the homeland they defended.
There were no signs of anything, not even a patch of land without the burning gold grass.  The most unique thing they had discovered was from another scouting party that had returned before Ray’s had left claiming there was a hill as big and long as the entire beachhead.  They had affectionately begun calling it “the Big Face” since the southern side of the hill had apparently been sheared off, revealing the stone beneath.  Ray didn’t have the privilege of visiting it yet, but it was on their path back to camp.  It was sad how that was the most exciting part of their scouting mission.
Sighing, he began to walk back down the hill, towards a divet between two hills.  It wasn’t the way they had come, since this was at more of an angle towards the camp than the straight line from the coast they had taken.  Most of the terrain down here had gone unsearched, so technically speaking, they were treading over new ground.  However, the lack of roads, paths, or farms indicated strongly that there was both no infrastructure and no sign of a threatening force moving through the area.  Thanks to the lack of rain and tough ground, tracks made by moving forces even as small as the current scouting party left a long, beaten out trail that could be followed.
They were about twenty-eight miles south of camp, where the golden grasses and rolling hills evened out into a long stretch of stony ground.  Still covered in golden grass, of course, but it was the only discrepancy in the endless rolling hills that seemed long.  After all, they hadn’t been able to see anything on the horizon but a flat, dry wasteland of golden grass.  It looked apocalyptic, and more than a few of his soldiers had grown uneasy at how truly forsaken the continent they now resided on was.  Ray himself had grown weary of the same sights and anxious about the lack of enemies or signs of enemies.  
Sometimes he had to remind himself that he didn’t want to fight, because fighting meant more death among his soldiers.  With a slow sigh, glancing at some of the Fallen who walked nearby him without formation, he began to slow down.  At this point, he was praying for a miracle, that something of value could come from their investigation of this piece of the land.  The Fallen had named it the Golden Wastes quite appropriately, with there being only a few marked out places on a collective map drawn up.  For some reason, Ray had thought that his presence in this expedition would garner something valuable.  So far, the world had thrown unique and never before seen situations at him.  Why wasn’t that applying now?
They were ascending the next hill over already, but for Ray, the climb was easier.  These gentle slopes steadily inclined into the sky and while not initially hard for hooves to climb, the combination of both rough terrain and tall grass meant that each Fallen had to tread carefully.  One misstep meant a nice roll down the hill and a few days mending broken bones with Zecora.  Thanks to the lack of hands and fingers, they couldn’t grasp at anything, and unfortunately, they had already learned that a roll down the tough ground meant torn skin and possibly death.  Who would have thought these gently rolling hills could ground away at their armies?
Trudging past a rough formation of Fallen, he nodded at them.  They had the same tired, frustrated grit to them that was premiating every level of the army, especially Ray.  As always, it split the Fallen on the matter, though not verbally, just visibly.  Some units and divisions had become more uptight and stricter, staying at attention at all times and implementing some curfew and organizational rules.  Others had grown more, complacent when it came to life around the camp.  They didn’t salute each other, sometimes by request, and there was very little in place to get them to their tents.  
In an effort to keep morale up, Ray had organized a schedule of who got to “guard the beach”, meaning that the Fallen had at least one day to look forward to.  Officially, they were on duty from sunrise until after sunset, but the hours had somewhat tightened into a six to seven routine, since sundown in this burned place was around nine at night.  Skalos, Harbor, and Kraven had all complained at first that loosening the rules would cause soldiers to grow sloppy and dissonant, but he had convinced them that working them to death in the beating sun would do that quicker.
Sadly, it still seemed like until there was confirmation of another enemy force somewhere, the Fallen would grow more and more restless.  Ray couldn’t blame them of course, as his own outburst demonstrated how pent-up he’d become.  Grumbling slightly, he realized he was now at the front of his soldiers, his long legs slicing easily through the grass.  At the very least this hands-on experience gave him some good information on battle tactics in this strange, burning terrain.  
They would never be able to fight a battle up a hill, and while not planned at all, it was probably for the better to never consider it a possibility.  The Fallen were weak on hills, but also incredibly vulnerable with their bodies distinctly standing out amongst the golden blades of grass.  It also left Ray much more prominent and easily picked off by any archery.  His size had always been a concern because he was so unique compared to his allies.  That was why he fought in the front lines though.  Not by Skalos’ choice, or any Fallen’s, but by his own strategy.  He was always outrun by the first wave, but considering their wave tactic, he would strike independently between the second and first waves, when he was too close for arrows to pick him off.  It was far from a perfect strategy, but he liked it and it had done wonders in their first battle.
While he didn’t have more examples of its effectiveness thanks to the dull lack of combat, what he did know is what he didn’t see.  According to many of the second wave soldiers behind him, many of the minotaurs were both distracted by and fearful of the human’s furious fighting.  Too fearful, in fact, to notice their line dissolve, ignoring the rushing second wave.  While most likely exaggerated, the idea that he was causing an indent in the enemy’s force was dangerously encouraging.  He had told Discord quite truthfully that the mist warriors he had trained against were more skillful than the minotaurs.  Nothing had demonstrated that more than by how quickly and easily he had dispatched four of them, all in a matter of maybe two minutes and without a scratch or bruise.
Ray was wrenched from his thoughts when he almost tripped on ground that wasn’t there, taking a step he expected to be uphill.  Instead, he had already reached the summit of the hill, the ground crunching on his heavy step.  Chuckling slightly at his blunder, he glanced to the side, expecting someone to be there.  To his surprise, he had far surpassed every Fallen, most of them still only halfway up the hill.  Frowning slightly, he shrugged and turned to face the easy top of the hill, a warm breeze blowing across his face and tasseling his hair a little.  He smiled at it, because while it was warm, it wasn’t as hot as the sun in the sky.  
Strangely enough, there was actually a small formation of clouds moving through.  Nothing much truly, just a few thin, scattered streaks of white.  It was kind of pitiful to be excited over actually, but these were the first daytime clouds he had seen in at least a week.  If they were lucky, the clouds would give them a good thirty minutes of shade.  Smiling at the thought, he began to slowly tread across the hilltop.  This one was a shorter hill, both in height and length.  There had been a few ones with a surprisingly wide berth, and according to most reports, the Big Face was seven miles slope to slope, more than half the size of their landing area.  There had been jokes that maybe they should move camp to the hill, since it wasn’t too far away from the coast and it served as a good staging area…
“Woah,” Ray breathed as he came to a stop.  He hadn’t really been paying attention to what he had been doing, and because of how mundane and repetitive the terrain had been thus far, he hadn’t expected what was on the other side of the hill.  
The hill sloped down normally, but instead of leveling out and creating a plain in between hills, it just kept going down, sinking deep into the ground.  The slope leveled out probably a mile and half deep into the earth, well below the normal altitude here, and maybe even below sea level.  While this hill sloped gently into the strange crevice, other hills nearby tapered off into rugged or rocky faces, a particularly bulbous patch of exposed, gritty sandstone opposite to this hill.  Small jetties of water fell from a few holes in these faces and down into a small body of water that stretched from one face to the other.  Ray had never seen a place like this, and while everything was still golden and stiff brown, the splashes of white waterfalls and still, crystalline water added something enchanting to the place.
Instantly, his pulse picked up at the first sign of something that actually looked like hospitable land, his eyes scanning the area for potential signs of life.  After several long seconds of staring, he came to the realization that this place, much like its surroundings, was barren of life, or of minotaurs, at least.  The valley stretched a long way out, as far as he could see, though he could tell that it began to bend northwards in the distance.  Staring the opposite direction, towards the coast, it stretched maybe three miles before slowly sloping up into the normal hills and plains of the continent.  Regardless of the lack of life, it was still a huge win, the first signs of freshwater in this forsaken land.
Looking over his shoulder again, he saw some of the Fallen had almost made it to the crest of the hill.  He was unable to stop himself from smiling, but as they began to walk across the short flat space he hissed softly, “Don’t say a word, but come look at this.”
Each Fallen responded in much the same way, gasping out of shock, unprepared for the splendid sight.  Like him, none of them had probably expected the sudden change in scenery, especially since they had been walking practically parallel to the valley for almost two hours.  There were some laughs, hugs, and sighs of relief as the number of Fallen sitting and staring at the beautiful sight grew.  Finally, Skalos ascended the hill, and, noticing the large number of their comrades sitting casually on the slopes, whispering about the sight, he rushed to Ray.  
“Sweet Celestia,” he muttered as he stopped dead, taking in the valley.  For a few moments, he just stood there, staring in awe, before finally, he said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more beautiful place.”
“Maybe,” Ray laughed, sitting down next to the stallion, letting his legs rest on the starts of the downward slope.  “The best-looking place here, at least.  What do you think Kraven will call this place?”
“Well, given he named the largest hill we’ve found so far ‘the Big Face’, nothing good,” Skalos joked with a smile, sitting down beside Ray.  
“The Deep Crevice, probably,” the human guessed smartly, a mischievousness creeping into his grin.  At his friends exaggerated eyeroll, which was really just a small movement of the milky swirls within, he began laughing again.  
“Thirty minutes, soldiers,” Skalos called out over Ray’s childish laughter.  “Relax a little and enjoy the sights.  You’re the first ones to find this place.”  
His voice dropped as he questioned Ray softly, “Any signs of, well, anything?”
“Other than the water, nothing that could be the minotaurs,” he sighed, calming down.  “I still don’t see anything on land or air, so my best guess is that, unless there are fish in those waters, we really are the first to see this place.”
“Oh well,” the stallion shrugged simply, stretching out on his stomach.  “At least it gives us something to say we found other than ‘same old same old’.  Besides, seeing Kraven trying to name this place will certainly be an entertaining spectacle, if not a debacle in and of itself.”
“Well, you seem uncharacteristically optimistic,” Ray noted with a smile.  
“Sorry, lordling,” the stallion smiled.  “I forgot that a frown looks better on me than a dopey grin.  I’ll do better.”
“I’m pretty sure I heard Zecora say something contrary to that,” Ray replied with a knowing smirk.  Instantly, his friend’s face flushed as he realized when and where probably heard the remark.  Ray erupted with more laughter, clapping a hand on his friend’s back as he exclaimed, “Shoulda gotten a thicker tent.”
“Lordling, I don’t know how anyone could be fooled into thinking you're an adult,” the Fallen mused with flattened ears.  
“Aw, Skalos, whatcha gonna do, give ‘im a bedtime,” a dark purple stallion not too far from them suddenly butted in.  “Don’t think it’d do ya much good!”
“Corporal, I could strip you of your rank right now,” Skalos half-joked with a pointed hoof.
“No y’can’t,” another stallion, this one silverish, countered.  “Thanks ta yer own reforms, y’can’t just remove a guy or gal y’don’t like!”
Pretty soon the entire hill was conversing in a back and forth, laughter echoing all over.  A small wrestling match between Skalos and the purple stallion, Wino, broke out and ended quickly with the general standing on his opponent’s chest, a triumphant smirk to those around him.  Cheers and taunts were made, and for a few minutes, the soldiers roughed around like they really were just a bunch of adults playing some games, their weaponry and equipment discarded.  
Ray’s grin slowly lost its mirth as his attention was drawn away by the enticing landscape.  Strangely, the golden grasses here looked less like their surroundings, shining vibrantly instead of looking like glamorous dead grass.  Truthfully, there was something uniquely serene and calming about a place like this when all of its surroundings were nothing but barren, burnt wastes.  He didn’t want to let that lull him into complacency.  It was too nice, too coincidental that this place was devoid of life.  There had to be something that lived here, that had come here before them.  This type of landscape took thousands of years to form, far too long to go unnoticed by the natives of this world.
Still, it was for the better that there was nothing here right now.  He took great pride in his soldiers, and Skalos’ personal division was the elite of the Fallen, but only five hundred of them couldn’t take on any reasonably sized force whatsoever.  Honestly, if they had come across some force of enemies, Ray didn’t know what they could do but run.  Hopefully, now that they had explored the most inland, they could make it with their timeline, they wouldn’t run into some stray force that had slipped through between scouting missions.  While not exactly tight knit, each scouting mission narrowed the margin for enemies to sneak in down to just a few hours, and thanks to the dust kicked up by marching, they would have at least a few hours warning if an enemy force was approaching.
“Alright, soldiers, we best get moving,” he spoke up.  Most of the rowdiness had died down by then, so the Fallen quickly got to business strapping on their equipment and moving out.  “We’ll be going into the valley itself, but unfortunately, we don’t have the time to investigate it.  We’ll go coastward and then cut diagonally to camp.”
“Aye, sir,” a few responded dutifully, beginning to walk down the hill.  Ray waited for Skalos to be ready before he began to slowly march downhill, careful to keep his pace in check.
“Well, what do you think, lordling,” the stallion questioned softly with a glance at the wide valley.  
“Good place to go if we ever need a morale boost,” Ray muttered, gesturing to the white falls.  “A lotta soldiers could use a sight like this after how tense and ungratifying the past month has been.  Terrible spot for a permanent establishment of any sort though.  We could be attacked from all sides or fill the valley with arrows if they had enough archers.  They’d be shooting very bright fish in a very slim barrel.”
“Agreed,” the stallion whispered with a wary glance at the long walls.  “So... it will serve as a vacationing spot for weary soldiers, then.  Kind of a letdown, isn’t it?”
“It’s what it has to be,” Ray agreed with one last glance at the long gorge.  
> Outflanked
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Nothing,” Ray summarized with a sigh, slouching down in the comfy chair.  It was the first time in a month that he hadn’t sat in something that wasn’t dusty and hard, a luxury he had no doubt his soldiers were craving.  
Across from him, Twilight stopped writing, setting down her notebook with a pathetic amount writing on it.  The summary of a month of exploration.  Eighty miles of nothing north, thirty five miles of nothing south, and a whole frontier of nothing forty miles into the land.  They had dedicated a huge amount of time and energy into discovering nothing, only those endless golden grasses and rolling hills that stretched eternally.  Thinking about it just made Ray angry.  Where the hell were the damned minotaurs and what the hell were his soldiers supposed to do but sit and wait to be attacked?
“I don’t know what to do about it, Twi,” he mumbled in defeat.  The alicorn nodded in thought, bidding him to continue.  “I mean, we were ready to unleash all hell on them when we landed, and on day one  that’s what we did!  Then, it’s like they simply vanished into thin air, having never existed at all.  It’s become detrimental to the morale of the Fallen at this point.  Hell, even Skalos is on edge.  We just have no clue where the minotaurs are or what we can do but sit and wait for something to happen.”
“Two months and no fighting since day one,” Twilight repeated, glancing briefly at her notes.  Then, with a sad laugh, she prodded, “I thought you and your soldiers would be happy about not having to battle through the landscape day after day.”
“Maybe, but that’s what we prepared for and that’s how we planned to defeat our enemies,” Ray explained.  “I mean, we are pretty lucky to not have to face enemy after enemy, but that fact that we haven’t seen even a puff of dust from them puts us all up in eaves.  We just don’t know where they are.  In spite of all of our evidence that there has to be more of them out there, it honestly feels like we’ve trapped ourselves into a golden void.”
“Is there anything we can do to help,” Twilight questioned, picking up her notepad eagerly.
“Frankly? No,” Ray answered with a sigh.  The mare deflated, letting the notebook drop from her magical grasp.  “This war seems to already have come to a stalemate.  We can’t explore deeper without jeopardizing our camp and opening up our flanks reserves to an attack.  If we want to truly take to the offensive, we’d have to bring all of our soldiers on a slow march that will be easily visible thanks to the dust kicked up.  It would give our position, we’d have to abandon some of our vital equipment for mobility’s sake, and we’d somehow have to keep the army from breaking up thanks to the rolling hills.  Our defensive strategy just isn’t working, but thanks to the Tauran landscape, we just don’t have the capabilities to establish an offensive campaign.”
“Shoot,” Twilight huffed, falling back into her chair, equally as grouchy as him.  Then, after a moment of silence, she sat up slightly and asked, “Tauran?”
“Oh, yeah, Kraven and some of the other ‘intellectuals’ have begun giving everything names,” Ray muttered with a shrug.  “According to them, we’re on the Tauran Plain fighting the Tauran War.  They named the golden grass sungrass and the type of dirt brittlestone.  It isn’t very inspiring, but at least we have names for things now.”
Pausing, he chuckled slightly and added, “The soldiers have started calling this one large patch of flat sungrass ‘the Dry Mess’ and that valley Kraven named after me ‘the Deep Crevice’.  They’ve also given the ocean the codename ‘heaven’, so now whenever they’re not on duty, they go to heaven.”
“Huh,” Twilight shrugged.  “Soldiers are kinda strange.”
“You have no idea,” Ray laughed, contemplating slightly.  “I mean, we almost lost a soldier because of how much he was trying to get around.  This real smartass Fallen, Linium, keeps trying to get under mares’ tails, and he almost got his ticket punched by a fed up mare while I was out scouting.  It was a whole fiasco that I missed out on, but at least he still has the black eye.  Zecora refused to heal him after she heard why he had earned one.”
“What does a black eye even look like for a Fallen,” Twilight questioned through a giggle.  
“Real weird, honestly.  It swells up with discolored glowing that’s a bit duller than the normal Fallen glow.  I don’t know if you knew this, but the Fallen bleed the color they are, so Skalos bleeds light blue.  It also glows.”
“That might have something to do with their bullwater consumption down there altering their blood somehow,” Twilight guessed.
“Well, according Fallen, they’re all kinda like physical ghosts, so I’m guessing it just has to do with the fact that their normal bodies died off and what’s left is sustained by Luna’s magic,” Ray clarified.  “Though there have been quite a few complaints about there being no bullwater to drink.  I wonder what’s in it that’s got them so hooked.”
“No clue.  I took a sip of it once and almost threw up,” Twilight confessed.  “I’m not sure why anypony would want to have a drink of the stuff, let alone enjoy it.”
“When in the Harkening, what is there to do but try strange, glowing water that just happens to be abundant,” Ray joked.  “I mean, I might be seriously considering how far inland I could walk without seeing hide or hoof of those minotaur bastards.”
Twilight shook her head slightly, telling him, “Don’t let those thoughts cloud your judgment Ray.  So far, your sharp thinking and skillful planning has resulted in great success for you and your soldiers. Don’t let that falter.”
“Yeah, I won’t, it’s just a recurring thought thanks to how dull everything has been so far.  It’s pretty miserable as well thanks to the heat.  While the days are cooling down for fall over here, it feels like the heat just keeps getting worse.  It hit forty six the first day my scouting party left.”
“Sweet Celestia,” Twilight exclaimed, though when he glanced at her, he saw why.  She was standing on her seat, staring at a clock on the wall, and as soon as he noticed the time, he realized why as well.  
“Oh, crap,” he stammered, standing up.  There were no words between them as Twilight lit her horn, enough of a warning for Ray to prepare for the teleportation.  In an instant, his surroundings were purple and sparkly, though unlike Discord’s teleportations or sunports, it was gone in the blink of an eye.
“Sorry we’re late,” Twilight exclaimed.  “I kept him for a few moments too long!”
“More than a few moments,” Discord replied as the others let out a collective sigh of relief.  One of the great things about Twilight’s teleportation was that it didn’t leave him temporarily blinded, giving him enough time to prepare for the onslaught of hugs.  Crouching down, he embraced the group waiting for him outside his home, much smaller than it had been last month.  Nonetheless, he was overwhelmed by the group of ponies and a draconequus.  
“What took ya so long this time,” Apple Bloom questioned as she nuzzled up against him.  “Did somethin’ happen?”
“Actually, quite the opposite,” Ray answered over the embraces.  In spite of himself, he chuckled at how buried he was.  “I’ll explain momentarily.”
It took a few seconds to get everyone off him thanks to the quick and sloppy way in which everyone had piled on him, but he didn’t mind.  It gave him time to see who all was here.  The CMC, AJ, Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Discord were all it seemed.
“Hey, where’s Pinkie,” he asked as everyone settled in the grass.  
“Oh, being a momma and whatnot,” Scootaloo answered for him, twirling her hoof as she said so.  “Lil’ Cheese is a hassle of a little guy, and, well, Mr. Cheesy has gotten all sortsa gigs going for him right now.  We’re afraid they might have to take an extended trip to Canterlot once it's safe enough just to tie up things with his business.”
“Once it’s safe enough,” Ray questioned grimly, glancing at Twilight.  She hadn’t mentioned anything about Canterlot or what dangers might be going on in the city, but to be fair, he had done most of the talking anyways.
“More civil disruption, mostly,” Twilight informed him.  “There are currently a whole group of ponies that are demanding I be removed from the throne for getting us into a war.”
“Funny, I don’t see any of them out there dying on Taura,” Ray grumbled, glancing at the distant mountain where the city stood.  “Need me to make a stirring appearance next month to promote some civil obedience?”
“No, that would give ponies the wrong impression,” Twilight quickly proposed.  “Besides, there’s already a vigilante taking matters into his own hooves.  The situation is… complicated and delicate.  Adding another x factor into the whole mess would cause far too many problems for far too few solutions.  This is an Equestrian matter, and since we made it explicitly clear that you and the Fallen are not in fact a branch of Equestria, it would be controversial for you to intervene to say the least.
“If you say so,” Ray half-heartedly agreed.  He wanted to talk more about it and the vigilante, but knowing the kind of conversation that would spark, he let it go.  
“Hey, you mentioned, um, death…” Rainbow began uncomfortably.  “Does that mean that…?”
“No, we didn’t fight another battle,” Ray quickly reassured.  “When I said nothing happened, I meant it.  I mean, there was a whole bunch of logistical stuff we changed around and a reorganization of a spear unit after internal disputes, but that and this strange valley I helped scout out were the least boring aspects of the past month.  Mostly, it’s just been the same old golden grass and rolling hills that seemed to cover the entire continent.”
“Well that does sound disappointing,” Apple Bloom agreed with a frown.  “Yer sayin’ there hasn’t been anythin’ at all to write home about?  Not even a sight of ‘em?”
“Nope, not a mite of dust to tell us where they might be,” Ray shrugged, just as disappointed as his audience.  “I mean, the most dangerous thing we’ve faced in the past two months has been the hills themselves.  It’s kinda funny, but if a Fallen slips up on the hills, the ground is so tough that it’ll tear them apart something bad.”
“Oof, that ain’t a pretty thought,” Applejack grimaced, rubbing her shoulder uncomfortably.  “Well, at least yer safe and unharmed.  Though ya do seem… disappointed.”
“I won’t get into it with y’all, but the way we want to fight this war is like a cliff against the sea, letting the waves exhaust themselves against us,” Ray explained, crossing his legs.  He sighed subtly at the soft green grass and cool dirt, but continued, “The issue is, we established our cliff, but there aren’t any waves coming.  Now we have to decide if we should continue waiting for the waves to come while the wind erodes us or if the cliff needs to become a landslide.”
“That was oddly poetic,” Rarity noted with a smile.  “Have you been preparing that speech?”
“For Twilight, yeah, but it’s applicable wherever and whenever this question is asked,” Ray admitted.  “Either way, even if we did catch sight of them, it’s not like we could just march out and attack them.  It will be at least three weeks of organization and training to transform our army into an offensive force, let alone all of the technical processes of ensuring our movements are calculated for striking.  I mean, by sheer chance alone we’d have to go unseen during that entire preparation time in order to strike first.”
“Unless you transitioned now, but that would mean if you were attacked, you wouldn’t be positioned for that,” Rarity summarized, the others nodding with understanding.
“Exactly,” Ray confirmed.  “This war has already ground to an unexpected stalemate, and there doesn’t seem to be a thing we can do to get ourselves out of it without taking a risk.  Still, plenty of my soldiers say it's worth the risk. Mostly because they’re bored and on edge like everyone else, but they do make a compelling argument.  But disregard all of that.  The war- if you can call it that- is still far away and in our favor.  For now, I want to know what’s up with you guys!”
“Well, th’ girls have been dyin’ ta tell ya somethin’,” Applejack said with a shrug.  “I’m guessin’ it’s somethin’ private like since they won’t speak a word of it ta th’ lot of us fer some reason.”
“Really,” Ray inquired, glancing at the CMC.  The girls had minded their manners, but now that the prospect was mentioned, they all had mischievous grins.  “I’m a little worried.”
“We’ll leave ya to it, if’n you’d like,” AJ told him.  “I couldn’t tell ya what it might be, but those grins only came ‘round once before, an’ then a whole hayload of chaos occurred.”
“I wasn’t even involved yet either,” Discord added.  A brief glance at the draconequus revealed a whole lot more to Ray than he intended to see, the story of the last month quickly being told.  He rested his paw somewhere on Fluttershy’s back while the mare rested her head on his chest.  He didn’t know what all he had missed in the past month, or even what had begun to unfold between them, but he gave the pair an enthusiastic smile as he stood up.  Both Fluttershy and Discord instantly began to fidget at his acknowledgement, but he masked his eye roll as he turned to the three fillies.  
“We were really hopin’ you’d be here tonight,” Apple Bloom exclaimed excitedly.  “C’mon!  Thanks ta how late ya are, we’re gonna hafta be fast ‘bout it.”
“Fast about what,” Ray questioned, noting how the others failed to follow them.  Was this coordinated somehow?  Applejack had said though…
Regardless, he followed them closely, but he soon picked up that they were taking the path through the Everfree towards the Acres, the one he had traveled hundreds of times.  It was strange running down this path now, thinking back to how he had once been so naive and new to this world.  The first time he had taken this path… he couldn’t remember specifically?  Had it been Skalos who guided him down this path?  Was it Fluttershy who had ensured him this was the safest and most obscure path?  Twilight?  It all felt so long ago now, so foreign a concept that he didn’t know each step of this path by heart.  And yet, it had been a long while since he’d traveled it as well.
Three months, perhaps.  No, probably longer.  It was strange to actually realize that it was all so long ago, yet so short as well.  Earth felt like a distant memory but the sights, sounds, and smells of the Pittsburgh allies all remained familiar.  Being human, being a two-legged and clothed creature still felt normal, but something had changed as well there.  Even now it only occurred to him that he wore no shirt, his chest and scars laid bare as if it were a common sight.  The lack of clothes was normal here, but the amount of scars was alien to both worlds… 
He truly was an Orphan of the Cosmos, the life he had lived and continued to live now abnormal by any standards.  He felt continual weakness whenever he thought of the Spectre or the Aspects, knowing he had no way to fight such horrifyingly powerful and absolute creatures, but at the same time even the Matriarch respected his combative prowess.  He almost laughed at that.  Had the Matriarch been attempting to prove her point by subjugating herself and her spiderlings to him and the Fallen, or was it a simple act of reverence?  Either way, her prophetic words continued to be fulfilled with his every action.  Even now, being here, a giant among the ponies and the symbol of their hope, he had become distinguished and disassociated all at once.  A monstrous hero.
“Wait up Ray, you don’t know where we’re going,” Sweetie Belle suddenly cried, snapping him from his contemplation.  He turned over his shoulder to find that he had gone far enough ahead on the trail that the trio were hidden in the foliage.  With a sigh, he turned and began to walk backwards across the slick mud towards the sound of the girls running.
“Sorry, girls, I guess I wasn’t paying all too much attention,” he began as they came into vision, stumbling between two trees.  While he didn’t even think about the roots, bushes, and puddles that marred the path, for the three fillies, they caused significant issues for them.  He had forgotten about it, as he so often did with the Fallen.  Somehow, he figured that might have been a very minor reason humans appealed to Twilight for conflict.  No matter the terrain, a human could fight there.  
“‘S alright, we know yer a superhero of some sort,” Apple Bloom panted, making her way around the tree.  “We’re basically heading to yer awesome trainin’ grounds anyways.”
“AB,” Sweetie whined.  
“What, he knows this path way better than us and where it leads,” Scootaloo defended the earth pony.  “He’s not as gullible as Big Mac or Button.”
“It’ll still be a surprise no matter what it is you have planned,” Ray assured the trio.  “I mean, I had no idea any of this was gonna happen anyways.”
“See, it’s all good,” Apple Bloom pointed out, resting a muddy hoof on her friend’s shoulder to put her at ease.  “Now, let’s get-”
A shrill snarl interrupted the filly, causing her to let out a fearful yelp.  The other two jumped backwards slightly, all three yelling something that he didn’t understand, the words too mixed and mashed.  Still, he got the gist of their panicked yells, whipping around to face whatever was behind him, his right hand unsheathing his knife blade down.  
A pair of green eyes glowed briefly in the darkness of the canopy, but as soon as Ray’s eyes met them, it leapt from its shady cover, revealing its wooden body.  Ray didn’t have any time to assess, only react as he ducked to his left, slashing upwards while dodging past the charging beast.  His knife sliced deeply into the hard surface of the wood, but ultimately slid out of it as the momentum of the beast carried it past the human.  
Refusing to allow it any closer to the girls or even turn its attention to them, he followed the slash by jumping onto its back, his skin grating on the rough bark.  Still, that did the trick, causing the beast to writhe around in an attempt to throw him off.  Pained slightly by his skin rubbing off on its coarse wood, he rolled away, landing softly on the ground.  A small stick or stone dug into his back as he did so, causing him to yelp in sharp pain as it broke skin.  Unable to be deterred, though, he kicked upwards as the beast opened its large, canine mouth to bite him, snapping it closed with a loud crack.  
Rolling backwards, he leaped to his feet.  The beast seemed to struggle to open its mouth correctly with how hard it had been forced to close, the jaw bent as a pitiful growl escaped it.  Still, it bared its teeth dangerously, claws digging into the mud.  Without a second thought, Ray threw his knife forward.  Being not even ten feet apart, the knife flew soundly into its head, sticking out between the beast’s forward-facing green eyes.  The beast stumbled briefly, obviously hurt but not quite finished.  Taking a few steps forward in spite of the beast’s snarling, Ray kicked the lodged knife as hard as possible.  With another splintering crack, the beasts entire wooden head snapped in half, the rest of its body falling into various different piles of wood.
“Huh, a timberwolf,” Ray finally realized as he retrieved his muddy, sap-covered knife from the broken head.  Then, he glanced up at where he had last seen the girls, finding all three still there, perfectly still.  Of course they had stood by, refusing to abandon him even in the face of danger.  It was sweet and dumb all at once, but glancing at the pile that had been a dangerous timberwolf, he let it go.  The danger was gone anyways.  “Hey, girls, uh, we probably should get headed back…”
“Ray, that was…” Sweetie began, staring in a confusing mix of shock, horror, awe, and… intrigue.
“Awesome, straight up, no doubt,” Scootaloo finished with a breath.  “That was absolutely insane, Ray!  It took you, like, what, twenty seconds to deal with something the Elements of Harmony took hours to deal with!  You’re flipping insane, dude!”
“But yer bleedin’… a lot,” Apple Bloom finished, astonished.  Ray glanced down at himself, and indeed he was a bit scratched up on his chest, stomach, and shoulders.  There was one particular gash near his collar bone that must have been from an off branch on the timberwolf’s back. “We need ta get ya washed up!  How bad does it hurt?”
“Not badly at all, but yeah, true enough,” Ray agreed, looking around.  The Everfree was silent around him, as if by killing a timberwolf he had silenced the forest itself.  They were near the edge of the forest… in fact, he knew the orchard was maye a hundred or so more feet this way.  The lake water was pure and unpolluted for the most part, so he could wash up there for a little bit and maybe find something to stitch up the deep gash and stop the bleeding in Skalos’ old hut.  “Alright, we’re going to head down to the lake.  There’s a little hut in the side of the hill facing it that will be unlocked.  If it isn’t, get me and I’ll open it for you.  I need to clean these cuts and dress this one near my neck real quick before we head back.” 
Noticing the way all of the girls still seemed shaken by the timberwolf, he reminded himself that ponies weren’t Fallen, and quickly added with his most charming smile, “That was one helluva surprise, girls!”








The walk back had been completely silent, the girls not even whispering amongst themselves.  To be fair to them, Ray had decided to basically hover behind them in case any opportunistic or aggressive timberwolves decided to mess around and find out again.  When they had arrived at the moonlit lake, they had found the door to the hut locked, so he broke it down for them before dipping into the lake.  While usually cold regardless, thanks to the changing of the seasons arriving soon, it was especially chilly.  It was a bit off putting, especially since the water wasn’t salty like the ocean he had almost become accustomed to.  
Wiping the mud and blood off him, he counted fifteen different chafes or scratches other than the big gash across his collar bone, which still leaked a good amount of blood.  Confirming that the jab into his back was just a nasty little bruise, he set to work ensuring that the gash would mend.  The cool water seemed to get all grit and grain out of it and the bleeding slowed significantly, but it was still enough to warrant stitches.  Luckily, Zecora had been able to teach him some rudimentary stitchwork, the basics mostly.  
Searching Skalos’ hut as the CMC watched silently, he found a wooden pin that he poked a hole through to make a sewing needle, but lacking any string thin enough, he turned to the girls.  
“When’s the last time any of you bathed,” he asked, sheathing his knife.  
“Um, I did just a few hours ago, to be ready for tonight,” Sweetie muttered, turning red.
“Wonderful,” Ray replied before prominently plucking a hair from her mane.  The filly flinched slightly, but remained wordless otherwise as he walked back out to the lake. Submerging himself under the water one last time to clear away his blood, he set to work sewing himself closed while waist deep in the water.  He was barely finishing up when the violent rustling of grass nearby drew his attention.  Being very careful not to ruin his stitches, he slowly turned to face the noise, keeping his head cocked to the side and out of the way of his handiwork.
“Well if that isn’t an image to remember…” Fluttershy trailed off as she came to the bank of the lake, mane glowing in the moonlight.  
“Ah, so we’ve been gone for a bit too long then,” Ray surmised with a smile, holding the wooden needle and string with one hand while using the other to cut the stitch.  “The girls are inside the hut, waiting for me to be done cleaning up.”
“You really think you can just brush off that,” the pegasus questioned with barely restrained anger.  “You’re cut up and bleeding in at least a dozen different places!”
“Sixteen,” Ray corrected before wincing as he tied the stitch.  “And yeah, I kinda was hoping you’d just shrug it off.  The girls already feel bad enough.”
“But you’re literally piecing yourself back together,” the pegasus protested, outraged.  “You can’t shrug off something like that even if it makes the girls feel better.  It wasn’t their fault that you got injured, anyway.  Or at least… I think.”
“It’s not the worst I’ve suffered,” he countered, pointing at his vivid stomach scar.  It seemed to glow in the reflected moonlight, the mottled patch of white tissue haunting.  “Besides, it wasn’t anyone’s fault.  Some timberwolf appeared out of nowhere and decided it wanted a taste of some exotic meat.  So, I killed it.”
“You killed it,” Fluttershy questioned, raising a brow.  “Timberwolves don’t really… die, they just disassemble.  Unless you split its headpiece.”
“Oops,” Ray muttered emotionlessly.  The mare’s face dropped entirely at his confirmation.  Before she could protest, however, he ordered, “Girls, time to go.  I’m all cleaned up and Fluttershy is here.”
He glanced at the doorway of the hut, catching sight of the girls moving away from the broken-down entrance.  So, they had been listening in.  Good.  
“Girls, the coast is clear,” Fluttershy insisted, recognizing what he had done.  She sounded upset to say the least, but it was obvious that she didn’t want to force the fight too early, especially in front of the CMC.  There was a second more of deliberation before the three fillies finally emerged, all looking very downtrodden.  He couldn’t tell whether they had been crying or if they were simply tired, but their eyes refused to be dragged from the ground even as he stepped out of the lake.  He had to act fast or the night would leave everyone with a sour taste in their mouth, and if something did happen…
“Girls, what was that surprise you guys had planned for me,” Ray asked softly.  
Apple Bloom stopped and sniffled a little before finally admitting, “It was gonna be a real wonderful birthday party, even better than th’ one ya had last year.”
“Well, that’s funny, because…” Ray trailed off, his jubilant demeanor and false confidence fading in an instance.  It couldn’t really be… but he would have remembered right?  His own birthday had to be coming around sometime, but not nearly so soon, and definitely not on such a convenient day.  
“Well, yeah, technically today isn’t your birthday,” Sweetie began, looking up with the slightest smile.
“But also, technically tomorrow is, like, fifteen minutes away,” Scootaloo finished with a true grin.  “So, while the party won’t start on your birthday, it sure as hay is gonna end on it.  Besides, ya don’t have to celebrate your birthday party on your birthday.  Pinkie says so all the time!”  
“Well, ain’t the damndest,” Ray murmured softly, running a hand through his hair.  He resisted wincing at the way it pulled slightly on his stitches, but regardless, Fluttershy took note.
“Ray, you probably should get that properly checked,” she pointed out with concern.  “And you still need to properly bandage your other fifteen open wounds as well.”
“They’ll close in a second,” he remarked candidly, beginning to walk away from the lake, hoping to cause the girls to actually lead him where the supposed party was.  “That’s the great thing about the little cuts.  They’ll bleed a bit and seal themselves right up without needing to give them a second thought.”
“Ray, one of those ‘little ones’ is as big as my hoof,” Fluttershy half-heartedly attempted to discourage, but in an instant, she was outnumbered.  
“If Ray says he’ll be fine, he’ll be fine,” Scootaloo exclaimed, rushing to catch up with the human.  He gave Fluttershy a cocky wink as he passed the befuddled mare, two more fillies quickly joining him.
“Yeah, he hasn’t been wrong yet,” Sweetie quickly agreed.  “I mean, you’re still kicking and strutting like a stallion in his prime, so you seem pretty okay, right?”
“You bet,” he replied with a surefire grin.  “After facing an entire army of huge minotaurs, you think some little stick dog is gonna rough me up too much to have a little fun?”
“Heck nah,” Apple Bloom exclaimed with a whoop, leaping in front of the moving group.  Fluttershy had begun to follow after them, but each step seemed very reluctant.  “Come ta think of it, that timberwolf looked like a little puppy next ta ya!”
“Come on, the party is just over here, in a clearing behind the homestead,” Sweetie encouraged.  Already, Ray could see a dim light, probably part of an illusion to not lead him on to the fact that there would be a party there.  It might have worked without his knowledge of the party about to happen, but-
KABLAM!
Ray practically tumbled to the ground as the party cannon went off maybe ten feet from him, hidden in the bushes.  Pinkie lept from the said shrubbery while lights strung up it the trees suddenly turned on, cleverly hidden from him until this moment.  The rest of the Apple family came bursting from the house while the others came out around the corner Ray had been told the party would occur.  
“Happy birthday,” the entire party shouted, followed quickly by Applejack yelling, “What the hay?”
Unfortunately, the falling over had undone Ray’s patchwork stitching, reopening the wound and allowing a riverete of red to run down his chest.  What followed was fifteen minutes of yelling and demands for Ray to be still as they set about properly dressing the wound, all while the CMC told exaggerated tales of their encounter with the timberwolf.  All the adults seemed to share the same concerned look with each other, and while it went right over the heads of the girls, Ray was perfectly on level with them.  As soon as the bandages were secured, he stood up, much to the protest of basically everyone.  Only Discord seemed content to allow the party to actually begin, though Pinky was obviously distressed by the delay.  
But the delay inevitably ended, and with his shoulder wrapped with probably too much cotton, the music and food began.  As if knowing that they had to cram all of the fun into just the short two hours, the party roared in spite of how many fewer ponies there were from last time.  Unbothered by his injury, Ray went immediately to partying, carefully navigating his way so he was never too close to Fluttershy.  The mare wanted to talk, and from the looks of it, there was certainly a need to allow her to speak her piece.  Ray repressed it regardless, hoping to burn out the time before there was a chance for them to be alone.  
In spite of his hopes, after maybe just an hour, the CMC were already drowsy and looked as if they would fall asleep while trying to shuffle along to the music.  Applejack and Rainbow looked… pleased to be there, but he knew they had other plans on their mind once he left.  Pinkie tried to keep up a facade of partying her heart out with them, but she was clearly tired as well.  In fact, everybody except him and Discord seemed worn out by the late hour and intensity of the night.  Even Twilight, who had left briefly with a promise she’d be back before he left, had looked rather haggard, unimpressed and just as stressed as him by his lack of useful or encouraging news.  While everyone else was simply happy Ray hadn’t been put in danger again, only she and him recognized the progressively dangerous lack of enemy movement.  Should the cliff face become a destructive landslide or remain still as the waves moved elsewhere?
Indeed, the question had frequented his mind just in time for Apple Bloom to hilariously fall over sideways, yelping as she quickly awoke.  The blunder roused a light chuckle from Ray while the other two fillies teased her, but thanks to the late hour and setting moon, there was no doubt they were too tired to really get into it.  
“‘M guessin’ we should be gettin’ some sleep now, huh,” the youngest Apple asked with a sheepish, sluggish smile.  
“Yup,” Ray replied, his voice slightly choked.  Nerves from having to inevitably face Fluttershy?  Sadness that this was the last he would see of the girls for a month at least?  Both, probably.  Strange how his nerves faltered thanks to one tiny mare and his emotions broke because of three tinier fillies.  He crouched down and numbly accepted the weak hugs from the CMC, not for lack of effort but rather lack of energy.  He bid them a thorough goodbye regardless of what he felt looming over his shoulder, rubbing Apple Bloom’s head as he promised to see her next month.  
Then they were gone, and it was just Ray and the adults.  Other adults?  No, not other adults.  He was sixteen, as much a kid still as he would be on Earth.  Hell… sixteen now…
“We need to talk.”  Surprisingly, it was Rarity who came with the opening salvo, and not Fluttershy.  Looking up, he noted that AJ, Rainbow, and Pinkie were on either side of him, with the house to his back.  Flanked.  
“Of course,” he replied, even smile as much a welcome as a warning.  He was ready for this talk, but he knew they weren’t.  “What to start with?”
“Firstly, sorry your party was so short this year,” Pinkie began, sounding so genuinely apologetic Ray felt compelled to respond.
“No, no, this was perfect,” he replied with a genuinely enduring smile.  “This was great, especially for being only an hour or so.  Thanks for the effort!”
This brightened up Pinkie considerably, in spite of the fact that she knew what they had to discuss next.  Fluttershy finally took the offensive, asking, “What has been happening, Ray?  You’re different, much more different now than you were even when you left.  Last month, you barely spent any time with us and Twilight covered your flank when you left maybe an hour later.  It’s almost like you were obliged to be with us…”
Ray took a deep breath.  How to explain without causing them pain.  He still loved them all dearly, he still wanted to be with them, but he needed his mind to be elsewhere, always, to be prepared for that inevitable day when months of overthinking paid off for a singular, decisive moment.  Ponies though, his friends, they couldn’t understand where he was coming from, not when he had so much on his mind that their own couldn’t comprehend without shattering…  He had been flanked.  How to work around being flanked?
“The first time I worked here, in the orchards, I required Applejack to be right beside me and teach me how to help,” Ray began, staring out over the orchards.  They were lush right now, almost ripe.  Yes, harvest season was soon, the Running of the Leaves maybe just a month out.  “Then, though, I learned and grew.  I didn’t need the Apples to hover over me to help cultivate the trees, to care for and nurture them and harvest their fruits.  I was able to do the work effectively and efficiently myself.  As soon as I had learned, I didn’t need the Apples’ oversight, just their guidance.”
“Ya can’t seriously think we’ll let ya off with a pretty little story about learning, right,” Dash questioned, sitting down and folding her front hooves.  “For months now, long before you even left for the war itself, you’ve been distant as the stars.  Ya throw yourself into training for weeks on end without warning, leaving us to think the worst.  Ya go on a weeklong sea trip and come back with news of this Spectre dude, hide away in the depths of Tartarus, and we haven’t even touched on the giant spider!”
“No, but I can use it to preface what I’m going to say next,” Ray softly explained.  He was in position now, ready to collapse their flank.
“Not a chance,” Rarity interrupted before he could speak.  “Every time you give us one of your deep and profound speeches, it always comes at the expense of yourself.  You’re intolerably noble, to a point that even the mistakes that are our own you would take upon yourself.  Incurably noble, I should amend.  We know your thoughts and tricks, and you know our worries and concerns.  It allows you to evade what we actually wish to discuss, giving us a dose of confidence and protection that wears off once the truth is remembered.”
“You promised me that you would always tell me the truth,” Fluttershy continued crushingly.  “You’ve kept that promise by avoiding any discussion at all.  So, now that we have you trapped, you’re going to say everything we’ve been trying to hear, the truth within you that we have no way of guessing and knowing.  For the more than a year we’ve known you, it has been nothing but masks and false fronts, pretending to be something, saying your someone else, playing off different emotions to manipulate us into not thinking twice.  Well, we’re all sick of it, tired of your fabrications.  We want to know Ray.  Are you here for our sake or yours?”
Outflanked.  Outmaneuvered.  He had underestimated the strength of their front.  They had overestimated the strength of his.  If this was what they wanted to know then… No.  No false fronts.  He had promised the truth.  With a sigh, he would give it to them.
“I’m here for yours,” he answered, raising a hand to show he was still thinking.  “These trips have been for your sake namely.  It’s a shame, really, because they should be for my sake, to keep sane or to keep capable.  I just can’t let you be in the dark about it though, left to wonder if I’m dead or alive, injured or maimed.  It’s cruel to do so.  In a sense, it’s still for my sake, so I don’t have that guilt weighing on me, but ultimately I feel you still need to see me alive and well to ensure you aren’t concerned when I’m gone.
“I see you and hear you, though.  I should be utilizing these trips more, relaxing more on them, using them as a time to settle myself from the dangers and strife of the Tauran plain.  I’ll need to start doing that more, but I can’t make promises that I’ll be able to stay the whole night every time.  Some days… will be too difficult, or too delicate, to ensure me being here completely.  It’s the risk of war.  I want to be here, though, not just to be a sign to you that everything is going to be okay.  I can’t ignore what I am, anymore though.  I’ve been lying to myself more than anyone.”
He stood up, spreading his arms out, baring the scrapes, bruises, and scars that covered his chest, stomach, and shoulders.  “I’ve been a lot of things and am a lot of things, a melting pot of ideas, efforts, and personalities.  What you see right here is the answer Twilight always needed for the minotaurs, but never wanted.  She brought me because I was the perfect person for this task in more ways than she could have ever imagined.  Sometimes I think it wasn’t even really her that decided I was the one to come to Equestria.  The Matriarch- that giant spider- called me the Orphan of the Cosmos and nigh-on prophesied of the change I have and would bring to not just Equestria, but the universe itself.  I’m a pseudo-deity in her eyes, a kid in your eyes, and a fearless general in the Fallen’s.  But in my eyes?”  Ray paused, chuckling slightly.  “In my eyes, I’m the perfect catalyst to bringing down everything known and unknown.”
“Ray,” Rarity pressed, resting a hoof against his shoulder.  
“The Spectre, it comes and goes, but his presence remains.  I had a thought, once, that it might be the one that was controlling the minotaurs, forcing them to fight me.  I thought it ridiculous, because why would it send something to fight me that would kill me?  It all made sense after the first battle though.  If it really is the Spectre who’s behind this whole war, then this isn’t meant to endanger me.  It’s a test, a challenge for me to overcome and learn from, to prepare me for whatever the Spectre really has in mind for me.  Its reach seems to be extended beyond just Equestria.  It’s not too far of a stretch to think that it intentionally picked me out from Earth and forced Twilight’s hand with this threat, to bring me here for some incomprehensible reason.  I’m its weapon, and this war is arming me for whatever plan it has next.”
“The Aspects, the Matriarch, the Princesses,” Fluttershy muttered, scanning the ground as she connected the pieces he had given them.  “Ray, this war isn’t a staging ground for something greater.  You are the battlefield everypony’s fighting to control, the valuable commodity that all sides need in order to defend or push their interests.”
Ray’s eyes widened.  He hadn’t thought of that before, but not that the little mare had taken a crack at the information, she had pieced together the puzzle he thought he had already solved.  It may be only half the truth, though.  Something felt distinctly incorrect about their theories even as they were spoken, like taking a step in the right direction but onto a thorn.
“Oh, sweet Celestia, I didn’t think I’d make it back in time,” Twilight suddenly exclaimed as she appeared not too far from them.  With her she had four large jugs of something that glowed, and while it took a confused moment of analyzation to realize what it was, it struck him like lightning.
“Bullwater,” he breathed, a genuine smile breaking out.  “Twilight, thank you!”
“It was nothing,” she replied with a smile.  “It only took so long because I couldn’t teleport directly into or out of Tartarus.”  She paused, noting the solemn faces of her friends.  “Did I interrupt an intervention?  My bad.”
“We were done anyways,” Ray responded, looking up at the moon.  “It’s almost time for me to leave anyway.  If we’re quick about goodbyes, I can make it to Zecora’s with fifteen minutes to spare.”
“I guess,” Fluttershy agreed reluctantly, also noting the hour.  With a sigh, she stepped forward, wrapping a hoof around his leg.  She didn’t look up at him as she muttered, “Just take care of yourself, please.  We still have so much more to talk about.”
In spite of how she addressed it to everyone, Ray felt she meant specifically between them as well.  He would have time to prepare an honest answer for her, for whatever she might need to say to him.  Brief condolences and goodbyes from the others followed shortly, though he noted Twilight didn’t say a word.  As he stood back up from hugging Rarity, he gave Twilight the slightest of nods, acknowledging that she would be accompanying him to the waypoint.  Still, he waited politely as the mares dispersed, AJ and Dash entering the homestead and Rarity walking down the path with Fluttershy.  Interestingly, Pinkie and Discord were teleported away by the draconequus’ magic, leaving the Princess of Friendship and the Orphan of the Cosmos alone in the cool night.
“So you must have heard all of that, then,” Ray presumed, watching as Twilight’s face fell slightly.  She was sneaky enough, but the human knew much more than her when it came to both the Harkening and the Apple’s farm.  
“Yes, the whole conversation,” she said with a frown.  “You’re getting much too good at that.”
“I don’t see it as a problem,” he responded with an equal measure of confidence and caution.  “Being keen in observation and quick in presumption saves lives.”
“I meant that you never let your guard down, even here,” Twilight clarified.  She turned, carrying the jugs in her magical hold.  
“Well, for how much of a peaceful place Equestria is, it hasn’t proved to be very safe for me,” Ray noted.  “At best, I can go a few months without some major endangerment to my life.  Tonight’s just happened to be very easy to deal with.  Besides, there have been enough attempts to observe or question me by gods of all sorts while still here.”
“Gods,” Twilight questioned, quirking a brow at him over her shoulder.
“Celestia, Luna, the Spectre, the Matriarch,” Ray listed.  “I guess the Matriarch has confirmed to me that she’s mortal, though, so maybe just the three.”
“Celestia and Luna aren’t gods, Ray,” Twilight explained.  “None of us princesses are.  We’re simply- as you put it- pseudo-deities, immensely powerful, unageing… but still mortal in the sense that we can be killed.  The Spectre though… well, if it's not an Aspect like we theorize, then maybe it is to classify it as a god.”
“If you princesses aren’t gods,” Ray backtracked, “then how do you possess so much more power than your fellow ponies?”
“The Aspects,” she responded tightly.  “In some way, shape, or form, we represent something the Aspects wish to be accomplished in this world.  The most successful of them would be, obviously, aspects of life mortals would wish to accept.  Light, dark, love, friendship, they would all be naturally accepted as needed and wanted parts of life.  Others, ones that have not been discovered or who conceal themselves intentionally, may need to manipulate their way into a representative.”
“So I really am a commodity for these hidden Aspects to fight over,” Ray mused with a smile.  “Never thought a Pittsburgh kid would be so sought over.”
“Would you identify yourself as one still,” she asked genuinely.
“Not at all,” he responded, still smiling.  “It’s just real funny what a label from another world means here.”
“And that is,” the alicorn pressed.
“Nothing.”
The rest of the walk was silent, both rather tired from the long night they had suffered through.  While it was unlikely that Ray would get to sleep anytime until the next sunset, he figured he had enough energy to carry two of the jugs, easing the burden of Twilight’s magic.  They were rather large and heavy, each clay container probably seventy five pounds each.  Even with the large quantity of the bullwater, he doubted there was enough for more than a thousand Fallen.  Deciding who would get a sip of the delicacy would be a whole mess, but in general, he was thankful for the act.  While the others had probably wanted to give him a gift beyond a short surprise party, they also had to face the fact that he had no use for anything they gave him other than their time.  
Within only a few short minutes, they were at Zecora’s cabin in the woods.  It struck him as interesting how it was so close to Ponyville and the Apples’ at once, considering how secluded it felt, concealed in the tangles of the Everfree.  Regardless, he stepped up to the front door of the cabin, staring at the ground.  Setting up the waypoint here had been… difficult.  The cabin was surrounded on all sides by marshy, often flooded ground, which made the path the only line of solid ground, and even that could easily become slick mud when wet.  So, the only remedy was a giant seal in the ground, a metal disk taking up almost all of the clear space in front of the tree trunk cabin.
It was made of silver, a tough, shiny metal that had been theorized to capture moonlight the best.  Indeed, even with the moonlight receding as day threatened to encroach on the darkness, it shone with silvery beauty.  It had all of the intricacies engraven into it when the metal had still been malleable, which meant now that it was set in the mud, it would take a greater effort to ruin it in any way.  While it was certainly muddy and had some brush already growing over it, a minute of clearing the surface off meant it was ready for use.  It didn’t matter if the waypoint was dirty when he traveled to it since it was light being shot into it rather than light needing to be absorbed into every inch of its surface. Picking up the two jugs of bullwater from off the ground where he had left it, he glanced at Twilight’s. 
 “Um, would just leaving it on the waypoint work,” he questioned, gesturing to the floating clay.  
“I doubt it, though we’ve never tried,” she admitted.  Then, a flash of inspiration crossed her face and she quickly instructed, “Sit down in the middle holding your jugs.  I’ll set mine in your lap.  So long as you’re touching or carrying them in some way, I think they’ll be brought with you!  Besides, you don’t need to be the one who activates the waypoint to be teleported.  You just need to be the one the power is centered on.”
Doing as instructed, he held each jug under his arms while the other two were settled in his lap.  He had to be slightly careful of his wrapped wound, but there wasn’t too much struggle to it.  As soon as he was settled, Twilight began dragging her horn through the symbols, lighting it slightly.  It wasn’t necessary to use her magic anymore since the waypoint had already been unlocked by her, but he guessed she was simply doing it out of habit.  A little enhancement only sped up the process a little, not enough for the user to care much.  
“It’s been lovely having a chance to talk with you, Ray,” Twilight said as she completed half of the symbols.  “Thank you so much for your incredible work.”
“Only the best,” Ray replied with a slight yawn.  “I’ll see you in a month.”
“See you in a month, then,” the Princess of Friendship agreed, smiling as the process was completed.  
Light consumed him, cool and soft and silvery as the moon, the powers and comforts of light transferring him and the jugs.  He noted that gravity seemed to be put on hold, as while he still felt himself carrying the jugs, they were simply weightless.  In an instant, it was all gone, the light and everything.
Ray blinked at harsh firelight, grunting as he felt the weight of the jugs again.  He barely had time to comprehend the twenty some Fallen gathered around him before one of them shouted, “Bullwater!  Sweet Celestia, the lordling’s got bullwater!!”
This was followed shortly by another shout of, “The lordling got his ass handed to him by a buncha ponies too!”
> Ample Crosswires
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

During the year of training Ray had received under Skalos, he had learned a wide variety of skills that had kept him alive.  He had learned how to use the kharamh, the knife and sword, and had been guided to learn the bow.  Other Fallen like Adant and Garish had helped teach him these skills, and many more had given him useful suggestions or tips.  Twilight and the others had taught him about Equestria and its beauties, peoples, and various intricacies.  He had learned each of these things and ingrained them into his mind, ensuring that these teachings would be lasting learning experiences in the hopes that he would never face a situation he was unprepared for.  Unfortunately, today was the day his knowledge met its match thanks to a ridiculously hard question to answer.
What were the best conversation starters to use when talking to a deity?
He sat on the top of the hill warily, the consistent slow warm wind that had been brushing through the camp through the past few days.  The sun beat down as hard as ever in spite of how the seasons were undoubtedly changing in Equestria.  If he had a good guess, the Running of the Leaves was occurring sometime during this week, about a week out from his third return to Equestria.  It was almost a given that nothing had occurred, the eroded patience laid bare as all of the camp consistently buzzed with the wishful wonderings of Fallen hoping- hoping! - that they would catch sight of the minotaurs sometime soon.  
Ray had lost count of how many times he’d simply stared over the hills, wishing himself that he at least knew what the continent had in store for them.  Was this war really chalked down to those singular battles?  Was this it?  Sink their pitiful boats at sea and kill their small army and force of miners?  That was the ultimate threat to Equestria?
No, Ray knew otherwise.  The Spectre had been shockingly silent these past few weeks, and while its presence still remained somewhere in the darkest recesses of Ray’s mind, its effect had faded tremendously.  While certainly a temperamental relief, especially combined with the lack of action he and his soldiers had now faced for almost three months, it also didn’t bode well for the future.  While he wouldn’t complain about being rid of the Spectre while the threat of boredom was getting to him, he wasn’t sure the drawback of it returning in the midst of battle would be worth it.  There was something threatening in the lack of that cursed voice remaining silent for so long.  
He needed counsel and consolation at once, lest the worry he felt right now lead to some terrible mistake or tragic blunder.  So, that left him with two options: call out for the Spectre and face it now or turn to the Matriarch for guidance.  
While he certainly would prefer a nice, reassuring conversation with the seemingly endless well of information and guidance the Matriarch was, she was definitely a slyly biased creature.  The conversation he had held with the Elements three weeks ago had been one of his riskiest maneuvers as it had the potential to draw the attention of those Ray was attempting to ignore.  Twilight’s explanation to him of the Aspects and their potential to be things the world needed but didn’t want failed to provide much comfort.  
There was also the fact that Twilight had confirmed a theory he had formed when she had first informed him on the existence of Aspects.  She had called herself an avatar of Friendship’s glory, and while he had suspected that had a deeper meaning to it, he didn’t know the extent to which the reach went.  Now he knew full and well that Twilight indeed was influenced by an Aspect, drawn to the wills and wishes of Friendship.  It wasn’t inherently bad, of course, it just meant that when it came to the matter of the Spectre, he truly had no unbiased information to use when regarding it and its twisted offers.
The others were Elements of Harmony, a drawback and tool of Friendship’s, ensuring that its purposes were not disturbed by either of Celestia and Luna’s ambitions.  Discord, of course, had to be at least an embodiment of another Aspect.  Ray would have to spark a conversation with the draconequus to tease out if he did serve an Aspect.  Celestia and Luna themselves had proven to be somewhat unreliable with how they coaxed Ray into serving Equestria, and with them being alicorns, there was no doubt they each served their own Aspects.  Even the Fallen had a preference to Luna when it came to judging their decisions, most of them following a religion around the Princess of the Night.  That left him with one option.
Outright, the Matriarch was unconcerned with the matters of mortals.  She blatantly stated that the only reason she interrupted her millenia of watching the world was to assist in Ray’s quests, hoping to speed up the pieces of the “plan”.  He had almost dismissed her right away because of that, but then it came into clear perspective that the Matriarch wasn’t opposed to nor favored certain Aspects, or at least not as far as he knew.  That made her perhaps the only thing in the world that wasn’t somehow biased to one Aspect or another.  It also helped that she had vast wells of knowledge when it came to such things, in spite of how humbly she explained her knowledge was limited when it didn’t concern the physical world.  He had to be careful, though, because she was a blatantly opposed to Ray being distracted.  Not the Spectre outright, but…
Sighing in frustration, the warm wind somehow sneaking its way into his nose to dry it, he stood up and began walking down the hill, back towards the camp.  He was atop the very first hill beyond where the camp lay, which was about a mile out, meaning a short fifteen minute walk back.  Fifteen minutes to think of a natural conversation starter for a giant spider to coax which side of an apocalyptic, universal struggle she leaned towards, if any.  In the off chance that she didn’t have a specific Aspect she followed, then he would have to somehow change the conversation to ask her thoughts on the Spectre.  
He already knew, actually.  She was very protective of Ray and would likely see the Spectre as a more dangerous and evil distraction to him.  However, what he concerned himself most with would be how she acknowledged the Spectre and how she spoke of it.  Depending on how aggressively she tarnished the Spectre’s ambitions and how vehement her reasoning would be, he might be able to understand for himself the threat he had to somehow face.  It was daunting to even think of a way to resist the Spectre’s influence without using his life as blackmail, let alone somehow stop whatever plan it had.  
Ray sighed in frustration once again, this one more like a primal growl of anger though.  He was halfway between the hills by now, and glancing around, he noted how uniquely empty the space was.  While the entire continent seemed empty, the spaces between hills seemed especially barren.  The grass grew shorter here, maybe only an inch tall in some places, which made the land look drier and more barren than usual.  It also wasn’t uncommon for divisions to take retreats to the spaces between hills around the camp for training or other exercises.  Even individuals would often come on their free time, whether to think, talk, or simply keep from getting too restless.  However, there was nobody in sight.
A random thought entered his head, partly from wanting to procrastinate the conversation he would have to carry out with the Matriarch, and partly to give himself some more of increasingly limited privacy.  Pausing, he reached instinctively behind him, pulling his kharamh out slowly.  In the three months since the invasion had begun, there hadn’t been a single moment of training alone.  While he certainly didn’t need to rely on it to remain at peak performance, missing out on it for so long felt… wrong.  He had figured that intense planning and grueling battles would grind away his time to practice, but obviously things had taken a slow turn.  With a slight smile, he suddenly ripped his kharamh through the air, the sound of it slicing through the warm breeze singing to him.
He didn’t have a particular pattern in mind for training, but he had come to realize that the vast majority of those had been to simply familiarize him with his weapons.  Besides, after experiencing the fighting style of minotaurs firsthand, he figured he could adjust to be more accurate in his fighting style.  The minotaurs focused on sheer brute force, seven feet tall behemoths that used their axes and swords like clubs, attempting to make their first strike the last one.  The trick to combating such raw force was as simple as skill-less swinging.  He simply had to move faster, think quicker, and cut thinner.  The minotaurs would be looking for strong hits and heavy commitments, but if he kept them at the tip of his spearhead and hook, they would fall as easily as in the first battle. 
Though he had no visual aids to assist him in practicing this tough-and-go fighting, he used other references to imagine where the enemy was.  He visualized ten of them to start, all grouped in a front like he had faced before.  This line, however, hadn’t been broken by the first wave, which meant he was their sole focus.  He ducked under the warm breeze, a minotaurs blunt axe, and whirled to his left, catching the stomach of the first enemy on his sharpened spear butt.  He spun through the action, pulling his kharamh against himself defensively as he began but slicing outward with the hook as he pulled through.
This action beheaded an aggressive minotaur but allowed the other eight to begin to encircle him.  That was a problem he couldn’t allow.  Wheeling backwards, he faced one to his extreme right, hoping to cause an imbalance by focusing down one flank first.  This one held a sword, long and sharp, but very lofty thanks to its size.  The minotaur would swing down heavily, requiring Ray to block the strike and…
No, no that was wrong.  If Ray blocked the strike, it would slow him down too much and one of the four minotaurs behind him would be able to strike.  Pausing briefly, he retraced his steps to where he had beheaded the minotaur.  Turning to the right was probably the best option still, as having rolled out to his left had put him closer to that flank than the other one.  He needed to constantly attack sporadically, ensuring that there was no way a minotaur could predict which one would be next.  That being said, he needed to be smarter and riskier in order to outpace them.  With a flash of inspiration, he unpaused the moment and wheeled right again.
This time, however, he ducked left of the sword, into another minotaur.  Caught off-guard by the overly aggressive movement, Ray was allowed to ram into its shoulder and sink the butt end of his kharamh into its side.  Jerking the weapon so it pulled horizontally to him, the hook rammed into the sword-wielding one’s chest, a slight upward angle allowing for it to pierce its right lung.  Instead of pushing back and away from the remaining six, he continued to over-rotate his weapon, throwing the one on the butt of his kharamh into the path of the other right flank minotaurs and discarding of the one pierced by his hook.
He leaped to the left once again, though this time targeting the farthest out.  Thrusting his spear out, he barely missed the minotaur’s axe, as intended.  Ray sent himself right, planting his foot heavily in the coarse dirt as his spear severed both the minotaur’s hands.  He had to roll across the rough ground to avoid a devastating hit from a right-side minotaur but managed to plant his hook in its calf.  He ripped it off as he stood, sending it to the golden grasses.  Effectively neutralized, that left him with four left, three with axes and the last with a sword.  
These ones still attacked him heedlessly, a foolhardy and uncoordinated strike from one of the axes leaving it with its chest gaping as Ray spun the kharamh to allow his spearhead to cut deep.  Kicking the wounded one away from him to give himself a bit more space, he saw a unique opportunity presented to him.  The other two axes stood slightly apart, with the sword attempting to flank his right.  These three seemed to be a little more patient, though they certainly were jumping to get at him.  An idea as foolhardy and intelligent as any popped into his mind for a brief moment.  Though he didn’t know if it would taunt a real minotaur, he whirled his kharamh slightly and slammed the butt through the side of the fallen minotaur.  
This enraged the others, all three collapsing in at the same time.  Keeping one hand on the grip of his kharamh, Ray ducked and kicked outward, landing a solid blow into the knee of the sword.  While on a human this would throw a man off balance and cause some pain, the minotaurs had a unique leg that ended in a hoof, meaning that a minotaur could collapse if its knee was knocked inward.  Precisely this happened to the sword, the kick causing its leg to invert and sending it to the ground.  Letting go of his kharamh as he no longer needed it as balance, he kept clear of the two axes by falling back a few feet.  
The pair was hyper-aggressive, though continuing to pursue him now that he had no weapon in hand.  That was a serious underestimation, though, as he removed a knife on his belt with his right hand as he dodged to the side of the left axe.  Reaching out his left hand, he grasped its arm and pulled it in, sliding the knife between its two forearm bones, severing major muscles. The minotaur’s axe dropped from its hand as its muscles failed, and without the strength to resist, Ray shoved the arm back into the minotaur’s chest, the two-foot-long blade digging in between ribs.
He held onto the minotaur as it weakly struggled to remove the blade, keeping a hand on the hilt to ensure the knife was pinned there.  He used the dying minotaur as a shield against the last axe, though not for long as it mercilessly swung its hefty weapon at Ray.  The human shoved his captive forward, allowing it to suffer the crushing blow, split almost in half by the force of the blow.  Spinning slightly, Ray grabbed his kharamh, wrenching it from the corpse of the third axe.  He brought it perfectly into form right in time to block a heavy downward strike, buckling slightly at the temperamental strength of the strike.  Seeing its opponent down on one knee, it pressed forward diligently.  
Grunting as he recognized how precarious his situation was, Ray saw only two options for this fight.  One, try to outlast a heavier, stronger opponent in this contest of raw strength, or somehow disengage and reset to fight it.  Of course, the minotaur, even being as dull as they all seemed to be, would be able to recognize these two options as well.  That left him scrambling for a secret option, one he hadn’t trained for or had searched for.  Glancing down at where the axe was pressing on the grip of his kharamh, the only path to victory was revealed.
The axe was curves in a reverse crescent shape, the fattest part of the curve pressed precariously against his kharamh.  A quick look at his hook told him it was pointed more towards him than the minotaur, though in this situation that was perfect.  With a slight smile, Ray suddenly rolled his kharamh, the cylindrical metal guiding the curve ever so slightly down.  The force of the minotaur was suddenly rolled along the body of the metal as well, and within a few breathtaking moments, the axe was plunged into the ground, rolling off the spear.  All the while, the human pushed forward with his left hand, arcing the hook right into the minotaur’s head, the body of it thunking against its skull as the tip of the hook stuck out the other side of its head.  
Getting up from the ground, he let the body slide off of the hook, carefully stepping around the freshly dead.  The last sword was still crawling along the sungrass, dragging its twisted leg hopeless on the brittlestone.  Without much thought, he planted the spearhead of his kharamh into its back, stilling its struggles once and for all.  
Letting out a slow exhale, he let the illusions fade, the exercise over.  He wiped the sweat and dust from his forehead as he turned to find where he dropped his knife.  He had almost forgotten it was all in his head until the knife had thudded dully against the ground while he still fantasized.  With a sheepish smile, he picked it out of the sungrass, quickly sheathing it as it already burned slightly from being exposed to the harsh sunlight.  He had to wipe some more sweat from his eyes as he blinked, staring at the ground.  He didn’t feel tired, only sweating this much thanks to how intensely hot it was in the sun.  
Shrugging off the familiar, oppressive heat, he turned to the hill and was greeted by an audience.
The entire hillcrest was covered in Fallen, many seated as they stared down at him.  He didn’t know how long they had been watching or which group had begun, but there were at least two divisions worth of Fallen on the hills with a small trickle still joining in.  It was slightly intimidating to look at, a sea of ghostly figures sitting atop the hill and staring him down.  Their milky eyes seemed like small ovals of light from where he stood, a thousand pairs of them trained on his movements.  He didn’t know exactly how well they could see the smile he gave them as he strapped the kharamh across his back again, but he hoped they did.  
It was strange how, once, he had struggled to talk to the whole of them and was embarrassed to blunder before them.  Now, however, he didn’t feel that same fear as he once had.  Each of them was a unique individual to the next one with different thoughts, feelings, and strengths.  Some of them had probably been impressed by his training, others might have had trouble seeing the purpose of it, and still some probably had worthwhile input for him.  It was… alleviating.  They weren’t at all like him individually, but they were alike in their differences.  All soldiers by name and deed, individuals by action and agency.
He began walking uphill towards them, noting how some of them looked slightly flustered by being “caught” watching their general.  Others smiled, waved, or nodded respectfully as he approached.  He wanted to talk to them, but the rush he had received from finally having some individual training- even with an audience- needed to be used wisely.  Likewise, these Fallen needed to take whatever they had felt by watching him and use it to fuel their determination in whatever their next task would be.  He knew that many of the Fallen would take his admittedly flagrant exercise as a morale boost, seeing him maintaining peak performance for when they needed to fight again.
It was strange, actually, to think about the impact he had left on the Fallen.  Every action of his was being watched and gossiped about in the army, spreading legends about him to all seventeen thousand soldiers.  Even his private moments, he was realizing now, were being watched and measured by the Fallen for guidance and morale.  The Fallen had raised him onto a pedestal as high as Luna’s, and Linium even claimed that there was a small denomination of a few hundred that worshiped him as their next god.  It was as humbling as it was ridiculous.  He certainly didn’t feel like a god, much too vulnerable to things far beyond his understanding to ever equate to such power and knowledge.  Still, the meaning of their worship wasn’t lost on him…
Trudging through the crowd, allowing them to gawk and whisper as they pleased, he caught sight of Yarem in their midst and made his way over to the general.  There were a few dozen Fallen in the way, but seeing him approach, they parted, some making jokes for his benefit as he passed, others staring.  He returned the jokes in kind, though his mind wasn’t with it, simply repeating what had already made others laugh.  The effect was enough, though, inspiring some to finally stop staring and go about their day.  After a minute, he had reached the general, who had waited expectantly for his arrival.
“I’m going over to the spiderlings’ nest to talk with the Matriarch,” he informed the general.  “I don’t think I have anything on my agenda for the day, but if I do, tell Skalos where I am.  I may simply spend the night there since I have no clue how long it will take.”
“Very well then, lordling,” the stallion nodded but leaned in to whisper, “One note, however.  There is a marriage tonight and it would be recommended that you show up to support it.  It would be the first one in the new continent and our first marriage since the landing.  Your open support of this may encourage other soldiers not to give up their love even when the war and toll of this land starts getting to them.”
“Of course,” the human replied, crouched down so they could talk.  “I’ll be there, if possible, but if I’m not, would you give a statement in my stead?  As important as this marriage is, the matter I have to discuss with the Matriarch could prove to be our saving grace in this conflict and future ones.  I’ll see you shortly otherwise.”
The general nodded once again, standing up and leaving as Ray stepped past him.  There was an air of caution from the other Fallen, as if spying on their lordling while he had trained was some sort of taboo action.  He could have cared less for if they had invaded his private time, as he knew thanks to that subtle nagging in the back of his head that he was never alone.  Honestly, he thought he might have hoped that his training would be viewed in one way or another.  It seemed like these days especially everything was an action to show, tell, or demonstrate.  Even this careful walk was one calculated move to demonstrate his comfort with the Fallen, attempting to show them he wasn’t some sort of deity like the common misconception had become.
After a few minutes of walking, the sun on his skin and the warm breeze tussling his long hair the only company he had.  Well, not truly.  
“What are you waiting for,” he asked in a raspy whisper.  His mouth was surprisingly dry, his throat tight as he asked a question that had gone unanswered for far too long.  Grabbing the waterskin on his belt, he took a long sip from it, the warm liquid within doing little to wet his lips.  Sighing, he waited a second to see if there would be an answer this time.  Nothing.
Placing the waterskin back where it belonged, he continued down the hill and towards the flat expanse that led to the minotaur’s mine.  The spiderlings had taken it over, the cooler, dark depths providing many holes and crevices for them to spawn and thrive within.  The only problem was that it was just over five miles away from the main camp.  This meant that, in order to talk to the Matriarch, he would have to walk at least halfway there in order to be noticed, or more accurately, for her to realize he needed to talk.  This was part of the reason it had been so long since the human had discussed anything with the giant arachnid.  
The separation of armies had been less for the soldiers’ sake and more with the fact that the spiderlings enjoyed the cold, dank mines while the soldiers wanted to remain by the coast, if only for the occasional trip to the beach.  Many of the Fallen had frequented the depths in the past few months, but the carcasses and deep blackness put many on edge.  The Harkening had been a brightened world underneath the stone, bullwater and exotic plants providing weak, but comforting, light for all within the expansive cave.  The mines were cramped, craggy shafts with very little breathing space even for the smaller Fallen.  Many, including Ray, had found the place to be hauntingly claustrophobic, the smell of death lingering in every sharp shaft.
When the Matriarch had told Ray about the handy work of the spiderlings, eliminating every minotaur in a matter of an hour, he had figured they had consumed the bodies and stashed the bones.  Like their much smaller cousins, however, they had stored the dead in cocoons, some of them containing as many as a hundred minotaurs wrapped tightly in ethereal silk.  There were also the ones that had been consumed, their skeletons thinly wrapped in a blanket of flesh with their internal everythings sucked out.  The spiderlings were certainly efficient in their killings and preservation of food, which although technically unnecessary, provided them the ability to spawn more of themselves faster.
The broodmothers, a collection of a dozen humongous spiderling females, were constantly laying another generation of eggs to be raised to assist in the fight.  Their value in the coming months of war would only be matched by the Matriarch herself, who had informed Ray that her breeding years were long over.  Much too large and much too dominant a being to stoop to reproduction, the Matriarch instead would direct her spiderlings like a queen.  While there were integrated spiderling-Fallen forces, that only accounted for a measly thirty percent of the spiderlings, leaving hundreds of thousands left for the Matriarch to instruct.
The mind-boggling number of spiderlings was something Ray still was attempting to wrap his head around, a force of great numbers that would effectively serve as a retreat guard or distraction between waves.  The Matriarch herself couldn’t number all of her children, estimating maybe four hundred thousand.  The number was large but deceiving, of course.  Maybe a fourth of those were able to fight effectively, the rest being small by comparison.  Most were about the size of Ray’s palm, meaning one fell swing of a minotaur axe could end fifty of them.  They also didn’t have venom, which certainly surprised the human.  They had their digestive fluids to turn the innards of their victims into soup, but otherwise they relied on their bite force to kill their victims.  All of this had been discovered by Ray after their first battle, which proved that, indeed, the Matriarch’s children were much more vulnerable and fragile than the Fallen.  
Still, they were invaluable and individual creatures, with a limited agency granted by the Matriarch.  She had given her spiderlings room to live, and some of those more cognizant individuals had even begun to take likings to the Fallen and vice versa.  There were maybe two hundred of them that regularly visited with the Fallen to curiously watch or engage with them.  A few had even stuck with certain individuals, prompting a strange relationship to grow.  Many Fallen saw the spiderlings in a kinder light than on the day of invasion, especially thanks to their demonstration of loyalty, and the spiderlings who did think for themselves partially saw them as… friends.  It was hard to discern with the arachnids, as they didn’t have the same emotional inclinations as mammalian creatures.  Still, there was some type of trusting care and dedication to the Fallen that the spiderlings held to.
Ray’s thoughts were interrupted as the ground shook mightily.  Sometimes he noticed that the earth trembled with every step the Matriarch took, other times he simply didn’t think about it.  Regardless, it occurred every time one of the giant spider’s eight legs connected to the ground.  He looked up, watching in silent, stoic awe as the Matriarch pulled herself out of the hole in the plains, eight legs straining to stand up her enormous frame.  It didn’t matter that he had now lived with the giant spider as his neighbor for almost three months now; the Matriarch was so massive even the Princesses had paused to stare in awe.  That size was her great advantage, paired perfectly with an acute knowledge of the past and present.  The only problem was her conception of the future.  Regardless of her goals, though, he needed that knowledge.
Her head turned to him inquisitively, eye large eyes visible even from perhaps four miles away.  Another striking contrast with a creature so large and indomitable.  Scale itself lost meaning when faced with understanding the epic proportions of the World Weaver.  
She scuttled relatively quickly once she had freed herself, though that meant at least a few minutes of waiting for each large, lethargic step to bring her several hundred feet closer.  Ray didn’t stop walking towards her even knowing it would do nothing to speed up closing the distance between them.  The Matriarch would appreciate the gesture though and understand the urgency at Ray’s approach.  Indeed, he noticed her lethargic steps slicing through the air at a slightly quicker pace, though not entirely hasty thanks to her size.  Yes, they had important things to discuss, things the Matriarch would be keen to know and give her vast knowledge on.
After a few more minutes of the two walking towards each other, the Matriarch was close enough for Ray to actually talk to.  Sure, he technically would have been close enough for her to hear from any distance, but he didn’t possess the means to hear her response.  Thus, the need for a little bit of awkwardly staring each other down.
“Ray,” the Matriarch greeted with a cheerful gait.  It was strange that a spider could be expressive, but there was friendliness in her movements as she paused in front of him.  “What matter brings you out to our camp?”
“Nothing formal,” Ray admitted, crossing his arms.  In spite of how warm the day was, he had to resist a chill passing through him as the Matriarch’s massive head leaned down towards him.  “Mostly, I need to talk to you about something more… private.”
“Matters of the Spectre, I presume,” the World Weaver guessed, shocking Ray.  
“Um, yeah, how did you know,” Ray asked, suddenly feeling very exposed.  How did she know?  
“Mmm, the years have given me an intuition, and having the opportunity to know the mortal being you are allows me to guess accurately,” the Matriarch replied pleasantly.  She didn’t seem to think that his concerns about the Spectre were a danger, if her demeanor was any hint, but Ray still had a little apprehension about approaching the topic now.  “Please, you needn’t stand around uncomfortably on this hard soil.  Allow me to lend one of my limbs for you to make yourself comfortable.”
As said, one of her large feelers reached out and settled right in front of Ray’s feet, an organic ramp onto the Matriarch.  He accepted the gesture, carefully climbing up the limb and onto her head.  It was a bit strange to him that the Matriarch consisted of only her head and abdomen, but to each species their own, he figured.  As he sat himself down on her smooth carapace, he caught a glance of the hill he had just come from.  There was a small congregation of Fallen on the slopes, undoubtedly watching in awe and horror as their general seated himself upon a massive spider.  
Frowning, Ray asked, “Oh, was this just an act?”
“Of course not, lordling,” the Matriarch answered with subtle earnesty.  It wasn’t as prominent as before, but there was still a certain wistfulness to her powerful voice.  “I am of the opinion that we need not act like allies for the sake of our soldiers.  It would be much easier if we simply were aligned.  I would hope that you consider me as much an ally as I consider you a friend.”
Ray expected there to be an emotional hitch to such a statement, but there was that wistful roll of her words, telling him that she was earnest in her statements.  Nodding, the human relaxed slightly, allowing himself to lean back a little on the carapace as she began to move.
“We are friends, more than just out of necessity,” Ray said, finally voicing his thoughts.  “I just have become a bit paranoid, I think.  These past few months have become very tense between every Fallen, the lack of action and apocalyptic landscape doing very little to relieve their pent-up energy.  I feel like I have to constantly put on a brave front in solidarity with my generals that everything- while not going according to plan- is fine.  It’s begun to take a toll, I think.  I’m back on that sleeping powder I put in my tea in order to ensure I get some rest at night.”
“And you can’t discuss these troubles with anyone but me,” the Matriarch questioned curiously, evaluating.
“No,” Ray sighed, staring up at a dirty blue sky.  “I mean, every month I get to return to Equestria for a few hours and talk, but mostly I want to hear good news and share my own good news.  I don’t want the few hours I have with my friends on the other side of the world to be sour or negative.  This last one was almost completely ruined by that damned timberwolf.”
He paused, remembering the events for a brief second and the party afterwards.  Sixteen years old…
“Regardless, I shouldn’t discuss such things with my Fallen,” he continued.  “They may be my friends, but they are also my soldiers.  I can show them everything but my weakness.”
“Yes, I do understand the sentiment, I believe,” the Matriarch muttered.  “But why share your worries and troubles with me, Orphan of the Cosmos?  It would seem like one would want to hide their weaknesses from their allies most of all.”
“Well, you see no need to lie to me,” Ray pointed out.  In spite of how hard the carapace was, the spiny hairs that protrude from the keratin folded nicely to cushion Ray’s head.  He was sure the Matriarch felt him laying down acutely, but there was a casual demeanor about allowing him onto her.  
“I do not like lying,” the Matriarch admitted.  “In my years of watching and collecting knowledge, I’ve noticed an unbroken pattern.  Lying or concealing the truth always hurts the cause for good and assists the cause for evil.  It is much easier to tell the truth and convince someone through honesty and earnest endeavors than it is to trick them with lies and deceit.”
“So you would call yourself a cause for good,” Ray probed, watching a thin cloud moving swiftly across the sky.
“Of course,” the Matriarch stated with almost a relieved tone.  “I will be the first to admit that I often do not fight for it, rather idealize and theorize the cause to garner a more lasting support.  My appearance and being one of Darkness’ creations does not support my case, but I try to act on a principle of right and wrong.”
“Why do you care so much about the system of good and bad established by mortals, though,” Ray asked.  He hadn’t intended for the conversation to go down this way… but if he were to be honest, this was much better to hear than whatever questioning he had planned on carrying out.  “I mean, couldn’t you make a much more effective code of right and wrong with your eternal perspective and longevity?”
“Of course,” the Matriarch answered.  “It would be simple, even easy, to force my knowledge upon mortals to establish a permanent code of law.  That isn’t the nature of my will, though.  I follow the dictates and great plan of the Aspects.  Being one of their first creations, they implemented a piece of themselves directly into me.  On accident, of course, not knowing how to create something that wasn’t a replication of their own strength and purpose.  Nonetheless, I am heavily invested in ensuring the Aspects’ will be done and seeing their great plan come to fruition.  My agency allows me to act as I will, but my tendencies lean me towards the Aspects.”
“Yes, but what does that have to do with us mortals,” the human inquired, genuinely intrigued.
“Well, the Aspects see the mortals as brief, beautiful creatures.  Creatures capable of innumerable creations, philosophies, and personalities.  The Aspects see each life of a mortal as a flash of spectacular contradictions and magnificently insignificant actions.  Such simple things as a choice to eat something different from another creature fascinate the Aspects, the individuality of each creature no matter how sentient an elusive trait to them.  Each Aspect represents one element of the world, an identifying social trait dictated between individuals, present in every existence.  Thus, the melting pot of ideas, actions, and consequences is a truly spectacular and invigorating spectacle.
“I see mortals a little differently, being one myself.  Sometimes even I forget that I am not quite absolute in my ideology.  You came along and proved to me that.  I tend to see mortal lives as the flash of a shooting star.  Some shine spectacularly in the darkness, providing a grand show and great joy to those who observe before burning out.  They are discussed in the days that follow them, a beautiful event that causes one to imagine and admire, missed but remembered.  Then there are the terrible ones that shine just as bright, but rip through the sky and tear up the earth.  They cause terror and leave behind a wake of destruction that others fear could befall them one day.  Their legacy is one that leaves others fearful of the next brilliant flash across the darkness, as darkness might be better than the fearful flash of light that interrupts it.”
“That’s the difference between you and the Spectre, then,” Ray surmised.  “The Spectre is disgusted by mortality, the briefness of life and the absolution of death.  I think it has to be mortal in some way, attempting to avoid the finality it fears.  For some reason, though, it seems more disgusted that I accepted my mortality than that I am mortal.  It’s almost as if it feels I should be more than what I am right now.  Immortal, even.”
“Hm, yes, the Spectre is something that I have neither heard nor seen of before,” the Matriarch explained.  “There is good reason to be suspicious of such a powerful, hateful thing such as it.  Something has gone wrong above, I think, to create the ostensibly potent being that is the Spectre.”
The Matriarch spat the name with a spite that seemed far more personalized.  He smiled slightly.  There was something charming about hearing such a similar mortal tone to her voice, familiar even if angry.  This was a creature not too unlike him, though certainly different.
He let the topic slide though, asking, “Where are we going anyways?”
“I don’t know, truly,” the Matriarch responded.  “I felt it would be nice to walk a little ways since I have been crammed into the mines for the day.  We’re perhaps five or six miles from the mines.”
“Huh, I forgot how far you could move so quickly,” Ray mentioned.  The sky was darkening though, so it meant a couple hours had passed since he had begun walking towards the mines.  “See anything?”
“No, but I believe that’s for the best, tonight,” the Matriarch informed.  “After all, I heard word of a marriage among the Fallen tonight.  I would hate for the newlyweds to have their happiest day ruined by battle.”
“True, true,” Ray agreed softly.  Then, feeling much more lighthearted than usual, he patted a hand against the Matriarch’s exoskeleton and said, “I don’t know how often you receive compliments, but I think you should get more of them.  You’re a spectacular person to talk to, really.”
“Thank you… lordling,” the World Weaver answered after a moment of pause.  She sounded… flustered?  
No, not that different at all, Ray thought to himself.  
> Truth at Last
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The warmth of light and strange, serene sensation it gave Ray was the only comfort from the oppressive heat of the last week.  He hadn’t known he had been waiting for this exact moment, that split second that lasted long enough for him to enjoy and leave before he could become too attached.  Indeed, even as he had the thought, the wayport's warmth and absolute light began to dim, darkness finally being comprehended in his vision.  It was well enough as it had lasted though, leaving him with a contented smile on his face in preparation for whatever conversation he needed to have with Twilight.
Blinking, he looked around slightly, noting he was indeed in the throne room, and for a second, he naively thought maybe Twilight had forgotten tonight was the full moon.  However, he knew better to believe anything of the sort, especially with how strained everything had become.  Something wrong was going on here, the empty throne room and blackened stain-glass windows darkened…
Ray started, whipping out his kharamh in one hand and his knife in the other.  Looking around him wildly, his eyes darting to each window, he called out, “What do you want from me now, Spectre?”
Summoned by its name, the Spectre suddenly materialized out of thin air, though considering this was its world now, perhaps it was simply the air itself.  That thought chilled Ray.  The Spectre may be able to strangle him with a simple will.  Though he figured any way he worked it in his head, the Spectre could easily kill him regardless.  
“Put your weapons away, lordling, you know they can’t do anything to me,” it ordered dismissively, its shadowy figure taking on the shape of a tall man, back turned to Ray.
Gritting his teeth, he returned the kharamh to its place across his back but kept the knife in hand.  The Spectre’s head turned slightly toward him, the shadows taking on a dark skin tone as features began to form, noting the knife.  “Still on about that killing yourself business?”
“Only if you force my hand,” Ray said slowly.  “But I know you won’t make me.  I’m still too valuable.”
“Oh, and what gives you such confidence,” the Spectre asked, sounding almost amused.  
“I’m uniquely valuable to each of you Aspects, a prospect to either defend or utilize,” Ray summarized knowingly.  “There’s something in me that’s more valuable than Twilight or I could have ever guessed.  Something yet to be unlocked.”
“That keen intelligence serves you immensely,” the Spectre noted.  “Why did you ever give up on pursuing your greatest strength?”
Ray paused for a second.  His greatest strength?  He was smart, certainly, but it wasn’t to an unbelievable degree.  He just knew stuff.  “What do you mean?”
“You have a mind far more capable and durable than you ever could have guessed,” the Spectre admitted.  “There’s more possibilities and strength to you than even we could have hoped for, enough to rival even that Matriarch of yours.”
“Matriarch of mine,” Ray questioned, catching the odd way the Spectre had noted the World Weaver.  “She’s fighting with me, but not under my order.”
The Spectre laughed at that, a hauntingly earnest sound that made Ray flinched.  The Spectre finally turned to face him, his surprisingly accurate human face smiling at him.  Though it wasn’t Ray’s expertise, he couldn’t tell if the smile was humored or simply sardonic.  Either way, it was honest.
“The Matriarch follows you because she is as obsessed with what you are and what you may become,” the Spectre exclaimed.  “You aren’t simply allies; she is your devotee as much as any of the Aspects’.  I would dare to say that she even loves you as much as she loves the Aspects.  You, the burning hope of the future, a stick in the eye of every plan ever created!  It’s almost too ironic to be real, the Matriarch’s juxtaposed position of being fascinated with your arrival and your potential when compared to how stoutly she believes in this inconsequential plan.”
“Everyone keeps saying I’ll be something more than anybody could have ever imagined,” Ray grumbled, crossing his arms, careful not to slice himself with the knife in hand.  “But I’ve already done that by becoming the general the Fallen want to follow and the warlord Equestria needs to protect it.”
“Pah, you’ve only broken free of those mortal expectations, the ones that blindly confined your future to one possibility in their minds.  Fools, all of them, to think that something as malleable and indestructible as you would be simply Equestria’s savior.  Honestly, why do you defend them?  It takes more than love to sacrifice such potential for something as minute as war.”
“Does it,” Ray questioned.  “All I need was a purpose and people to protect, it seems.  Maybe that’s where you’re wrong.”
“Wrong, no, but I understand now,” the Spectre said, turning away from him.  It had developed its body to be a bald, browned man with deep wrinkles and calloused hands clasped behind its back.  It wore something simple, a black robe that didn’t really begin or end.  It simply… flowed.  “There is simply beauty in mortals, foolish beauty like the scrawled drawings of a child.”
“What do you know about children,” Ray jabbed, pointing his knife at the Spectre for emphasis.
“What will you ever know about children, Ray,” the Spectre shot behind his back, not even turning to regard the human.  He paused at that.  The words stung worse than he had expected, the jab of loneliness he felt from the realization that what the Spectre said was indisputably true crippling his resistance.  Still, he simply took a deep breath.  That was a worry for much, much later.
“What do you want,” he asked huskily, pursing his lips.
“You’re worn Ray,” the Spectre stated.  Another point he couldn't argue on.  “After only three months of war, you’ve only had one battle and you are still exhausted.  You don’t have anything to fuel you.  How long do you think you’ll be able to last until you must take action and fill your bloodlust?  You already demonstrated to your entire army how eager you are to bathe yourself in unholy viscera again.  Will you tattle about me and this encounter to Twilight?  Will you tell her how you wish to dive your spear back into flesh?  Will you tell her how you yearn to feel powerful again?”
“What is there to hide,” Ray countered with a shrug.  “It’s better to expel the poison than absorb it.”
“Poison?  Poison?  No, this desire within you, this want to be exactly as you are is not an evil, unhealthy thing,” the Spectre explained with emphasis.  “What do you think it is that all Aspects are banking on to win them this eternal struggle at last?  Your kindness?  Your compassion?  Your sense of goodwill and loyalty?  No, those are attributes that simply add dimension from your powerful, violent soul.  There’s no denying what you are, Ray.  You’ve spent the last half of a year proving to those around you that you aren’t the creature they discovered bawling in the hills outside Ponyville.  You are… godlike.  A mortal with the soul of the most powerful creature to roam Equestria.  It isn’t poison, that desire to be powerful, but inheritance.  Equestria freed you, and I can amplify you.”
“I keep telling you no,” Ray stated bluntly.  Something about the Spectre’s sudden passion caught him off-guard, and even knowing that it was probably just pandering, an unwelcome thought crept in.  How much of what the Spectre’s saying is a lie?
“Why do you keep telling me no,” the Spectre asked, another stab of genuine confusion to the supreme’s tone.  “What if tomorrow you were to fight a most horrendous battle, outnumbered and outflanked, your waves crushed as they broke against the minotaur’s?  What would you do if ten thousand of your precious Fallen were killed in a matter of a few hours, your army scattering desperately as they broke rank and ran for fear of their lives?  What if Skalos and Yarem and Garish and all those others you have come to love were torn asunder right before your very eyes, leaving you alone against ten thousand more minotaurs?  What then?”
“I would kill every minotaur until they finished me,” Ray responded resolutely.  “Even if I were the only one left alive by twisted providence, I would fight until I bled dry or my head was removed from my shoulders.”
“And that is where I would come in to help you, lordling,” the Spectre dictated with an air of confidence.  “Then, when you were the last one to stand amid a field of dead friends and bloodied foes, I would surge you with the power to- “
“At what cost,” the human demanded, shouting to silence the Spectre.  Its face seemed shocked at the outburst.  He dared interrupt it?  Lowering his voice, he repeated, “At what cost?”
“Honestly, Raymond,” the Spectre inquired.
“Of course,” he answered with a hard stare.
“Your mortality,” it growled ethereally.  “You would never have to fear death or destruction from anyone or anything ever again.  For time and all eternity, you would live.”
“Why would I want to live in a world controlled and contorted by you,” he asked.  “You seem like the kind who’d be a cruel, careless ruler that would snap the neck of any person who even thought to disagree with you.  You can reach into the minds of others and harass them into nigh on madness.  Sometimes I wonder if you’re even real, but then I have this nifty little scar on my shoulder to prove otherwise.”
“I guaranteed your sanity and my callousness with that maneuver,” the Spectre pointed out darkly.  “Admit that you don’t mind your scars.  You display them at any chance you get, showing off your violent tapestry of conquered wounds like they were a testament to your strength.”
“Aren’t they,” Ray probed.  “I’m a survivor.  Somehow, I’ve cheated death and established myself in this world as if I belonged.”
“But you still know you don’t,” the Spectre responded darkly.  “There is a solidarity in that, isn’t there?”
“Of course,” Ray responded with a smile.  “I don’t belong here and I never will.  That makes me valuable and exposable, doesn’t it?  You’ve realized that, surely?”
The Spectre drew itself up, obviously thrown off by Ray’s sudden mirth.  He seemed good at catching it by surprise.  “It does.”
“Then you won’t want me,” Ray informed it, his confidence growing.  “I’m not only exposable to whoever uses me.  That includes myself.  I’ve already threatened to kill myself if you ever attempt to take control of me.  What’s stopping me from simply ensuring that when this is over, nobody will use me?”
“You’re being used,” the Spectre questioned, a strange smile spreading across its fake face.  “I thought you were controlled by nobody.”
“I’m a tool, held by many, but refusing to be used unless I want to be,” he spat.  
“How noble,” the Spectre grumbled, staring at him for a long, silent minute.  Finally, it guessed, “I’m not going to convince you today, am I?”
“Nope,” Ray surmised.  
“And what if I kept you here?”
“It’d be our loss.”
“Very well then,” it sighed.  Suddenly, the world around him became that vibrant white, a beautiful array of blank brightness and warmth.  It was much more sudden than before, leaving him just as he felt the serene touch of its heat.
“You’re late again,” Twilight suddenly said from somewhere in front of him.  He could pick up the relief in her voice even as she tried to push disappointment instead.  His vision restoring, he forced himself to smile at the mare.  
“I make a point of it,” Ray replied.  “If you get used to me coming at the same time all the time, then when I don’t come-”
“Don’t finish that sentence, Ray,” Twilight snapped, an honest look of fear in her eye.  “Don’t you dare.”
Ray shut his mouth, nodding.  He could respect that.  “There’s nothing to report, yet again.  We’ve given up on scouting, as we don’t want to overextend ourselves from the main camp far too much because we’re at the point where it would take over a day of running alone to get back to camp.  So, we’re planning a change in strategy.”
“Go on,” Twilight insisted, sitting down as he paused.
“Well, we brought the war to the minotaurs, but we expected them to continue it for us,” Ray explained.  “The minotaurs haven’t been seen in the three months since that first attack, and because we eliminated them so completely, they might not even know their forces never invaded Equestria.  For all we know, that group of minotaurs was sent to destroy Equestria and die.  Thanks to how barren the sungrass hills are, I wouldn’t be surprised if it took several more months to come into contact with the minotaurs again.  So, we’re taking the war into our hands once again and diving deep into the minotaur’s land.  Hopefully we’ll find another army or something to guide us to the next battle.”
“You’re going to leave your defensive position,” she questioned, looking startled.  He nodded, prompting her to ask, “Completely?”
“One hundred percent of all infantry and archer divisions will be moved in conjunction to a planned attack on an unknown enemy,” Ray informed her, quoting the order he and the five generals had signed verbatim.  “We want to have another complete victory, and considering it is our hope to crush the enemy inside their inhabited homeland, all units will be engaged.”
“And what about the camp itself,” Twilight asked, now looking much more panicked.  “What about leaving the coast defenseless?”
“Not defenseless,” he assured her.  “We have an estimated three thousand spiderlings defending the coast, including every broodmother.  Most likely, though, is that we will see any movement they attempt to make on the coastline if they move as unintended.  Marching, especially in great number, generates a huge cloud of dust from the dry ground that can be seen for miles around like a smoke signal.  It would be impossible for the minotaurs to sneak a threatening force past us and into a dangerous position.”
“It sounds kind of like you're asking to be proven wrong,” the alicorn muttered nervously.  “How do you intend to outmaneuver them if you can see each other’s movements?”
“The exact logistics of the plan are not set in stone yet,” he smoothly explained.  “We just barely approved of the plan tonight.  Everyone agrees that this is a necessary step to prevent our soldiers from becoming disheartened and shaken.  You haven’t had the opportunity to see what it’s like, but trust me, it’s like a golden wasteland out there.  It’s unnerving to be surrounded by a wasteland with the slightest hint of life, as if the land itself is withholding something from us.”
“I don’t like it,” Twilight protested lightly.  
Ray wanted to point out it wasn’t her choice, but recognizing that it was her uncertainty talking, he calmly told her, “Nobody does.  It’s an unprecedented shift in strategy that may lead to higher casualties than we expected.  It’s necessary, however.  If we don’t we’re going to possibly waste every advantage we’ve worked for and the lives we’ll lose.”
“Okay, if that’s what is best,” she agreed hesitantly.  “Is there really nothing else?”
“Of course not,” Ray replied with a depressed smile.  “It’s the Tauran plans.”
“Then I’ll let you go,” she said with a slight smile of her own.  “Fluttershy’s waiting.”








Ray materialized in front of his own house, the surprising feeling of a chill the first thing he noticed as the sparkles of Twilight’s magic faded.  It was autumn in Equestria.  Right when the heat was getting worse, the temperature was getting colder here.  He thought that was strange considering the two continents weren’t on different hemispheres.  He chalked it up to the land being much more open, much less lush, and much drier.
He felt his weight sink slightly in the grass, cold moisture tickling his bare legs as he stood in a patch of long, soft, green grass.  He sighed as, for once, the smell of dust and sweat was replaced by anything else.  Rain, actually.  That probably accounted for the moisture and how chilly it was out, a gust of cool air giving him goosebumps.  How had he lived without this, the rich moisture and coolness of a habitable frontier?
He opened him eyes, gently moonlight giving the land enough brightness to be mystifying and beautiful.  He had always found the open green hills outside of Ponyville welcoming and serene, but contrasting them to the dusty, dead golden hills of the Tauran plains, it was impossibly spectacular.  In spite of himself, a gentle smile spread as he stared at those lively hills, glistening with the beauty of moonlight.  He sighed, a weight leaving his chest.  He hoped that somehow he could let his troops see this sight once more.  It would do them all so much good, to see something as simple and beautiful as moonlit grass with sparkling stars of water on them.
“Ray,” a meek voice questioned from the doorway of the home he stood in front of.  His home, with the garden still carefully maintained, even the ones in front of the windowsills.  Smiling, he felt another weight drop at the sight of Fluttershy.  Finally, someone to talk to.
“Hello, Fluttershy,” he greeted with a slow smile.  There was something relieving about this all, the calm, silence that was interrupted periodically by the chirp of bugs and rustle of creatures in the grass.  “It feels like it’s been so long.”
“It really has,” she pointed out with a frown.  She held the doorway only partly open, and she asked, “Aren’t you cold, Ray?  It certainly isn’t a decent enough temperature out there to be comfortable, I would think.”
“It feels good, but I’ll come inside,” Ray said simply.  “I’m guessing we’re alone, right?” 
“Um, yes,” Fluttershy nodded, brows furrowing slightly.  “How did you know that?”
“Nobody peeking out the windows, no panicked greeting party, and you didn’t glance around when I asked,” he told her distractedly as he stepped into the house.  His house.  Noting the slightly perturbed look on the mare’s face, he chuckled slightly and told her, “I’ll be less observant, if that’ll make you more comfortable.”
The pegasus didn’t say anything instantly, shutting the door softly behind him.  As he settled down on the lapis lazuli couch, he noted the tea tray was set for three instead of just two.  Waiting for Fluttershy to settle down on the rocking chair across the coffee table, he pointed to it and asked, “Is Discord supposed to be joining us tonight?”
“Only if you want,” she responded, her eyes darting to the third cup.  There was something in her voice, the slightest downward lilt that gave him enough of a clue to question.
“Enough of the formalities, Fluttershy,” he said curtly, sitting up.  “What do you want to talk about?”
The mare looked affronted by the sudden firmness to his words, flushing as she shied away from his eyes.  What was going on?  Slowly, though, she looked back up at him, settling slightly into the chair.  Finally, she said, “It can be a bit of a shock to remember how blunt you can be.”
“Forgive me,” Ray stated flatly, looking around the living room again.  There was nothing that he remembered being out of place, he didn’t hear anything but Fluttershy’s soft breathing, and overall, the house seemed… hollow.  “Where’s Ohs?”
“She and I had a long talk about you a few days back,” Fluttershy began to explain with a blush.  “She came to the conclusion that it would be better for you if it was just us talking.”
“Then why set a place for Discord,” he questioned, finally looking back at the mare.
“Well, if I’m being honest, it’s a place for anyone you may have wanted to join us,” Fluttershy explained, her eyes darting away as Ray’s own briefly met them.  There was shame in those eyes.  “Discord, Rarity, Apple Bloom, Twilight… anypony, really.  I-I-In case you were, y-y’know… uncomfortable.”
She said the last word so quietly that Ray almost didn’t pick it up, but as soon as he did, he leaned back into the sofa, sinking into it softly.  It was strange that he hadn’t sat on anything soft for the better part of three months.  Even in his last visits, he had either been standing or walking.  There was nothing in the Tauran plains that was soft or comfortable, not even the sleeping pads.  They always got too hot if you left them closed, and sleeping on them got you too cold.
“Ray, I know this is- or, uh, might be- an uncomfortable talk we’re about to have,” Fluttershy began, trembling as she stared at the tea cups.  He had to stop this.
“Fluttershy, what is this all about,” he asked, skipping over her flustered pep talk completely.  “Is it about us?  Do you think I’m stunned or burned because you and Discord are a couple now, indisputably?  Do you feel guilty about that?”
“Well, yes,” the pegasus agreed, shocked.
“Don’t,” he ordered, sitting upright again.  “Do you think that just because I had feelings for you, I’m going to feel bad now that you’ve moved on with someone you deserve?”
“Ray, what’re you-”
“Listen carefully, Fluttershy,” he began, taking a deep breath to soothe himself.  He had known this conversation was coming.  He had known it ever since the last visit, and he had prepared.  “I saw the way you two looked at each other, the way you two still do.  I came into this world in the middle of your romance and interrupted it terribly, clinging to the first thing that gave me any sort of positive attention.  I drove a wedge between you two and confused you.  I’m sorry for that, I truly am, but I’ve grown and realized how misguided and misinterpreted my emotions were.  I gave up on them, cut myself off from you quite intentionally.  Because I don’t love you as a partner.  I love you as a symbol, as a piece of Equestria too pure to be tainted.  That’s where my drive comes from.  I want to protect you not because I need you to be mine, but because I need you to be the one thing in this world that remains as untainted and precious as the green grasses of Equestria.”
“I… I don’t understand,” Fluttershy mumbled, looking shocked.
“I mean to say that I’m happy for you and Discord, and that you should not be sad for me,” Ray told her with forceful gentleness.  “I was the one who caused this rift between us, but that’s okay.  We were never meant to be anything more than friends.  You and Discord, though… you have the potential to be the symbol Equestria needs in these trying times.  Your love for each other is astounding; even I can see it, and I’ve been disconnected from you all for almost nine months now.”
“W-W-What do you mean, you can s-see it,” she stammered, flustered.  
Quirking a brow, he quickly listed, “Your face turns red, your eyes dart, you tuck your tail around yourself, your wings tremble a little, and, of course, there’s the slightest hint of a smile in spite of your nervousness.  To name a few…”
“You really need to not be so good at that,” she muttered, humiliated.  In spite of herself, knowing she was found out, she smiled widely.  “I guess I do have a tell.”
“Don’t ever play cards,” he agreed, slowly relaxing back into the sofa again.  The crisis, it seemed, had been averted.  Smiling softly at her, he asked, “So tell me about him, about both of you.  Like I said, I’ve missed so much already.”
“W-Well, I’m sure he’s told you about how we met.  Really met, I mean.  He had that whole conquering Equestria plan again, but, after he realized friendship was much more powerful and much more valuable, he let it all go.  He still makes the occasional joke about invading Equestria now and then, but he’s really turned around from that time.”
“With your help, right?”
“I wouldn’t take all of the credit, Celestia and Luna and Twilight forgave him and welcomed him with open hooves.  But… well, a few weeks ago, we went on another of our silly dates, and… he told me that I had to be the only pony in all of history that ever could’ve existed to change him from the tyrant he was.  He said that without me, he would have still been another stone statue in the gardens.”
“One I would’ve shattered,” Ray admitted to Fluttershy’s surprise.  It was best not to leave the truth unspoken.  “You saved his life both literally and figuratively.  You need to start recognizing your value to others, Fluttershy.”
“Hypocrite,” she answered, looking up at him carefully.  She pulled herself up, her timidness gone in an instant, a spark of determination in her eyes that made him realize something.  He had removed the one thing protecting him from the onslaught she had undoubtedly been building for him.  “Ray, why are you so resigned?”
“Pardon,” he asked.  There were dozens of different ways to interpret that.  What did she mean?
“Why have you accepted this fate, one ensures you’ll always be fighting or alone,” Fluttershy inquired honestly.  “You could have turned your back on us, ran off into a place where we wouldn’t be able to find you or you would be able to fight us off.  You wouldn’t have to deal with us, those minotaurs, or that thing in your head.  Why did you commit to us, especially after discovering exactly why you were here?”
“Because it’s my purpose,” he began with equal integrity.
“But why,” she demanded, standing up.  “You keep saying it’s because you love us ponies and that it’s your purpose, but you don’t have to do either of those things.  You didn’t ever have to!”
His brow furrowed at that.  “I don’t think I ever had a reason not to love you though.  Twilight used your good nature to convince me, but it wasn’t by any fault of your own that led me down this path.  In fact, it was the genuine goodness in each other that forced me to face the truth.  For all my life, I hadn’t believed there was any true or pure thing, that everything was corrupted by greed or hate or paranoia.  You and Rarity and AJ… Rainbow and Pinkie… the CMC…  you all proved me wrong, convincing me that perhaps that contempt I held was miscalculated and simply a reflection of what I felt my entire life.  I always tried to protect my siblings.  I got suspended once for beating up my sister’s bully.  Killing Kaleb and Jackson wasn’t some random spout of violence.  It’s always been there, Flutters, I’m just too damn good at hiding it when I’m with others.
“The thing is, when Twilight brought me to Equestria to save you all from the minotaurs, she did so with the thought that it would cure the final issue to peace in Equestria.  Unbeknownst to her, she brought an x factor into the equation.  The Spectre and I have had a few good chats since it revealed itself, and the Matriarch has confirmed what I feared.  It seems that no matter what my intended purpose was, the Aspects have a much greater and much more pressing need for me in their ethereal plans.  Whether or not I was fighting your war or not, there would still be the battle with the Aspects over who gets this luxury weapon.  The Spectre just got here first.”
“Why do you speak so bluntly now,” Fluttershy asked after a beat of silence.  “I remember for the longest time, even after your last visit, that you would always cover the truth with a cute anecdote or parable.  Today, for perhaps the first time, you’re letting your mask slip and showing me… you.  Why today?”
His mask had slipped.  That hadn’t been intentional.  Maybe…
“Flutters, I don’t need to remind you how dangerous what I’m doing is, and with this added threat of the Spectre and whatever other Aspects are pining for me, it seems that there will be no return to Equestria.  I used to think it was better for me to die out in the Tauran plains so you and the others wouldn’t be forced to face a monster in your own land, but something much darker has come.  Honestly, I don’t know if I should let myself die out there or force myself to keep on living.  On the one hand, the Spectre seems so hardline focused on me and my potential as its tool that it may just be better to remove myself from its arsenal.  On the other, I know the Spectre better than anyone else on Equestria, it seems.  If it does give up on me and chooses to prey upon anyone else, then maybe I’ll be able to stop it and the destructive threat an Aspect war poses on Equestria.”
“Those are some… awful things to say,” Fluttershy grimaced.  She stepped around the table to sit down by him as she asked, “How can you even tolerate thinking those things?”
“I don’t know,” he answered, shrugging.  “I’m not really sure I was ever built for convoluted emotions or deep philosophies.  Sure, I’m good at noticing things and manipulating circumstances to be exactly as I want, but most of the time… it’s because that’s how I think things need to be.  I mean, I just did it with you and Discord, talking exactly how I wanted and distracting enough that… you wouldn't see how I had manipulated it away from more sensitive topics.”
“Topics such as,” the pegasus prodded, resting a hoof on his knee encouragingly.  “You’ve been more honest with me today than ever before.  I think it may be doing you some good.  Please don’t stop now.”
“Well, I’d say like how you don’t deserve something like me,” he stated frankly.  “You deserve someone who makes you their priority individually.  I’m too much of an idealist and a general at the same time.”
“But do you think you deserve love,” she asked, staring at him with genuine care.  Now that he had removed the worry of him still having feelings for her, it was as if she understood his every word and intonation with clarity.  He had unlocked a dangerously healthy ally in his fight with the Spectre.  Still, he had to be careful.
Leaning back slightly, looking away for once, he surmised, “I don’t really think I can find a companion in this world.  I mean, I’m the only one of my species, and with the closest thing resembling a human being, well, the minotaurs I’m slaughtering, it seems impossible for me to love any of them.”
“But there are the dragons,” Fluttershy pointed out with a smile.  “Many of them are about the same size as you and they’re bipeds.  Changelings can also change their-”
“No offense, Fluttershy, but I don’t really think I’m into… cross-breeding,” Ray tried awkwardly.  “It’s fine anyways.  I don’t think that with my past and future, any Equestrian creature will be able to love me more than they fear or respect me.”
“Wait, what’s wrong with respect,” the mare questioned, tilting her head slightly.  “Wouldn’t you want respect in a relationship?”
“Respect for the person, not their actions,” he clarified.  “They’ll either respect that I’m the savior of Equestria and constantly pander to that idea of who I am or they'll expect from me the image of sheer perfection Twilight created around me.  Either way, it won't be who I really am.  Nobody will ever understand who and what I am except for those who want to use me.  Not even me.”
“But we can try, right,” Fluttershy pushed, patting his knee.  
He met her eyes for a brief moment, a spark of encouragement in them giving him the strength to say, “Yes, we can try.”
“That’s all I need to hear for now,” Fluttershy responded with a smile.  She reached out and hugged him softly for a second, a hug that was neither desperate or afraid.  It was… a friendly hug that trusted him, that was okay if he pulled away.  He smiled softly as he reached one arm around Fluttershy, patting her back  gently.  After a comfortable few seconds, she pulled back and said, “It’s about time that we actually did make good on those promises we made, the ones to be honest and transparent.”
“Indeed,” Ray agreed with a diminished grin.  Then, looking over at the tea left forgotten on the table, he admitted, “I’m about ready for some nice, sweet tea.  All I’ve had to drink this month is warm water with sleeping powder haphazardly mixed in.  I could really go for anything else right now.”
Fluttershy giggled at that, standing up and reaching for the tea and cups.  With perhaps her most innocent and caring smile to date, she asked, “Jasmine or rooibos?”
> Soul Sister
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ray stood atop a hill all too familiar to him, watching the intense preparations of his Fallen as they began taking down the camp for the first time in almost four months.  The sun blazed especially hot today, its waves of suppressing heat washing over him with unrelenting power, his skin feeling as if it were being cooked.  His suspicions that somehow the Tauran continent had different seasons than Equestria seemed to be proven.  The days has gotten hot enough that there were times midday that they would have to take shelter lest they be overtaken by the heat and collapse.  Already, there was rampant heatstroke and fevers, and there had been one tragic death from a soldier in the archer squad.  
The heat they had complained about aloofly was now a true threat and danger, the somber thought that one of their own, prepared to die brutally to a minotaur’s blade had been killed by the blazing sun silencing the jest.  Indeed, with the increased temperature came increased wariness from the entire camp.  Where there had once been makeshift centers of play and discussion were now giant canvases crafted from the different unit flags.  The daily activities of those off duty were no longer leisurely or playful, but rather dull and measured.  The danger of being dehydrated or having their water supply foul up had even prompted Ray to send out a party to collect as much water as they could carry from the valley they had discovered two months prior.  
It wouldn’t provide much water, but it did show the Fallen that Ray was considering their comfort as priority even as it deteriorated.  Unfortunately, it had also sparked the idea among some of the captains and lieutenants that the camp needed to be move to their only freshwater source.  They argued that it didn’t matter how terrible of a position it would be so long as the army could survive and be refreshed by the cool water there.  Otherwise, the army may be reduced terribly in strength and number.  It was a tempting thought, as Ray’s own tongue was constantly dried and his skin constantly tanned by the sun.  However, he knew that there was a better option, one he hadn’t had the time to test yet.
These past two months, ever since his second visit back in Equestria, had been building up to this day.  The army was transitioned from its defensive position in the camp to the mobile, deadly offensive force Ray had envisioned it would need to be.  For some, the transition was welcome and relieving, a taste of action in the otherwise tense, dull weeks they had suffered through.  Some even went so far as to venture that this may be the last action of the war, this sudden offensive somehow able to catch the minotaurs when they may be most vulnerable.  Ray had his doubts of course, especially with how little they still knew about the minotaurs. 
All of the corpses had been buried by the end of the second month, rotten and possibly diseased, leaving them only with the knowledge immediately provided on examination.  It was valuable of course, and even had been much more than Ray had expected to discover, but compared to what they still needed to know, it was very little.  If they wished to learn anything new from their foe, they would have to face them again.  Some of the Fallen thought that task would be easy, especially when they took into consideration the relative ease with which they established themselves on the continent.  
Of course, there are others who think much differently than that, Ray thought as he caught sight of a stallion approaching him.
Harbor was one of a small minority of voices protesting his maneuver, and given the stallion’s careful, deductive personality saw the flaws in Ray’s move.  Many did, actually, the risks they were taking in mobilizing for an offensive on the unexplored continent.  Most didn’t voice these thoughts and often considered the potential the offensive may give them as more valuable than the safety in remaining on the defensive.  The general that approached him was one of the few that actually voiced his concerns and the only general that opposed the offensive.
“General Harbor,” Ray greeted with measured warmth.  “Has your army prepared for the march effectively.”
“As ordered, lordling,” the hard stallion replied, balancing impatience with his respect.  “You know why I’m here, though, so let’s skip the formalities.”
“Very well then,” Ray nodded, turning fully to face the general but drawing himself up.  It was easy to be intimidating when one was three times taller than their associate.  “You wish to lodge one last complaint against our campaign.”
“I’m here to plead with you, my lord,” the Fallen corrected, bowing.  Ray’s brows shot up in surprise, the confidence and stoicness of the grizzled stallion removed at once.  “Please, Ray, do not send us out on this reckless campaign.  You know well how weak this move will be.  Our supplies will be thinned on the move, the soldiers will be overtaxed and labored to exhaustion.  If we do come across an army of the minotaur homeland, it may not be the simple fight of the beaches and hills of our landing.  You know I command two thousand archers, the smallest of the armies and the ones least in danger of failure.  I propose a halt to this campaign not for my troops’ sakes, but for my fellow Fallens’.  
“They think themselves more capable than they truly are, a deadly presumption that will lead to the deaths of far too many.  History has proven that those who are firmly confident in their plans will shatter as soon as a strain is placed upon their ‘perfect’ operation.  Even a small defeat will shatter the morale of the Fallen to an unrecoverable state and mean the complete collapse of our capability to mount another offensive.  If this maneuver encounters even the slightest bump, it will shatter like a glass carriage on a country road.  I urge you not to commit to this waste of energy, potential, and most importantly, life.”
Ray allowed there to be a long pause of silence as he considered the stallion’s words honestly.  He knew the dangers well that Harbor voiced.  In fact, the potential for failure and a massacre of his troops had kept him up at night, even with the help of the sleeping powders.  There were massive implications to the collapse of the Fallen.  If they lost this battle, if their lines broke or their losses mounted, if the Fallen lost their nerve… 
It would all be over, for everyone.  
Shattered morale would mean a force that would barely be able to stand on its own, easily destroyed or forced to surrender.  Knowing what they did about the minotaurs from Twilight’s visions and their own research, though, it was doubtful they would take prisoners.  Once the Fallen and Ray were dead, they would return to attacking Equestria, and the peaceful, innocent lifestyle there would be tarnished forever.  That was what was at stake here.  The entire future of Equestria.  Was it worth this gambit?
“I understand your fears,” Ray began, allowing himself to relax slightly.  “I have them as well.  But I’m afraid that if we do not take this risk, we will force ourselves into a long, unsustainable war of attrition.  We do not have the soldiers, resources, and morale to fail, as you have pointed out.  Therefore, I propose that we do give our full effort into a devastating attack, to ensure that this plan can and will not fail no matter the circumstances.  Can I trust that you will give all of your effort into making sure this attack works for us?  In spite of your doubts and legitimate concerns, will I still have one hundred percent of your capabilities put into this?”
“Of course, lordling,” Harbor replied sharply, snapping into attention.  “You have nothing to worry about from me.  I’ll have my troops prepared to move out by dusk.”
“Excellent,” Ray nodded.  “And thank you for your compliance and trust.”
“I will not doubt you, lordling,” the stallion confirmed.  “I simply wished to voice my concerns.  You know better than anyone else how to run this war.  I’ll be leaving now.”
Ray nodded once again, watching silently as the general began to descend downhill.  Slowly, he let out a breath.  He had expected the general would accept his explanation, though he hadn’t thought the stallion would go so willingly with the plan.  Perhaps it was Ray’s portrayed confidence that had given him comfort, or perhaps it was the simple fact that there was no point in arguing further.  Either way, he thanked his luck for allowing the day to progress without a drawn-out argument like the one that had gotten Ray’s plan approved.  He still cringed slightly at thinking how heated the argument had become over the four days they reviewed and debated going on the offensive.  By the second day, they had moved the tent away from the main camp so the soldiers wouldn’t hear their generals yelling at each other.
Regardless of the strife it had caused, he was able to eventually gain Skalos and Yarem’s support in the move.  Kraven and Pelios had been supporters of the move from the start, adding their own perspectives and arguments to tip a hesitant Yarem and stalwart Skalos.  Ray suspected Skalos had opposed it mostly out of fear that it was simply an impatient attempt to stave off boredom.  Ray himself had been careful to ensure this move was the best he could think of, even above simply holding out their position.  The dangers of moving definitely outnumbered the dangers of remaining still, but the dangers of keeping immobile were much more potentially lethal.  Either way, the course of fate had branched into two different paths, each with their own perils.  Ray had to hope the road he was leading them down had the most manageable bumps.
The ground rumbled distantly, and turning over his shoulder, he found the Matriarch slowly making her way towards the Fallen camp.  Noting it, he quickly moved to take care of a group of lieutenants from Kraven’s division awaiting instruction.  They were essentially the last major part of the plan to mobilize the army and have them marching out at dawn.  While they had established a nice defensive line using the surrounding hills fortified with the ballistas from the ships, there was now the matter of moving those with the army.  Yarem had pushed relentlessly to simply leave them and other large pieces of equipment behind or burn them, if necessary.  Kraven was sure that the vital artillery pieces could be moved with the army, and thus his corps was given the task of bringing up the rear and moving the equipment with them.
“Alright, in as few words as possible, what's the plan,” Ray asked, staring directly at Commander Rade.
“Well, sir, our tests have found that teams of eight Fallen can drag a ballista as at the same walking speed of an unladen soldier,” the commander explained quickly.  “With two hundred and twelve ballistas recovered from the fleet, that means we’ll need about half of the division to pull the ballistas.  We’ll rotate every hour to not wear down the soldiers too badly, and if we only march eight hours a day, we can expect to maintain peak performance in our soldiers.”
“We’ll have to pause the marching in order for those transitions to occur, correct,” Ray questioned, rubbing his chin with a hand.  
“Not necessarily,” another lieutenant stepped in.  “Our soldiers have already been training on harness transition and marching with the ballistas to a point where eight-soldier crews can transition out and be moving in thirty seconds.  We’re hoping to develop a way to transition crews while remaining mobile.  However, without that method, the ballistas will still be capable of keeping up with the army without slowing it down.”
“And if we need to move swifter than a march,” he inquired further, glancing out over the hill once again.  The Matriarch was closing in quickly, though due to her massive size more than a hurried pace.  
“Well, we figure if the movement was incredibly urgent, we would leave the ballistas in order to form the waves rather than put other infantry at risk,” Rade informed, picking up from the other lieutenant.  “The archers would be the ones manning the ballistas anyways, thus making it useless for us to be the ones to position them and delay the formation.  Talking with Harbor, we’ve established that he and Yarem would split the ballistas, which only require a maximum of four soldiers.  This still leaves eighty percent of all archers for volleys and engagement.”
“It also works out much better administratively for an infantry division to move and manage the ballistas instead of having two archer divisions deal with them,” a different lieutenant jumped in.  “This way, we have the resources to move them and the archers the positioning to use them.”
“Understood,” Ray nodded, glancing at each of the five Fallen.  Seeing no signs of doubt in any of them, he accepted the information with a slim smile.  “I trust in your capabilities.  You officially have permission to carry out the transportation of ballistas as described to me.  Carry on, soldiers.”
“Yes, sir,” the five responded in perfect unison before quickly trotting off.  
With the issue of the ballistas dealt with, Ray let out a small sigh of relief.  The logistics of mobilization had somehow taken up every waking moment of Ray’s time from the moment he gave the order to mobilize.  His initial plan had of course attempted to address every issue, but putting a plan into action often revealed its many flaws.  He and the other generals had forgotten many of the finer details of moving the army out, which led to on-the-fly responses to arising problems.  Thankfully, they had proven effective at coming up with solutions such as this one, Kraven’s genius naturally leading to surprising and strange solutions.  
Just one more stallion was waiting to talk to him, having just crested the hill and beginning to descend.  While he didn’t know the soldier by name, he knew who he represented and thus urgently made his way to the messenger.  The Matriarch loomed nearby, the dull thuds of her steps much louder now.  He maybe had two minutes to deal with this issue before whatever the Matriarch needed him for.
“Private Meer, reporting sir,” the soldier exclaimed, snapping to attention on Ray’s approach.  
“At ease, and quickly with it, if you can,” Ray ordered.  
“Of course, sir,” he replied, remaining at attention.  “Of the three hundred individuals considered for scouting duty on the forward column of Skalos’ first wave, a dozen individuals have been selected.  Private Token was promoted to captain of the messenger and scout corps by General Skalos.  If you want the details of the scouting units, you can get them from him.”
“Thank you, soldier,” Ray nodded.  “Inform Captain Token that I’ll want a debriefing immediately after I return from Equestria tonight.  You are dismissed.”
“Yes, sir,” the messenger snapped before scrambling off.  Letting out a sigh, he turned to find the Matriarch’s shadow falling over him, a respite from the intense blaze of the sun.  
“Good to see you, my friend,” he smiled up at the giant spider, wiping sweat from him brow.  “What brings you back to our camp so early?”
“A thought and goodwill,” the World Weaver answered with the closest thing to a smile the spider could manage.  Thanks to her arachnid face being rather expressionless, there were only the smallest shifts in it that made known her emotions.  Twitches of certain hairs, a change in the glint in her eyes, the angle at which she looked at someone.  Minute details, but still telling enough for how well he’d come to know her.  
“I wish to make known that the integration of spiderlings into the Fallen waves is most successful,” the Matriarch stated happily.  “My children quite thoroughly enjoy being among mortals like the Fallen.  The small ones, while infantile in mentality, observe being able to ride the Fallen into battle as an effective way to save calories and reach prey.  The older ones like to be considered now as intelligent beings among the Fallen.  There’s something to say about a developing pride in my younger children.  I think interaction with mortals that have lived as long as them or longer engages their minds earlier and advances their awareness.  While a theory, I truly appreciate the value in this war has on my children who may survive.”
“I’m glad to hear, and I guarantee you that your children and my Fallen will survive this war,” Ray said with confidence.  Pausing momentarily, he asked, “Do you approve of this move, attacking the enemy instead of waiting for an attack?”
“It’s truly the largest risk we have taken in this engagement, certainly a taxing endeavor on the patience and morale of every soldier,” the Matriarch began, stooping down.  “I would say, however, that with the sight of my eyes and my many thousands of years, there has never been a choice more potentially positive than the one you are currently making.  Indeed, you and your soldiers, generals and spears, bows and messengers alike, all worry about what occurs if you fail on this venture.  I would like you to, for a moment, at least, consider every advantage you would be granted if you win beyond predicted.  Indeed, I see that this maneuver could ultimately mean an expansion of the peace in Equestria in both time and geography.”
“You mean ponies would begin to move here,” he asked, sweeping an arm around at the desolate landscape.  “A bit positive for you to think that there would be a single living creature who would want to move to… this.”
“Hm, yes, true,” the Matriarch considered thoughtfully, a feeler raised to brush her mandibles.  “This would make a rather rich land for my broods to grow, however.  An ally of Equestria could grow strong here if they saw use for the open hills and plains, allowed to become of strength.”
“The land’s yours, if that’s what you’re asking,” Ray granted with a shrug.  “I can guarantee that while Twilight is on the throne, she won’t let a single pony onto this land.  I can promise I won’t let anyone on this continent until I know every single minotaur is dead.”
“I do not wish for land, but my brood children require much of it to grow their own spawn,” the Matriarch said slowly.  “I ask that you begin interacting with each of them more and more.  While they do not speak language like you and I, you may be able to come to understand them much like your bird friend in Equestria.  They are growing into young versions of what I once was, gaining a stronger comprehension of their existence beyond what instinct has dictated for a thousand years.  The broodmothers will be the ones producing the main numbers, and thus are like unto the generals of the spiderlings.”
“I see,” Ray muttered hesitantly.  He saw the Matriarch tilt her head slightly at his uncertainty and quickly added, “I’ll do my best to work with them, I promise.  It’s just that… are you directing me more towards your children because of your commitment to the Aspects or simply to strengthen the bonds between the Fallen and spiderlings?”
“Sincerely, both,” the Matriarch responded with prophetic honesty.  “My dedication is still to this war and your cause to do Equestria a service it will forever be indebted to you for, but I cannot be with you for the entirety of the journey.  I know my calling on this world goes beyond creating and taking life, and that makes me both an invaluable and inconsistent ally.  That I know, and that is a truth the Spectre has told you.  But what it is incorrect about is what I’ll do concerning this matter.  I promised to commit myself to the cause of your war, and that I shall do to my fullest capabilities even with my shortcomings.  I cannot promise that I will put you before the Aspects, though, and that is the fray in our sensitive relationship.  
“I will not, however, abandon you.  My children follow me devoutly, but their loyalty is matriarchal and childish, one trusting in their mother to put them on the path.  Part of their growing is learning how to see their own path and find what the grand plan of the Aspects outlines for them.  I must leave them in order to let them grow beyond my branching protection.  I foresee a day when I must leave the Tauran plain for my eternal purpose, and on that day, my children will have a choice.  Follow their mother back and leave the Fallen and you to their fate alone or stay and continue on the fight not because their mother has straightly charged them with it, but because they believe in the integrity of their allies.
“I want to give you that chance now, Ray.  I wish for you to display to them the truthful rightness of your heart, the honest power you have vesseled within you.  You must convince them with your leadership, skill, and grace that you are indeed the cause for which the spiderlings, my children, should strive to help accomplish.  You, your generals, commanders, captains, and lieutenants are required now to continue displaying the might of the Fallen and their journey to redemption through every hardship.  You must convince them that the growth of each individual in your army will teach the broodmothers more about life and Equestria than continuing along with their mother will.  I know you can and will, which is why I give you this warning.  I do not know when the day will come that will test my childrens’ loyalties, but when it comes, if you have invited them, they will remain in your camp rather than cross the sea again.
“Know this, though.  When the day comes that I leave, I leave with great pain and incredible trust, that you will not only overcome the obstacles placed before you, but also become the very thing every great power in this world wishes to possess.  I will sincerely miss these moments, brief as they are, where I get to talk with you more plainly than I have ever spoken with anyone else in existence.  I trust you with my very life and the lives of my countless children, Ray, lordling of war.  Beyond what I have had revealed to me through the wondrous plan of the Aspects, I have come to know the instrument that may keep the balance and love of mortality intact as more than a vital piece to the mechanisms of the universe.  The Orphan of the Cosmos you may still be, but an individual as strange, strong, and beautiful as any that has ever been and will ever be you are.  
“I know of the tradition of the Fallen, of saying your farewells long before the day you must go.  Today, I wish to make my own goodbyes, for the future is uncertain and the days ahead will be stormier than the creation of the world itself.  Know that there is nothing, no one, ever like you, Ray.  I have learned more from you in these past months than in my thousands of years.  I see these tumultuous events for myself now, insightful and introspective instead of broadly blinded.  For that, I say that I have come to have a love for mortals, something my years have previously numbed me to.  I have the great emotions of mortals burning in me now, saying this.  It is strange, I’ll admit, but I must credit you for this newfound love for this world and my true desire to protect it beyond the Aspects’ plan.  I love you, Ray.  Thank you.”
Ray’s breathing was shaky as he slowly sat to the ground, still staring up at the Matriarch.  He knew what the World Weaver meant, every word of it resonating in his brain and making his heart quiver.  He hadn’t known it, but he had come to love the Matriarch too, perhaps as a wise mentor, perhaps as a familiar friend, but he knew it.  There was something about her saying it though, the wisest mortal creature to live, a survivor of the ages, that shook him.  He almost couldn’t understand why the Matriarch had said what she did, but at the same time, his very soul knew the profoundness of their mutual understanding.  
He had reconnected her to the world she had grown to only spectate, returning her to a state of mortality with the blessing of emotion.  In return, she had taught him his value, the infinite power that made him the savior and weapon of Equestria.  They were both tools of a greater purpose who had learned their circulating possibilities as both an individual, mortal being and as a powerful, righteous tool of protection.  They were twins in soul, each a piece to a plan greater than them and far beyond their knowledge, but also mortals who would and could partake of the simpler things of life.  That was the lesson they had learned by meeting each other and working together, and whether it was by some cosmic design or simply by happenstance of their interactions, it was immeasurably powerful.
Getting his emotions in check before they overwhelmed him, he breathed in deeply and stood up, looking the Matriarch in her eyes as she rested her head inches from his own.  Reaching out a hand to rest it on her head, he promised heavily, “You have my word that when all of this is over, I will find you, and together we will bring the plan of the Aspects to a close.  We will win, and we will continue on to be normal, mortal creatures.  I swear it.”
“I believe you,” the World Weaver whispered, closing her eyes.  Ray took another breath, closing his eyes as well, feeling the emotions flood him.  They took him rapidly, but they were akin to the warmth of the wayport instead of the sinking that a breaking of the dam usually meant.  There was strangeness in the action indeed, he knew it, yet he didn’t care.  For the first time in his life, he felt that he knew exactly what his purpose was, beyond surviving and protecting.  His soul sang as it found its twin, the familiarity it had never felt before at last unifying it to the land he stood on and the air he breathed.  Purpose, the amalgamation of him to the world he had come to call home now setting into his very heart that he was there, that he was here.  The undoubtable truth that this was the world he would fight and die for because he loved it, because the world needed it, and because he would have nothing but the very best for it, no matter what he had to face for it.
And that goal was shared with one other creature.
Opening his eyes, he drew himself up, setting his jaw and stiffening his back as he told the World Weaver, “It’s time we take action.  I’m going to face the Spectre.  With you.”
> Intervention
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Matriarch opened her eyes, staring into Ray’s own two pupils.  How had this boy become such a powerful presence in so short a time?  It had taken thousands of years for her to finally accept her intellectual capacities, and in the matter of a year and a half, he had become something so formidable that even the most ethereal threats feared his might.  The power, confidence, admiration, and trust she felt for him were reflected in his stoic gaze.  They were prepared to take this fight, long before she had expected they would be able to and easily before the Spectre could ever have dreamed of the danger.  
He reminded her, in that moment, of every hero of the past and present, the threatening courage and stoic righteousness they fought for.  He was that exemplary character that mortals would come to canonize and praise for millenia.  He was exactly what the Aspects had ever told her he’d be, the might of another universe combined with the perfection of this one, a strange unilateral force for sheer goodness.  Against him, all evil would wither and all enemies would fall.  Of that, she was confident now.  Just as confident as he was in her.  
 Without a word, Ray jumped up between her two frontmost eyes and pulled himself onto her head.  Their minds were connected, somehow, the same knowledge and purpose connecting them as if they were simply one soul.  She understood his profound struggle now, the enemy within he had been facing alone for so long, the terribly dangerous predicament he was in.  She knew she could help now, that together, with their combined lethality as weapons of the very Creators themselves, they could defeat this disparaging threat.  Then it would be on to the next one, and the next and the next, like a pair of daggers, sure and sharp as the song they made while slicing through the air.  
She moved quickly, stepping over gaping soldiers as they watched the first battle of the campaign prepare to be fought, the Matriarch running faster than she had in centuries.  They would go beyond the rise, dozens of miles out, and face it in one of the many valleys far from the Fallen and her children.  They would overcome this obstacle and leave it broken in a place where it could forever be forgotten and never challenge a mortal again.  A surge of hope burned through her body, compelling the speed as the heat of the sun was forgotten in the face of their incredible mission and fateful destination.  
After what felt like only a minute of running, Ray suddenly patted the top of her head with a hand, signaling her to stop.  They were here.
The spot was the perfect one, a small divet between a ridge of hills as desolate and nondescript as every other one had been.  She had no clue of how far they were from the camps, but that was certainly for the better.  Their opposition was out here, a terrible haunting creature of darkness that did not deserve to be remembered even in its defeat.  Its dark presence in this mortal world would be forgotten and its weak grip on the ethereal plain would be crushed, the very idea that it could ever have been victorious laughable to the Aspects.  
It would suffer for challenging her spirit brother.








Ray felt the high wind as he knelt atop the Matriarch’s head, the rush of vengeance in his chest begging to be released.  He kept one hand on her carapace, a physical connection to strengthen their spiritual one.  This was the place.
“I know you are there, Spectre,” he shouted to the empty hills and valleys, his eyes slowly glancing around.  It was in his head, but every other time it had appeared, it had come from the landscape surrounding him.  “It’s time for you to stop being a coward.  Show yourself.  Let us finish the war you started.”
“Foolish mortals,” the response came almost instantly, booming over the hills and valleys.  “Incapable of the least intelligence, worthy only of dust, and weak as the bones that support you.”  
“We are not the ones who infect the mind and prey on the weary,” the Matriarch answered harshly.  Ray let out a breath of relief.  She heard it too.  She fought with Ray against the Spectre now too.  
“Show yourself and let us be finished,” Ray roared, pressing both hands against the Matriarch as he scanned the landscape.  
Suddenly, the sky darkened as the sun itself became the abyssal darkness of the Spectre’s nightmarish realm.  It dripped like ink from the sky as the land became black without the light, and the Spectre’s glowing, slitted eyes appeared in it.  It did not say a word as it rose from a hill into the massive, humanoid being it had threatened him with before.  The hills on either side of them became massive blades, a wave of sharp death that rushed towards them.  Before they could slice through the pair, the Matriarch had spun her silk, swiftly taking a single string of it and using it like a whip to disperse the threat.  It dissipated like smoke, but in an instant, the Spectre was attacking itself, its massive arms like sword blades swinging towards them.
Without a word, the World Weaver had produced more silk, a strand of it twice the height of Ray appearing in his hands as he ran up one of her feelers to meet the Spectre head on.  It hesitated pausing in its attack as suddenly it was faced with the human and spider bother presenting her opalescent silk, the powers of the cosmos somehow warding it off.  For a silent second, they remained like that, Ray on the tip of the Matriarch’s feeler, facing off with the Spectre not thirty feet from his face.  
The World Weaver suddenly flicked him forward, Ray roaring with fury as he held up the silk to the Spectre.  It flinched back in surprise, but the action was too late, Ray landing on its shoulder, broad as the crest of a hill.  He rolled through the landing, the silk intertwining around him as he messily stood up.  The Spectre slammed a hand down on him, but much like the waves of attack, it dissipated on contact with the Matriarch’s silk.  It let out a gasp of surprise as Ray leapt across its shoulder, unwinding the silk.  
The Matriarch had used Ray’s distraction to produce even more silk, hundreds of feet of the glowing string lighting the darkness in a rainbow of colors as it floated all about.  The Spectre only realized this too late, the Matriarch rearing up and pouncing, landing against its mass and wrapping it in a deathgrip with her entire body.  The ethereal silk wrapped around it as commanded, capturing the Spectre in a net of light.  It began to disappear in a matter of seconds as the silk net tightened and dispersed the Spectre’s corrupted mists.  Ray leapt and wrapped his own strain of silk around the Spectre’s neck, drawing its divided attention just moments before drawing the silk ring close, beheading it.
The entire body began to dissipate in an instant, Ray falling through the fading mists and into the Matriarch’s waiting grasp.  He rolled through the landing and was tossed back onto the World Weaver’s back in one motion, strand of silk still tightly in hand as he glanced around warily.  Indeed, as suspected, the simply act of destroying the Spectre’s massive body hadn’t done anything to truly damage it, as another, smaller, body formed distantly.  Ray’s brow furrowed as he glared at the distant figure who to a defensive stance.
“You’ve chosen poorly, Ray,” the Spectre stated coldly.  “You’ve aligned yourself with the most flawed creature in the cosmos and consider yourself akin to her.  Do you not realize your worth?  Have you demeaned yourself to such a point that you’d willingly be a pawn?”
“I’m not a pawn to anyone, Spectre,” he growled dangerously, tightening his grip on the silk.  He felt a violent urge to use the string, but refrained, to shout, “You’re a fool to think I would be anything but the weapon I was designed to be, a weapon to defeat the likes of you.”
“A sword can be used to kill any soldier no matter who forged it,” the Spectre spat, though it remained still even as the Matriarch continued to produce more silk.  It floated dozens of feet into the air and now spread hundreds of feet outwards like the branches of a wonderful, bright tree.  “Even if you were designed to do the mundane and imperfect work of a mortal, you can still be used to fight the absolution you so terribly fear.  I would not be so quick to judge me as evil if I were you.  You know the promises I’ve made, the truth I’ve spoken.  You cannot deny your desire for the power and mercy I can offer, the lives we can save.”
“And you can’t deny the lives you’ll take, the lies you’ve told, and the dangers you pose,” Ray replied gravely.  “I’ve learned some profound and powerful truths as well, about myself, my purpose, and the Aspects.  I know I belong now.  That’s a truth you kept from me.  You may have told me the truth, but it isn’t the reality of the situation.”
“You tempt death, boy,” the Spectre warned, looking panicked even from a distance.  “You wish to disperse me, to rid me from your mind?  It is not so easy as attacking me with the World Weaver’s strange magic.”
“You will never win against me, Spectre,” Ray spat confidently, lowering his silk to sneer at the Spectre.  “Y’know, it’s strange how convinced I were that you were a threat.  Alone, you are, but I was right.  Whenever I’m with anyone I care about, your power is diminished to nothing.  The Matriarch’s silk, it might be able to physically disperse you, but I’ve always been able to get rid of you when I have my friends and compatriots by my side.  It was never about how strong you were.  It was about how weak I was letting myself be.  Your time with me is over, Spectre.  You’ve lost.”
“Enough of this,” it growled, and suddenly the Matriarch was mist as well.  Ray yelled in surprise as he fell through the black tendrils, reaching out for them before landing harshly on something solid.  The air was knocked out of his and he felt his left shoulder break.  Shouting painfully, he tried to pull himself up, only to be slammed down by an unseen wave of deep, dark presence.  He wheezed, his lungs feeling flattened by the abuse, and the sharp pain from his damage blurred his mind.  A single thought, however, cleared it all away.
The Matriarch was no longer with him, and neither was her silk.  He was alone in this.
Before he could move, though, he was completely enveloped with the deep mist, everything but his face vanishing into the blackness.  He felt a sting of panic as he remained immobile, in spite of his best efforts to move anything.  He was held firmly, harshly by the Spectre as it materialized a body over him, looming with slitted, glowing purple eyes.  It said nothing, simply staring angrily at the trapped human as if considering what his fate should be.  Despite knowing he was a dead man for it, Ray grinned up at the Spectre.  He had broken its patience long before it had broken him.
Narrowing its eyes wordlessly, Ray suddenly screamed in pain, unable to resist the sudden, indescribable agony that suddenly pierced his entire body.  He felt millions of tendrils suddenly dig into him and begin pulsing through him, pumping pain into his veins.  He screamed so loudly and in such pain that after only a few seconds, his voice died and he was left with his mouth agape, soundlessly screaming as sheer agony overtook his every sense.  He tasted blood in his mouth, he heard his very cells being split, and saw nothing but the slitted eyes of the Spectre.  He couldn’t think, his brain being consumed in this torturous state with nothing but pain.
He was blinded.  Suddenly, there was nothing but brightness, and the sensation of falling took the place of his agony.  So that was how he died, then.  Ripped apart completely by the Spectre in its terrible, evil world.  Not killed by the blade of a minotaur on a battlefield defending the Equestria, his friends, and their future.  He had been torn to shreds fighting a being immeasurably powerful, beyond anything the two most powerful mortals could have ever taken on.  How stupid of him.  What had he even died for, he wondered.
To prevent a greater evil.  The answer had somehow come from within, a resilient truth that Ray knew in his heart to be why he died.  Well, heart may not be the right term if his body was no longer with him.  Then again, perhaps it was the emotions trapped in his heart as a vessel that truly represented the organ.  Either way, it was the right thing to die for.  The minotaurs were his first enemy and threat, but the Spectre had been his foe to defeat, his Gordian knot he had attempted to unravel.  Unfortunate that he hadn’t tried to cut it until it was wrapped around his neck. 
“You will intervene in these matters no longer, idrasta,” a booming feminine voice suddenly commanded.  A surge of incredibly powerful warmth filled him even as the light began to diminish a little.  He was no longer falling, he noted, but rather lying down on something soft, but steady.  He squinted slightly, realizing he could, in fact, see.  
Tendrils of the Spectre lingered in the air, but they seemed thin and weak in the overwhelming white light.  He felt a pair of hands, soft skin, on his bare arms, lifting him to his feet.  Perplexed, he glanced to either side, and while saw the figures that carried him, he couldn’t understand what he saw.  The lingering pain and fear from the Spectre’s torture, however, vanished in an instant, his arms, legs, chest, stomach, head, and even hands warmly… normal.  He gasped, realizing that, perhaps, he had completely lost those to the Spectre.
“Sister, you should know better than to think I won’t fight you here and now as well for intervening with my work,” the Spectre drawled dangerously, his voice rippling with hatred.
“You are not our sibling, sykan,” the same voice answered angrily.
“You are not akin to us,” another suddenly added, also feminine.
“And you do not deserve to measured as such,” a third and final woman spat.
“We will banish you again,” the one to his right continued.  
“And there won’t be more of this work of yours,” the one still holding him finished.
“Begone,” the voices of all five commanded, a pulse of power from the word a simple prelude compared to the immense tidal wave of bright, benevolence that followed.  There was no noise, there was no scream.  Ray finally understood what he was seeing right as the Spectre’s body disintegrated, the tendrils in the air becoming stiff like twigs before shattering into a million, miniscule pieces, all consumed in brightness.  Something in him, the leeching presence of the Spectre in the back of his mind, suddenly vanished.  The darkness left with the Spectre’s remaining tendrils, and for the first time in a very, very long time, he felt free.
Still, he didn’t know if he could relish this feeling.
“What is this,” he demanded, tearing himself away from the figures that held him.  “Where am I?  Who are you?  Why are you fighting the Spectre?”
“Hm, yes, I see why he likes him,” one of the woman, the first speaker, noted.  Her features finally made sense, his brain pieced back together completely.  She was tall, like him, but much more slim and slender.  Her skin was dark but glowing radiantly, giving it the strange look of being light.  She wore a dress as loose as the wind that left her shoulders bare but fell past her feet.  Suddenly, he understood very well who he was staring at.
“Oh my…” he began trailing off as a swirl of worry, awe, and fear filled him.  “You’re the Aspects, aren’t you?  You- you- you-”
The one to his left, a small woman who wore something very much similar to the other one reached out and touched his arm.  In an instant, all of his fears and worries vanished.
“Thank you,” he breathed out with smile to the pretty woman.  Then, realizing, he flinched back again and exclaimed, “What the hell was that?”
“Oh yes, very much a strangely inept one,” the woman agreed kindly, still smiling at him despite his distrustful questioning.  “He would indeed love this one.  Perhaps that's why he’s waited so long.”
“What the hell is all of this,” Ray demanded, composing himself enough to not crouch away like a scared rat.  Still, he couldn’t keep his eyes from darting around, questioning what he saw.  There was nothing but brightness in this place, like in a wayport or…  
“You’re the Aspect of light, Celestia’s Aspect,” he quickly guessed, pointing at the first woman.
“Indeed, she is my mortal representative,” the woman agreed, taking a careful step forward.  “And yes, wayports- or any sort of transportation through my light- is just a brief second of sight into my presence, as you suspect.”
Ray wanted to collapse back to the ground, to ask a million questions to himself and them, to think through what was going on, but he somehow managed to stay standing.  He needed to do something, though, to take some charge of the situation in whatever little way possible, to collect at least a little more information.  Starting as the small woman reached out to touch him again, he slowly extended his arm to allow her to touch it.  Unexpectedly, she took it and intertwined her fingers with his.  He would have found the move quite disturbingly intimate, but the pulses of mental comfort didn’t seem to cloud his judgment, but clear it a bit.
Staring at the woman for a second, he finally stated, “That makes you Friendship.”  
She nodded the confirmation, squeezing his arm slightly.  Taking a breath, he finished looking around at the five Aspects that surrounded him.  “You’re Love,” he said to the other one that had helped lift him up.  Then, to one that stood particularly far from the group with her arms crossed, her dress void blackness, he guessed with a raised brow, “Darkness, right?  Not very discreet.”
“The shadows never are,” she responded with expected coldness.
“Pleasant, and you,” he asked, turning towards the only unnamed woman of the group.  She was just as small as Friendship, but there was something… different about her.  She was neither bright nor dark, loving or friendly.  She was… nothing he could identify yet.  “I can’t figure you out.”
“Of course not, and you won’t for a very, very long time,” she answered with strange apologeticness.  
“You’re mortal.  That means our purposes must be even more discreet and hidden than they are to each other,” Darkness explained simply.  She then stared around at the brightness that enveloped them all.  “There are untold numbers of us watching these events as there are participating in them.  This might mitigate the vision of some of them… but there could also be those strictly negligent as well.”  
“So I’ll be just as confused as if you hadn’t explained at all,” he guessed bluntly.  “At least I know you actually do exist.  And, apparently, are very much intrigued by my actions, to the point of saving me from the Spectre...”
He trailed off uncertainly, looking around at the other Aspects that stood around him.  “I’m still alive, correct?”
“Yes,” Light answered with a strange smile.  The Aspects only seemed to have strange iterations of mortal emotions.  It was surprising to see them, certainly, but after the praise the Matriarch had rained down on them for so long, he honestly felt just as underwhelmed as overwhelmed.  They were mysterious in what they were and what they planned to do, but already he was able to read into each of them simply from the way they were.  
Light was bright and firm, Darkness was dark and mistrusting, Friendship friendly, Love kindly, and the other one… otherly.  He didn’t know exactly what she was supposed to be, but given the strange way it kept acting, he knew it was normal for it.  Her.  Them?  He couldn’t tell if the genders presented were truly inflections of the Aspects’ actual genders, or rather some elaborate ploy to familiarize him to them.  Or tempt him, he realized with pursed lips.  They were taking the shape of humans anyways.
“Well, if there’s nothing more you won’t tell me, I’ll be going,” Ray grumbled, slowly glancing around him.  There was nothing but the Aspects to disturb the whiteness.  He had hoped there was something simple to break him out of their grasp on his mind.  
“You’re right, he would want him,” Darkness muttered, her blunt eyes staring at him deductively.  “He’d be the only one as well.  I vote to let the child go.”
“Very well, but I do enjoy his unique company,” Friendship sighed, stepping away from the human, looking halfway ashamed.  “Mortals do have a strange habit of pulling on heartstrings.”
“Indeed, I agree very much with the sentiment,” Love added, though she already had her back to the human.  She glanced over her shoulder, though, as she sleekly teased, “These strings are wire, though.  Play them right and they’ll sound beautiful.  The wrong amount of harshness, however, and they’ll cut your fingers.”
“Hell on earth,” Ray mumbled under his breath at the uncomfortable rate his heartbeat picked up.  
“Hell on earth,” Light boldly repeated with a calm stare.  “Such an accurate statement of self.  That is what you are, isn’t it?  Hell on solid ground, reaping souls and inflicting suffering on those deserving of it.  Perhaps that should be your title, instead of lordling.  As respectable as it is, it does not have that striking effect on the enemy you would want it, and it certainly seems more like a pet name to those you entrust with the moniker.”
“I won’t be taking advice from you, unfortunately,” Ray starkly rebuked.  “While I do owe you my life, I’ve got a feeling that it’s thanks to you all that it was in danger to start.  The Matriarch and Spectre have both gone on and on about this strange cosmetic, spiritual power I have somewhere inside me.  I believe them, or at least, I know everything the Matriarch has told me is true, but there’s no way I’m going to blindly throw myself into religious fanaticism or whatever it means to follow you devoutly.  I’m just trying to win this damn war and keep as many people as I love alive.”
“It would certainly help to have divine intervention,” the unnamed Aspect meekly pointed out.  
“Yeah, that certainly helps clear up things,” he grumbled, giving the Aspect a sidelong glance.  “I just barely got over one ethereal-yet-corporeal godlike being.  I’m not looking to blindly falter to another one.  The Spectre’s gone, right?”
“Banished, yes, but not killed,” Darkness suddenly confirmed, and based on the reaction of her sisters, she was not meant to divulge such information.  She glared at the unnamed one, who scowled at her.  “The child has every right to know after the torture he suffered at the beast’s might.  The Spectre, as he likes to call himself, is an enigma of a creature that we have bound many times.  His nature is corrosive, however, and his strength is on a constant upward trajectory.  Even in this act, I doubt he was truly weakened, simply thrown out into the waves again.  He’s been washing ashore quicker and quicker, and has become harder and harder to be rid of even in banishment.  It used to be that I could confound him in darkness for decades on end, but he has grown beyond such simplistic traps.”
“I see,” Ray suddenly realized.  Letting his anger and impatience ebb, he muttered, “This meeting, it wasn’t just to save my life and show off.  It was for me to actually see some of the things the Matriarch has been telling me about.  My purpose.”
“And how it can- and most likely will- wait,” Darkness concluded.  “We have waited centuries for this day, knowing it may come about.  Now that it has, we know the day we must utilize your unique skills can wait a few more years.  It seems you are not tarnished by war and fatigue, but rather strengthened immeasurably by its many facets.  I’ll be letting him go now.”
“Wha-” Ray began to ask, but in an instant, all was black.
> When the Time Comes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It took a confusing few seconds to orient himself as he realized that he was looking up at the sky as it was moving.  It was darkening at the moment, probably sunset, with the moon hanging in the twilight air with gleaming appeal.  Squinting his eyes slightly, he realized he felt slightly loopy, the moon tilting this way and that like he was bouncing.  With a start of breath, he realized he really was, and sat upright, blood rushing to his head and almost making him black out.  Groaning, pressing a hand against his head as it seared with pain, he squeezed his eyes shut.
“Sweet Celestia, he lives,” someone exclaimed, followed by various curses of relief.
“Yeah yeah, I’m awake,” Ray grumbled as his vision returned.  He still felt a bit shaky, but he planted his feet on the ground and stood up from whatever it was he’d been laying on.  Glancing over his shoulder, he gasped as he realized they’d been dragging him on a makeshift cart.  “Hell on earth…”
“You had us real damn frightened, sir,” one of the Fallen said, a brownish one that sat, wiping his brow.  “I mean, the big spider came over here and- “
In an instant, said big spider was suddenly looming over the group, which consisted entirely of unfamiliar faces.  She reached down with both feelers and swept him off his feet, bringing him into the air before her eight eyes.  He let out a yelp at the sudden ragdolling from being carried about, disoriented hopelessly and still unsteady from waking up.  After a few more seconds of being shaken down, the Matriarch let out what Ray thought was a sigh.
“It seems you have survived your deadly encounter with the Spectre alone, somehow,” she speculated.  “At the very least, you still seem physically capable of moving and talking like the mortal you were before these strange events.  You also still feel like the same human as before.  I’m guessing that you weren’t replaced mentally or physically by the Spectre.”
“No, definitely not replaced,” Ray replied, glancing down warily at the silent Fallen.  “We’re encrypted, right?”
“Of course, of course,” the Matriarch answered, looking even more relieved.  “In fact, you just proved you’re still indeed our Ray.  I would not have been able to transfer the language of the Spectre in this world.”
“Awesome.”  Pausing briefly, still held by the Matriarch midair, he smiled slightly and asked, “Can I be left on my own two feet now?”
“Perhaps if you can remain conscious, I shall allow it,” she teased warmly, though she did set him down on her head.  “Now, please explain how you managed to fight off the Spectre after it banished me from its realm.”
“I’ll have to give you the abbreviated version, unfortunately,” Ray told her, glancing up at the darkened sky.  “As it is, I’m already late for the visit, and given Twilight doesn’t have a clue as to our plans concerning a mobile offensive, it may take every second of moonlight we have.”
“I see,” the Matriarch replied, instantly beginning to move in the direction of the wayport.  “Best hurry on with it, then.”
“In short, I met the Aspects,” Ray blurted out.  He couldn’t help but shudder as he remembered how he’d met them, his skin prickling with the trauma of that memory.  “Or more accurately, they saved me right before the Spectre could shred my body into a million pieces.  As soon as you disappeared- which by the way, I’m glad you’re alive- it basically consumed me into itself and began… torturing me.  And then, out of nowhere, there was a brightness and serenity that overtook it all.  I thought I had died for certain, but then there were five figures, the Aspects.”
“Which ones,” the Matriarch asked intensely, though her swift pace didn’t slow.
“Well, they said that there were many more potentially watching, but Light, Love, Friendship, Darkness, and one other were there,” Ray said, searching his memory.  “The last one, I couldn’t tell what she was, and none of them were in a sharing mood, so I don’t know what she could be.”
Pausing briefly to scour the possibilities, he shrugged and guessed, “Maybe that one was Cadence’s kid, Flurry Heart, I think.  The little alicorn princess from the Crystal Empire.  She’s probably too young to have manifested an Aspect or be implemented into their plan yet.  Besides, I think in order to be an alicorn, you have to have an Aspect, or at least, that’s the precedent they’ve set so far.  Darkness was pretty blunt and conscientious of my time for an eternal being, which was nice, since it probably meant I woke up before you began an autopsy on me.”
“Yes, as you might have seen, I do have some traits developed from my mother,” the Matriarch muttered softly.  “She always hated ‘beating around the bush’, as is the saying.  Wastes too much of her unlimited time and wittles down her patience.”
“Right, you are her daughter, directly,” Ray exclaimed.  “I’d completely forgotten about that when I met her.”
“Hm, yes, I suppose meeting the omnipotent personification of the dark can temporarily blind one’s mind,” the World Weaver teased once again, beginning to slow down.  “We need to discuss this more, but it seems we’re here, and one more minute of being late will mean a tonguelashing from both Skalos and Twilight.”
“For different reasons, though,” Ray pointed out with a smile down at the Matriarch’s many eyes.  Sobering up slightly, he reached down and rested a hand against her forehead.  “What I said before, I really meant.  There was a brief moment in there, as soon as you dissipated into mist, when I thought I had lost you.  Whatever this connection we have through the Aspects is, I realized, isn’t some cosmetic scheme to use us in tandem with each other.  I know it’s more, that it’s real.  Whatever it is, know that I genuinely want to see us through this, both the mortal war and the celestial one.”
“The feeling is perfectly the same, Ray,” the Matriarch whispered as she lowered her head to the ground, allowing him to slip off.  Reaching out one of her feelers, she gently patted him on the head, staring at him with her many eyes.  “But we will have to allow our duties to come first in this matter.  Especially in this matter.  Your friends and family will be waiting quite impatiently at this point.”
“Right then,” Ray agreed, drawing himself up.  With a curt nod, he turned and began storming towards the wayport, only a few feet away.  Skalos stood there, glaring at Ray impatiently, but he ignored the glare long enough to warn him, “You may be hearing in a minute or two about why I’m so late, but that’s a problem for future us to deal with.  I’m late enough as is!”
“He says as if it isn’t his fault,” Garish chuckled, sitting with folded hooves.  
Giving the stallion a smirk, Ray shook his head at him while reaching for the pendent.  “Why’re you even here?”
“In case Skalos needed someone who could kindly bust your kneecaps for being later than thirty minutes.”  Glancing down at his hoof, feigning checking the time, he warned, “Twenty eight minutes on the clock, Ray.  Better teleport quickly.” 
“Yeah yeah, I’m going,” the human replied, grinning.  “Don’t hafta be so eager to see me leave.”
Raising the pendent into the air with one hand while he saluted the watching trio, he was consumed in light.  It was strange, knowing what exactly the wayport was doing now, using Light’s own power in a fraction of a proportion, its warmth and brightness an internal piece of the Aspect itself.  Yet, that knowledge also had its comforts.  At the very least, while the Spectre had been able to pierce the magic from him, it would not be able to strike through this.  Meaning, therefore, this was a secure way of traveling between Equestria and the Tauran plains.  His experience with the Spectre last had left him with his doubts.
The light faded and Ray braced himself for whatever faced him, previous months having prepared him for the tonguelashing Twilight would give him as soon as he appeared.  Instead of a panicked string of worries about what could have happened, though, she grumbled, “I should’ve expected you to be a bit late at this point.”
“Well, I do like to keep up appearances,” he replied with a sheepish smile, stepping out of the warm circle.  Nodding to one of the plush couches, he asked, “Can I sit.  I actually have a lot to talk to you about this time.”
“I hope it’s fast, because there was a plan tonight,” Twilight sighed, seating herself as well.  Sitting up slightly, she said, “Not to rush you, though.  The war does take priority.”
“Good, ‘cause this is going to be hefty news, so sit tight,” Ray warned, shuffling slightly on the couch.  Twilight raised a brow but remained silent, beckoning Ray to continue.  “We’re going on the offensive.”
“Oh,” the princess squeaked.  “Uh-uh-uh… w-when… um… when would you… begin?”
“We march out tomorrow,” he stated, going straight for the throat.  
“What,” Twilight rasped, her voice barely audible as her pupils shrunk.  
“I know you would have wanted me to consult with you first before this, but I was afraid your opinion would cloud my judgment,” he explained.  She began to protest but he held up a hand to silence her.  “I know, I know, but you have to understand.  You’re concerned for me just as much as you’re concerned for Equestria, and that’s incredibly unhealthy for your judgment.  We need to think of this war as a single blaze and tear.  Anything that lasts longer than two or three battles will quickly become unsustainable.  We were incredibly lucky to lose so few soldiers on the landing, but in future battles, with similar numbers, it will be impossible to keep casualties low.  
“The major thing we realized is that there is no such thing as a stealth operation in the Tauran plains.  It’s too dusty to conceal the movement of even a hundred soldiers.  Therefore, we know they haven’t even begun closing in on us.  With the way morale is rapidly declining and how devastating even a single loss would be for us, I came to the conclusion that there is no other option.  We have to take a risk and force a victory.  The goal of the attack is a conclusive battle, the discovery of where the minotaurs come from, and the result either a secured loss or victory of Equestria.”
“And the expectation,” Twilight asked weakly.
“What,” he questioned, sitting up a little.  
“What do you expect to happen, truthfully,” she repeated with a scared stare.
Ray paused, pursing his lips as he thought carefully of what he was going to say.  The truth, obviously, but how?  Twilight wouldn’t like to hear what he was about to say, even though he had already accepted it as the best possibility in either direction they had chosen.  With a sigh, he stood up, coming to attention slowly.
“I believe we will march three weeks into the Tauran plains before encountering a major enemy force.  Given the consideration of a major enemy force is four thousand minimum, it will put us within range of the first minotaur settlement… most likely.  We still do not have concrete proof of anything out there but sungrass and hills, but at the very least there will have to be water more internally into the continent.  But I figure you’re worried most about the casualties.
“Well… I believe that the best-case scenario is four hundred to six hundred deaths with the complete destruction of whatever enemy force we come across.  The miracle of our landing being almost bloodless for our forces is a one-time blessing that I will not count on happening again.  About half of those casualties will be from the first wave, with less and less losses per subsequent wave.  From experience with the initial attack, I will strike just a minute after the first wave and before the second wave, if that’s what you’re worried about.  However, I know that for our efforts, there can only be one result: the complete destruction of whatever army we come across.  That, I know, will occur, no matter the cost.”
“That’s too ominous, Ray,” Twilight quietly protested.  “I mean, four hundred soldiers dead at least?  How many injuries?  How many maimed that will never fight again?”
“It’s ominous but absolute,” Ray told her harshly.  “There’s no reason why you should be getting upset over these results.  As is, they’re as acceptable as possible, with a low enough loss of life to be sustainable and carry on.  If we’re either incredibly smart or incredibly lucky, it may also be the complete knockout blow to the minotaurs.  If the price we pay for Equestria’s security is around seven hundred Fallen and a few thousand spiderlings, then it will be both an unbelievable blessing and an unprecedented path to a swift, peaceful future.  Even if we lose as many as five thousand in this campaign, so long as it brings this war to an end, it will be enough.  Two-thirds of my Fallen will live a happy, quiet life, and the other third will die in the way they wished: fighting a greater evil to prove they have grown beyond their treacherous past.”
“You’re willing to let thousands of you soldiers die on the gamble that it will end the war,” Twilight questioned with a glare.
“You were willing to kidnap a kid from another world entirely in the hope he wouldn’t leave your world to die,” he pointed out sharply.  The alicorn took a sharp breath as she looked away, biting her lip.  It had been a long time since Ray had played his trump card.  “We both do the wrong things for the right reason.”
“But those choices do have their consequences,” Twilight sighed, bowing her head.  “Consequences you could never predict would hurt so much, would do so much damage.”
“But damage, not destroy,” he countered firmly, falling back into the chair.  Rubbing his forehead, he mumbled, “Twilight, we knew what this war could bring, and this is the hardest part.  We had hoped, both of us, that by simply being there we would be ‘forced’ to fight back so we could deceive ourselves into thinking these deaths wouldn’t be a result of our actions.  Well, that strategy, as nice as it would have been for us, will only result in disaster now.  I’m taking the initiative and responsibility.  Change needs to happen, for all of us, and the deaths that will result from this will be on my head.  But as the Fallen say, ‘It’s war, we’ll fight to die’.  I just need to ensure it’s a death that is worthwhile.”
“How can you even say that, though, say that you’re going to lose allies and friends so calmly,” she questioned with teary eyes.
“How can you even question my dedication to my soldiers after months of telling me I’ve become too much of the monster you need,” he countered, slapping his hands against his thighs for effect.  The alicorn shivered in her chair as she ducked away in shame completely, cornered totally.  Letting out a slow breath, Ray sat up, coming to a realization.  “Alright, what are you getting on about?  You’re smarter than all of these contradictions you’re throwing yourself into.”
“It’s just that…” she began, trailing off as her voice cracked.  “It’s just that… before, when you were still defending… you and the Fallen weren’t in such a scary predicament.  I- I was almost comfortable, almost ready to begin considering that there may be a Ray and the Fallen after the war.  It was selfish- and so is this- thinking that you could simply stop doing your job so that, if anything, you would still be around when this was all over.  I guess I’m just stalling, preventing myself from hearing the inevitable.”
“You know who you chose,” Ray said plainly.  “You can’t blame me for going against your will, just as I can’t blame your will for being so naively trusting and ignorant.  It is the way you and I are, two sides of different coins.   I’ll do my best to return though.  I have some good news with this solemn news.”
“Really,” she asked hopefully, sitting up.  “News of what sort?”
“The celestial kind, I guess,” he replied.  “We- the Matriarch and I- took a stand against the Spectre in its own realm, and while she was expelled from it and I was briefly tortured, it caught the attention of the Aspects.  Friendship, Love, Light, and Dark all came to take a stand against the Spectre physically and saved me from death.  I spoke with them and they looked like humans.  They weren’t very telling, but surprisingly, I think I get along with Darkness the best since she’s very short and to the point.”
“You were tortured,” Twilight questioned, brow furrowed.  “How can that be good news, even if you did meet the Aspects?”
“Pain’s temporary, Twi, but the support from the Aspects, now that lasts a pretty long time,” he explained quickly.  “The point is, they banished the Spectre, and while they themselves explained that it wouldn’t be for a very long time, it would be long enough for me to come into my own and for this war to end.  It’s a sign that I’m meant to do this, attack and blaze through the minotaurs.  They also kept mentioning another one of them, one who likes me a good deal apparently.  I think it’s an Aspect that may want to… well, I don’t know the best word for it, but bind with me, I guess…?”
“Yes, bind is the best word for it,” Twilight mumbled as she stretched one of her wings and gave it a distant stare.  “When Celestia guided me to rebirth, to becoming an alicorn, she didn’t explain that the alternation was needed to be seen as one for all ponies, and of every physical aspect of our world.  Earth, sky, and magic all make up the consistency of Equestria, and thus you must physically represent both the world and the Aspect that chose you.  A middleman of the physical and ethereal worlds, if you will.”
“I see,” he nodded, pressing a hand over his mouth and rubbing his chin.  With a little chuckle, he asked, “Does that mean if I get chosen I’ll have wings and a horn?”
“Celestia, I hope not,” Twilight scoffed.  “No offense, but human heads just don’t look made for horns of any kind.”
“Agreed.”
“So the Spectre’s no longer a problem then, or at least not at the moment?”
“Yep,” he sighed, tired.  “The Spectre won’t harass me until whenever it breaks out of the Aspects’ banishment, and the Aspects themselves aren’t a concern in the war effort.  They promised, or at least the five that were there, that we had nothing to fear from them.”
“Wait, five,” the princess questioned.  “You only mentioned Love, Friendship, Light, and Darkness.  Who was the fifth?”
“No clue,” he answered bluntly.  “My best guess is she was whatever Aspect little Flurry Heart will be chosen by.  She didn’t say much or do much, but she was there and did talk, so… yeah, I don’t really know what she is.”
“That’s a little disquieting, but if you’re confident in them remaining uninvolved…”
“One hundred percent,” he stated.  “They wouldn’t explain anything to me I didn’t already know or guess, but they also weren’t actively hostile or manipulative either, not at all like the Spectre.  It was strange.”
“They’re the first royalty that didn’t try to control you on sight,” Twilight half-heartedly joked, staring at the ground in shame.  
Rolling his eyes, he reminded her, “That’s far behind us now.  What I said earlier wasn’t meant to be a jab at you, but at reality.  We’ve had to do things we’ll question for the rest of our lives in order to protect those that need it.  I’ve forgiven you, and am quite frankly thankful now that you did send me.  The time you’ve given me to live, the life I’ve been able to enjoy, far outweighs removing me from the world that spat on my face every day.  Just because it was cruel, it doesn’t make it evil.  The harsh reality is, more than anything, you were manipulated by the Aspects to seek me out for them and bring me into their domain.  It was your own action inspired by a plan of the gods.”
“That sounded almost… religious, Ray,”  Twilight admired, sitting up.  
“It probably is,” he admitted with a shrug.  “I mean, when my best friend is a fifteen hundred year old horse, a giant thousands of years old spider is my consultant, and I’ve met six different beings without beginning or end, it’s hard not to begin to think of it like some strange religion.  Twisted, confusing, and terrifying, but religion somehow.”
“Huh,” the mare scoffed slightly, smiling.  “I guess to each their own.  I know Friendship as much as she wants me to know her, and the line between mortal and deity is solid, but transparent.  She lets me see her power’s incredible strength and also the boundaries that do exist, if way beyond any mortal reach.  I’m guessing our relationship is much in part thanks to her being the embodiment of Friendship and me constantly seeking it out.  We just naturally got along and she let me see who I had chosen and why she was so keen on me.”
“I see.”  Pausing, he looked around at the throne room briefly, before asking, “You said there was something planned, right?  Is it here, because you don’t seem very-”
“Crickey,” Twilight shouted, shooting out of her chair.  “Nope, I just totally forgot thanks to everything we’ve been talking about!”
“Well, the matters of-”
“No time for quips,” she snapped, grabbing him by the hand and tugging him off the sofa.  
He had no warning as the terrain around him suddenly became shrouded in the alicorn’s sparkly, purple magic.  It was gone before he knew it, but instead of standing on solid ground, one foot was there while the other hovered in the air.  With a yelp, he stumbled for a bit before falling straight head over heels down the hill, the wet grass sending a sharp chill through him.  A few inappropriate words flew out his mouth as he felt his senses sharply tingle, the combination of cold and overstimulation to his sensitive nerves.  He came to a stop as he ran into something strong and barky.  
“Ouch,” he wheezed, his chest feeling bruised already.  Squeezing his eyes shut for a moment to simply breathe, he grabbed the tree trunk and grunted as he pulled himself to his feet, slightly shaky.  Brushing a bit of melting snow from his shoulder he grumbled, “Woulda been nice to have solid ground under my feet when you…”
He trailed off as he looked up and realized that, as a matter of fact, he was not merely in the presence of Twilight.  Right away he picked out Fluttershy, Rarity, Dash, the Pies, and the Apples from the crowd that stared at him in shock.  Discord hovered over them, his mouth hidden by his unique hands, looking like he was trying his best not to guffaw at the whole ordeal.  There were also the different rulers of Equestria present, Cadence, Shining Armor, Flurry Heart, Ember, Redar, and the leaders of the yaks, seaponies, changelings, and griffons.  Behind them, a conglomerate of at least a thousand more individuals of various species, namely ponies and changelings, were gathered.  It was also then that he realized he was not in Apple Acres, but a town square.
“Wonderful,” he muttered under his breath as he drew himself up, ignoring where his chest bled from the bark scratching it.  The hill he had rolled down was a hill, and the tree a tree, part of a tiny plot of land that was surrounded by cobblestone and buildings.  Taking a step backwards up the hill to be a bit closer to Twilight, he kept his eyes on the crowd.  Yeah, he knew what was going on.  For certain…
“This is why you should always watch your mouth,” Twilight hissed for only him to hear, both staring at the shocked crowd.  
“A little warning that I would have an audience woulda been nice too,” he countered, rolling his shoulders back.  
Finally, Redar stepped forward and greeted him with a great bow, booming, “And so comes the great human warrior, of whom our lives are owed and the future is protected!”
“And in what fashion too,” Discord exclaimed, looping past the drake as several other monarchs went to bow.  Wrapping his claw around Ray’s shoulders, the draconequus pulled him in for a brief hug, which the human returned in kind, patting him on the back.  As he did so, Discord whispered in his ear, “You’re lucky Flurry’s the only kid here.  Otherwise some parents would’ve fainted at that last little delectable bit of dialect!”
“What dialect,” Ray asked innocently as he stepped away.  Smiling, thedraconequus floated backwards in the air, allowing for the more officious and respectful monarchs to step forward.
“Ray, the species of Equestria have watched you for over a year as you’ve become a general and courageous leader,” Shining Armor began.  
“You have displayed immense knowledge, temperance, and diligence in taking on the task none of us ever could even imagine facing,” Pharynx stated.
“And through it all, you’ve been stalwart and reserved, your many good deeds only heard about through whispers and never seen,” Queen Novo continued.
“But no longer,” Prince Rutherford bellowed with a smile.  “No longer will the good human be hidden, ignored!”
“You promised us that the villains of the world would be destroyed and that peace would be protected, and your promise has been fulfilled above all expectations,” King Thorax proclaimed.
“More than that, though, you have been a shining beacon of friendship, strength, and hope,” Cadence said next.
“Your work with the nations of Equestria to ensure our safety has been a two-pronged battle to put us at ease and the enemy down,” Gilda spoke.  “It's an almost impossible labor for any one individual to undertake.”
“And yet, you did take on perhaps the most challenging conflict Equestria has ever faced, in spite of not being from Equestria,” Princess Skystar exclaimed.
“Your work and labor has protected Equestria from the physical threat to peace as well as the ideological threat to peace,” the Consulate of the bison added.
“And for that, you shall be forever forged into the heart of Equestria itself, the capital of the ponies, and center of all peaceful living,” Ember finished.  She raised a claw and pointed behind Ray, up the small rise.  Turning over his shoulder, he was breathless for a moment as he stared at what he hadn’t noticed stood behind him.
It was a white marble statue of him, about the same size, maybe a foot taller.  He was staring out westward, towards the coast, his kharamh held barely above the ground but still pointing towards the distant Tauran lands.  His face looked remarkably like he did, though a bit too perfect and smooth, his hair… weird.  This statue of him was embarrassingly missing a shirt or real pants, just a wavy bit of “cloth” around his groin held up by a bronze band representative of his belt.  His features were still remarkably accurate, a slight sharpness to his gaze and thin lips showing that stoic attitude he approached the entire war with.  His kharamh looked exactly like the one he currently had strapped across his back, the same material and grip even being used.  
What really caught his eye, though, was what surrounded the detailed statue of himself.  Otolo sat on his shoulders, a reddish granite bird with a white gold beak and talons, her wings spread as if she were about to take flight.  He had two sheaths for knives,  but one was empty while the other was occupied.  After a second of searching, he found it stuck in the ground, where pieces of white granite lay scattered and broken, held in place by small tendrils of iron.  Those same tendrils of iron wrapped around his feet entirely and dug into the ground, the symbolism stark and realized.  The entire statue had a serene respect to it, glorifying him.  
He smiled, in spite of how his heart dropped.  Frowning would do no good to everyone who had put so much effort into building this beautiful, terrible statue.  
“The statue was funded by the Seaquestrians,” Queen Novo began.
“The marble was mined in Equestria,” Twilight spoke for the first time.
“The iron torn from the earth by the yaks,” Prince Rutherford declared proudly.
“And was refined in the griffon forges,” Gilda stated firmly.
“The marble was sculpted in the Crystal Empire,” Princess Cadence said next.
“The metal was shaped by dragon fire,” Ember proclaimed.  
“While the pieces were transported by the bison,” the Consulate added.
“And put together in the Changeling Hive,” Thorax finalized.
“The work of each Equestrian species was used to show the gratitude each species has for their savior, and- in the coming days- a statue to the Fallen and their legacy will be designed, funded, and approved,” Twilight stated.  “It shall reside on the peak of Canterlot Major so that it may watch over the entirety of Equestria, to witness the life, love, and friendship the Fallen protected.  For your bravery, honor, and suffering, the memory of the Fallen armies will remain a permanent symbol to every Equestrian for as long as these species live.”
Ray nodded slightly as the crowd began cheering, letting his smile become a thankful grin.  He watched the crowd shouting and waving, occasionally waving to different areas of the gathering in acknowledgement.  This was the first time he was seeing many of the citizens of Equestria, the yaks, changelings, hippogriffs, and bison.  Some of them were about the same size as him, but for the most part, he still maintained a whole head over even the larger bison.  Beaks and lips alike were shouting his name, or shouting for the Fallen, all calling out in honor of him and his army.
To his side, Twilight bumped his knee.  He glanced down at her, feeling very conscious of how many sets of eyes were on him.  She was staring up at him with wide eyes, shooting her gaze briefly at the crowd.  He gave her a raised brow, knowing what she was asking for but still incredibly unsure about how exactly to begin.  With a sigh, though, he looked out over the crowd, stepping down the hill slightly.  He would give them both the speech they wanted to hear and the speech they needed to hear.
“Thank you, species of Equestria,” he began, taking his time to let his voice echo through the street.  “This monument is an incredible feat and a wonderful honor, humbling and sincere at the same time.  Tonight is the first time I am seeing many of the citizens I fight to defend, the griffons, yaks, bison, changelings, and hippogriffs.  It is spectacular to see so many wonderful, beautiful creatures in one place and for one purpose.  I promise to all of you that the Fallen will hear of the loyal, joyful support they have from Equestria.
“But I do have a warning for you, Equestria.”  The cheers and applause that had begun to erupt died as he continued, and he could feel Twilight’s gaze intensely on him.  “The days we have lived through so far have been easy.  The fighting has only just begun, and the burden of war has been light.  We face, in the coming days, a battle both in the Tauran plains and on the Equestrian continent for the preservation of hope, love, and life as it is.  We face a potential to allow fear and upheaval destroy the very notion of the world we protect.
“The time is approaching swiftly, for tomorrow the Fallen armies take the offensive against the minotaur, to plunge deep into their territory and rip a victory from their heartland.  The risk is great and the cost of life may be greater, for the future is unknown.  A battle will be fought before the next full moon that will decide the fate of Equestria.  As terrifying as that sounds, though, it is a battle for how Equestria will live on, not on whether or not it will be destroyed or continue.  I’m giving you, the people, a warning that if I and the Fallen fail in this battle, life will become harder.  Fear will prevail, hope may wane, and there may be death on our shores.  
“When that time comes, though, do not let the storm blot out the light.  Do not allow yourself to fall victim to the war within your mind.  The Equestrians have long survived the strife and power struggles of different tyrants, and this shall be no different.  Even if I and the Fallen are all killed, our oath to you is that the minotaurs will be weakened and unable to harm Equestria like they once threatened to do.  With our lives, we will buy the ability for you to live on and show the world the strength in peace, love, and friendship.  With our blood will the minotaur threat be washed away and the enemy’s bloodlust be quenched.
“All of that to say that there is almost no chance of this happening.  Equestria, the soldiers of the Harkening are confident, brave, and incomparably resilient.  The forces put against us upon our landing scattered like sand in the face of a hurricane, whipped about and tossed asunder.  The minotaurs are strong, but blunt instruments of destruction that have nothing when faced with the elite army we wield.  It is the reason why we are confident that this maneuver will produce results only favorable to us and our war.  If there is any reason to fear, let it be the smallest chance, the least likely and worst case scenario.  The Fallen will not fail, and the might of Equestria’s people in their peaceful, unbreakable resolve shall shatter the minotaurs like iron on glass.  Hear me now when I tell you that by the kharamh I wield and the army that follows me, the minotaur will never step foot on Equestria!”
His final declaration was met with uproarious approval, the voice of the people echoing not just in the street, but in the city itself.  He smiled in a self-satisfied way, pumping a fist into the air as the cheering soared to a crescendo.  For some reason, between the Fallen, the politics, and the public speaking, spontaneous speeches had come easily to him.  Looking down at Twilight, he jokingly asked, “Is good press relations another reason you choose me?”
“Not at all, but it worked itself out,” the alicorn grumbled. 
Frowning at her unexplained negative attitude, he pressed, “What’s wrong?”
“Bah, I’m just almost mad at you is all,” she muttered, shaking her head from side to side as if to try and clear it.
“Almost mad,” he questioned, confused.  Before he could get an explanation from the mare, though, the crowd’s cheering died once again, leaving the square strangely silent.
“Thank you for your attendance tonight, friends and rulers alike,” Twilight boomed, a cheerful smile masking whatever emotion “almost mad” was.  “We shall hold the words of Ray close to our hearts as we wish him well on the journey forward, however treacherous and dangerous it may be!  For now, though, you must bid him farewell as we must return him to his army across the sea.”
A final, smaller round of applause and cheers echoed through the street as the Apples, Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie, and Discord all stepped forward.  He didn’t question it aloud, but when he glanced down to Twilight, he noticed her eyes dart away from him.  As the group congregated around him and the princess, he looked for a friendly smile or even an embrace.  There was none, not even from Pinkie.  
Sobering in an instant, he asked, “What is it?”
The others all glanced away from him, all but Rarity, who gave him a mournful look as she mumbled, “Ray, we’re sorry, but we need to talk.  Otolo went missing three weeks ago.”
“No,” Ray breathed, his heart dropping as the world vanished in a flash of purple.
> Don't Think Twice
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ray barely registered their apologies, their voices and kind hooves feeling distant and displaced.  His mind was strangely numb, not sad at all.  Maybe he was too shocked to feel the weight of these emotions, and with his heart still dropped out of him, only his brain seemed left.  And it wasn’t working well.
How could Otolo disappear?  She was a bird.  She could fly away from danger and take shelter with Fluttershy if she were ever threatened.  She was too smart to simply fall victim to the circle of life.  Right?
Otolo, his little Equestria that had sat on his shoulders and pecked at his ear, was gone.  Presumed dead.  
He felt the tears rolling down his cheek, but his breathing remained steady, his heartbeat normal.  There was no indication physically of his sudden distress and he didn’t even feel it, only the tears that wet his face.  Everything was simply empty and cold.  
He had known he would lose friends in this war, that inevitably someone he cared about would die.  He had prepared for the deaths of Skalos, Garish, Adant, Gaz, Kraven, Harbor, or any of the many other friends he had made.  He had even prepared himself for the potential death of Zecora and Twilight, if they for some reason got caught in one of the battles.  Of course, he had prepared for a slap to the face, but never this stab to the back, Otolo missing… dead maybe.  She should have been one of the few that survived if everything went terribly, like the Apples, Fluttershy, Rarity, the Pies, and the CMC.  Protected by him.
Absently, he reached up to his shoulder with his left hand, resting it on where the little bird would be sitting right now, if she were here.  He breathed out, squeezing his eyes shut as, finally, the pain hit and his numbness gave way to waves of anguish.  Gritting his teeth, his throat tightening, he gripped his shoulder hard, remembering the little, unremarkable, indispensable friend he had made.  The first one he had lost.
Lost.  She was missing, but not dead, he forced himself to remember.  She wasn’t dead, which meant she had to be alive, and so long as she was alive, he needed to push onward.  Otolo was a hardy, vibrant bird that would survive.  Reaching into himself, thinking hard, feeling everything, the sorrow, pain, and confusion, he found the little spark of hope that he had, the possibility that Otolo still lived.  He held onto that spark and let it grow into a blaze, melting away the icy sorrow within.  She was alive.  He knew it and would know it until it was otherwise proven incorrect.  With determination, he lifted his head and opened his eyes.







Rarity watched in awe as the human suddenly seemed to grow, his body drawing up and becoming taller than ever.  His face was still wet with tears, but as he opened his eyes, she only saw raw determination, his jaw set and his gaze sharp.  He patted his hand on his shoulder before lowering it, looking like a behemoth about to engage in battle.  It was the same look he had given them when he had sworn to protect Equestria.  It was the same look he got whenever talking about how he would protect Equestria.  It was Ray’s look, a look that couldn't be rivaled, questioned, or pushed aside.  It was a look that proclaimed he would change the world again.
“I know you probably have many questions for me, but right now, there are only two things I can promise,” Ray said, interrupting three different voices.  He spoke with absolute power, his gaze firm as he looked at his friends and families.  “I can promise you that Otolo is alive and that I will be back to find her alive.  Everything else is up to fate, now.”
Wordlessly, he turned to Twilight.  Nopony questioned it as they both vanished, the alicorn looking just as shocked at his behavior as everypony else, simply following his silent order.  There was silence for several minutes after they had vanished, everypony staring at the spot where the human had stood, still registering it all.  Finally, Rarity turned and began to walk away, a smile slowly spreading across her face.
“Where’re ya goin’, Rarity,” Applejack questioned, sounding panicked.  
Turning over her shoulder, smiling at her friends, she replied firmly, “My friends, for once, I am no longer afraid of what the future holds for us, because for once, I do not doubt Ray at all.”
> War is Restless
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The warmth from the wayport dissipated quickly.  Ray’s jaw was set in cold determination as he immediately began to storm away from the ground of the wayport.  Garish and Skalos had been waiting for his return, though he knew well enough that at least the former had gotten some sleep.  The stallion opened his mouth to say something, probably a joke at how long the human had been away, but Skalos stopped him before he could get a word out.  
“What is it,” he knowingly asked, obviously recognizing the look on his commander’s face.  
“Ohs has disappeared without a trace,” he answered stiffly, still hastily walking in the other direction. 
“Ray, I’m-”
“Not now, Skalos,” he interrupted harshly.  “She’s not dead.  I’ll be fine.”
“Well, I’d recommend you get some sleep regardless, lordling,” Garish suggested with surprising emphasis.  “It’d only be an hour or so, but there’s no way you can lead out a march if you’re tired.”
“I’m not,” Ray replied curtly, glancing over his shoulders at them to let his eyes flash.  The two stallions paused hesitantly, but didn’t protest as he kept walking.  “Besides, it wouldn’t do much good anyways.  I need to pack my things first so I can be readily available for anything that comes up.  Given how large of an operation today will be, I think it’s safe to say a great many things will need to be adjusted, overseen, or redirected.  Skalos, has Zecora prepared the proper facilities for our medical supplies?”
“Of course,” the stallion responded resolutely.  “The Fifth Spear of the Third Wave is in charge of the transportation of the medical supplies on the march and distribution of such supplies after battles under her supervision.  She’ll remain a safe distance away from the battle, of course, unless-”
“No exceptions,” Ray interrupted again.  “If things go horrendously in the battle and only a few hundred soldiers survive, more than likely she’ll be the only one who knows how to use a wayport left alive.  She’ll be the only one capable of warning Equestria to prepare for the worst.  Besides, it wouldn’t be much use if she died trying to heal me, you, or any other important member of the army.  She may have debriefed a good few soldiers in medical training, but there’s no replacing the volume and quality of her medicines.  I’d rather lose five soldiers who could’ve been healed than the one capable of healing hundreds of other soldiers.  Make sure she understands this and complies.”
“Yes sir,” the general responded firmly, the hints of relief in his voice picked up by the human.  He felt his chest decompress a little, knowing that at the very least, Skalos’ most anxious worries were addressed in a fitting way for the situation.  Still, as the general left to do as ordered, he knew there was the unranked soldier he had to deal with.  
Ray’s pace slowed as he felt slight disgust with himself.  Garish was a friend, not some tactical issue that needed to be dispatched and he had a whole life ahead of him if Ray was capable.  Each of his Fallen soldiers did.  As much as he was worn down by Otolo missing, he at the very least knew she was alive.  Hopefully that meant that he would see her again, but if that wasn’t the case, he couldn’t be so callous with his soldiers.  Skalos would take it as part of his duty, but that didn’t make it right, and Garish was the first soldier to treat him as a friend.  Given, it wasn’t the most respectful friendship to begin with, but the many months had taught them both well.
Looking back down to his side, he slowed enough he was walking beside the silent stallion.  Garish looked up at Ray, slightly confused, as the human let his face soften.  “I’m sorry I’m so callous right now.  I didn’t mean to berate.”
“I understand why you’re worried, sir,” he chuckled sadly.  Seeing Ray frown at the distinguishment, the soldier grinned and added, “Sorry, I’m a bit tense as well.”
“Adant, eh,” Ray probed.  When the stallion nodded, he smiled earnestly at his friend and asked, “You stayed with her tonight, right?”
“No, we were both worried we’d be too tired for today, but last night I did,” he admitted, his grin softening into a loving smile Ray would never understand.  “She’s smart like that, thinking ahead about what’s best for us with both our duty and our relationship.  I know I’m a bit of a tail-chasing scamp with only half a brain, but she really took a chance with me.  I’m afraid of losing that.”
Both soldiers sobered at the thought, walking silently for a minute.  This was one of the most painful parts of running an army consisting not only of friends and comrades.  There were many he knew who had somebody else hoping they would survive the next battle.  Hundreds of the Fallen were married to one another, and even in the first battle, their landing, he knew that there were a few who had lost their spouse in the conflict.  Now, they were gearing up for a battle with exponentially more casualties, and undoubtedly some would walk away without their loved ones.  The thought of losing Skalos, Garish, Adant, Kraven, or any of the others was one of the pains he would never overcome.  It was a healthy pain, he had learned, so long as he didn’t let it overcome him.
Moving with purpose, he broke the silence and asked, “Do you think we’ll run into minotaurs, Garish?  Will this just be a huge waste of time, momentum, and effort?  Or will we take on something we’re unprepared for and lose too many soldiers to be worth it?”
“We’re gonna kick those minotaurs right in their little balls,” the stallion answered with a wry smile, his characteristic crassness bringing a grin to Ray’s face.  Going serious for a second, he added, “Don’t ask how I know.”
“Yeah, wait a minute, you didn’t help me dissect the things,” Ray remembered, squinting at his friend.  “You were too grossed out at how they smelled freshly dead.”
“Let’s just say those loincloths they wear aren’t very concealing from the down low,” Garish joked with a shrug.  “I told Adant she’s lucky her job doesn’t have her running right beneath the boys of your enemy.  It’s more than weird when ya get flashed by the creature yer killin’.”
The pair laughed together as they made their way into the camp, quieting down slightly to respect those who were still sleeping.  A few were walking about the camp already, either beginning to pack up for the coming march or simply restless with what the day meant.  Here and there, he returned salutes with soldiers who noticed him.  It wasn’t incredibly difficult, as even though it was maybe four in the morning, the sun was beginning to purple the horizon over the sea.  Sunrises were getting earlier, and if he remembered correctly, Kraven had predicted that it may rise as early as three in the morning.
“Well, I’m going to be packing up my things if you want to help,” Ray invited with a knowing smirk.
“Heheheh, yeah right,” Garish chuckled, taking a turn through some other tents as the human continued towards his tent.  “You have fun with that, Ray.”
Waving to the stallion as he walked away, the human made his way through the camp.  It took maybe ten minutes walking to get there, but he didn’t care much to hurry.  Given how exhausting today was bound to be with it becoming a hot day and having to carry everything.  He barely noticed the weight of his kharamh and other weaponry, even while carrying them all day, but adding the weight of the supplies he needed like his tent, food, and water would be much more noticeable.  Besides, while he had initially struggled to understand how to pack up his tent, he had picked up on it over time much like everything else.
Arriving at his tent, he got straight to work, pulling out whatever few items he had inside his tent and putting them away in a rucksack.  When the tent was cleared, he pulled out the stakes holding it to the ground.  They weren’t necessary most of the time, as even when it was windy, it rarely ever was strong enough to pull around tents.  The precaution was for the extreme bout of cool ocean winds clashing with the hot breeze of the desolate plains, causing a large windstorm.  They had only suffered from one of those, though they could see that higher up on the cliffs it was much more of an issue, gusts of air blowing the dusty ground into the ocean.  
Before Ray had realized it, his thoughts had carried him through the process of putting away his tent, the rest of his supplies neatly stacked on the dry earth to the side.  Blinking, he quickly went about ensuring it was all securely packed away before tying it to the tent.  For ease of carrying it, he kept everything roped together.  He had already mistakenly cut through a tent with his kharamh when carrying it incorrectly, so he had to specially care for how he moved about with his equipment.  Giving it a hoist, he began walking towards the crest of a hill that had become the place to find Ray if there were questions.  
It was a bit strange how this alien land was now familiar in this particular spot, four months of immobility rapidly familiarizing him with the six main hills that surrounded the beach.  Sighing as he reached the top, he set the packed supplies down and surveyed the camp.  The whole process had taken him perhaps half an hour, meaning most of the Fallen were still asleep or barely waking up.  The camp was large, certainly, but from the top of the hill, he could see quite easily the entire thing, showing just as well how small the army was in certain standards.  To think that once there had been armies of ponies tens of thousands of soldiers larger was astounding.  This was his army, though, and for their diminutive size, they were far more lethal and effective than he ever could have expected. Smiling, he looked beyond the camp.
The vast ocean roared distantly, the noise that had once been the sound of distance and uncertainty now a calming serenade of peace.  Ever since getting to truly know the ocean and crossing it, he had come to appreciate the waves.  He missed them at this moment, watching dawn light the dark blue waters as stars still glimmered on their surface.  For months, he hadn’t thought twice about sinking the ships after they had completely disembarked, but now giving the ocean a good long look, he wondered if he would ever sail across the ocean again.  Frowning, he forced that thought out of his mind, as while it wasn’t initially dangerous, all of the insinuations from that scenario were distractions he couldn’t afford right now.  
Crossing his arms, he watched as the camp begin to light up as glowing Fallen left their tents and began the process of taking down the camp.  It would only take an hour and a half with meals and packing certain facilities away, breakneck speed considering there was still much work to be done in preparing to march out.  Marching out itself may take the longest, as packing away the camp was much easier than actually moving it.  With all of their practice in packing up a camp and making a formation for battle, they had neglected marching slightly, as evidenced by their march across Equestria.  To be realistic, it was less a march than a glorified walk, the terrain friendly and unimposing when it came to obstacles.  It had taken only two days as well, so not the most effective practice.  The Harkening, of course, had also been difficult to practice marching in, as it was repetitive and far too familiar to the Fallen, and, to a degree, Ray.  
Now came the day in which they tested the ability of the Fallen to change trajectory and mindset, to stop waiting around in anticipation for an attack and bring the hellfire themselves.  He was nervous, of course, but strangely he found himself concerned about the lesser details.  How many ponies would lose their weapon on the march, dropping it or simply breaking it carelessly?  He couldn’t remember those statistics from their last march, and given he hadn’t asked Kraven for them, they might not even exist.  Would they have to leave behind the ballistas because they slowed down the soldiers too much?  He had been assured that they would most likely not be an issue, but there were so many factors, especially in the terrain.  How many times would they have to stop because a general, lieutenant, or captain became heatsick and needed replacement while they recovered?  What if they didn’t recover?
Sighing again, he let himself sink to the ground slightly, still staring at the camp.  In spite of Garish’s friendliness, his heart was still heavy, and in spite of how he knew, knew that Otolo was alive, he couldn’t stop feeling the pain.  It all came today of all days as well, giving him that much more concern on top of mounting the largest operation in hundreds of years.  Seventeen thousand soldiers diving into the enemy territory to drive out however many enemies necessary.  The amphibious assault had been a huge undertaking of course, but in terms of physical exhaustion, risk, and controversy, this was the most divisive move he’d taken by far.  Today, though, it officially began, and thus, his aptitude, skill, and preparation would be put to the test.
Movement somewhere along the hillside caught his eye, and as he squinted in the dim light, he realized it could only be one creature that didn’t glow in some way.  He smiled slightly, even though he knew the zebra wouldn’t be able to see it from this far away in the dark.  Truthfully, it had been far too long since he had spoken with the zebra in any meaningful way.  Unfortunately, their duties had required long hours of work in which their only interactions were him giving her orders for certain preparations and her updating him on her progress.  He would have felt guilty, but ultimately it was beyond their capabilities to keep in touch in light of the important work they had to complete.  
Slowly exhaling, he stood as she finally approached, calling out, “Zecora, my friend and mentor.  What brings you up here?”
“Business, I am sad to say,” she replied tiredly.  “It seems that you want me out of the way.”
“Ah, so Skalos has already told you what I instructed him to,” the human grunted.  The zebra looked unhappy at the statement, sitting herself in front of him with a frown.
“I do not approve of what you said,” Zecora protested softly.  “Without me on the field, many Fallen will be dead.  If you intend to keep me from the battle site, I will not be able to heal during the fight.”
“Zecora, I know that ponies will die because you aren’t there, but the harsh reality of it is if you are there and are killed, then many, many more soldiers will die,” he firmly told her.  “I’m sorry my friend, but this is a war where we must balance selflessness with value, and your selfless actions do not outweigh your value.  It’s already enough of a risk that I’m allowing you to stay.”
“So, you would have me go away,” the zebra huffed, frustrated.  “That is something I expect my husband to say.  When it comes from you, it stings, and that is something you can’t undo.  How can you not trust me to be alright, instead of forcing me to take flight.  If I am to ever play my role well, then sometimes it means I must walk through hell.”
“Zecora,” he said, softening up slightly to let the mare see his genuinity.  “I trust you as much as I do Skalos, and while incredibly harsh, I trust that you would die trying to save any of the Fallen in my army.  That is something that cannot happen, and if I find you on the battlefield whenever we engage the enemy next, I will personally have you restrained and kept away from the battle.  It’s impossible for you to understand and hard for me to say, but your life is more valuable than however you may save in the frontlines, because you will save more by waiting until after the battle and staying alive.  Besides, what if Skalos lost you in the battle?  What would that do to him?”
“He would survive if I was no longer alive,” Zecora answered curtly, though there was pain in her eyes.  “He would continue to fight.  He still would call me his guiding light.”
“And after the fight,” Ray pressed.  Zecora breathed in sharply, knowing that the human had caught her there.  While Skalos and Ray differed greatly, there was one thing they were very similar in.  When it came to the end of the war, both of them would have the same questions about how to live on in spite of loss, knowing the lives they had given up and terrible violence they had seen.  Unlike Ray, the Fallen had someone else to help him answer those questions and distract him with joy.  If he lost that though, it was no secret what would become of his close friend after the war.  And given how grim the war had become even in its bloodless state, the harsh reality of it was that one of them would not make it out of the war unscarred.
At the very least.
Grimacing as tears began to wet her face, he reached out and grabbed her shoulder softly.  “Zecora, you’re one of the only people to know about my past, my greatest weakness.  On the very same day you met me, you were mending me up and teaching me lessons left and right.  I’ve kept those words in my heart, and I strive to ensure that one day, you and Skalos will be able to live life normally, beyond the pain of this war.  In order for that to happen, we need to win this war in the most effective way, and that includes you surviving and continuing to provide vital medical aid to our wounded.  Think about it; one day Skalos may require one of your treatments, and if you are killed in the battle, he will die like you.  In saving yourself, you are also saving hundreds of soldiers in the future.”
After a long moment of silence, she finally met his eyes and sighed, “I see the point you’re trying to make.  Still, it all makes my heart ache.  So many of the Fallen will have died before I ever make it to their side.”
“And those deaths, like hundreds of others, will be on me,” Ray assured her.  “The losses inflicted on us will all be because I made the other to fight and not flee.  But if we do not make these hard decisions to lose a little but save so much, we will be without both the Fallen and Equestria as a whole.”
“Since when did you become so mature,” the teary-eyed zebra asked.  “You are not the same human anymore, I’m sure.  It was not so long ago that you committed yourself to this task.  Now, I can no longer see past your sad mask.”
“It’s the only defense I’ve got right now,” he told her.  “If I don’t pretend like I’m unfazed by every challenge I’m facing, all of the people I’m losing because of actions I’m taking, then I will falter and more Fallen will die.  It’s hell, yes, but I’ll go through it so others can live another, happier life.”
“It’s times like these that are tragic,” Zecora whispered.  “But it’s important to remember that friendship is magic.  Please don’t let my words be hollow.  Stay with us and your pain won’t grow.”
“After the war,” Ray questioned, seeing the zebra nod slightly.  Pressing his lips into a thin line, he tightly rebuked, “You know that once this war is over, I’m free to do what I wish, and if what I wish is to remain while I deal with the unknown, then I ask you respect it.  The future is bright for the entire world, but there can never be light without shadow, and that is where my future is.  I can’t explain it to you, but maybe someday Twilight can.”
“It’s depressing that I came to you mad,” Zecora muttered looking away.  “And now when I leave, I’ll be sad.  I guess it comes with your strange duality in viewing your own mortality.  Pray tell, when do you plan to leave hell?”
“That’s the thing about that, Zecora,” Ray began, letting go of her and beginning to stand as he watched a group of lieutenants climbing the hill, “is that it’s impossible to leave when you’re a vital part of it.”
There was no response as Ray began descending down the hill to meet the troupe halfway, noting the members of the group.  They were all from the Kraven’s division, the same group that had come to him yesterday with their concerns and complaints.  A surge of exhaustion passed through Ray as he realized that identifying his correlation to the Matriarch, facing the Spectre, and meeting the Aspects had all been yesterday.  Letting out a breath, he shoved it aside to give him the strength to face the coming day.  The sun had just barely begun to glisten above the surface of the ocean, which meant that within an hour or so the camp would be packed and prepared to move out.
“General Ray, we have some unfortunate news for you,” one of the lieutenants called.  Surprisingly, Captain Rade wasn’t in their rank, but dismissing it as a matter of necessity, considering they were a smaller group, he stopped and listened.  “It seems that many of the ponies who are in charge of the first shift for dragging out the ballistas are either not awake yet or packed up to preemptively move the machines out of the way.  It poses the risk of delaying our soldiers marching out and costing us valuable time in moving as far and fast as possible in the opening days of the campaign.”
“Where were they supposed to position the ballistas in the line,” Ray asked, forgetting the detail.
“They would be moving out in the infantry division that follows the archer divisions,” the lieutenant answered.  “Harbor and Yarem’s infantry would split the task of pulling the ballistas as to not exhaust the soldiers too terribly.”
“Of course, but I don’t see how that could be a problem of scheduling,” Ray pointed out.  “The ballistas move out after the archers, which means they have to wait for four thousand archers to march out with their supplies before they can begin their own movement.  If the timing is cutting it close, that is fine.  In order for that volume of soldiers to clear the camp through the valley and along the proposed marching path, it will take about thirty minutes.  Most Fallen will have their tents cleaned up in ten minutes.  Worst comes to worst, they still have a twenty-minute period of time in which they’ll be able to catch up in preparing to set off.”
“But sir, the soldiers have…” the protesting lieutenant wilted slightly as Ray’s brow furrowed in concern.  
“This isn’t about scheduling, is it,” he asked, to which a couple other Fallen nodded slightly.  “Huh, I see.  Well, if it’s punishment you want to see for their relaxed attitudes, they shall receive it, now is neither the time nor place.  We’ll worry about petty matters such as this after we’re done with today’s work.  For now, if what you’re concerned about is court-martialing some soldiers who were getting as much sleep as everyone else, I’d recommend getting your priorities straightened.out.  And if Kraven sent you with these concerns, relay the message.  If not, don’t let me know you wasted my time.”
“Yessir,” the troupe responded tightly with sharp salutes, before turning and making their way shamefully back to camp.  It was only once they were far out of hearing range that he hissed a soft curse, turning back to climb the hill again.  Unfortunately, something he hadn’t realized was that there was a glory race amidst his soldiers in a minor way, each trying to prove their worth portraying their comrades as lesser workers and soldiers.  It was a problem that had only surfaced once there was something to compete about, and Ray was too busy making sure that the plan actually took off to root out simple pride and hubris.  Still, it was a danger that if allowed to fester could collapse the army from within.
Standing atop the hill, he was pleasantly surprised to catch a glimpse of the Matriarch in the distance as she emerged from the mine.  They hadn’t been able to put it to use in the past four months, lacking both the facilities to harvest and use the materials it promised, so it had truly become a den of the spiderlings.  While the Fallen were able to endure the heat, the spiderlings required the cool protection of the caverns below to keep them from fleeing.  Many of them still ran purely on instinct, given it was guided by the Matriarch for the most part.  Still, in the face of slow death in exposure, the World Weaver had warned that her children could and would turn away from the army.  
Though he was certain at least one of her eyes had picked up on his gaze, judging by her movement, she would not be approaching the human anytime soon.  So, he was left to his devices atop the hill, watching and waiting as the warm dawn became a hot morning.  He remembered a time when he had been worried about the sun, almost a year and half ago.  At that time, he had feared things like sunburns and dehydration.  Now, he had a flow of water that was neverending should he need it and his skin had slowly tanned to a point that it no longer reddened.  He was almost completely unrecognizable to himself even.  
When he had arrived, he really had been a frightened kid that latched onto whatever gave him some comfort, throwing himself in the ring in an attempt to find any sort of purpose.  Back then, he had been a scrawny, malnourished pale thing with a shattered mind and mistrusting heart.  Changes had occurred, a firmness setting in him as he found a truer purpose than what Twilight and Skalos had prepared him for.  He was indebted to the ponies in his life that had shown him what it meant to live, to not feel like his life was only there so others would have a better one.  His purpose had remained surprisingly the same, but the consequences were much grimmer.
The pain and suffering of the scar in his stomach, one he had hidden as best he could in his old life, had been resolved by Skalos and Zecora.  Fluttershy had taught him to love Equestria, AJ to be an example, the CMC to be a brother, Rarity to strive for his best, and Discord to laugh.  The past had been resolved by creatures who never could understand what his past had truly been, crime and drugs, murder and survival.  He no longer viewed these events through the selfish mortal eyes of a kid who was wronged, but as the cosmetic tool he was, the literal Orphan of the Cosmos.  The Matriarch had helped him overcome his mortal dysphoria, the strange crosswires that had prevented him from realizing his independence and purpose.  He was self-determined now, a force to be reckoned with and feared, both on the battlefield and in the courts of Canterlot.  
Beyond that, he was physically stronger.  His body had been lithe before, loosely strung together by adequate muscles for his work on Earth.  It had been a slow growth, one he had noticed progressing through the months.  Now, though, he realized that a year and a half of this lifestyle, of breaking his back to become what the Fallen needed as their general and what he wanted to be as a soldier, had turned his young, teenage body into something… different.  He felt strange looking at himself like this, but he had continued to grow, maybe six feet tall now and almost twice as heavy as before.  Large biceps, triceps, and forceps had formed on his arms to compensate for wielding the kharamh, with additional shoulder and pec growth for the muscle groups they worked.  Archery had helped with those as well and his constant movement had increased his lower body’s muscles.  Even his abs were visible past the scar in his stomach, which was slightly faded from when he had first arrived. 
Smiling at himself, he felt a strange sadness as he realized that in order to fight a war far from his homeworld, he had developed a body many would be envious of.  In spite of that, he wasn’t proud of it or felt more confident.  There were no humans in this world that would be impressed by this, and to every other creature, he would be seen like a hairless grizzly, muscular and dangerous.  In doing what was necessary for the needs of this world, he had developed a body everyone at home would do so out of hobby or desire.  He may have been the only human of his generation to require this level of physique to survive a task this grueling.  
Snapping himself out of his weird self-analysis, he spotted yet another pair of figures coming up the hill, though thanks to the risen sun, he was able to immediately identify the soldiers.  General Yarem and General Pelios were walking side-by-side talking while they approached.  Thankfully the conversation seemed to be friendly, as there were calm expressions shared between the two.  As they got closer, they continued talking as if not realizing they could be listened to by Ray, who waited patiently for two of his top generals.
“Please, my friend, you’ve got to know there’s no way he’d approve of such drastic measures when they aren’t expressly necessary,” Yarem was telling Pelios.  “Imagine what it’ll do to the soldiers if he…”
“Lordling,” the latter saluted, realizing their proximity to the human.  Ray raised a brow at them as they came to attention, saluting.
“What’s this about, generals,” Ray questioned blankly, glancing behind them.  The archers under Harbor and Pelios were beginning to form their ranks, preparing to set out on the march.  The time for him to leave this hill and take the lead in the march was rapidly approaching now, the sun firmly risen and continuing to ascend.  “We haven’t much time to bicker about last minute decisions.”
“But we do have time to make a request of you,” Yarem quickly said.  “Ray, we’d like to ask you to refrain from engaging in battles among the soldiers of the First and Second Waves.  While certainly courageous, it is-”
“Yarem, have you spoken with Skalos on this matter,” Ray inquired, remaining expressionless.  When the stallions hesitated a moment, he shook his head and stated, “‘Cause if you would have, he would have told you what I would say.  You’re out of your damn minds, soldiers.”
“But sir,” Yarem protested before being cut off by Ray’s raised hand.  
“Generals, you are concerned about my health and safety.  I thank you for your concern, but just as I must make decisions that will ultimately mean the death of some of our soldiers, I must also make decisions to save more lives.  If you want to protest my decision to remain in battle, I can respect it, but I won’t waste time repeating what I’ve told Twilight and all of the ponies back in Equestria who care for me.  Bring these grievances to Skalos if he has the time, and if not, write to Twilight concerning the matter and I will bring her these complaints.  Elsewise, I recommend that you remain private about these feelings, as I will not allow fear and rumors of tragedy to spread.”
“Told you he’d say something like this,” Pelios shrugged.  “Knowing this, I actually came bearing in mind that I didn’t want to completely waste your time, lordling.  I wish to bring four of the broodmothers with us on this mission.  I know the plan expressly states that the broodmothers are to remain here while only the Matriarch comes with us and commands the spiderlings.  The idea is that three of the broodmothers would be dedicated to each spear division while one would focus on protecting the archers.  For purposes of organization and command, I believe that leaving the task to just the Matriarch can lead to confusions among both species.  Further divided command under the umbrella of the World Weaver could serve the taxing demands of attention each partition of the spiderlings would require and put Fallen less comfortable with our arachnid counterparts at ease.”
“Perhaps,” Ray agreed thoughtfully.  “It would be too late to take more than just the four broodmothers, but I’m certain the Matriarch is hearing this conversation right now and will make the best decision concerning this matter.  Either way, this is the type of last-minute organizational tweak I want to hear about, soldiers finally seeing different needs in the action itself and addressing them.  Thank you, Pelios.”
“My pleasure, lordling,” Pelios saluted politely.  
“You’re dismissed, both of you,” Ray nodded passively.  Crossing his arms, he watched the two generals turn and walk away.  After only a few paces, Pelios jabbed Yarem with a hoof, whispering a playful insult of some sort.  Smiling at the display of comradery, he knew that he would never have to worry about petty competitions or animosity between them.  They had been friends long before Ray had come around and had remained so even through some of the most bitter arguments.  He had to admire their capability to not take the arguments about the lives of their soldiers personally, simply pointing out the fallacies or gaps in each other's plans and walking away talking normally after.  
If one of them dies, how will the other survive, he asked himself darkly.  Sighing, squeezing his eyes shut as he pushed away the thought, he allowed himself to sink to the ground, watching the army.  There was something beautiful in watching the army moving around, thousands of individuals moving in a coherent, random motion forming a bloc of themselves.  The archers were almost ready for marching out technically, though there were of course measures in place to ensure that nobody was left behind by accident.  That gave him this cushion of time to have a breather, knowing that everyone else would be too busy to come and ask him for anything.  Still, he had to keep it to only a few seconds of rest, in which he made a decision.
Standing up, carefully putting his supplies across his back, he began trudging down the hill with a grunt.  In his head, began preparing to say something to the troops prepared to march out.  While he usually just spouted whatever came to mind in the moment for his speeches, the emotions he felt at the moment and what he hoped would be achieved in the future usually satisfied the crowds.  Today, though, had to be different.  This action had taken hours of harsh argument and suffered severe scrutiny to get to this point.  Doubts had grown from the different possibilities spawned in the risk they were taking, and Ray needed to not just address them, but completely crush them.  Blowing out a large breath and forcing the grim temperance from himself, he forced a smile from himself that was halfway convincing.  
He wanted to tell them the absolute truth, give them measured hope and limited expectations like he had.  But outright saying anywhere between four hundred and six hundred of them would die wasn’t what they needed to hear.  As much as the truth would help them affirm themselves into their purpose, but most of the Fallen wouldn’t be comforted.  They would follow him regardless for reasons Ray could only begin to understand, but the victory would be too bitter to face.  Somehow, he had to, within reason, convince them that they were an invincible force that could face any army and suffer only limited consequences.  
There were, of course, no other options but to lie and boost a narrative at least partly false.  Still, lying to his soldiers felt wrong, no matter how necessary it was to achieve the task they faced.  It felt as morally ambiguous as him being in Equestria at all, a saving grace ripping him away from his life and certain death and asking him to do what they couldn’t simply because he could.  He was forcing the truth out of their heads and filling them with delusions of invincibility.  Even in private, he promoted this, claiming that they would thoroughly destroy whatever army they came across with ease.  It worked, but perhaps it would be to his downfall.  After all, if they became enraptured in their invincibility, there could be two terrible outcomes.  
One, they would assume themselves too strong, overestimating their true capabilities and letting their pride rule.  It was an easy way for an army to die, one Skalos had taught Ray about in depth, and it wasn’t until now that he had to convince an army to be confident that he saw exactly how the misconception of strength could be conveyed.  His own words were always a testament to the strength of the Fallen as a deadly, elite army capable of anything.  He had personally fed the hubris of his soldiers out of necessity, and it quickly became unclear whether or not he could stop.  
The second terrible fate was that when they took extreme losses, they would turn on Ray and the generals for lying to them.  It was incredibly unlikely that this would happen, given how unified the army was now that they controlled a piece of the Tauran plains, but it was only a year ago that they had been on the verge of a civil war, a large chunk of them opting against Ray.  Would a terrible loss of life reignite the old divisions among the Fallen and cause the army to fall apart?  Even if it didn't, distractions and mistrust in leadership could just as easily cut out the army by its knees and send it tumbling.
Resisting the urge to shake his head at the rambunctious, false theories, Ray drew himself up.  He was now walking past the lines of archers prepared to march into the heartland of the minotaurs, something that they had avoided for these many weeks.  He let his gaze drill into the soldiers he passed, letting them see his resolution and confidence as he strode past.  They each looked straight forward into the backs of the soldier in front of them, lines upon lines of armed soldiers devoutly prepared for the long, hot day ahead of them.  Not a single one of them dared to break their firm formation and glance at Ray as he passed by them, professional discipline keeping them coolly still.
Finally, the lines upon lines ended abruptly, on a slightly uphill part of the middle hill that cradled the camp.  It faced out towards the only distinguishable landmark nearby, the Big Face.  By the end of the day, the army would be at the opposite end of the large hill, about twelve miles away from the camp.  It would mark the first time all soldiers had ever been completely out of the camp at one time, let alone having more than five hundred more than five miles from camp itself.  In a strange way, it felt the same as when the Fallen had embarked from the shores of Equestria, except with far less fanfare and far more sunshine.
Turning, he stared across the army, his stature allowing him to see the dozens of lines of soldiers that faced him with measured anticipation.  Staring at them for a long moment, allowing himself to enjoy surveying his troops and burning sunlight.  Strange that in this moment, faced with only a fraction of his soldiers, a fragment of the crowds he had spoken to before, he didn’t think of anything to say.  It wasn’t that he couldn’t think of anything to say, however, rather that he no longer felt the need to think of something to say.  These soldiers were waiting for him to take the lead.  They awaited his orders and his words.
So, instead of bursting out into another long-winded speech like he had prepared to, he smirked at the soldiers and shouted, “Well, let’s get our asses out there!”
As he turned and began to walk, he heard a roar of laughter and cheering from the Fallen and smiled, satisfied.  They didn’t need to be reminded of the risks, rewards, and purpose of today.  They needed to be encouraged, to be reminded that they were his soldiers, and more importantly, that they knew they were in good hands.  No speech would ever encourage them more than letting them laugh and follow along.  
Just like that, they were off.  He didn’t even realize it at first, he had simply taken action, flowing physically with what he’d told the soldiers.  Now, as the laughter broke down into casual chatter and he was at the front, Harbor and Kraven silently joined him as they led their archers.  Glancing to either side of him, he felt the excitement well in him as they began the long procession that would be the army marching to war.  For some reason, every fear he had and every terrible possibility was less dangerous when he was marching at the head of his army.  
And it was just like that, walking comfortably as the heat began to rise, the first hour passed.  The soldiers chattered as they marched, and Ray talked a little with the two generals walking at his side as the hour waned.  Occasionally they were interrupted as messengers came running up to announce that Skalos’, Pelios’, and then Yarem’s divisions had all marched out.  After the first hour passed, both generals and many of their captains fell back to their various units, their show of support no longer needed.  Technically speaking, Ray definitely could have returned to Skalos’ division to have a breather or even just talk, but he was satisfied remaining in the very front of the column.
He wanted to personally lead this march, both today and tomorrow, to show his soldiers that he would take charge.  Doing it even all of today could come off as only leading for purposes of giving them confidence.  Doing for multiple days, however, was him proving to them his loyalty in the Fallen, his desire and privilege to have such an army as them to fight with.  For all of the loyalty they had shown him, entrusting him with their lives in the matter of only a few months, he hadn’t proved his loyalty to them, and now he was able to.  Keeping his head high, absently wiping the sweat from his brow, he only vaguely noted his surroundings.
They were familiar, probably only a mile and a half from camp as they were about two hours into their march.  The hills of course were the same, and if he glanced behind him, he would still be able to see the hills that shielded the camp.  The path to the Big Face was actually rather pleasant, not requiring the army to march uphill or around any hills.  Whatever had caused the formation of these hills had made an almost straight path to the base of the largest, most unique hill, which they would camp on the north of before moving on.  After the Big Face, they would have an eight-mile buffer zone in which they still had mapped out before they reached the unknown.
From thereon, anything could happen.  Ray’s anticipation combined with his excitement for finally doing something outweighed his concerns at the moment, mostly because he was allowing himself to indulge in the adrenaline of the march.  Even as the third hour began to tick on by, he didn’t feel any less enthused or hopeful, and he could tell by the occasional outburst of laughter from the soldiers behind him that they were feeling the same.  Four months ago, a march like this wouldn’t have been possible.  Beyond obvious dangers, the Fallen and Ray were unprepared for the merciless heat.  Now, even as he knew temperatures were soaring, he simply did not give a damn, adapted to surviving the heat.
He was satisfied, frankly.  The concerns he was faced with in launching the march today had been few and easily addressed, and while he would have to give a more detailed explanation to Harbor and Yarem about his choice to fight with his soldiers, it wasn’t a pressing matter.  Many arguments with the ponies back in Equestria had solidified his stance, and his newfound, cosmetic purpose had cemented him into the role.  Beyond that, though, there was nothing that had been truly a threat to their schedule and launching the campaign.  He had even predicted the issue with the ballistas wouldn’t be a problem in the slightest, every army launching with mechanical precision.  The only group he hadn’t heard from was the Matriarch and her spiderlings, but he had to assume that since there was no panicked messenger telling him they weren’t accompanied by their arachnid allies, there was no problem.  
By the time noon had rolled around, they had been marching for four hours, and thus a short break took place, Ray halting for the first time.  He didn’t sit down like many of the soldiers he headed, making his way past lines of soldiers who broke out small lunches and water canteens.  They didn’t necessarily need this food, but since it could be provided and it made them more adequately prepared for exertion and hard work, they ate.  He ate quickly as he strode down the lines, until at last he picked out the stallion he was looking for.  Turning, he made his way past groups of Fallen eating their lunches, waving to Kraven as he tried to catch the general’s eye.
“Ah, hello lordling,” he greeted with a small smile, his wide, blackish eyes staring deeply at the human.  The stallion was a scholar and scientist by nature, but also an astoundingly well put-together organizer, making him the perfect general.  It did mean that he looked at everyone and everything like he was trying to physically peel back their layers with his eyes alone.  Uncanny at first, but Ray had come to know it as his way of paying attention.
“I assume you have the numbers already down,” the human guessed, crouching down next to Kraven.  He stood with a group of other high-ranking archers, including Adant, to whom Ray nodded in acknowledgement.
“Of course, lordling,” came the revenant reply.  “Because I assume you want the basics, we’ve been traveling for four hours almost to the dot- or at least the front has- and has made it five miles out from the fringes of our camp.  Considering this will only be an hour-long break, we can expect to arrive at our destination around seven in the evening.”  
Ray nodded, frowning slightly.  He had to remind himself that while he could easily walk almost four miles in an hour, the Fallen had much smaller legs and carried much more proportionate to their body weight.  It meant that their marching was considerably slower than what Ray would have liked, but there was no way to increase the speed within reason.  Kraven seemed to read his general’s mind, shrugging with a slight frown as well.  
“It’s good progress, Kraven, do not fear, my mind just drifted to… something else,” Ray replied, only realizing how tired those words sounded after they escaped his mouth.  
“You sound… worn a little, lordling,” Kraven noted with his inquisitive eyes.  “While I do not believe you will be able to sleep, if you let a few soldiers pull you around, you could get some needed rest.”
“I’ll be fine after tonight, but thank you for your consideration,” the human answered with a smile.  “I may be a little tired, but the rest of me is too excited to sleep.  I feel like a kid for some reason, like I’m about to go on a trip to the park.”
“Funny how most of Equestria’s battlefields are parks now,” Adant chimed in now that the conversation was casual.  “I mean, I learned that the old site of the defeat of Sombra in the Oppotimare is a large plot of land in Baltimare that serves as a garden.  Our battleground is now buried in trees, but where we surrendered to Princess Luna is just a few miles from Ponyville.”
“Indeed, I think it is befitting,” Kraven nodded philosophically.  “Many of the ponies who died in those battles were never properly returned home to be buried.  The battles were messy, especially the massacre that kept us in the valley.  Almost every single pony who died in the siege was also buried there.  Now that there is peace in the grounds on which they died, perhaps they will have peace in the life after this one.”
“Luna be so forgiving,” Adant agreed quietly.  “It’s funny, I only used my bow once while being a traitor, and that was to try and start a fire in the middle of winter.  Most of the destruction of the Oppotimare was carried out by the infantry while we archers held the rear from attack and watched for wild beasts.  We were on the complete opposite side of the army when the one and only battle that locked us into the Oppotimare began, and before we knew it, the army was freezing and starving through the winter.”
“I’d rather not relive those memories while we’re about to embark on an offensive,” Kraven muttered with ever endearing eyes.  “I’d recommend we move on to a more pleasant topic, such as your trip to Equestria, Ray.  How was it?”
“They’re planning to build a statue commemorating the Fallen, and once the war is done, it was hinted that there would be a memorial to our dead,” Ray replied, focusing on the positive of last night.  “They already constructed one for me in Canterlot, but I think that’s because the one for the Fallen will be large and a timely process to build.”
“A statue to your name already, Ray,” Adant congratulated, smiling with a light punch.  “I’d say that you’ll be known throughout the world by the time you're an actual adult!”
“It would make the dating scene a bit more interesting, and pretty hard,” he joked, chuckling a bit.  He didn’t want to focus on the impossibility of what he had just said, simply adding, “I mean, I’d either scare whoever I’m interested in away or they’d constantly be making incorrect assumptions about me.  I mean, if I’m not careful, I might end up following in Skalos’ footsteps and becoming a stern grump when the war is over.”
“I’m sure Garish will do his absolute best to prevent that from happening,” Adant pointed out, also chuckling.  “Besides, Skalos got married just a few weeks after meeting Zecora, so who knows?  Maybe you’ll meet your companion and boom, before ya know it you're married!”
“That would be something,” Kraven agreed, smiling at the strange absurdity of their conversation.  “You wouldn’t marry Fallen by chance, would you?”
“I think the better question is would a Fallen ever marry me, which to put it bluntly, no,” Ray answered wryly.  “I mean, as much as I love the Fallen and as much as I know you adore your lordling, that’s just it.  I’m ‘sir’, ‘general’, and ‘lordling’ to you all, and you’ve all seen the side of me that really can’t be loved.  We understand each other, but there’ll never be a Fallen who wouldn’t think of me as their leader first and lover second.”
“I don’t know about that one, Ray,” Adant countered confidently.  “I mean, Garish was an unranked, horny, stupid stallion when he first began hitting on me.  I didn’t think much of him, but then I started to actually think about it and realize he was doing the best he could.  I mean, I commanded five hundred ponies and had a hoof in training all four thousand archers at some point in another, and he sometimes got forgotten during roll calls.  After a few dozen years of on and off talking and actually getting to know him, I did fall in love with him, but he was afraid of being in love with me!  One of the things I’ll constantly be able to hold over his head is that I asked if he would marry me, and he said yes.”
“And the rest is history,” Ray finished for her with a smile.  He had never actually heard how his two friends had met, fallen in love, and gotten married.  It was a story he hoped they would one day be able to reminisce about with Ray, when they had their pony bodies restored and there was no looming threat from across the sea.  However, hearing it here and now almost did give him hope that he would find someone… just not anytime soon.  “Speaking of which, where is he?  Given the way he’s constantly sneaking around the rules to be with you, I figure he would have managed to make his way up to be marching next to you.”
“You may be just as shocked as I am, but he told me ‘I have to consider my job for once’,” the mare recited proudly.  “Given, he’s probably sprinting down this way to try and catch a few minutes with me during the break to say hi and make sure I’m not dying something.  At the very least he’ll try and steal a kiss.”
Kraven coughed in his hoof, interrupting the pair’s conversation while he chewed on his food.  Frowning at the general, confused for a second, Ray followed where his eyes gestured to behind Ray.  In spite of knowing the Matriarch for over six months, his heart still jumped at the sight of the massive spider looming over him and the Fallen.  He relaxed instantly, though, smiling up at the eight eyes that peered gently at her much younger counterparts.  Standing up, he excused himself by saying, “I’m guessing I’m needed, and while it’s lovely chatting, I can’t really refuse an invitation from a creature that could crush me with a singular tooth.”
“Mortal jokes still confuse me, Ray,” the Matriarch admitted, as she reached out a feeler for him to step onto.  Lifting him up and onto her head, she added, “Though, admittedly, there is some charm in it even not understanding the joke.”
“It wasn’t a good joke anyways,” the human shrugged, still chuckling to himself.  There was a slow silence between them as the Matriarch carefully stepped over the army and across a hill, giving them privacy.  Sobering, he asked, “What’s the matter?”
“I’m concerned about you, Ray,” the World Weaver admitted, sitting down.  Ray was about to ask what she meant but was distracted as he realized that he was seeing her sit down for the first time.  Usually, the Matriarch wasn’t so casual around him, but this sudden gesture made him remember it was only yesterday fate had opened their eyes to their cosmetic familial ties.  “I’m worried about what this march may be taking out of you.  I heard your voice when you returned from Equestria, the hardness of it and pain hidden beneath.  You haven’t slept either, which I know doesn’t bode well for mortals.  It would seem to me that you are both mentally and physically tired, and if, by the end of the day, you are too weary to continue, I would fret over tomorrow as well.”
“Mentally, yes, but I actually am feeling rejuvenated by this all,” he assured her, patting a hand against the top of her head.  “I know that sounds counterintuitive, but all of this marching has made me less tired and more prepared for what we’ll face in this campaign.  Truthfully.”
“I believe you,” the Matriarch nodded, causing Ray to smile as he bobbed up and down on her head.  Then, hesitantly, she pressed, “And what of the Spectre?”
“Gone,” he replied with a sigh of relief.  His head felt clear now, no more dark presence lurking in the recesses of his mind, waiting to strike when he was vulnerable.  “We did it.  You, men, and the Aspects.  It’s really gone.  I’d almost forgotten how relieving it was to not have it constantly looming in my mind, waiting for me to slip up or begging me to give in to it.  It’s surprising that it’s gone, actually.  I had worried that I would have to face it as soon as this war was over, dealing with its taunting and cruel calculations the entirety of the war.  Now… Now I’m unconcerned.  Freed.”
“Beautiful,” the Matriarch whispered, barely loud enough for Ray to pick up.  The human smiled, looking out over the hills.  They were just as desolate and foreboding as ever, but sitting on the Matriarch, staring at them, he saw a strange future in them.  Here, on this plain, in this continent, he and his soldiers were proving their strength and determination.  They were attempting to become the best creature’s they could be.  On Equestria, that meant being kind and friendly, but here, in the Tauran plains, it meant killing as many minotaurs as necessary, dying if it called for it.  The honor and glory of battle were forgotten in the face of redemption, either through killing or dying.  It was the complete inverse of Equestria, the Tauran plains, the only place in the world where Ray and the Fallen could become what they were meant to be without destroying the sanctity of what they wished to become.
“Indeed,” he agreed, the sun scorching him as he stared at the bleakly golden sungrass.  
They sat like that for a long moment, and it was only the Matriarch’s supernatural sense of time that they made it back to the army right on time for him to lead them on the march again.  His thoughts wandered as he stared in the distance, watching as the hills gradually became closer and closer with every step.  It was only now that he was realizing he was marching as a way to get about, expecting to get twelve miles in one day.  On Earth, the time would have been far too long for so short a distance, and many people wouldn’t even consider walking as a way to get where they wanted to go outside of somewhere a few blocks down.  He snorted at that, shaking his head.  He had once been so vain as well, never thinking twice about walking somewhere since there were buses or the car.  Now, he didn’t think twice about marching in front of a column of thousands of soldiers, a weapon across his back, a massive spider as his closest ally and spectral stallion as his dearest friend.  He never would have believed half of this would happen, even when he had first arrived.
The minutes slowly ticked into hours, and by the second hour after their break, Ray was beginning to feel the weight of his supplies.  It wasn’t terrible, but he was beginning to feel the exercise as he made his way over the slight slope of a nearby hill.  Gradually, in the distance, the Big Face revealed itself.  It was still a mile off from when the Big Face began in earnest, but the sight gave Ray some relief as it meant they were nearing their goal.  The Fallen who had discovered the hill had, of course, exaggerated its size.  In reality, it was only about four miles long, still the largest of the hills, but not the projected twelve miles.  They would be going around the north side and setting up camp, and while there was no strategic value, Ray hoped to circle around to the southern, stony face.  
They had perhaps four more hours of marching to do, though, which meant that, currently, he was slowly becoming more and more tired physically.  Still, it wasn’t that he felt exhausted yet, just that he was laboring with a step every now and then, his breath deeper and more refreshing.  The sun blazed now as the day reached the epoch of its temperature, the ground scalding even through his thick scandals.  The sungrass reflected the golden light and helped to keep the ground how, the tough soil beneath it crunching with every heavy step.  It made Ray wonder if, intentionally or not, this was why the minotaurs had held off for so long.  With the heat only seeming to intensify every day, perhaps the continent was entering its hottest phase, the sun scorching this side of the planet while across the sea in Equestria, snow fell.
Suddenly, he saw a distant pair of figures on the distant slopes of the Big Face moving rapidly.  Even from this distance, he could tell they were two of his Fallen scouts, each pair sent out a mile in every direction.  The ones directly in front of the army were established a bit differently from those to the side, as they needed to see where they were heading further out than to their flanks.  Three pairs of scouts jutted out from the front of the army, each a mile apart from each other so that the further one was three miles ahead.  It made communication quicker and the information more secure, a convenience only heightened by their lack of knowledge of the surroundings.
He could hear the casual chatter diminish tensely as more Fallen took notice of their returning comrades, an omen of news.  Pursing his lips, he allowed his pace to pick up as he gestured to a messenger in the front with him to send for the other generals.  Whatever news these scouts brought would be vital, and even if it was simply because of something to do with the terrain, the scouts would only return if it was imperative to the army’s survival.  The messenger bolted off, causing many of the marching Fallen to talk louder as several theories were sounded.  Ray disregarded all of these, turning over his shoulder as he marched.
“We have nothing to fear,” he shouted to those who would hear.  “Spread the word and keep marching.  I will not lead you to destruction.”
That appeased enough of them for him to pick up his pace and make some distance between him and the soldiers before the scouts arrived.  He watched their approach closely, noting the way their rapid hooves kicked up dust and sent grass scattering with the wind of their movement.  It took them several minutes, but with his approach closing the gap as well, they were before him swiftly.  As they came to a stop in front of him, panting hard, he mentally cataloged the two.  They were both mares, one yellow-ish with eyes to match and the other a purple color not too dissimilar from Twilight’s coat.
“Sir,” the purple one snapped, panting as she saluted.  Her companion tried one as well but was also too tired from the sprint to give it snap.  “Our forwardmost scouts, Kichiten and Amberose spotted a plume of dust in the distance, possibly three miles from our proposed campsite for the night.”
A wave of cold dread unlike any other he had felt in his life washed over Ray instantly, worse than when he had been told that Otolo had gone missing.  Clenching his jaw, he glanced out over the horizon.  Thanks to the uneven landscape, there would be no way to see the dust cloud in the distance, but he didn’t need to see it to know where it was coming from.  Turning over his shoulder, staring above the army as it made its way across the landscape, he saw the huge plume of dust rising into the sky, the earth turned loose by so many hooves pounding into it.  Only a minotaur army could produce one similar to theirs.
“Continue surveying the cloud and see if it’s approaching as well,” he ordered the mares.  “Once the foremost scouts have seen the army itself, they need to push past it and see what’s behind them.  We want to know if there are any other surprises out there today.  Bring back consolidated reports as often as possible.  Don’t be seen.  With any luck, they won’t see our own pillar of dust until we’re closer.”
“Yessir,” the two mares snapped before standing and beginning to run out towards the slopes of the Big Face again.  The army was practically there now, right at the rise of the massive hill.  That meant the enemy was some seven miles in front of them, obscured by other hills that surrounded the Big Face.  it seemed, whether by accident or coincidence, the Big Face was the ultimate goal of both armies today, which meant that, most likely, the minotaurs would beat them to their proposed campsite for the evening.  
Hissing a curse under his breath, he turned and saw the army was already caught up with him, the soldiers just far enough away to miss his cussing.  This was an almost impossible coincidence, running into the enemy army the day of their campaign starting, and in spite of its purpose to seek and destroy the enemy’s forces, this was the least likely possibility.  For four months they had scouted the terrain all around them as far as they dared, and yet the day they set off to find a fight, the enemy was prepared with an army of their own marching towards them?  It was a cruel twist of fate that had Ray panicking.
They weren’t prepared for a fight today, in spite of all their preparations.  Today was supposed to be a day of blazing forward and escaping the camp, to get the soldiers out of their comfort zone before the fighting, not to fight.  A battle today could mean a great many things if it came down to it.  He had banked the entirety of Equestria on this march into the heart of the continent and now it seemed his risk had one incalculable factor.  What if the enemy had known about the plan?
That thought was ridiculous at first, but the more he thought about it, the more he became uneasy.  No Fallen would ever give away the plan, and he doubted that there was any way they could even if they had wanted to.  The minotaurs had been killed to the last upon landing and every single Fallen had been accounted for ever since.  Besides the numerical impossibility of a Fallen running off and telling the minotaurs, there was also a language barrier.  All of the minotaurs seemed to communicate only in bleats, squeals, and huffs.  However, there was one possibility that dangerously avoided all of these issues.
The Spectre may have found some way to inform the minotaurs in the last few days before it had been expelled from Ray’s mind.  It was impossible to know if it could, but given the circumstances of the sudden army appearing out of nowhere, it seemed likely.  There could also be the off chance that this was just a party coming to scout out this part of the continent for why their other armies were missing.  Of course, he hadn’t guessed that today would be the day they made contact with their enemies again, and now that they were, he had to move quickly.  
Disregarding the seeming impossibility of their circumstances, he nodded to Captain Rade, indicating for him to lead the march as Ray began seeking out his generals.  He moved swiftly, and after some deliberation, deposited his supplies on a passing cart, leaving only his weapons on him.  He didn’t want to be weighed down by anything as he finally caught sight of Kraven and Harbor, the two archer generals of course being the first to respond.  They made their way to the side of the army where Ray stood, waiting.
“What seems to be the issue now, general,” Harbor asked, his deep voice booming over the crunch of hooves on dirt.  He was a silver-colored stallion, one of the few ponies that could be considered large.  His eyes had a gruffness about them, one that he shared with Skalos.  The two seemed like brothers sometimes with the way they thought, talked, and acted similarly.  
“A cloud of dust has been spotted approximately three miles from our campsite,” Ray informed the two sternly.  “It appears that we will encounter our enemies today if we do not halt the march or redirect.  I’m gathering Skalos, Pelios, and Yarem to discuss the matter with you all.  We must decide our course of action, and quickly.  This is both an opportunity to win a major battle or throw the whole war into the minotaurs’ favor.”
“Strange, I had not expected to encounter them today, or this week at all, for that matter,” Kraven muttered, his sharp voice and wide, observant eyes reserved.  “It seems that our foe is trying to mount an offensive against us.  Impossible, of course, and I expect they never anticipated finding an enemy army so close to them, but… well, it does not bode well for either side if we simply walk right into each other.”
“Precisely,” Ray nodded, glancing at Harbor.  “Thoughts?”
“The soldiers will be just as surprised as anybody else that there is a battle to be had, but I’m not opposed to engaging this foe in an organized and timely manner,” the general admitted.  “Perhaps, depending on the size of the enemy, we may be able to split our infantry into two pieces and…”
“These are theorems that cannot be made until our foe is more recognizable and categorized,” Kraven interrupted with a hoof on the other general’s shoulder.  “I’m unopposed to opening up the field of battle against this enemy.  My soldiers and I will not run from a fight.  However, it would seem that there is still much to be discovered before we can make a concrete plan and destroy these beasts.  I presume the scouts are busy gathering as much information as possible?”
“Yes, but thankfully no scouts to our flanks have returned reporting anything unusual either,” Ray informed them.  “It would seem that this is not a broad campaign, but perhaps a singular army sent out to probe.  That would be my best guess anyways.  Considering we left no survivors when we arrived, the minotaurs may have sent an army to explore why their comrades have fallen silent.  Then again… I am worried that perhaps the Spectre has something to do with this, informing our enemy about our plans to launch an offensive.  This army may be their response.”
“The Spectre,” Harbor questioned, raising a brow.  
“I cannot explain everything to you at the moment, but now that the matter is resolved, I feel I must at some point,” Ray explained hastily.  “It was a physical enemy as much as a mental one that the Matriarch and I have been fighting for several long months, but we defeated it yesterday.  However, one of its last acts may have been to inform our enemies on our plans since it could leech information from my mind.”
“But it’s gone now,” Kraven checked with a frown.  
“Yes, and for what seems to be good,” Ray reassured.  “Unfortunately, I didn’t think I could inform you that your general was fighting both a battle of mortals and is a vital cog in the machinations of the cosmetics.  It’s too much information I know nothing about to share, and even Twilight and the Matriarch are able to tell me so much without displeasing their masters.  But this is a distraction.  At the moment, we need to focus on the mortal.”
“It appears that our counterparts are arriving to help with that,” the stallion noted, gesturing down the line at the other three swiftly approaching generals.  The Matriarch loomed behind them to the side, stepping carefully towards those who stood to the side of the marching army.  “We will require an explanation, Ray, but I have no doubt that your intentions were for the betterment of the army and our performance.  For now, though, I suggest we keep this between us three.  There would be no use in stoking Skalos’ protectiveness of you.”
“Unfortunately,” Skalos shouted as he quickly approached, “that information has already been shared to me by the Matriarch.”  The Fallen came to a halt with the other two generals, glaring at Ray.  “She heard the news and collected us before the messengers could and has been relaying your conversation to us.  All of it.  How could you fail to inform us of such a dangerous and threatening aspect of the war?  Have you forgotten everything I’ve taught you about trusting your soldiers, of relying on your generals to help you make the best decisions?”
“Skalos, you may be my closest friend and have taught me everything about warfare, but when it comes to the Spectre,” Ray let his countenance darken as he leaned down, “I am the expert.  This is not a force to be trifled with, a force to try and fight.  The only reason I stand here today is not because of something I, you, or even the Matriarch did to beat the Spectre, but because of an equally dangerous, unknowable group of entities.  But like I told these two, we must focus on the mortal war right now.  Dying to these minotaurs will not resolve this issue.  Surviving it will.  Winning this war will.”  Standing up, he added, “And besides, no matter what the Spectre has warned them about me, it wouldn’t have been able to warn them about the plans we make now. Am I understood?”
“Perfectly, lordling,” Skalos snapped through clenched teeth.  
“I’m sorry, my friend,” he sighed.  “But we must focus on this now.  Seventeen thousand lives rely on us today, and millions more in Equestria rely on us seven for the future.”
“If I may suggest, it would be wise to move further from the army,” the Matriarch murmured softly.  “Our speech is encoded, of course, but emotions will run high, and I do not have the capabilities to hide those.  It would be… unhealthy for our soldiers to see us in either disagreement, distress, or dismay.  Especially if the resolutions we come to are controversial.”
“Agreed,” Yarem nodded, glancing at the marching soldiers.  There was a brief break in rank as the archers became infantry, making Ray realize that they were now about a third of the army away from the front.  
“Matriarch, would you mind giving us a ride to the front of the army while we converse,” Ray questioned politely, glancing at the massive arachnid.
“It would be my pleasure,” the World Weaver said, bowing her head to allow Ray to step up onto it.  Skalos and Kraven instantly followed him, though the other three hesitated for a moment.  Finally, with a shrug, Harbor led them onto the Matriarch.  In spite of the dire circumstances of their meeting, Ray couldn’t help but smirk as he watched Pelios shudder as one of the Matriarch’s hairs brushed him.  As short as the moment was, it at least helped remind him that as much as these generals were generals, they were also stallions, slightly freaked out by a massive spider.
“Well, gentlecolts,” Skalos began for Ray, sitting down beside the human.  “Let’s get started, then.  It seems that we are facing a considerably sized force and must address it post-haste.”
“First off, should we keep marching towards our position,” Pelios pressed, sitting down as well.  With all of the others seeing this, they finally did sit down.  
“I believe so,” Yarem piped up.  “We have our entire army marching with us in an organized and effective fashion, and we have just barely begun our march.  Since the minotaurs have not been seen thus far, and with how much territory we’ve scouted, it’s safe to assume that they are much more wearied than our soldiers.  Not only that, but we’ve already decided our campsite is the most strategically important position we know of in the vicinity.  Giving up such a key part of our strategy, we cannot allow it to slip away.”
“And if it comes down to battle,” Harbor questioned, pressing his hooves together in concern.  “Coming straight out of a march and into a battle does not bode well for us.”
“I’d propose that we would halt our march a mile from the proposed campsite, taking the top of the Big Face and defending the high ground while the minotaurs take the slopes,” Kraven proposed.  “That is to say, if they press on to the position we wanted, we will take one that challenges them and forces them to either attack us or retreat.  With the archer power and use of ballistas, we can force them out of the position without even engaging them with the infantry.”
“On that point, I would like to point out that the position we chose as a campsite is excellent for purposes of protecting the march and giving us mobility to launch in the morning,” Yarem pointed out.  “It isn’t, however, meant to be defensible from the behind, or where we will approach the minotaurs from.  Should they take that position- we don’t know if they will- it’s almost guaranteed that we can fight them off from it.”
“We need to eliminate them, not simply swat them away,” Skalos mentioned determinedly.  “This army will probably be larger, but they will also be less established in this terrain and unknowing of us.  Our arrival will catch them by surprise, and we need to utilize it as a lethal weapon in crushing the enemy.  The more we can kill without being caught, the deeper into the enemy we will be able to plunge.”
“So, decidedly we’re marching,” Ray concluded with a nod.  “Which means that we will have to confront our enemies in battle.”
“If I may recommend, we might be able to strike them early in the morning, just after our soldiers have had their rest and before the minotaurs are prepared,” Pelios suggested, tapping a hoof against his chin in thought.  “It will be cooler and the likelihood of our enemies being prepared for battle is lowered.”
“No, that wouldn’t suffice for resting our troops,” Harbor protested.  “Even if we did catch the minotaurs off-guard, it would do us no good to be fighting with an army that isn’t well rested.  Our soldiers are strong and can fight well, but only when they’re properly prepared for such an engagement.  If we force a battle on our soldiers early in the morning, it will be like forcing them to fight with no sleep at all.  Our enemy will also be given time to rest and establish themselves, which will counter us if they figure out our wave attack system.  If they are able to set up small trenches or retreat to narrow corridor that will get our soldiers stuck, we will be slaughtered.”
“I have to agree with Harbor here,” Skalos said.  “If there is a chance that we catch them off guard, it needs to be with our movements, not our timing.  They’ll be able to see us moving out of camp to attack them, even in the morning.  We cannot afford to let them retreat, or worse, win.  Therefore, I propose we attack in the evening.  We would begin to march the infantry out to the north and expose our archers to the front.  If they attack, our infantry will collapse on them and flush them out.  If not, the archers can turn and unleash withering volleys into the enemy’s face while the infantry form up for wave attacks, the enemy drawn out of their position.”
“And if they don’t bite,” Pelios questioned.  “Even if the minotaurs seem like a bloodthirsty lot, let’s at least factor in common sense.”
“The spiderlings can attack from their rear, moving under the cover of night and striking at their camp, wreaking havoc,” the Matriarch suggested.  “They do not require the rest of mortals as much and would be much harder to repel in an organized fashion.  With the broodmothers we brought along, there wouldn’t be a need for Fallen command on the field.  I would like to avoid that strategy, however, since it would cause massive amounts of casualties among my children and put my most precious ones at risk.  If we enter into the dire straits, I can see the necessity in using my children as intended.”
“We’ll keep both thoughts in mind,” Kraven assured the Matriarch, staring down at where he sat on her head.  It seemed that until the arachnid had spoken, they’d forgotten they were sitting on her head.  “I believe this evening assault to be the best option, but there is also value in attacking the enemy tomorrow night.  We may even be able to meander our troops slowly in a way that provides us an excellent position to strike from the dark.  With the moon still only beginning to wane, it will be bright enough to light the battle ground.  The only immediate detriment I can see to this plan is that we, well, glow in the dark.”
“It would seem that, for the moment, the best plan is to establish our camp in its normal spot unless it’s already contested, at which point we camp on the top of the Big Face,” Yarem summarized.  “We’ll strike by the evening with the formation as described by Skalos with the goal of completely crushing our enemies and leaving no survivors.  This will all be much more solidified once there is more abundant information on our enemy, but at present, this is our plan?”
“What do you think, Ray,” Pelios asked, glancing at the human.  He had remained silent the whole time, watching as each of the five generals had spoken their thoughts and said aloud conclusions he’d come to.  
Eyeing each of his generals slowly, he declared, “We don’t have enough information to have any of these plans be concrete, however, if circumstances do not change, we will follow Skalos’ plan of an evening movement to start the battle.  For the moment, though, I would recommend that you have your soldiers mentally prepared for a battle today.  While we do not plan to engage our enemy today, we have no way of knowing whether or not they will attack us on sight.  We must be prepared for every circumstance, especially the most uncomfortable ones.  While it’s hopeful we will not be drawn into a battle tonight, I cannot promise it will not happen.  Thanks to the minotaurs still being a relatively new enemy, we don’t know very much about how they will react to the sudden appearance of our army.  I’ll dismiss you currently, but be prepared for me to call you together again at a moment’s notice.  Hopefully the scouts will bring us more information before the hour is up…”
“I shall let you all down now,” the Matriarch softly informed the six generals, leaning her head down and allowing for them to hop off.  Once they were gone, she stood and added, “I have given orders to my broodmothers to follow your orders for them.  They will do as told to the word.  Kraven, the broodmother assisting with the archers will listen to you solely, as taking commands from two mortals at once confuses.”
The stallion smirked at Harbor and gloated, “Guess that makes me that much better than you when it comes to organized commands.”
“Hey, you’re the one who needs the help, not me,” Harbor retorted, punching his friend lightly.
“I, uh… Good one,” Kraven allotted abashedly.  The six of them laughed lightly as the Matriarch silently left, the earth trembling with each of her large steps.  When the chuckling stopped, they glanced around, realizing they were now ahead of a very confused Commander Rade, who watched the massive arachnid leave.  Shrugging, Kraven said, “Best we return to our soldiers and give them the good news.”
“They’ll be kicking some minotaur ass,” Yarem questioned with a grin.  
“Something along those lines,” Ray agreed with his own smirk.  “I’ll see you gents in a bit.  I need to watch out for the scouts again.  Hopefully we meet soon and can make a more definitive plan.  Move out.”
“Yessir,” came the orderly reply, the generals turning and racing back towards the soldiers.  As Commander Rade approached, Kraven paused long enough to tell him some of the plan.  Ray moved to take lead in marching the army as every high-ranking member of the archers’ division followed Kraven and Harbor for a swift debriefing.  Sighing, some weight off of his shoulders after the short conference with his generals, he fell into the rhythm of marching again, eyes scanning the nearby hills for signs of returning scouts.  It had probably only been half an hour since they had been sent out again, and he didn’t expect them to return for another half an hour, but he wasn’t taking any chances of missing them.  
Straining his eyes, he tried to see the distant column of dust, but the hill that faced them was too large and obscured the distant cloud.  They were now marching right along the Big Face’s northern side, where the ground gently sloped up to the top.  Their entire southern flank was obscured by the hill, and in front of them was another one, though it was still some three or four miles away.  Northwards was a trio of hills about a mile away, small valleys between them too tight for the army to pass through safely.  Frowning, he pressed on.
With any luck, their march into their position would go unopposed and allow their troops much needed rest after the first day of marching.  However, as Yarem pointed out, if it came down to a fight, the Fallen would still probably have the advantage.  They had been marching for only one day, and given that it wasn’t the most intensive march, they still probably had enough energy to fight while their enemies required rest.  That thought made Ray gasp in realization as a new plan began to form out of the implications.  The Fallen still had energy, the minotaurs might challenge their position, but if so, his soldiers would have a better position to attack from.  
Rubbing a hand over his chin, ignoring the stubble that prickled against his fingers, he began thinking hard.  The Fallen could fight today, if necessary, though by the time they arrived at their proposed campsite, it would be sunset.  That would mean the entire night would be occupied by battle, a prospect that left him more tired just thinking about it.  It was a drastic plan, but the more he thought about it, the more he was certain it could work if needed.  At the moment, they had a proper plan and effective strategy for taking on the minotaurs with much less risk involved than this one.  Unless the scouts brought new information that changed the game entirely, he wouldn’t even bring up the plan with his generals.
As if summoned by the thought of them, Ray spotted two figures once again racing across the flat plains between the hills, little dust trails following them.  Not wasting a moment, he took off running as well to meet them as quickly as possible.  After only a few minutes of sprinting, the scouts had closed the distance, Ray slowing his pace.  
“What’s the news,” he asked, trying to keep his panting down.  
“Sir, we have an approximate number of the enemy,” one of them stated while the other began breathing slower.  “Our intermediate scouts, Leer and Shall, were able to assess the enemy army from atop a hill to their north and approximate the size of their force.  According to them, it is no less than ten thousand but no more than twelve thousand.  The enemy army seems to be slowing down, as they’ve only covered a half a mile in the past hour, but they don’t look to be stopping either.”
“So, it is minotaurs,” Ray muttered to himself, no longer able to have any reservations about what the future of the campaign would be now.  
“It’s worse than that though, sir,” the second mare informed him with wide eyes.  “Kichiten and Amberose have reported spotting a second cloud behind the first army of minotaurs.”
A chill spread across Ray’s entire body, goosebumps prickling his skin in spite of the scorching heat.  He couldn’t hide his shock and panic as he questioned loudly, “A second army?”
“It would appear so, lordling,” the first replied solemnly.  “What are your orders?”
“Go immediately and keep scouting out this first army while our forward scouts go out and investigate this second army,” he ordered firmly.  “Do not return unless the enemy stops or changes trajectory.  If our army comes into sight of you, return to debrief us before we engage the enemy.  We want as much knowledge about our enemy as possible.  Do you understand?”
“Of course, sir,” the second replied while the first heaved in a breath.
“Go,” he ordered, waving a hand and turning to race back to the army.  Thinking quickly, he shouted as he ran, “Matriarch, I’m not sure if you heard that exchange but the scouts are reporting there is a second army.  I repeat, there is a second army out there.  Gather the generals for a meeting immediately!  I’ll be there shortly.”
While he knew he wouldn’t hear a response, in the distance, he saw the Matriarch suddenly stand her full height and step over parts of the army carefully, her face pointed towards him.  Huffing, out of breath, he arrived at the front of the army, right as the Matriarch picked up the last of the infantry generals.  Pausing, knowing it would only take a minute longer and desperately needing air, he stopped in front of the army once again.  At the front, Commander Rade and the archers who’d been leading the march all day watched him curiously.
“Based on that reaction, I’m guessing we have something to be afraid of now,” the commander grumbled.  
“Let’s just say it’s we put on our big kid pants,” Ray replied in between pants.  Cursing softly, he rolled out his shoulders.  “I guess since you’ve seen, you have a right to know.  There’s a second army out there.”
There was a short, shocked silence from the soldiers in the front as they stared at Ray, the grim news obviously unexpected and catastrophic.  The first army had been an unexpected challenge, one that they had thought to be something they would face maybe a week into the campaign.  Just half an hour ago, however, they had determined it wouldn’t be that threatening to the campaign as it helped achieve the goal of seeking out and destroying the army.  Now, however, there was a grave danger in continuing to march forward.  Every soldier knew that no matter the size of the two armies, it would be impossible to face them.  Especially with one of them already being two-thirds the size of their army.
Finally, the curses, shouts, and sighs came, the soldiers in front continuing to march as they let out their frustration.  How they kept their feet moving towards the enemy even when they knew there was now a second threat to their lives, Ray didn’t know.  It was admirable, but he didn’t have time to admire them for following orders.  Setting his jaw, drawing himself up, he shouted over them, “It would seem we now have a vast array of possibilities ahead of us.  Prepare yourselves for the fight ahead.  Yes, we will have to fight them.  Maybe not today, or tomorrow, or even this week, but there are two armies out there that we must face someday.  Be ready for that, soldiers.  Be ready for more killing.”
By the time he was finished saying that, the Matriarch had arrived and was reaching for him.  Turning, he climbed up the proffered limb and was greeted by the solemn sight of the generals sitting atop the Matriarch’s head, mouths downturned and eyes hard.  There wasn’t a need for any explanation, it seemed, so Ray got right into business.
“Our forwardmost scouts are reporting a second army, with our intermediate scouts having calculations for the first army’s size, putting them at between ten and twelve thousand,” Ray summarized, sitting down.  
“We need to retreat immediately,” Yarem stated outright.  “There’s no way we can face two armies, especially with those kinds of numbers.  Casualties will be high, and our troops are ill-prepared for a series of consecutive battles.  Engaging these enemies is not an option, and neither is establishing a position nearby.  It would give time for the second army to catch up and encircle us.  We’d have run out of supplies eventually and they could be reinforced by more soldiers at any moment, while we obviously can’t.  We must return to camp and be on the defensive.”
“And how would you propose we do that,” Kraven questioned angrily.  “We’ve been marching for over seven hours to get to this point.  If we turn around and march back to the beachhead, we’ll arrive dead in the middle of night.  Our soldiers will be exhausted for the next couple days, in which time we wouldn’t be able to be as extensively prepared for a battle as we previously were.  The minotaurs would catch up before our defenses were even halfway prepared and we’d be fighting a battle against two armies in a very tight spot.  Face it, a defensive seems just as impossible as an offensive.”
“Then what do you propose we do, general,” Yarem demanded furiously.  “You just admitted an offensive is impossible, so how do you suppose we’ll be able to escape this situation alive?  There aren’t any other nearby defensive positions that wouldn’t result in us being surrounded and slaughtered.  The top of the Big Face would just result in an extended siege, anywhere else is too sudden or far away to serve us appropriately in defending our army.  It would seem we’ve walked right into a trap.”
“An unintentional trap,” Skalos pointed out sharply.  “It would seem that we know about our enemies while they do not.  Ray, have the scouts reported on their movements?”
“Yes, it would appear that they are slowing their march, or at least the first army is,” Ray stated.  “I don’t believe it’s because they’re waiting for the arrival of a reinforcing army, however.  The forwardmost scouts had to have been more than a mile away from the first minotaur army when they spotted the second, which means they had to be maybe two or three miles away.  Unless this second army just barely came into contact with the first one, I highly doubt they wouldn’t have combined further back.  It seems more likely that they are intentionally keeping apart for whatever reason.”
“If the two armies are keeping apart, that means that we will have some advantage for a brief period of time if we engage the first army,” Pelios voiced.  “If it came down to it, we could engage this first army and then retreat after the first few waves thin them out.  It could still be a major victory if we destroy half of the army and get out before the second army can join in.”
“We must aim for nothing but the complete destruction of the first army,” Kraven demanded.  “If we allow concessions to their survival, it ensures that we will still face a second, if diminished, army.  By destroying this first army, we may be able to scare off our enemy and retreat after the fact.  The archers could fire volleys at the enemy and then wrap around behind them while the infantry engage.  They could prevent retreating enemies and establish a line of fire to repel the second army, or at the very least damage it plentifully before they engage.  The ballistas will wreak havoc on their advance and hopefully cause the minotaurs to balk.  At the very least, it would distract them long enough to cut down the first army.”
“How do you propose we even do that, though,” Yarem questioned.  Rubbing the back of his head with a hoof, he confessed, “We may be in over our heads here.  If retreat isn’t an option, then the only two other options are to fight or keep moving.  I don’t believe we could outrun the minotaurs once they’ve caught on to us, and if they have any competent generals, their two armies could force us into a terrible position.  That simply leaves fighting our way out as the last option.  As confident as I am in our soldiers, I don’t believe the infantry are capable of completely eliminating an enemy force even only half it’s size.”
“But I do,” Ray proclaimed, clasping his hands.  “I think that the infantry will be facing a tremendous task of eliminating the army of the minotaurs, but with opening volleys from the archers and ballistas, enough damage will be done to soften our enemies proficiently.  Our soldiers still have a numerical advantage of at least one thousand more then them, which means that not every soldier will even kill a minotaur.  That and the suddenness of our appearance should cause enough confusion to make up for any sense of organization they have in marching this way.  As far as we’re aware, they have no clue that we’re here or that we have more soldiers than them at present.  We need to use these advantages before we lose them.”
“But sir, we’re mostly planning on minimal information and random guesses and predictions based off of how we’d react,” Yarem pointed out with a sigh.  “I’m sorry, but I think, if anything, we should halt our march and see if there’s a way to slip around them.  Maybe then, when we’re behind both armies, we can adequately prepare for a battle.  Until then, we need to survive and…”  
The stallion trailed off as they all noticed two sets of figures, one from the north and one from the direction they were marching.  In an instant, the Matriarch was moving towards the former, closer pair.  Before the minute was out, she was looming over them, not bothering to warn them as she reached out a feeler and carefully picked them up.  The two scouts let out spooked shouts at the sudden movement, but before they could panic too much, they were planted safely on the Matriarch’s head.
“What news do you have, soldiers,” Ray questioned over the thundering of the Matriarch’s legs as she moved towards the second set of scouts.
“W-w-we caught a pair o-o-of minotaurs,” one of them said, holding up a bloody horn as proof.  “We spo-o-o-ted ‘em before th-they could s-s-see us and g-g-got ‘em wit’ our b-bows.”
“What’s the matter, soldier,” Ray asked with a friendly smile, resting a hand on the terrified soldier’s shoulder.  “Never been on a giant spider before?”
“Can’t say we have,” the second, calmer scout replied for his comrade.  “Sir, if there are minotaur scouts about, then it means that-” 
“There’s an army, yes, we already know about them,” Ray informed the surprised scout.  
“Two, actually,” Kraven clarified.  “We were just discussing how we don’t know enough about our foes at current for an effective plan of action.  Pray tell, Inertia, did you happen to spot any clouds of dust rising in the distance.”
“No sir,” the stallion, Inertia, replied with a sharp salute.  “Orders?”
“You and your companion shall go back into the field and kill any more scouts if they attempt to find our army,” Kraven ordered.  Ray only then realized that these must have been scouts personally sent out by the general given his familiarity with them, and thus remained silent as he gave them orders.  “Your goal is no longer to scout, but to prevent us from being scouted.  Kill on sight, and do not allow them to get close enough to see our numbers.”
“Yessir,” the two replied before the Matriarch lurched, grabbing the second pair of scouts and wordlessly taking the two scouts on her head and setting them on the ground.  Ray suppressed a chuckle at the way she had cycled out the scouts, using her own head as an outpost and command center.  
“News,” Ray instantly demanded, staring at the two mares for the third time today.  
“Both armies have halted completely," the two said in unison before blushing at the breach of protocol.  Disregarding it, one of them stated, “The first army seems to be just barely stopping, about two miles from this position right now.  Kichiten reported that the second army has probably been stopped for about half an hour, since tents are already being pitched and fires lit.  It appears that both armies are settling for the night.  Orders.”
“Retract Kichiten, Amberose, and the intermediate scouts,” Skalos ordered, seeing Ray pause to absorb the information.  “The six of you will work counterintelligence now, preventing enemy scouts from finding us and gathering information.  You have your orders.  Go.”
The pair didn’t have time to salute as the Matriarch suddenly reached up and grabbed them.  Their screams faded as they were set on the ground, only Pelios snickering at the unseemly handling of their scouts.  
“Poor mares probably had no clue if the Matriarch was going to eat them or not,” he chuckled.  
“I do not eat ponies, or at least, not when there are minotaurs on the table,” the Matriarch slyly responded, rendering a few chuckles from the group.  Noting their humor, she proudly muttered, “It seems I’m beginning to understand mortal humor.”
Almost all of this was lost on Ray, who had his hand over his mouth and brow furrowed as he thought deeply about the information he’d been given.  A plan was forming in his head, one he hated tremendously if not for the prospect of how dangerous it was then for the fact that it actually might work.  The generals fell silent, turning their attention to him as he silently glanced between them and the Matriarch’s black exoskeleton.  They would hate it, certainly, but the chance that it would succeed and ensure the war continued was what kept him thinking about it.  After several more seconds of valuable thinking, he finally opened his mouth.  
“We’re going to attack the first army tonight,” he muttered softly.  
“Sir, what did you say,” Kraven asked with wide eyes as some of the others gasped.
Taking a deep, mournful breath in, he lifted his head and declared firmly, “We are going to attack the first army tonight.”
“Permission to speak frankly, sir,” Skalos asked tightly, his lips pressed thin.
“Proceed,” Ray granted, bracing himself.
“That plan is suicidal, Ray, whatever it may be,” the stallion exclaimed, his eyes narrowing.  “You would have an army that’s been marching for almost nine hours today alone directly attack an enemy force that could be reinforced by a second army to outnumber and crush it.  Not only that, you would have them do it as darkness falls and without warning.”
“I would have a fresh army much larger than it’s enemy attack it when they least expect a battle and right after they’ve settled down to rest, with an army hellbent on its immediate destruction,” Ray rebutted, pointing a finger at Skalos.  “Not only that, but we have over forty thousand spiderlings with us and the World Weaver herself.” 
“It’s feasible, sir, but how,” Kraven interrupted, his eyes darting back and forth between Ray and Skalos.  
Tearing his eyes away from his friend, Ray explained slowly, “We’ll implement your plan with the archers.  The first army is supposedly two miles away, or just over that hill, which is perfect.  You’ll be able to rain several volleys down on the enemy forces while our waves form up quickly.  The minotaurs would be insane to attempt to fight uphill, and even if they did attempt to do so, the infantry can repel them.  As soon as the waves launch, you’ll wrap around the enemy completely and re-establish your archer blocks in the next best position and prepare to scare off the second army if it approaches.  The infantry and spiderlings can deal with the minotaurs and eliminate them to the last in a matter of a few hours, especially with wave tactics in use.”
“But you would still have us fight without any rest and without any preparation like we did for the landing,” Yarem grumbled.  “I don’t doubt we’re capable of it, but it will more than likely cause heightened casualties and confusion.  You would be willing to suffer higher casualties to-”
“To eradicate an enemy army swiftly and leave us with the option of retreat and regroup,” Ray interrupted sharply, eyes narrowed at the general.  “You said yourself we can’t retreat if there are two armies.  Well, eliminating one sure as hell clears up that problem for us.”
“Unless we take casualties to a degree where it doesn’t matter that we destroyed that army,” Yarem exclaimed.  “If we destroy that army but suffer casualties in the thousands, it will not be worth the expenditure.  I can agree with other plans of attack, but doing so tonight?  At this point in time, we should stop marching, rest, and formulate a more reasonable and less apocalyptic plan.”
“There isn’t time for that, not if we want to destroy the first army without the second’s intervention,” Ray countered, folding his arms.  “I’ll be completely honest with you, none of this should have happened.  We weren’t meant to find an army today, on our first day of marching.  We weren’t even supposed to be marching in the first place.  If the minotaurs had acted as we thought they would, we would have fought off these armies months ago.  But the minotaurs haven’t acted as we’ve expected, just like right now.  
“Their armies should have merged, their troops should still be marching, but instead, they’ve stopped and given us a grand opportunity.  It’s time for us to stop balking at their oddities and inconceivable actions and take advantage of the weaknesses they’ve shown.  This is a brief but vital opportunity to strike lethally at them and destroy more minotaurs than we did on the day of our invasion.  If we hesitate now, we risk facing an army twice, maybe three times as strong as our own, and then we’ll be kicking ourselves for letting this chance slip away because of our fears.
“We’ll suffer more casualties than before.  Hundreds of casualties, most likely, but not thousands of them.  But if the death of seven or eight hundred soldiers means the remaining sixteen thousand live and continue to fight, no longer threatened by two enemy armies, then it will be a noble cause for death.  A necessary one, even.  These are the hard choices we have to make, though, choosing to fight even though it means so many of our own will die.  That’s what makes war hard and our job the hardest, choosing the time and place for soldiers to die.  But being smart about those choices, taking the opportunity given and utilizing it for the purposes of saving the army and Equestria itself is also an invaluable and primary goal of our leadership.”
“There’s a difference between exploiting opportunities and taking bold risks, Ray,” Harbor protested.  “You say this as if we know with absolute certainty that our army can take on such a grueling, bloody challenge such as this.  I protested the march itself because I feared overextension, but I never could have imagined we would become this screwed over by walking away from the beach.”
“Fear has kept us from protecting Equestria once before, Harbor,” Kraven darkly pointed out.  “I will not let fear turn me against Equestria again, and we shouldn’t let it turn our soldiers away from its defense.”
“You would die for this plan,” the stallion challenged, glaring.
Returning the harsh stare of the general with cool determination, Kraven replied, “Especially if it meant the enemy no longer threatens Equestria.  We’re only here because we failed once before, killing the very ponies we swore to protect.  We have no right to fear death when we so willingly killed thousands of our kinsfolk because of our fear.  The Fallen should be willing to bravely die rather than live because of their fear.”
“I do not agree with Kraven’s extremes, but, ultimately, I trust in Ray,” Skalos said softly, staring at the two generals.  “Even if this endeavor means the death of a thousand Fallen, the killing of twelve thousand minotaurs is a blow that will undoubtedly be felt by our enemies.  What will the second army think when we step away from the battle, leaving thousands upon thousands of their allies dead in the sungrass?  When they see that we’ve killed the previous army to the last, how willing do you believe they will be to continue pursuing us?  Even if they are raving, bloodthirsty monstrosities, they would think twice in the face of our army’s fervor and fury.”
“It is obvious that you and Kraven support Ray’s plan, and that I and Harbor will not support it,” Yarem stated sharply.  He turned to Pelios expectantly before asking, “What do you think, Pelios?”
“I say that if Ray can go an entire day and night without sleep while marching as much as us, throwing in a sprint here and there, then who are we to complain about the energy needed for a battle,” the yellow stallion shrugged simply.  “My only concern was the troops needing their rest, but seeing Ray lead the first wave down the slopes of the hill and into the fray will energize the infantry well enough.  I believe it is time to truly begin this offensive.”
There was silence for a second, as the two opposing generals stared in disbelief at Pelios’ frankness.  He had been their last chance at balancing the vote and forcing them come up with another plan, though Ray would have called upon his power to force the plan into action regardless.  However, two infantry generals willing to throw their troops into a battle such as the one Ray proposed was, supposedly, unprecedented.  Ray smiled at the general thankfully, knowing he had made the decision mostly for Ray’s sake.  Of all the generals, Pelios was the most middle ground, having been a Moderate and being a member of the archer corps in the old army before becoming one of the best spears in the army.  Now, he was taking another chance and entrusting the fate of the army in Ray’s plan.
“I, too, believe Ray is making the correct decision here for completely different reasons,” the Matriarch voiced from beneath them.  “A victory here, twelve miles from the shore, gives our enemies the illusion of a grander army with far more reach than we actually have.  They will be hesitant to attack us across these desolate plains and it will give us a buffer zone of several miles that they will presume we have under total lockdown.  Rather than retreat and reveal our skittishness for lack of numbers, it will tell them we are unafraid of engaging them on sight.  They will fear extreme action into our supposed territory.”
“So, we’re doing this, then,” Harbor questioned, no longer sounding angry, but rather, frightened.  He stared long and hard at Ray with wide eyes, his throat tight and face paled.  
“Yes, Harbor, we’re going to fight them tonight,” Ray told the general, letting his guard slip and reaching out to his friend, pulling him in for a hug.  Patting a hand against the stallion’s back, he said loudly, “The six of you are my greatest allies, but more importantly, my closest friends.  If there is anyone in the whole world I can trust in, it’s you six, and after this battle is over, I know I’ll see you again and we’ll know that this was the right course of action.  However, for the moment, we will endure this fear.”
Pulling away from Harbor and looking him in the eye, he added, “We will overcome it.”
The stallion nodded determinedly with narrowed eyes, the fear gone in an instant.  In spite of the general’s hesitations, when the time came for action, Harbor had the unique trait of an indomitable spirit.  With a deep breath, he muttered, “I guess we’ll need to be dismissed to our different divisions to prepare them for the coming battle.”
“Indeed, general,” Ray agreed, slipping back into his role as the general.  “Generals, thank you for your words.  You are dismissed.”
No sooner had the stallions saluted than the Matriarch had reached up to bring them to the ground, using both of her feelers to carefully take them off.  Smiling slightly as they were taken, he stood up and carefully removed the kharamh from his back, holding up the weapon in front of his face.  The metal glinted brightly in the waning sunlight, the hook looking like a crescent of burnt gold.  It was probably around six now, an hour out from when they were supposed to have stopped.  Instead, this terrible turn of events necessitated the use of this beautiful weapon before the time and place were more appropriate.  His hand slowly ran up and down the base of the weapon before dangerously tracing the blades themselves, feeling their incredible sharpness.  
His smile faded as he felt creeping sadness from within as he admired his weapon.  It was rare for him to have to make decisions so fast, and in spite of his confidence in front of the generals, there were still doubts plaguing him.  The obvious doubts of course, of whether or not he had made the right decision and if he was going to lose someone near to him.  There were other, lesser doubts as well, of whether or not he would live through this or if one of the generals would lose someone close to them and no longer be able to handle the stress.  He had put enormous pressure on them today in a short time, forcing them to make decisions for the fate of not only the army, but Equestria itself.  The unprecedented first army and unbelievable second army had forced their hand, though, and for all it was worth, this was the best plan he could have come up with.
It was also his only plan.
Sighing in defeat, he slumped to the Matriarch’s head, his voice cracking as he asked, “Did I just doom us all, Matriarch.”
“Oh, my Orphan of the Cosmos, my dearest friend,” the Matriarch comforted, carefully reaching up and grabbing him with a feeler.  Being picked up by the tough, prickly appendage was strange, but as he was lifted in front of her face, he didn’t care.  Looking into the Matriarch’s, he saw hope and care in them, hurt at his own self-doubt and pain.  “There is not a choice you have made I don’t believe in, not because I blindly follow your every move, but because I know as a matter of truth that your principle is in saving as many lives as possible.”
“But principle can still lead to inaccurate maneuvers and incorrect actions,” Ray replied.  Glancing at the army the Matriarch slowly walked besides, he muttered, “All of these soldiers have been marching the whole day without complaint or hesitation, and I may well be marching many of them to their deaths.  I take full responsibility for the fact that some will die… but I’m scared that I may have jumped the gun this time and thrown us straight into the enemy’s waiting arms.  If the Spectre did warn them about our plan… I could have sentenced thousands of these good soldiers to their deaths.  I could have doomed Equestria to conquest and bloodshed, ending the love and friendship that has survived so much already.”
“But instead, you’ve defended it, Ray,” the Matriarch assured him with a pointed pat of a feeler on his head.  He smiled slightly at that, an appendage that could crush him with one wrong move being used to console him.  “You may have just made a choice that has secured a victory for Equestria over the minotaurs, though we still have far too little information to tell.  You have not, however, made a terrible mistake.  Trust yourself.  Your plan is decisive, merciless, and intelligent, three characteristics that have a lethal combination the minotaurs will reel from.  By the time the sun rises, I promise our enemies will be scattered.”
Smiling at the World Weaver, he leaned in and hugged her massive face, careful not to poke any of her large eyes.  “Thank you, my friend.  I wish we had known each other in a time before conflict dominated our focus.”
“I as well,” the Matriarch hummed, her eyes closing as they shared the moment for just a little longer.  Finally, though, it was time for them to get to work, and without a word, the Matriarch set him down to the front side of the army, turning and retreating to her spiderlings, clicking as she went.  Swallowing to clear his tight throat, the human walked towards the front, determined to take the lead once more and march the army into battle.
The chatter of the army died down quickly, an eerie silence replacing it as hushed whispers covered up by the stomping of hooves on dry dirt became the only noise.  Word spread quickly, though Ray didn’t look behind him to see the army come to the realization that it was about to march straight into battle.  Still, he could feel their eyes on the back of his head, watching as he carried his kharamh aloft, at ease but prepared to use it.  Silently, he confirmed that they were indeed facing the enemy tonight, a prospect that hadn’t been thought of when the army launched this morning.  Yet, here they were, and slowly, calm conversations began anew, this time determined and preparing for the coming battle.
He no longer heard laughter from the archers all behind him, but rather grunts of affirmation or encouraging remarks passed between friends and comrades.  The soldiers were bolstering each other as they neared the spot where they should have pitched tents for the night.  When the army passed by the proposed area, the far slope of the Big Face flattening out into a short plain as another smaller hill faced them, they did not slow.   To their south, the plains opened up, the first time in hours they could see past the protection of the Big Face’s large slopes and out into the sungrass fields.  
The sun was dimming when they began to climb the slopes of the hill facing them, and the last conversations died down as the army realized their enemy would be in sight as soon as this obstacle was crested.  Behind him, the creaking of the ballistas signaled their rapid movement to the frontmost areas in preparation for what was to come.  The hour felt endless and short at the same time, Ray’s silent leadership giving him too much time to think and not enough preparation for reality.  As he faced the slowly leveling top of the hill, he finally accepted that this was it.  Once he came to the top of this hill, he would face the army he had commanded the Fallen to destroy.  And from there, fate would run its course.
He refused to let himself pause for a second, pushing himself to take the final steps uphill and to the top of the hill, the slopes slowly leveling out to an even top.  It wasn’t wide, per se, as he could see the end of it, but it was still long enough that it didn’t reveal the valley between it and the other hill on the opposite side.  The sun was setting now, only half of it above the hill beyond this one, and he knew that in less than half an hour, it would be completely gone.  Walking forward, keeping a steady pace, he noted as the archers silently began to break off into two separate blocks, one led by Harbor and the other by Kraven.  Giving them each a salute, he was almost surprised when the hill finally did recede the valley below was revealed.
It wasn’t that far down, the hill maybe only four hundred feet tall, but still tall enough that the Fallen army loomed over the camp nestled between the two hills.  Ray inhaled sharply as he saw thousands of tents pitched up with hundreds of fires blazing, though they didn’t create nearly as much smoke as he would’ve expected.  In between the fires and tents, small figures moved back and forth in unorganized and irrelevant patterns.  The camp itself was unorganized, a conglomerate of half-pitched sheets and spotty fires that barely filled the gap between the two valleys, leaving them perfectly placed for the Fallen to decimate them, and as he stared at the minotaur’s camp, finally still, he had one thought.
They had caught the minotaurs completely by surprise.
There was a serene silence as the two armies stared at each other, the Fallen sizing up their unprepared enemy and the minotaurs shocked by the sudden appearance of the Fallen.  It didn’t last, as instantly orders were shouted and weapons clanked as the Fallen swiftly moved into action, the archer blocks forming into dense squares of soldiers while the infantry ran through the gap between the two blocks and formed the first wave.  Ray moved with them, taking the very center of the first wave as he had done on the day of the invasion, standing between two unnamed Fallen as the soldiers prepared to charge.  
“Fire,” he heard Harbor shout over the din, some unicorn soldier using their magic to amplify his voice.  Instantly, four thousand arrows were loosed and over two hundred ballistas shot their payloads as the ear-splitting scream of the projectiles drowned out all other noise.  Ray watched with grim satisfaction as the cloud of arrows speckled with large bolts from the ballistas fell upon the minotaurs.  The arrows tore through the frontmost layer of tents and a rapidly forming group of a few hundred minotaurs in front of the camp.  Hundreds of minotaurs were killed in an instant as the first volley tore through their weak front.  Ballista bolts smashed through tents and destroyed fires, some killing or injuring several minotaurs at once.  The first action of the archers in the war was a resounding success.
“Reload,” came the cry as the first wave rapidly finished forming, the infantry bristling with anticipation and fury.  They awaited the fateful cry of the archer commander to signal them to charge, the second volley the signal they needed to engage the enemy.  Below, the minotaurs scrambled around the wreckage of the front of their camp, and while they were unprepared and disorganized, Ray had to admit they were quick.  In only a few short minutes, they had possibly thousands of their soldiers forming a coherent block of soldiers in front of their camp, though on closer inspection, it appeared some of them were unarmed.
“Fire,” Harbor bellowed again, a second shriek of arrows and bolts being shot into the minotaur army overtaking all noise again.  As soon as it had died out, the projectiles soaring toward the minotaurs below, Ray raised his kharamh into the air and roared, “Charge!”
Instantly, the infantry thundered down the slopes of the hill, Ray sticking with them to begin with but quickly being outpaced by the faster equine soldiers.  In front of them, only some hundreds of feet away, the minotaurs reeled from the second volley.  A vast majority of the arrows cut through the front lines of the minotaurs, sending hundreds more toppling to the ground.  The ballistas seemed to be aimed a bit, as most of the bolts flew over the forming minotaur front and slammed into the back lines and front of the camp instead.  All the while, the infantry surged forwards, yelling as they charged relentlessly into the minotaurs.
They stood no chance.
Ray watched in awe as the front of the minotaurs seemed to dissolve in the face of the Fallen spears, the first wave tearing through hundreds of minotaurs easily.  Here and there, a minotaur was able to swing its blade and catch a Fallen, but he was always quickly downed by the soldier behind the slain Fallen.  There were screams, bleats, cracking bones, and shattering weapons as the first wave tore through the face of the minotaurs, easily dismantling the defense they had established even as several Fallen were slain.  Then, like clockwork, they turned from their bloody assault and swept out to the sides of the army, clearing the way for the second wave.  
Before it could arrive, though, Ray was there, bellowing manically as he brought the hook of his kharamh down on an unsuspecting minotaur.  He hadn’t even realized he had closed in on the minotaurs, but his body took over instantly, rage at seeing the bovine beasts shedding the glowing blood of Fallen fueling his hellish bloodthirst.  The first minotaur died instantly, the hook sinking through its shoulder and straight into its heart.  Wrenching the hook out by pulling the blade towards him, he jabbed the weapon forward as his first victim fell.  The attack caught one of the surprised minotaurs in the gut, impaling it smoothly as the other shocked minotaurs finally came to their senses.
They roared angrily, trying to surround him, but Ray was faster.  Ripping his spearhead from the minotaur’s gut, he swung the sharpened butt out and behind him, catching an encircling minotaur in the chest.  Stepping back and pulling the weapon into a two-hand grip, the dead minotaur sliding off its bloody end, he blocked the strike of a minotaur with a sword.  The quick, unexpected block caused the minotaur to lose grip on its weapon, and Ray mercilessly tore out its throat with the hook of his kharamh.  A third minotaur attacked with a heavy downward strike from the axe in its hand, though Ray easily sidestepped the wild attack, ducking under the blade and cutting out its hooves from under it.  Standing up, he slammed the base of the kharamh into its head as it fell to its knees, shattering its skull in a spray of blood.
As the dead minotaur slumped to the side, the second wave finally struck, tearing through the minotaurs in the front and easily navigating the dead left behind by the first wave.  He joined the fray as several layers of the minotaur defenses fell from the second attack, even more hundreds of minotaurs dying as they were able to put up only minimal resistance.  Alongside several other Fallen, Ray dove at the minotaurs, his kharamh sliding past a minotaur’s own spear and straight into its heart.  It died with a soft gasp, but as he pulled his kharamh from the beast, he felt a sharp sting on his back.
“Aye, friendly here, friendly dammit,” he yelled over his shoulder, feeling a light trickle of blood escaping the wound.  He thought he heard an apology yelled from somewhere in the crowd of Fallen as they began to clear away in preparation for the third wave, but he couldn’t have been sure.  Realizing he was now in the din of the minotaurs with his soldiers clearing and leaving him alone with the minotaurs for at least a minute, Ray quickly stepped away from the front of the minotaurs.  
They looked thinner in number, and as he checked to make sure he wasn’t about to trip over dead bodies, he realized that several dozen feet of the battlefield consisted of dead bodies, at least a third of the minotaurs dead now.  In spite of this, they began rushing at him ferociously, leaving him with no option but to retreat back towards the approaching third wave as the minotaurs regained some territory.  A minotaur a bit faster than him in navigating the dead swung at him, but leaping aside, he was able to jab it in the right lung, his spearhead slipping through its ribs.  Grunting in exertion, he ripped it out and fended off a heavy downward slash from a minotaur with a sword, his hands stinging as the base of his kharamh vibrated from the powerful strike.  Disregarding the momentary pain, holding the weapon horizontal, he slammed the hook into the side of the minotaur’s head, piercing its skull and killing it instantly.  
By the time he removed the hook from the minotaur’s head, the third wave rolled over the minotaurs, once again tearing through the minotaur’s attempted defenses.  In a matter of seconds, the ground the minotaurs had retaken was layered with more minotaur dead, trampled to the ground.  Spiderlings leapt from the backs of these soldiers and joined in the fray, while one of the broodmothers charged with the third wave.  She slammed her long legs through the bodies of some minotaurs, screeching while her children bit, throttled, or otherwise disassembled minotaurs with their mother.  Ray shivered slightly at the terrifying sight of thousands of red eyes glowing in the night, the last rays of sunlight replaced by the glow of the moon.  Shaking it off, he joined in the fray once again as the spiderlings continued to engage the minotaurs while the third wave began to retreat.  
With the spiderlings to help preoccupy the minotaurs, Ray found himself less harassed and able to focus down minotaurs instead of fending them off.  Gutting a minotaur that was desperately trying to get a large spiderling off its leg, he whirled his bloodsoaked kharamh around expertly to behead one as it crushed another spiderling with its axe.  A pair of minotaurs moved to challenge him, but the broodmother moved instantly, stepping through one entirely while reaching out and grabbing the second with three of her limbs.  With a shriek, she ripped its head off and began greedily drinking in the viscera of the corpse.  As the fourth wave thundered closer, the spiderlings grouped up carefully to avoid friendly blades as best they could.  
Removing the hands from a minotaur as it attempted to slice at him, Ray kicked it into one of these piles of spiderlings, letting it squeal as it was consumed into the mass of spiderlings.  Panting, his arms sore from the rapid movements of the kharamh and continued fighting, he charged at the next minotaur.  Now that, for a brief moment, the spiderlings had disengaged, the minotaurs were attempting to pick off the larger ones and regain some semblance of a front line.  Slamming his kharamh down on a minotaur spear, he managed to disarm it with a tug of the hook before lunging forward, impaling the warrior.  It slumped against his shoulder as it died, providing him some protection from the probing strikes of another minotaur.  
Its own spear lodged into its dead ally, but as soon as it pulled the weapon free of the corpse, it was run through by a Fallen soldier charging in from the fourth wave.  Sighing in relief, he discarded the corpse on his spearhead and leapt over a fallen minotaur to cut down another one as it raised its sword to attack one of the Fallen soldiers who had gotten his spear stuck in another minotaur.  It slid to the ground with a scream, not quite dead, but too maimed to live much longer.  Ignoring the dying minotaur, the metal of his kharamh clanged against the blade of yet another minotaur’s spear, barely blocked in time to prevent it from piercing his chest.  Grunting, he thrust the spear aside and hit the minotaur in the side of the head with the kharamh.  The hit dazed the minotaur, sending it to one knee and allowing Ray to slam the butt of the kharamh through it.
Unfortunately, his growing weariness led to him slamming the weapon down with too much force, lodging it in the ground below the minotaur.  Cursing loudly, he ducked to the side as a minotaur swung at him with a heavy axe.  This one seemed to have more control of its strength than its fellow warriors, swinging a second and third time in rapid succession without overextending itself.  Grunting, Ray jumped forward as it swung again, the minotaur’s arms thudding against his shoulder as he closed the distance.  One of its elbows bent inward and sent the axe flying out of its hand, a bleat of pain as the human grasped it by the throat.  Letting out a shout, he turned the minotaur by the throat and slammed it down onto his kharamh, still stuck in place.  The minotaur screamed as it slid down the weapons, its back pressing into the back of the first minotaur to have been impaled.  
Stepping back, Ray drew his twin knives from their sheathes, not having the time nor energy to free his main weapon from the two bodies.  The fourth wave had brought even more spiderlings into the fight and a second broodmother, both whaling into the minotaur’s shattered ranks.  The battlefield was dark now, save for the glow of moonlight, shining red eyes of the spiderlings, and occasional patch of Fallen blood.  Pursing his lips at the sight of it, he slipped back into the battle, knowing he was practically unseen thanks to the darkness.  The minotaurs were nothing more than moving shadows now, but he was able to distinguish them better close up thanks to the moon.  
Keeping low, he managed to move past some minotaurs being eaten alive by the horde of spiderlings and slash through two unsuspecting soldiers, causing alarm in the scattering minotaurs.  There was no time for them to turn or continue to retreat, as the fifth wave slammed into the remnants of the minotaurs, trampling through them and into the camp itself, tearing through the tents and scattering the dying embers of fires that had burned just half an hour ago.  Even though the fifth wave cut completely through the remnants of the minotaurs, several pockets of the beasts remained either by chance or through better preparation.  As the fifth wave began to retreat, unmarred by the broken minotaur formations, Ray and the spiderlings got to work with the last pockets of living minotaurs.
Setting his sights on six minotaurs who had been isolated as the rest were attempting to ward off a mass of spiderlings, he dashed over the carnage of the battlefield.  Thanks to the relative darkness, only one of them spotted him, and by that point he was much too close for them to prepare for his ruthless onslaught.  He threw one of his knives at the minotaur who spotted him, the weapon embedding itself in its throat.  Gargling as it died, Ray slid beneath the arm of another minotaur, wrenching the knife from the minotaur’s throat while slicing the tendons of the other minotaur’s knee.  As it fell down, he stood up, spinning to disembowel the creature while also stabbing the other knife into a third minotaur’s back.  
Letting go of the knife stuck into the minotaur’s back, he bent backwards to avoid the sweep of an axe.  Coming up, he brought the knife down on the minotaur who had struck, the knife plunging into its left eye.  Keenly aware of the two remaining minotaurs, he ripped the knife from the minotaur’s head and bent to grab the knife sticking from the minotaur’s back as he ran past.  Grunting, he outpaced the minotaur’s, managing to get behind them before they could fully turn around.  Gripping the knife so the blade was pointed down, he slammed it into one of the panicking minotaur’s shoulders and dragged it back before slitting its throat with the second knife.  He was about to turn to finish off the final minotaur when it suddenly squealed, lifted into the air by the Matriarch’s giant feelers and fed into her mandibles.
Smiling dryly as the Matriarch crunched down on the minotaur, consuming the creature whole, he shouted, “You could have joined us earlier, my friend.  Would’ve been far less tiresome with you on the field.”
Swallowing, she responded, “You had this under control.  Besides, I had important work to do in ensuring our archers were protected and able to establish themselves.”
“Well, at least we didn’t need your help this time,” he replied, taking a moment to assess his surroundings.  In the waning moonlight, most of what he could see were twisted figures glistening with blood, the occasional spot of glowing, colored blood marking where a Fallen had died.  Looking around, he could see dozens of spots marking where one of his soldiers had been slain, causing his throat to tighten.  They had lost far more soldiers than during the invasion, but from what he saw, the casualties seemed relatively small, or at least, he hoped they were.  He didn’t know what a massive amount of Fallen dead would look like, but from what he was seeing, it seemed like they had lost only a few hundred soldiers, possibly lower than the number Ray had projected the campaign would originally cost them.
“We’ve lost many today,” the Matriarch noted grimly, “but far fewer than we anticipated.  I cannot know the number right now, but I suspect I lost less than a thousand of my children today and that you lost less than four hundred of your soldiers.  It is… astounding.”
“You think so,” Ray asked hopefully, before looking past the field of the dead.  The infantry had reformed their waves, though given that there were no more minotaurs left standing and the spiderlings were beginning to feast on the dead beasts, they stood awaiting orders.  On the opposite hill, beyond the camp, the archers were forming up their blocks on the top of the hill.  Frowning, he quickly corrected, “We’ll worry about casualties once this battle is truly over.  For now, please instruct the infantry to move in front of our archers to shield them from the enemy.  I need to find my kharamh.”
“Of course, lordling,” the Matriarch answered courteously, bowing her head quickly before beginning to move in the direction of the infantry.  Behind her back, she called, “You have done incredibly today, Orphan of the Cosmos.  It would appear you have successfully destroyed one army without losing your own.”
“For the moment,” he whispered to her nervously, sheathing his knives as he began to search for his kharamh.  It didn’t take too long, as he found the spearhead with the hook sticking out over the corpses of the two impaled minotaurs.  The blood was barely beginning to dry, though it and the metal still glistened with silvery moonlight.  Frowning, he wrenched it out of the two corpses, the topmost one finally falling to the ground with a soft splatter of blood.  His hands were sticky with blood, droplets of it scattered across his bare chest and back.  The cut along his back felt like it had stopped bleeding, but aside from it and a bruise forming on his shoulder from when the minotaur had hyperextended its elbow on him, he was uninjured.  
Walking quickly, disregarding the gore covering him, he began to jog up the hill as several of the Fallen archers noticed him.  There were mixed reactions to his approach, some saluting, some cheering, and many others cursing at the bloody sight of him.  Even though they had just emerged from one conflict victorious, the archers were wisely quiet as they awaited the second stage of the battle: fending off the second army.  Swiftly making his way through the gap between the two divisions of archers, he ascended the hilltop and saw Harbor and Kraven talking with several of their commanders.  As soon as he was noticed, though, the group went silent, gawking at Ray’s approach.
“Report, general,” he huffed, still lightly panting from the fighting and climbing the hill.  Now that his adrenaline was wearing down slightly, he felt how sore he was, his muscles aching and the urge to lie down far too alluring.  
“Well, um, we haven’t lost a single archer today, if that’s what you were asking,” Harbor stated, staring at the bloodsoaked human.  “Sweet Celestia, Ray, what’d you do, run through one of the beasts?”
“Not quite,” he replied with a shrug.  “Certainly killed a few though.  What’s that noise?”
The silence of the army as they stared at him allowed Ray to pick up on what sounded like distant thunder.  Kraven glanced over his shoulder, towards the hill, stating, “That would be the minotaurs, lordling.  Several dozen minotaurs did escape backwards and I’m guessing they made it to the second army to warn them about us.  It appears the second army would be dashing towards us right now.  You can see the dust cloud obscuring some of the stars if you look closely enough.”
Staring in the direction indicated by the Fallen general, he could actually see a cloud of dust rising above the hill, obscuring some of the stars on the horizon.  Frowning at the sight, he realized what every other soldier watching had come to the conclusion of.  They were about to face a massive enemy force.  Grimacing, he stepped forwards, to the edge of the hill and stared down in surprise at what lay between the two hills.  The slopes were much more uneven here, but what surprised him most was the glowing silk that covered the entire valley area and up to the hooves of the first row of archers.
“What’s this,” he asked, confused.  
“The Matriarch laid out a huge net of silk across the hills to help slow down the minotaurs if they charged us,” Kraven explained, staring down at the glowing veins of silk.  Distantly, the rumbling was closing in quickly.  Frowning, the stallion added, “Apparently we’re going to be needing it.  How did the infantry do, by the way.  It appears that they and the spiderlings completely eradicated the minotaurs, but how did they fare?”
“Minimal casualties, from what I saw,” Ray said with a sad sigh.  Even minimal casualties meant that many Fallen would not survive the war.  
“Skalos, Yarem, and Pelios,” Harbor questioned softly.  
“I don’t know for certain, but if they were dead, I would have heard already,” Ray answered honestly.  “I don’t know who died, but I know-”
He fell silent as suddenly minotaurs emerged from the top of the hill, a mass of the beasts suddenly cresting the hill and charging down the slopes with reckless speed.  Without a word, the archers loosed their first volley, a cloud of arrows interrupted by ballista bolts slamming into the opposite hillside.  Hundreds of the beasts were felled in an instant, but horrifically, they were replaced by thousands of minotaurs as they began flooding the hill en masse.  Ray cursed under his breath, his heart stopping at the sudden appearance of so many minotaurs.  There were several thousand charging downhill already in unorganized fashion, and it didn’t appear like the flow was slowing down anytime soon.  By the time the second volley tore through hundreds of more minotaurs, they were already at the base of the hill and the flow finally stopped.
In all, at least twenty thousand minotaurs must have begun charging them, what he hoped was the entirety of the second army.  Even if it was, it was still far larger than all minotaur armies they had previously engaged, and larger than the Fallen’s by a considerable margin.  However, as it came into contact with the silk, the charge slowed instantly, the minotaurs becoming completely wrapped up in the sticky silk of the Matriarch.  Pretty quickly, the entire front of the minotaur’s army was stuck in the stuff, writhing desperately, trying to escape the webs of the World Weaver.  Ray blinked in surprise as a mass of minotaurs formed behind the minotaurs trapped in the silk, unable to continue to move forward.
The archers took advantage of the minotaur’s hesitation, firing two devastating volleys into the center of the crowd instead of the trapped minotaurs.  By the third volley, the minotaurs stuck in the silk were separated from their living allies by a pile of dead minotaurs and spent ballista bolts.  The free minotaurs began retreating with shrieks of fear, running back over the hill they had come from, harried by yet another pair of volleys before they were over the top.  They left behind several thousand corpses and at least a couple thousand more minotaurs stuck in the silk. Very few managed to cut themselves out of the webbing, but before they could get far, the silky fields were swarmed by the spiderlings, all of them flooding in from either side of the hill and into the silk.
“The spiderlings have it under control now,” Ray told the generals as he turned from the fight.  “I’ll return to the infantry and assess the damages if you can maintain this position and ensure the enemy doesn’t return for seconds.”
“Yessir,” the entourage saluted dutifully.
Beginning to walk back towards the infantry, he took the time to nod to the archers and congratulate them on warding off the enemy effectively.  The infantry was forming into three blocks, one for each division, at the base of the hill, right in front of the battlefield.  Even though he wasn’t too worried about the minotaurs returning again, he decided to save time and walk through the corpses strewn about the battlefield.  Here and there, a minotaur wheezed, still alive enough to breath, but mostly they were all dead.  Still, on the far end of the battlefield, a group of Fallen were carefully making their way across the battlefield, taking count of both sides’ dead and ensuring there were no living minotaurs left.  
In only a few minutes, he had crossed the fields of the dead and was greeted by the three infantry generals.  Letting out a sigh of relief at seeing them all alive, he went to one knee and reached out, grabbing Skalos softly by the shoulder.   Pulling his closest friend in for a hug, he gestured for the other two to join in.  They hesitated slightly because of his blood covered figure, but after a second, they joined the pair.  The four generals set aside their roles for a moment to be four friends, silently thanking their luck that the others were alive and embracing them.  Reining in his emotions, he let them go and sat back with a tired sigh.
“Report,” he asked, noting the depressed look Skalos was giving him.  
Before his suspicions could be raised, however, the general replied, “We don’t know how many are dead… but we found Garish’s corpse… and there were many witnesses to his death.”
For the third time that day, Ray felt his heart drop from his chest as the world went dead quiet, grief shocking his system out of use.  His jaw dropped as he fell backwards into a sitting position, struggling to breath.  Garish was dead?  No… no, Garish was dead.  Taking a shaky breath, he opened his mouth, but no words escaped.  Garish was dead.  The stallion who had talked to him like a normal person, the friend who hadn’t made Ray feel different or responsible.  The carefree and humorous soldier who had remained doggedly loyal to Ray, being there in spite of needing to, being a friend when it wasn’t expected.  He was gone.
“The corpse, where’s the corpse,” he finally asked, his voice ragged with grief.
“He’s covered with over a hundred other bodies we’ve recovered from the battlefield,” Yarem explained softly, pointing towards the top of the hill.  Because of the darkness of night, he almost couldn’t see the area, only picking it out as a pair of Fallen lay another cloth-wrapped body on the hilltop.  Ray squeezed his eyes shut, quickly wiping away the few tears that escaped at the other deaths their army had suffered.  Garish… one of his truest, closest friends.  He had talked with Ray this morning, comforted him through the loss of Otolo.  That had been the last conversation they had ever had…
“Adant,” Ray realized suddenly, ice stabbing his heart once again.  “No, no, poor Adant… has she been informed yet?”
“No, we haven’t had any infantry move to the archers or any archers move to the infantry,” Skalos muttered, equally disheartened.  “She has no way of knowing yet.”
“Then I’ll tell her myself,” Ray stated, numbness washing over him, giving him cold relief from the pain.  “She should hear it from me.”
There was no response or protest when he stood and began walking back towards the archers, hollow pain sending goosebumps across his bloodsoaked skin.  Garish was gone.  He couldn’t believe it, not quite.  He thought he had been prepared for loss, for the death of his friends and allies.  Garish had been one of those he thought he was ready for if he died.  It was foolish for him to think he could have prepared himself for this heartbreak, though, of truly losing a close friend.  Of all the Fallen, Ray knew Garish the best aside from Skalos, and vice versa.  One of his best friends, the first one from the Fallen soldiers themselves and not from the command.
The lost felt… indescribable.  It hurt worse than anything Ray had ever felt, far worse than when he had been stabbed or sliced, his heart aching as if it had been crushed in the fist of some merciless monster.  He couldn’t even look at the minotaur corpses as he walked through them, knowing that one of these beasts had been responsible for removing Garish from the world.  His breath hitched at the thought, knowing how painful this moment would be beyond right now.  Garish and each of those Fallen killed in this battle had been fighting for Equestria and the chance to live in it one day.  Ray had hoped that, even if he didn’t get the chance to live in that perfect world, one day each of his soldiers would be able to.  They each deserved the opportunity to live again, but Garish had died proving that, proving he should have the right to live even as his life was taken from him.
Ray didn’t note the archers this time, moving purposefully towards the ones he knew would have the information he needed.  Spotting Commander Rade, he managed to ask, “Where’s Commander Adant.  I must speak with her urgently.”  
“She’s right over there, with the rest of the…” the commander trailed off as he pointed towards the spot he said the mare would be.  Indeed, when Ray looked, he was able to pick out the deep purple mare from the crowd.  His breath hitched as he spotted her, talking with some of the other archers.  Noting Ray’s tense reaction, Rade muttered, “You’re not here because… No.  it can’t be…”
The human didn’t respond as he made his way towards the mare, the pieces of his heart shattering a bit more with every step.  The archers moved out of his way, whispering as he passed, but it was all distorted to his ears.  After only a few steps, Adant noticed the human approaching and gave him a bright smile.  Blinking away a tear, he closed distance and knelt down in front of the mare, unable to hide his pain.  Seeing this, Adant’s bright smile faded into a concern, then horror.
“Adant, I’m so sorry, but I…” Ray couldn’t bring himself to say it, not knowing how to word what needed to be said appropriately.
“No, Ray, please don’t tell me,” the mare pleaded, shaking her head in disbelief.
“I’m sorry, but Garish has been killed in battle.”
“No,” she shrieked, tears instantly rolling down her cheek.  “No!  No, please, it's not true!  It can’t be true!  Tell me it isn’t true.” 
“It’s true, Adant, I- he… he died,” Ray stammered, the lump in his throat growing as the mare buckled, falling against his leg as he crouched beside her. 
“Please, please,” she sobbed against his leg, wrapping her hooves around him as her tears dripped onto him.  Reaching around her, he picked up the mare carefully as she continued to sob, pleading with him that it was untrue.  The archers around them stared in shock, some of them beginning to tear up as well.  Stepping past the army, stroking the mare’s neck in an attempt to give her some comfort, he quickly moved towards the abandoned slopes of the northern side of the hill, taking them out of sight.  All the while Adant cried, her soulful wails of agony cutting through him.
Once they were in relative privacy, he sank to the ground and simply held the mare as she sobbed endlessly.  Ray couldn’t say anything, barely able to keep himself from following suit and bawling with her.  Instead, he continued to give her slow, soothing pats as she cried herself dry, her tears as cold as Ray’s heart felt.  He didn’t know how long they sat like that, her crying and him simply holding her, but even after her tears stopped, she still sobbed and sniffled.  It was only once those had died down that she finally said something.
“We were supposed to have children,” she hiccuped, her muzzle pressed against Ray’s stomach.  The human’s throat tightened at the statement, knowing the pain the devastated future brought the mare.  “After this damned war, we were supposed to- to move to Vanhoover and have as many children as we could.  We were gonna have a farm for Garish, one that grew all sorts of things.  But n-n-n-now…”
“I know, I know,” Ray attempted comfort as she let out another trembling sob, her hooves shaking as they remained wrapped around him.  
“Farmin’ was his Cutie Mark, y’know, before this,” Adant mumbled once she overcame her trembling.  “I don’t even remember what mine was, but we both knew his was a basket of all kindsa fruits and vegetables.  I didn’t care what my Cutie Mark was, ‘cause I was certain that… so long as I was with him… I could…”
Adant broke off into another fit of dry sobs, and Ray hugged her tighter, trying to calm her again.  “I’m sorry for this, Adant.  This is the most terrible loss anybody could face.  Is there… anything I can do to help?”
“Just this,” she sniffled, nestling her head against his stomach as a few more tears escaped her.  “I- I just can’t… How can you deal with this?  Garish was my husband, but also one of your closest friends?  And other Fallen died too… H-h-how can you deal with so many… so many deaths, Ray?”
“This isn’t about me,” Ray reminded her picking her up slightly to stop her slouching.  “It’s about you and Garish, and how I can try and help.  Or who else could help.”
“I think I just need… someone to be here,” the mare replied honestly, before another wave of sorrow visibly washed over her.  “Sweet Celestia, my poor Garish… he didn’t die painfully, did he?  I-I-I mean, I wasn’t even th-there when he died.  Did he.. Did he… did he…”
“He died in battle,” Ray whispered somberly.  “He didn’t suffer long.  That’s all I know.”
“Oh… my love,” Adant broke down into tears again.  Unable to do anything else, he continued to comfort her until the moon began descending.  Silently, he picked her up, though she didn’t say a word, only continuing to sniffle.  
When he had ascended the hill again, Adant held carefully, he found the archers had begun to descend the hill, towards the infantry.  Even with Ray gone, the army had continued with its standard procedure after the battle.  Glancing at the valley of the Matriarch’s silk, he saw the spiderlings had taken to wrapping many of the bodies already with the World Weaver herself overseeing the process.  Mournfully, the giant arachnid met his eyes and nodded slightly, acknowledging everything she had overheard.  
Catching up quickly with the archers under Adant’s command, he stopped a few of them with his approach and knelt down setting the mare down.  She seemed to be exhausted from grief, her eyes dim and drooping as she continued to sniffle, her mouth moving silently.  Noting the poor condition of the grieving mare, he whispered directly into the ear of one of the soldiers, “Please help her in whatever way you can.  She’s suffering terribly right now and needs friends to listen and talk to her.”
“It’ll be done, sir,” the mare responded hushly.  
“Good,” Ray noted simply, emotionally drained.  
Standing up, he rushed back towards where he saw a large tent being set up, the distinguished pattern on the top lit by moonlight indicating it as the generals’ tent for planning.  The battlefield was surprisingly cleaned up now, most of the minotaur bodies in a large couple of piles while the last of the Fallen scoured for remaining minotaurs.  His legs felt like they would collapse beneath him, exhaustion finally catching up to him after so many hours of avoiding it.  The rest of the army was also setting up their tents atop the hill, the infantry halfway done with the task while the returning archers had yet to get started.  If he had the energy, he would have protested placing their camp right above their old camp, but there was nobody to protest to and most of the soldiers with their tents up would be asleep already.
When he entered the generals’ tent he was greeted by the sight of five extremely haggard, grief-stricken stallions.  They glanced up at him from the table in the middle of the tent, covered in several different pieces of paper.  Sitting on the floor beside the table, Ray’s bleary eyes barely understood what he was staring at.  
“Numbers and names,” Kraven wearily explained, obviously as tired as Ray felt.  Picking up one of the papers, he summarized, “We lost two hundred and eighteen soldiers in battle today, all infantry, and just over four hundred spiderlings.  The numbers aren’t exact yet for the spiderlings or the minotaurs.  The minotaurs, though, lost over twelve thousand soldiers in this valley.  We’ve yet to tally the total with the numbers repelled by the archers and spiderlings.  It’s a crushing victory.  We completely destroyed the minotaurs.”
“Good, good,” Ray muttered, feeling a slight spark of joy at the information.  Still, over two hundred Fallen had died.  Grabbing a larger sheet of paper with a list of the names of the dead, he scanned through it quickly, feeling another twinge of pain as he recognized two of the names on it.  Umron and Garet, the members of Rohan’s division he had met when the Fallen had set their first camp above ground.  They had survived their captain only to die in the next battle, leaving Hammer as the last of the three he had met.
“We did well today,” he muttered loud enough for them all to hear.  Taking a deep breath to give himself a little energy, he instructed them, “Since camp is already being established, you will all retire for the night to get some rest.  We’ll move out in the morning and establish a camp where it was planned to be tomorrow.  Goodnight, gentlemen.”
“And you, Ray,” Skalos questioned.  “What will you be doing?”
“Planning our next move,” Ray answered with an honest shrug.
“Nuh-uh, no way,” Harbor instantly rejected.
“You’re more exhausted than all of us here, and for a very good reason,” Yarem agreed.  “If anypony’s getting sleep, it’s going to be you sir.  You’re already going one night without sleep, and practically missing out on all sleep tonight.”
“But-”
“Push yourself any harder, sir, and you’ll collapse,” Kraven bluntly stated.  “Then, you’ll be out of commission for even longer, and we will never allow you to go a night without some rest again.”
“Yeah, that’s the long and short of it,” Pelios shrugged, moving to shove Ray’s leg.  “C’mon, I already had my soldiers prepare your tent.”
“You bastards,” Ray protested, angry but too exhausted to really resist.  The pushing Pelios was giving him was enough to force his legs to move, so begrudgingly, he went along.  
Chuckling lightly at the young man’s protest, the yellow stallion replied, “Yeah, the real bad guys are the ones making you finally get some sleep.  We might just have to read you a bedtime story to get you to actually sleep.”
“Get outta here,” Ray conceded, reaching down to shove the stallion playfully.  His tent was surprisingly close to the general’s tent, though just far enough from them all to give the human a bit of privacy.  Sighing, realizing there was no getting out of it, he told the general, “You did well today, Pelios, really.  Thank you for trusting me.”
“You're welcome, lordling, but it’s not that hard,” the stallion shrugged, smiling.  “I knew you were going to lead us to victory no matter what we faced, so I did my best to do as ordered.  And I mean, it worked out, didn’t it?”
“Yes, I suppose it did,” Ray agreed with a solemn nod.  Opening the flap to his tent, he softly said, “Goodnight, Pelios.  I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
“I’ll see you in the morning,” the general replied quietly.
As the tent flap closed, however, and Ray sat on his wool sleeping bag, he didn’t fall asleep.  With the privacy he now had, he finally allowed the events of the past two days to rush back to him.  And for the first time, he finally let himself feel the full weight of two hundred and eighteen deaths, the deaths of so many good soldiers and one of his best friends.  Ray broke down crying.
> Generals
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was already warm outside by the time the sun had risen, though thanks to a lack of pores, it meant Skalos didn’t sweat.  He felt sore from the battle still, having rammed through a minotaur and struck his shoulder against its shin.  There was a little bruising there, though it was already easing thanks to his attentive wife’s ministrations.  He hadn’t needed any of Zecora’s ointment, but even though she was exhausted and ready to collapse, she had noticed his little wound and taken care of it.  The thought made him smile briefly, a flash of warmth provided by still having her in spite of all the dark of yesterday.
Luna’s damnation was a double-edged sword, one meant to torture the Fallen for hundreds of years with life trapped in Tartarus.  That had been hell, but a comfortable hell from time to time, one that allowed him to make friends and determined him to be better.  It had forced each of the Fallen into acknowledging and regretting the blood of their kin that they had spilt.  The imprisonment had been the torture of the mind, forcing it to change and recognize its faults and incompetence in seeking selfish preservation.  It was a healthy torture, a growing pain, as he described it.
Now, the second feature of their curse was revealed as they began to defend Equestria.  They had been given over seventeen hundred years of time together, meaning that almost everypony knew everypony else.  The Fallen had become one collective of individuals who shared almost all of their history together.  They had come to know each and every Fallen by name and appearance, and many had hundreds of close friends.  Now that they were waging war, even a number as small as two hundred and twenty-four hurt.  He knew many of the Fallen who had died by name, and there were many he knew much better.
Garish’s death stung the most, though.  Skalos had always disagreed with the stallion, his easygoing attitude and relative aloofness to serious topics chafing with Skalos’ natural tendencies.  Yet the soldier had represented something special for the Fallen as somepony who had both come to terms with his past and was prepared for the future.  His and Adant’s marriage had been something of contention back when Skalos had been a Grim, as all marriages were targeted as irreverent of their sins back then.  Now, though, a much wiser, more mature Skalos had been steered correct by Ray and he saw their marriage as what it truly was: a beautiful union between two soldiers in the face of their greatest adversary, Luna’s curse.
Now that he had Zecora, he understood why they had gone through with it years ago, when they had been ostracized by half of the Fallen.  He also could guess at how much pain Adant was in now that her other half had been ripped away from her.  Memory of the sight of Garish’s corpse made Skalos freeze momentarily out of sorrow, knowing well there was only one option for such a mutilated body.  The funeral wouldn’t be open casket as there wasn’t really a face to see, and the stallion was almost cut in half as well, two minotaurs striking him down.  He hadn’t seen it himself, but Terrabet had.  The death was instant, at least, which he hoped could provide some comfort to Adant.  
She and other soldiers in mourning were set aside in the camp, separated so they could mourn while the rest of the army set about its tasks.  Adant hadn’t been the only one to lose their spouse in yesterday’s battle.  Skalos felt cold at the fact that so many ponies had lost their beloved already, killed in combat.  It was a risk he faced constantly, and he feared he would leave Zecora in a similar condition as Adant when he died.  They had plans for their future, plans that hinged on them both living through this.  Biting his lip, he forced those thoughts away before he could question his resolve to stand by Ray’s side.  He and Zecora would talk later, when she was rested.
It was only after he realized that his legs had stopped moving that he saw he was in front of the general’s command tent.  Taking a breath, he pushed through the tent flap, glancing around at the insides.  Harbor was the only one here, though considering it was sunrise and many of the other generals hadn’t retired to their tents until a few hours ago, he didn’t think much of it.  The haste in which the tent had been set up was evident, with crates haphazardly stacked on one side of the tent while the table occupied the other half.  Nodding in acknowledgement to Harbor- who looked half-dead while slowly chewing some bread- he took a seat on a singular crate placed close to the table.  
The papers that had been littering the table last night were now neatly stacked to one side while a map that was still unfinished took up the other half.  It detailed everything the Fallen had scouted out so far, from the coastline to where they now stood down to the empty, flat plains beyond the hills.  It was a surprisingly detailed map, showing their original camp, the site of the first battle and the mine, and even the huge valley they had come across.  Kraven had aptly named it the Great Valley, of course, his genius ending when it came to creativity.  Nevertheless, he appreciated the fact that they did have a map, even if it was only of territory that was safe.  
“So, how did you sleep,” he absently asked, his eyes darting over to a paper that seemed out of place.
“Didn’t,” Harbor mumbled around a bite of bread.  “Figured if Ray could survive a night without sleep, losing a friend, marching twelve miles, fighting a battle, having a friend killed, and comforting his newly widowed friend, I can suck it up for one night and help figure out what next.”
“Awfully selfless of you,” Skalos noted, picking up the paper and squinting at the hundreds of words jotted down on it.  “This is your’s, I’m guessing.”
“Yep, three and a half plans of where we go from here,” Harbor sighed.
“How do you have half a plan,” Skalos questioned with a light chuckle, reading over the lines.  
“I know where we could go, but I don’t know what to do once we got there,” the stallion answered, drawing Skalos’ gaze.  “I was taking a little snack break to mull over possibilities before you showed up.  Honestly, I expected you to be much later.  You must’ve gotten only four hours of sleep or something.”
“Two,” Skalos replied with a smirk.  “I couldn’t fall asleep until I knew Zecora was able to finally rest.  She finished up her work about two hours ago.”
“Six of them didn’t make it,” Harbor sadly pointed out.  “How’s she handling it?”
“I don’t know, there wasn’t much talk,” Skalos answered truthfully.  “She saw me bruising, grabbed ointment, took care of it, and passed out after a kiss goodnight.  I’ll check with her later today, but unless somepony stabs themselves I’m not waking her up.  She isn’t built for war, not like us.”
“Ain’t the damnedest,” Harbor muttered, shaking his head slowly.  “Can’t believe she managed to sneak her way into this war with both you and Ray tryna keep her out.  Luna, you have one strong mare by your side.”
“Thanks,” Skalos nodded, smiling slightly as he set the paper down.  “We’ll deal with your plans once the rest arrive, which may take a bit.  I do have to ask, though, what are the scouts reporting?”
“Enemy’s about five miles to our northwest for about four hours now,” Harbor shrugged indifferently.  “It seems they’re too scared of remaining within reasonable striking distance of us, and with Ray’s aggressive tendencies, I don’t blame ‘em.”
“Do you agree with the battle,” Skalos questioned genuinely.  “Do you think he made the right choice by having us march straight into an overwhelming battle?”
“Look at the results, Skalos,” he replied, pointing a hoof to the papers.  “Two hundred and twenty-four Fallen for over seventeen thousand minotaurs.  Let me repeat, seventeen thousand.  Not hundreds, no, thousands.  We killed as many minotaurs as there were Fallen in this army to begin with.  Even if we had killed only a tenth of that, we could consider it a major victory, but this is a whole new class of victory and domination never seen in warfare before.  I mean, I can’t even wrap my head around how many minotaurs we killed, especially for such a low cost.  We barely lost over one percent of our soldiers for an entire army and a huge chunk of another one.”
“But do you agree with it,” Skalos pressed.
“Agree with it,” Harbor exclaimed, laughing slightly.  “After an ingenious wallop like that, I might not ever question Ray again!”  Pausing momentarily, he pointed a hoof at Skalos and stated, “Don’t quote me on that.”
Chuckling, Skalos held up both hooves and replied, “Alright, fair enough.  I guess I haven’t been focusing on what we took, just what we lost.  I was never really a math pony anyways.  That’s why we have Kraven.”
The two shared a chuckle at the joke for a few moments, before the tent fell silent again.  Harbor took another bite of his bread, finishing it off while Skalos sat thinking about the stallion and general he shared the tent with.  They had known each other for many, many years before either of them were generals, or even captains.  He had been as much a brother to Skalos as his real brother had been, though he still couldn’t tell if he was an older or younger brother.  Sometimes it fluctuated, but they knew virtually everything about each other, everything but one major detail.
“Harbor, why did you take my name,” he found himself asking.  When the stallion stiffened, looking up at Skalos, he mumbled, “We probably don’t have long before life separates us, one way or another, so I want to know why you changed your name to what mine was before ‘Skalos’.”
“Fair enough,” Harbor sighed, rubbing a hoof against the back of his head, looking slightly embarrassed.  Finally, he muttered, “Harbor Point might be the best name I’ve ever heard.  The point at which the harbor sits, a position on which there is safety from passing storms and welcome to newcomers.  A hub of trade, both economic and cultural.  Many of Equestria’s most important cities are harbors, and they all serve as places where ponies can live, work, and love.  Harbor Point: the place in which a pony can be sheltered while also reaching out to those around them.”
“So you liked it,” Skalos summarized with a small smile.  
“Well, I’ve liked it for a long time, but do you remember the first day in the Harkening,” Harbor questioned, frowning slightly.  Skalos’ smile fell as the dark day came back into mind, the first day of their damnation after they were shown mortal mercy.  Almost three hundred of their brothers and sisters had killed themselves that day, a mass suicide more horrifying the than anything he had witnessed.  Three hundred ponies choose to throw themselves on their spears, and their new home had been christened in shamed blood and tears of sorrow.  
“I see you do,” the general muttered quietly, grim.  “On that day, after Brook Tree threw himself off that building, I was going to fall on my own sword.  I don’t know why, but for some reason you walked there just as I was about to, surrounded by others in a pool of their own blood.  You looked at me from across the street and grumbled, ‘You really wanna die like that?’  You said the one thing that I needed to hear that day, waking me up from my depression.”
“Then we spent the rest of the day saying the exact same thing to other ponies,” Skalos mumbled, remembering the moment.  Smiling strangely, he stated, “So you changed your name to mine because I saved your life?”
“I know for an amazing stallion such as yourself saving a life is no big deal, but it was my life you saved, my life you resurrected in me,” Harbor pointed out.  “Those six words sparked a need for change, beyond just being the cowardly colt that ran away from battles and switched sides to try and stay alive.  My name was Tandem Dander before I changed it, and now I barely remember it.  Because, on that day, you let him die and saved my life.  If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be here, as a general.  I might have become like Kater or Hammer, a depressed, wandering soldier without a purpose or skill.”
“I sparked the fire, Harbor, but you used it to set your heart alight,” Skalos insisted, reaching out a hoof and pressing it on his friend’s shoulder.  “It’s because of your renewed actions, the potential in you that you used that you’re one of five generals.  If it means anything to you, you’ve earned your name more than I did.”
“Thank you, Skalos,” Harbor smiled, reaching out his other hoof and pressing it against Skalos’ shoulder.  “We’ll make it through this war.  Thanks to you, me, Kraven, Yarem, Pelios, and Ray.  The Fallen will save Equestria and we’ll be ponies again.  I know we will, one day.”
Grinning, Skalos replied, “You better not go chasing tail once we’re back in our pony forms.”
“General Skalos saying something vulgar,” the voice of Pelios suddenly questioned from the tent flap as he and the two remaining Fallen generals entered.  “I don’t believe it.  Quick, Kraven, put it on record.”
“Already on it, General Pelios,” the studious stallion confirmed, rushing to an empty parchment on the table and jotting it down while the others chuckled.  “I’m certain our lordling would be very interested in this particular testament against your stoic purity, Skalos.”
“I have no clue what you’re talking about,” the address Fallen replied with false stiffness.  “I was merely giving General Harbor an order before my authority is removed after we’ve won this war.”
“Yes, priorities,” Yarem chuckled, sitting on the ground in front of the table, looking over the map.  “Have you been chatting all night or did you just arrive here as well?”
“I was here all night,” Harbor informed the other three.  “Skalos arrived about half an hour ago.  We withheld from discussing matters of interest before the rest of you arrived.  Now that you’re here, we can begin picking apart the results of yesterday’s battle and what we do next.”
“And what about Ray,” Pelios asked, the humor leaving as his brow furrowed.  “Is he alright?  I noticed he had a gash on his back last night, but it was hard to tell how bad it was thanks to him being covered in blood.  Is Zecora seeing him right now?”
“No, he’s resting, but once both he and Zecora have rested, I’ll have her tend to him,” Skalos offered.  “We’re going to let our poor general rest, because Luna bless him, but his selflessness will be the death of him.  He suffered a great deal these past few days, some of which we haven’t even begun unraveling.”
“Yes, the mysterious ordeal with this ‘Spectre’ entity of his,” Kraven mumbled, rubbing his chin with a hoof.
“And the death of Garish will certainly have him drained emotionally, the stress of so many important decisions being made on the march, the physical marching, and fighting in an actual, prolonged battle all had him on his last straw last night,” Pelios pointed out sadly.  “Poor stallion had to go through Tartarus yesterday, over and over.  How did he not crack under the pressure?”
“Because Twilight chose the perfect human for this job,” Skalos answered frankly.  “I trained Ray for over a year, most of it in private, and every day he kept growing, learning, and trying.  It’s what he’s doing now, learning to wage war and save lives.  We all heard him yesterday, talking of having to make the choice that killed Fallen.  Even we haven’t been brave enough to discuss that, ultimately, we doom some of us whenever we choose to fight.  Yet Ray is smarter than beating around the bush and forced honesty, forced us to get past the bitter taste of our comrades’ fates and made us make a choice that is, by far, the most complete and insane victory in Equestrian history.”
“Two hundred and twenty-four Fallen for over seventeen thousand minotaurs, and we kept the field of battle,” Harbor summarized for the three generals.  Skalos gauged their shocked reactions for the final tally.
“And the Matriarch and her spiderlings prevented a complete collapse of our archers with that little web trick, also allowing us to fall back to this camp,” Pelios pointed out.  “I think it’s about time we began weighing the spiderlings into our discussions as well, because without them, our major victories wouldn’t be possible.”
“True, and what unique properties they give us,” Kraven noted with a curious smile.  “We won the battle and then defended the victory because the Matriarch simply spun a web in front of my archers.  Imagine that you’re a soldier charging archers, knowing it’ll be a slaughter when you arrive, only to get stuck in a web and picked off by said archers and made into food for giant spiders.  Almost a cruel twist of karma, isn’t it?”
“Yes, curious and disturbing in equal measure,” Yarem muttered, before looking up from the parchment that had Harbor’s plans scrawled on it.  “Shall we get down to today’s business?  It seems that General Harbor has a very well thought out series of ideas for what we could do with the sunlight we have and recovering the energy of our army.  I agree with option two, Harbor.  Well done.”
“Plan two,” Kraven questioned before carefully taking the plans from Yarem.
“It calls for the army to retreat back to its proposed position, about a mile behind us and in front of the Big Face,” Harbor explained to the generals who weren’t analyzing it.  “I figured that we wouldn’t be able to stage a march over too much a distance so quickly after a crushing victory and draining endeavor.  However, we need to have a settled down position that still serves to keep the remaining minotaur army in sight.  We’d be able to transport the bodies and burn them off the top of the Big Face, letting their ashes drift free. Those who are wounded will be able to fall back too, meaning the entirety of the army would be able to be repositioned before the sun begins to set.”
“To put it simply, agreed,” Kraven shrugged, setting the paper down with a nod.  “We’ll move the ballistas and other equipment first, then work division by division, allotting an hour and a half for each army to move their soldiers to the camp.  We’ll end with the command tent.  The spiderlings can assist since they won’t be needed for anything else and we’ll want to move quickly.  I’m guessing many of our soldiers will be exhausted even by minimal movement after what we put them through yesterday.  We just need to wait for our lordling to approve it.”
“Well, not necessarily,” Pelios suggested with a quirk of his head.  “I mean, if we’re all in agreement on this, then I don’t think we need to worry about Ray’s approval.  Besides, Celestia knows how long the lad will be sleeping before he wakes.”
“We’re not going to do anything without Ray’s approval,” Yarem insisted with a frown.  “What if he takes it wrong, or the soldiers take it wrong.  He might worry that after he went authoritarian on us yesterday, we’re moving to take control over the army instead of him.  We need to keep him comfortable with us as his generals, which means seeking his approval when moving his army.”
“I’m certain Ray won’t mind,” Kraven voiced.  “He’s smarter than to fear us.  We’re all friends, he’ll know it was just us taking the initiative and not taking control.  There isn’t any problem with us moving the army in a way he would approve while he gets much needed rest.”
“We can’t just assume that, though,” Harbor finally said.  “I wrote the plans for Ray to pick one he liked, or use pieces of it to make one of his own.  I don’t want to encourage what looks like rebelliousness from his generals, just present my ideas.  The responsible thing to do would be to wait for our general to give the order.”
“Skalos, thoughts,” Yarem demanded with a frown.  
“I don’t want to say which side I take, but there is someone else we can consult for decisive advice on this matter, if it is this pressing,” Skalos finally said, looking around at the other four generals.   “The Matriarch knows Ray and his will far better than any of us ever could because she sees, hears, and knows him as if she were him.  It’s a strange, otherworldly connection they have, but I know that whatever side the Matriarch agrees with, Ray would agree with as well.  Besides, she’s probably overheard all of this and already is on her way right now to tell us what we should do.”
“Indeed, very well predicted,” the Matriarch’s whispery, piercing voice spoke from above, a shadow suddenly casting the tent into darkness.  Pelios cursed under his breath in surprise, causing Skalos to smirk slightly as he moved to the tent flap and stepped outside.  Looming over the camp, the Matriarch peered down with her intrigued, benevolent eight eyes.  “General Skalos, it’s a pleasure to be called upon.”
“Thank you for being prepared, World Weaver,” Skalos nodded in gratitude, before proceeding.  “What are your thoughts on the matter?”
“Ray would approve, easily,” the Matriarch declared with satisfaction.  “In fact, I believe it was his intent to move the camp back to its originally proposed position last night, but exhausted his energy before he could give the order.  However, before you carry out the plan, I would recommend that Ray’s tent should be the last to be moved.  He only finally took to sleeping under two hours ago.”
“Two hours ago,” Pelios questioned, confused.  “Didn’t we insist on him retiring to his quarters some five hours ago?  What did he spend three hours doing?”
“Mourning,” the Matriarch muttered sadly, causing a silence to fall on the five generals.  Without another word, the Matriarch turned and began chittering, speaking to her children.
Solemnly, Skalos led the generals back into the tent, giving all four a long look.  Taking a breath, he whispered, “That’s one more objective for us today, my friends.  The Fallen will need Ray now to recover its strength from its losses.  However, Ray will need us to help overcome the terrible toll the deaths of our brothers and sisters weighs on him.  As much as Ray is our general and we are his most trusted advisors and commanders, we’re also the closest friends he has in the Tauran plains.  We must be ready to help the young man deal with death.  We must comfort our lordling when he is weak.  Only when we embrace his weaknesses will he become strong enough to overcome them.”
> Snowfall
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The light blanket of white that covered the hills around Equestria had appeared last night, right before sunset.  Apparently the pegasi on weather duty had allowed a natural snowstorm to pass through, given it was already winter.  A few fluffy clouds remained floating in the brisk air, a remaining cold allowing for the snow to remain even at noon.  The coat Fluttershy wore along with her thicker winter fur kept the cold away, though deep within, a different cold remained.  
In spite of why she stood at the lake, she felt everything but enthusiastic at her first date since Ray had left for war.  The thought felt poisonous in her head, one of her dearest… friends having left for something as terrible as war.  The word itself didn’t sit right in her, her stomach squeezing in discomfort as if she had eaten wilted greens.  It was wrong for there to be war, especially when it came to Equestria, yet nevertheless it was occurring.  Ponies were dying and killing, and even if it was on a continent across the sea, it still felt far too close to home.  
For almost five months now, she had felt like this, constantly worrying about Ray and questioning how this ever could have happened.  Every full moon, her heart felt like it would either tear out of her chest or drop dead as she waited for Ray to return.  Then he would, cheerful and indifferent, as if there wasn’t anything dangerous about what he was doing.  The brave act was comforting for the others, but having seen into Ray’s psyche, beyond his many masks, it only concerned her more.  How bad was it out there?  They hadn’t even fought a battle since the landing, and still it felt like she was on the verge of losing Ray.
She also worried about Zecora.  The zebra hadn’t originally been planned to embark with the army, though through her crafty nature, she had managed to sneak her way into the campaign.  Fluttershy understood well enough why she would risk being exposed to the terrifying face of war, the awful destruction and death it presented.  Skalos was her husband, and Ray was one of her young pupils, like she and the girls had once been.  She also had a natural talent for healing and making concoctions to help those in need, an ability that could save countless lives when the Fallen fought.  Celestia knows what Fluttershy would do if she lost Zecora because of her selfless actions.
“I do not doubt Ray at all.”
Rarity’s words had kept flitting through her mind as the past couple days had gone by silently.  Perhaps it was because Rarity was smarter and older than her, or maybe it was because she knew Ray better than Fluttershy thought she did, but she had a trust in the human that the pegasus envied.  Everypony else had seemed convinced by Rarity’s affirmation, leaving only Fluttershy in doubt.  She hated that she couldn’t just trust the words of her closest friends, but it was still in her nature to worry.
It had only been two days since Ray had last visited, technically one since he had stayed all night.  Still, Fluttershy almost couldn’t believe that she would have to wait another four weeks before she could see him again, confirming he was alive.  Then, they would only have a few measly hours together, shared with everypony else who cared about him.  It was unfair to both her, Ray, and everypony else.  It was almost heartbreaking to acknowledge that, until things were back to normal and this war was over, this was how life would be.  
Even then… Fluttershy remembered Ray’s words about his future as if they had been branded into her brain.  Twilight had told them the Spectre was gone for the moment, but Fluttershy doubted that it changed the human’s plans.  She had seen the pain in his eyes when they had told him that Otolo had gone missing, the fleeting devastation that overshadowed his complexion.  She hadn’t seen Ray that downtrodden since the first day she’d met him, finding him weeping against a rock not far from Ponyville.
If only she’d known who she had met that day, maybe she would have been able to help earlier and prevent this grim future.  Ray’s self-inflicted isolation for almost a year now was… harmful.  He and Skalos and Twilight had all argued it was necessary, the weeks and months of strict training never interrupted until he’d been forced to confront her.  All of that lost time and more, the six months of intensive training that followed barely giving him any time to be with any of them.  Chillingly, she realized that it was almost a year from when she had confronted him about being too involved in his training.  Ray had been in Equestria for almost a year and a half, but to her, it felt like a whole different lifetime.  
“I would let you continue to brood for a moment longer, but I think you’ll have plenty of time for that later,” a familiar, handsome voice said from over her shoulder.  Turning with a smile, she found Discord smirking at her.  “My dear, it seems you’ve forgotten it’s winter in Ponyville!  Why don’t you stop staring at that one patch of snow and find something more interesting to scrutinize?  I can think of a few different things, if you need help.”
“No, I think I’m quite alright,” she replied with a smirk of her own.  Turning back to the lake, she commented, “The lake looks like a pool of glass with the way it reflects the sky.  I think it’s quite a wonderful sight.”
“Then it’s a shame we’ll scratch such a perfect then,” Discord sighed, snapping his claws.  Instantly they were both clod with ice skates, bringing a smile back to Fluttershy’s face.  The draconequus reached out a paw and ducked his head respectfully, meekly asking, “Shall we?”
“We shall,” Fluttershy answered, allowing him to take her hoof.  He carefully pulled her onto the ice, and while at this point she was accustomed, even skilled, at ice skating, she let him guide her.  Their blades glided across the perfect frozen lake’s surface, the sounds of their ice being scratched almost melodic.  It was much different from her first time, being afraid and unable to keep her balance.  
Even with Discord’s supportive hold on her hoof, she kept balance herself and simply held his paw.  Strangely enough, she only began to realize how cold she was getting when he briefly let go to show off his spinning.  Mid-pirouette he split into four different hims, each twirling around like ballerinas.  Giggling at the display, she chose the one she knew as the original and skated right into him, jumping at the last second so he would catch her.  He grinned broadly, still spinning as he caught her, hugging the little pegasus against his chest.  Slowly, they came to a stop at the opposite edge of the lake, Fluttershy still clinging to his neck.  
As the rush of excitement from their little dance died down, Fluttershy’s smile began to fade.  In spite of Discord’s warm embrace and soft chuckle, she still felt that cold within, the worry for Ray.  It was wrong of her to deny it, to not respect the sacrifice he was making for them to have this moment together.
Before she could think too much more on it, though, Discord pulled his head back and kissed her lips.  She squeaked, but gave in after only a second of surprise, closing her eyes and just allowing herself to be held and loved by the draconequus.  After several seconds, he pulled away with a sad smile, staring deeply into her eyes.
“You’re still worrying about Ray, aren’t you,” he asked knowingly.
Glancing aside, ashamed, muttering, “It’s not like that.  It’s just… just…”
“You still love him,” Discord pointed out with a smile.  She opened her mouth to protest, but he pressed a paw against it, telling her, “That’s not a bad thing!  In fact, I think it’s very healthy.  Your love for him isn’t the same as our love, though, is it?”
“No, not at all,” she confirmed with a small frown.  “I can’t really explain it though.  I don’t love him like any of the girl’s, he’s much too different and harsh for that.  It’s not as a brother though, or at least, not as far as I can tell.  And as we’ve come to learn, it isn’t as lovers either.  I mean, I would never do what I do with you with him, and he most certainly wouldn’t either.  So, that leaves me wondering… how?”
“I think you love him as a creature that needs helped,” Discord stated softly, still holding her close.  
“Discord,” Fluttershy exclaimed, offended.
“It’s not a bad thing,” Discord repeated gently, guiding her as he began to skate, keeping her pressed against his chest.  “In fact, it’s perfectly logical.  It’s how you treated me at first, reaching out to me with your kindness and enveloping me in a caring embrace.  I, however, was a special case of being evil and needing to reform.  Ray’s much different in a better way.  He’s good that is thrusting himself into the heart of evil, and under your care, you don’t want him falling to it.  Your love for him is protective and all encompassing.  It doesn’t start or end with him making mistakes.  It starts with him needing somepony to latch onto and never ends.”
“Then what makes the difference between you and him,” she questioned shyly, placing a hoof on his chest as she stared into his eyes.  
“I’m willing to be more than a friend and want you to be more than somepony I’ve latched onto to be my support,” he muttered, face barely an inch from her own.  “I want to take all the kindness you’ve shown me and reciprocate it tenfold.  I want you to be somepony I can trust with my very life and, in return, be trusted with you.  The happiness you feel, I want to feel, and the sadness you feel, I want to ease.  Ray would seek vengeance against whatever caused you harm and never let you be more than a listener from home, because he thinks you would never be able to love him if you saw what he’s had to do, what he’s doing.  After witnessing just a simulation of his fighting… I don’t blame him.”
For a very long moment, Fluttershy simply stared into the eyes of the draconequus who held her.  He had been her closest friend and calling him a friend now felt wrong with her wanting his lip on hers, wanting to wrap her hoof around his neck.  He knew Fluttershy better than anypony in Equestria, knew how she thought and felt, and knew how to honestly comfort her.  Ever since he had turned aside Equestria for her, she had known he loved her like nothing else.  That had scared her.  Knowing that she was beloved by the Lord of Chaos beyond anything else and not being able to reciprocate that feeling for years.  Maybe it was because of Ray, or maybe it was because the world was forcing her to have a broader perspective, but she finally knew a simple truth.
She loved Discord.
“Fluttershy, I’m worried about Ray too, but-” Fluttershy interrupted him by thrusting her mouth onto his, making him squeak as she hungrily began making out with him.  She had never done this before, mouth open and tongue seeking out his, begging for him to reciprocate.  Even as she yearned for it, she felt a blush rising in her cheeks, knowing full well she was in over her head but also too insecure to let the moment slip by.  For the first time in far too long, she was taking the lead again and reaching for what she wanted, and something about the way Discord gave into her kiss made her heart swell.  
She kept him there for several minutes, even as the cold began to creep across her cheeks and snow slowly started drifting from the sky again.  Fluttershy had to keep life this way, even if it was only for a few minutes, him and her, two figures frozen in a warm embrace on a crystalline surface. Her brain fled her completely and her heart took over, beating quicker than it ever had in her life.  Humming, her hooves began to reach out past his chest and wrap around Discord’s neck, pulling his head in that much closer.  They had never even come close to crossing the line before, but now, Fluttershy wanted to.  
Slowly, she let her hooves drop from his head and begin to move down his body, but before they could drift below his chest, Discord grabbed both hooves with his paw and claw.  Pulling away slightly, his face was flushed red even as his mismatched wings fluttered rapidly.  He looked afraid, panting as he stared wordlessly at her for a long moment, breath fogging in the cold and jaw slightly agape.  Fluttershy’s excitement was gone in an instant, washed away with a wash of cold, terrified at what she had done, what she had begun to do.  
“Fluttershy, I love you,” Discord declared emphatically, “but we can’t cross the line from loving one another into being lovers.  Not yet.”
“But don’t you want to,” the pegasus questioned fearfully.
“Oh, most certainly,” the draconequus chuckled nervously before blanching at the admission.  Holding her with his paw, he scratched the back of his head with his claw while he carefully explained, “But what we want is most definitely not what we need.  We don’t need to cross this line now, when we’re both in such an emotionally tumultuous and taxing time.  I don’t believe it would make for a good memory, and most certainly not a good beginning of our lives together.  If I’m being perfectly honest, though, I’m not sure if I can resist if you keep it up, though.”
Blinking, trying to wrangle in her conflicting emotions, Fluttershy gave herself a moment to think long and hard about what to say next.  More than anything, she wanted to throw caution to the wind and bring Discord home right now.  She wanted to forget everything that was making her worried and do something wild- reckless, even- with her draconequus.  But when she stopped to think about what he had said, what they needed, she was able to silence the dangerously wild part of her and think logically.  She’d never done anything like this before, and she most certainly hadn’t planned on crossing any lines today.  In fact, the more she let the thought of it, the more she realized she had almost dragged them down a road they were incredibly unprepared for.  
Swallowing hard, she looked up at him and softly admitted, “I have no idea what I’m doing anymore, Discord.”
Before she knew it, she was in tears, thick drops of water rolling down the fur of her face and beginning to freeze.  Discord moved swiftly, wrapping her up in both his arms and cradling her against him, sheltering her almost completely from the falling snow.  She cried for a long time.  Fluttershy’s confusion and fear overflowed as she finally let all of her emotions relieve themselves, a terrible well of negativity overcoming her.  All the while, Discord continued to hold her, protecting her as best he could from the external cold, using his chaotic magic to safely move them from the lake to the shore, a blanket wrapping around them.  He said nothing, and while her eyes were too blurred with tears to see, she thought she felt some of his tears join hers.
Finally, after several long minutes of crying, she faded into hiccups and sniffles, allowing Discord to softly ask, “Do you want to go home now, Fluttershy?”
“I need you,” she mumbled between hiccups, her face tucked against his warm chest.  She physically felt his breath hitch at that, his grip on her tightening protectively at her weak statement.  Determined, she repeated louder, “I need you, Discord.  You talked about how we needed to focus not on what we want, but what we need, and I need you.  I need to have you in my life always.  I need to be able to hug you when I need it and kiss you when I need to feel your love.  I need you to keep by my side and explain to me what’s going on.  I need you to hold me like this when I feel weak.  I need you.  That’s what I need.”
“I- um… uh- I… but how,” Discord finally stammered, peering down at the pegasus fearfully.  
“I need you to stay with me, if you can,” Fluttershy said, lifting her head up to nuzzle against his neck.  “I don’t want to cross the line… not yet, but I need to have the one creature who’s always there for me there whenever, because otherwise, I don’t know if I’ll make it through this.  I don’t have any strength left.  I’m tired, scared, and hopeless.  The only creature in the whole wide world that can make me feel right is you.  Please, Discord, I need you.” 
“Of course I’ll be there for you,” Discord replied, his smile welling with joy and love.  “My dear, I would be by your side even if it meant all of my chaotic magic were removed.  For all these years, I’ve loved you.”
“I’m sorry it took until now for me to love you back, Discord,” Fluttershy apologized before reaching up with both hooves and cupping his handsome face.  “Believe me though.  I love you, and I love that you love me.”
“Thank you, my dear,” he whispered huskily before leaning his head down to press his lips on her forehead.  Fluttershy squeezed her eyes shut as she focused on the feeling of his lips on her forehead, breathing in his scent deeply.  Finally, she felt at peace.  
Discord held Fluttershy like that for much longer than she had cried, time passing slowly as they simply glowed in each other’s embrace.  The draconequus carefully cradled the soft pegasus in his arms while she cupped his face, sighing in relief as she felt her fears and worries melt.  Discord had her, and she had him, and together, the future stood no chance.  So long as they were together, no matter what happened across the sea, they would be as strong as the toughest metal and twice as powerful.
When he finally did pull away, Fluttershy opened her eyes and was surprised to see a small blanket of snow on Discord’s back and coat.  Smiling, she pointed to it and said, “Let’s go to my cottage and get you warmed up, shall we?”
“It would be a pleasure,” Discord grinned in return, and while he attempted to look suave as he turned to carry her away, Fluttershy could feel his frantically fluttering heart as she kept her head tucked against his chest.  Humming softly, she closed her eyes and listened to the beautiful sound, her own heartbeat matching his.
> Funeral
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Ray finally woke up, it was burning hot inside of the tent.  Whether from his sweat or because he had left some water open recklessly, the inside of the tent was muggy, practically boiling him.  Grimacing in discomfort, he sat up and gasped at the sight of his arm, momentarily shocked at the sight of blood.  Then, it all rushed back.
The momentary bliss of ignorance was gone as aching returned, both to his body and his heart.  They had fought yesterday, a battle in which an entire army and a half had been destroyed, and Ray had been there on the front lines.  It was a real battle, with massive numbers on both sides, and many more casualties than before.  They had absolutely clobbered the minotaurs, and their blood and gore still remained dried on his body.  The cut on his back stung, his legs ached, but there was one undeniable fact that remained the most painful.  
Garish was gone.
He had to keep leading, though, and had to keep doing what had led to their successes so far.  Somehow.  That part was the one thing he hadn’t been able to learn yet, how to move on from the loss of a friend, especially a close one.  Taking a breath, Ray decided to take it one step at a time, standing up in his tent and regarding his sleeping mat.  It was covered with streaks of blood, and taking a sniff, he realized both how awful the stench was and how much worse it would get.  Sighing, he realized he would have to take a bath and clean his sleeping mat and thick loincloth, wasting valuable water.
Grabbing the mat and a small wooden tub which he could fill with water and fit into enough to wash off.  Stepping out of his tent, he froze and looked around, bewildered.  He knew it was late in the morning thanks to the heat and figured that, on Skalos’ orders, he’d been given the time to finally rest.  What he didn’t expect was for his tent to be the only one on the top of the hill, overlooking yesterday’s battle and the end of the Big Face behind it.  Blinking, he stared at the slow-rising slope of the Big Face.
The entire army had repositioned onto that hilltop, the camp already neatly organized and established in exact detail to the original plans.  Frowning, he muttered a few curses at his generals for making such a tremendous move without him even being warned.  Standing there, he set the tub and mat aside, placing his hands on his hips while he stared out at the camp.  A low haze of dust slightly muddled the sight of it, activity easily visible as while the tents and supplies were in position, many of the smaller items and soldiers weren’t in their proper places yet.  A row of ballistas faced out over the edge of the Big Face’s dropoff as if pointed to an unseen enemy.
With a flash of panic, he realized that the minotaur’s second army was more than likely out there still.  Whipping around, he scanned the distant hilltops for any roiling dust clouds, the signal of an army on the move.  However, it didn’t take long to realize that there was no movement, the enemy either encamped now or retreated.  Exhaling in measured calmness, he slowly turned his attention back to his first task, feeling foolish.  Of course the army wasn’t nearby, Skalos and the others wouldn’t have set up a new encampment if that was the case, and they definitely wouldn’t let him sleep through such danger.  
“Oh, um, you’re up lordling,” a voice comfortably familiar suddenly exclaimed.  Looking around for the speaker, slightly confused on how the Fallen soldier had escaped his gaze initially.  Smiling, he saw Gaz and Axis approaching from the valley in which the battle had taken place.  Speaking again, Gaz asked, “What’re you doing?”
“I was about to ask you the same thing, soldier,” Ray replied, settling the tub properly and moving to grab a small barrel of water stored in his tent.  He had three, though this action would completely empty his second one.  “Where were you two?”
“Just down the hill a little, Ray,” Axis answered casually, smiling softly.  “Admiring our work from yesterday.  We honestly thought you would have slept a little bit longer than you did.  Sorry we weren’t here.  Didn’t give you a lonesome fright, did we?”
“No no, you’re quite alright, my friends,” Ray assured the two, emptying the barrel into the tub.  Pausing as he moved to take off his loincloth, he stated, “You should probably turn around though.  I plan on finally washing this blood off my… well, everything.”
“Well heard,” Gaz confirmed with a bright chuckle, both Fallen turning.  “In truth, Ray, we went down the hill so Axis could take a piss.  I went with him ‘cause you and your tent smell like the insides of a stomach.”
“A bit concerning you know the smell so well, but I hear you,” Ray replied lightly, taking the loincloth off.  It wasn’t really a loincloth, mostly because it was like thickly bundled underwear that went halfway down his thighs, a triangle flap of cloth giving his front and back end a bit more protection.  It was light and didn’t constrict his movement, and perfectly comfortable as well in the heat of the Tauran plains.  
He moved quickly, washing down in only a few minutes with the bar of “soap” that he had on hand.  It was really a solid block of salt and butter, with some vanilla in it, homemade by AJ.  Still, it got the job done surprisingly well, cleaning away the blood and gore and left him smelling… somewhat normal.  With how terrible conditions were in the Tauran plains, however, smelling good was something almost as temporary as the thin clouds in the sky at the moment.  Cleaned enough to not feel grimy, he did his best to use the dirty water to wash off his mat.  Even though it wasn’t quite as clean, he could give it a dust bath to finish the job once it had dried.
All the while, his mind was racing as the events of the past two days were finally allowed to sink into him, settling uncomfortably close to the surface.  Swallowing a lump in his throat, he took care to not let the now clean loincloth and cleanish mat hit the ground.  Yesterday was something of an enigma to him, both a day of tremendous victory and horrible loss.  On the one hand, it was an absolutely mind-boggling victory that he had just led his army to, the gamble he had made paying off a thousandfold.  On the other hand, the small price it had cost contained Garish, one of his most treasured friends and one he had never thought to go down so early.  
While technically they had been fighting this war for over four months, it was yesterday that they had truly begun the war.  The day of the invasion was their bold proclamation that they would fight for Equestria and take the minotaur’s land to do so, but their message hadn’t been received.  Yesterday was the day the minotaurs had seen that there was indeed an army in their lands, that their plans of conquest had not only been foiled, but horribly backfired.  Since the minotaurs hadn’t even known they were fighting a war until yesterday, it seemed only realistic that now was the time Ray and his generals needed to be concerned about the true size, capabilities, and resources.  They had expended their greatest weapon so far, surprise, and now the minotaurs may have the upper hand.  It was their turn to decide whether the Fallen would continue on the offensive or play defensive now.
Glancing to the two soldiers that kept guard of him, he knew that this was one of many moving parts in the army Skalos didn’t want Ray to think about.  These two were very public friends of Ray’s, as had Garish been, and by placing these two on his duty, it showed that both Ray grieved tremendously for the loss of Garish and the others, and that he relied on the Fallen for comfort to get through his loss.  It was a publicity stunt as much as it was a genuine action of care, one that Ray was grateful for and despised.  He hated having to play this psychological game with his own troops, constantly acting to show his true feelings, or showing false feelings to evade the truth.  Yesterday had been torture, making so many uncertain decisions while still acting as if he was completely sure that they wouldn’t result in everyone being dead.  He was just grateful that, in the end, only a couple hundred were gone.  Still, that couple hundred hurt worse than he could have ever prepared for.
With his bath and cleaning complete, he set to work collapsing his tent and packing it all up.  When Gaz and Axis moved to help him, he waved them off with a smile, though he did give them both an empty barrel to carry.  Shrugging, they went back to talking about surprisingly interesting things Ray hadn’t picked up on before.  While they were both friends of Ray’s, he guessed they really didn’t know about each other that well, or enough to be proper friends, at least.  He idly listened in on Gaz’s story about the seapony mare who was waiting for him to return, a twinge of guilt at the connection to somebody else that may be ruined by the war.  At the very least, it was a humorous story, and one he hadn’t heard before.  The two seemed to be fast friends.
“Alright, gents, I’m about ready to go,” Ray announced as he slung his packed-up supplies over her shoulder, the barrel with water in it under his arm.  
“Yeah, we were just waiting for you,” Gaz laughed, still uproarious from his own story.  “Now let’s get to some real shade and a nice lunch, shall we?”
“I’m pretty sure you don’t need the lunch, my friend,” Axis joked, the equally comedic stallion bumping into the other Fallen for effect.
“Oh please, I’m two loaves of bread from fat, not one,” the Fallen declared.  “And besides, with Ray here marching us around like cattle, I’ve burnt off at least a few pounds.  I can’t come back home looking like an entirely different stallion!  Gotta keep expectations just low enough so I can surprise Misty one day!”
“Excuses excuses,” Ray joined in, though they let the joke fall off before it got old.  “Though I am rather hungry myself.  Do any of you happen to know what’s on the menu for lunch today?”
“Biscuits just soft enough you don’t break your teeth on ‘em, but just hard enough to cut the roof of your mouth, I s’pose,” Gaz shrugged.  “But hey, at least they taste pretty darn good.  Much better than that soggy, mushy guck that we ate in the Harkening.  Twilight spoiled us with these biscuits and such.”
“Can’t wait for the resupply though,” Axis admitted, sounding childishly whimsical.  “I mean, that’ll be some fresh stuff, and rumor’s goin’ ‘round that she promised Pelios beans and dried fruits.  Know anything about that sorta stuff, Ray?”
“And spoil the secret,” Ray replied with a knowing smile.  The resupply was to happen the day that marked six months after landing in the Tauran plains, or when their supplies were projected to be down to a sixth of their capacity.  It would be a massive undertaking, as it required a huge sunport with about a half-mile radius with symbols made of silver to keep it stable enough to get everything through in such a large area.  The hardest part would be the sunport itself, but the manual labor of organizing, moving, and dividing the supplies among the armies was a headache he and the other upper command got to enjoy.  The additional promised beans and dried fruits had only added to that headache, but he wasn’t about to reveal that to the two.  “Lemme just say, regardless you’ll be cursing the food that’ll keep you alive for the following six months.”
“I’ll be damned,” Axis joked, earning a chuckle from Gaz as well.  Ray snorted at the inside joke as well, one of many the Fallen used commonly now that they were less depressed and more expressive.  Jokes and expressions about their situation had become more prominent, and frankly more hilarious, as the war began.  It was as if the Fallen, even those had remained devoutly stiff, realized that they now had little reason to limit themselves.  They were in the thick of it now, and any relief from the terrible truth and horrible suffering they were going to go through was welcome. 
Just like that, they had finished walking the mile to the repositioned camp, passing by the first, empty tents.  The haze of dust had only thickened as the movement of troops and supplies had increased, probably because of lunchtime and the need for food to be distributed.  Many of the Fallen were more towards the center, either getting water, food, or orders on what to do next.  If he had to guess, they were also probably promised an early time to be relieved of duty and go to bed thanks to the effort of the repositioning and momentous victory they had achieved yesterday.
Even walking through the empty parts of the camp, there was a lingering sense of joviality and pride.  The Fallen knew they had overcome a mighty foe yesterday on a risky maneuver with the potential to end disastrously.  They knew the massive undertaking they had gone through, marching all day and fighting halfway through the night.  They knew they deserved a celebration, and Ray knew that as soon as most of them were relieved of their jobs today, a massive celebration was what he could expect.  He looked forward to it, honestly, but he also knew that he was going to end up missing it, neither having the mood nor time for celebration.  That was not the privilege of the generals, but of the soldiers.  
He and the other generals would have to be stuck discussing future plans, strategies, and aspects of the previous battle that they needed to tweak.  It was going to be yet another long day that would likely drag late into the night, but it was his duty.  Besides, spending more time with Skalos and the other generals was something he did look forward to, and after the loss of Garish, a time he would begin to treasure.  The stallion’s death, as tragic as it was to say, was teaching Ray the most valuable lesson yet: appreciating the time he had left with his friends.  
Ray’s thoughts were interrupted as loud, almost deafening cheering suddenly erupted from in front of him.  Blinking in surprise, he saw that Axis and Gaz were proudly leading him down the main path of the camp, straight towards the center of camp.  Lined along the side of the path by the hundreds were Fallen, cheering, chanting, shouting, hollering, and pumping their hooves in support.  Shocked, Ray paused, realizing exactly what he was witnessing for the first time.  
All of this time, he had been focused on the large details of the battle, the immediate consequences, and the successes from a numerical perspective.  He still felt guilty over the risk he had forced the Fallen to make, knowing how dangerous it was.  He had the entire weight of Equestria’s future on his shoulders, and the fate of the world had blinded him from a profound truth.  Now seeing the soldiers, hundreds in his immediate sight and thousands in total, cheering for him, their general, brought him back to blunt reality.  Yesterday was a huge victory not only tactically, but from the perspective of the Fallen soldiers, it was an easy and much needed one.
They had gathered, potentially waiting for him, just to show their approval and gratitude to him for leading them to such a monumental victory.  For once, Ray felt pride swell up in his chest, the hundreds of voices praising his decision finally putting to rest the indecision in him.  Yes, there had been various costly risks involved in the decision, but the ultimate result had been something the Fallen had never seen in their lives before, nor could they have predicted.  They had lost a third of the soldiers they had projected and killed minotaurs almost to the number of their army.  And, incredibly, they had done that while also completing most of their original objectives.  It was an unpredictable, nigh on perfect, victory and the first true testament to them that Ray was a general extraordinaire.  
Slowly, Ray began to smile, nodding his head to the cheers and beginning to clap as well.  Picking up his feet, he began striding through camp proudly, showing the Fallen how much he was emboldened by their love.  All around him, he heard varied shouts of congratulations and joy, the army voicing the victory they had won.  So many familiar faces cheering for him, themselves, and life in general couldn’t help but cause a more heated passion out of the young man.  Reaching behind his back for his kharamh, he tugged it out from under the supplies and raised it into the air with the loudest shout he could.  It was echoed immediately by the crowd, the cheer quickly breaking down into laughter just moments later.  
Ray wanted to start yelling to them how proud he was at what they’d done, how they had overcome something almost impossibly difficult, but he knew that opportunity probably awaited him at the center of camp.  So, grinning at the neatly lined up soldiers cheering and waving, he continued to move on.  The further he went, the more Fallen he recognized.  He caught a glimpse of Hammer to the side, smiling and cheering just as every other soldier did.  It was only then that he remembered that they had lost so many soldiers.  Yet here they stood, all of the Fallen clapping and cheering.  They were reminding him that while he needed to honor their deaths, that time had already passed.  Now was the time to celebrate what those lives lost had achieved.
With renewed vigor, he passed through the crowd, until he was suddenly near the center of the camp.  The path led directly to a small, raised platform barely big enough for the five stallions that stood on it, awaiting his arrival.  Smirking slightly as he realized Pelios would probably be booted off to give Ray room, he saluted the generals without halting, letting a casual formality be established.  Both Kraven and Yarem relaxed their stances a bit, while Skalos and Harbor remained stalwart.  Pelios, of course, had been cheering with the crowd when he arrived.  
“It’s good to see you awake and cleaned, sir,” the stallion greeted with a grin, reaching out a hoof for an enthusiastic shake.  
“You’re just saying that because I don’t smell like blood and guts,” Ray snorted, taking the stallion’s outstretched hoof, setting down the water barrel to do so.  The crowd cheered at the shake, but if Ray had to guess, there wasn’t anything the crowd wouldn’t cheer about right now.  The Fallen were eccentric and overjoyed, and it had spread easily to Ray.  
“Doesn’t make it any less true,” Pelios laughed, stepping down the stairs as Ray had guessed.  Ray laughed as well, turning to find Skalos holding out a paper to the young man.
“A speech we prepared for you, Ray,” Skalos informed him, smiling slightly.  “If nothing else, use the numbers.  Those will get them really rallying.  They don’t quite know the numbers.”
“Thanks,” Ray nodded, leaning down and hugging the stallion without warning.  Skalos returned it instantly, and for a moment, in spite of the adrenaline rushing through his veins, the young man took a moment to simply enjoy it.  It was a moment for him, though brief, in which he could take advantage of the fact that his best friend lived, a moment to thank him for doing so.  But it was just a moment.  
Pulling away with a reassured air to him, Ray turned to face the audience of Fallen that stretched from inches in front of the platform to halfway out of camp.  The crowd looked the same size it always had to Ray, the visual implication of how few they had really lost in comparison to the army that much stronger.  A small lectern was in front of him, supposedly for the paper in his hand.  Glancing down at it, waiting for the crowd to silence themselves enough to start talking, he memorized the numbers he saw.  Then, smirking, he lifted the paper into the air and began talking.
“My soldiers, my friends, my Fallen,” he shouted, hopefully loud enough for the entire crowd to hear.  “Yesterday, our war with the minotaurs began for real.  We faced not one, but two exceedingly dangerous and ostensibly threatening armies.  We marched our asses off for twelve hours, and at the end of it, I told you all to keep moving, to get ready for battle.  Then, we did the impossible.  We attacked our enemy.  Soldiers, what I hold here is a summary of what we did yesterday.”  
He paused, giving them a slight amount of apprehension before continuing.  Eyes flitting one last time to the numbers, he declared, “Seventeen thousand, three hundred, and twenty minotaurs killed.  Eight thousand by the infantry and spiderlings, some nine thousand from the archers.  Infantry, step it up next time.”  Ray smiled as a laugh rolled through the crowd.  “We faced two armies, completely slaughtering the first army of over twelve thousand minotaurs and then, with the Matriarch’s help, the archers alone fended off an army of similar size to use, killing over five thousand.  For perspective, soldiers, by these numbers each and every one of us killed at least one minotaur yesterday.”
The declaration caused a swift, proud cheer to escape the mass, proving Skalos had been right.  As the cheering died down, however, Ray sobered up for the next part.
“My friends, with such a monumental and complete victory comes a terrible toll.  Two hundred and twenty four of our comrades gave their lives so that we could have such an astounding triumph over evil.  All who died were from the infantry.  Today, we shall respect and honor their sacrifice and mark them as the heroes that Equestria forever lost.  However, from now on, their lives shall also be celebrated, in memory and action.
“Action must be taken, my friends.  We must remember what made yesterday the historic success that it will go down as and strive to repeat.  We must learn from our mistakes as well.  It will only through the individual actions we take in the coming days and weeks that this army will be able to replicate such a sound and unquestionable victory.  Through each and every one of you, infantry or archer, private or general, accountability must be taken.  The most important lesson we can learn from yesterday’s victory is in what was lost.
“Life is valuable.  The lives of yourself and those around you are more meaningful than anyone will understand until it’s gone.  I ask you now to take action to learn, grow, and protect yourself and those who are your comrades in arms.  It is through the connectivity, love, and wisdom of this army that courage, strength, and ultimately victory will be achieved.  We have done something nobody else in history has even imagined doing before, and if we wish to continue to be the seamless, respected heroes Equestria needs, then it is through our continued efforts to be smarter, stronger, and deadlier than the minotaurs that our goal will be achieved.  This victory is ours today, and if we take the commanding lead the minotaurs have fumbled to us, we shall continue onwards until there is nothing left of the minotaurs but these damned hills!”
Pumping his fist in the air to mark the end of his speech, the crowd cheered along with him, an enthused and orderly cheer to encourage themselves to follow Ray’s instructions.  Frankly, he didn’t know where the speech had come from this time, not out of need or concern, but out of the passion he now felt he had.  He loved the Fallen, each and every one of them.  That much he could understand.  As they cheered, he realized for the first time how much that meant to him.  His care for the Fallen almost tarnished his ability to comprehend the victory they’d won, even though the number of deaths was so small.
Letting his hand drop to his side, he stood watching the crowd for a few minutes, not knowing what exactly he should do given they were immediately beginning to disperse.  So, he contented himself to simply watch and wait, the thousands of soldiers beginning small conversations that mixed and buzzed in the scorching air.  Ray hadn’t even noticed how blazing hot the sun was today until now, even though he had probably been outside for a straight hour now.  Finally turning around to talk to his five generals about what they might need to do today, he instead froze as he found a very familiar mare standing just inches away.
“Adant,” Ray breathed, kneeling down instantly to be eye-level with her.  Her milky eyes were half-closed and she seemed to be drooping entirely, her gaze averted from him.  The young man didn’t know what to say, his mouth opened slightly as he hesitated, grief and concern in equal measure washing away the feeling of triumph he had.  Finally, he managed to softly ask, “I… what is it I can do for you?”
“Garish left behind a will,” Adant muttered, even softer than him.  “I read it this morning, and… he has several requests.  You’re involved in many of them.”
“Whatever it is, I’ll help,” Ray promised, reaching out and resting a hand on the mare’s translucent shoulder.  Finally, her eyes flitted up to him.
“He said that you were one of the only creatures in Equestria that had come to understand him, almost better than he understood himself,” she recited, a strangely warm smile crossing her face as she added, “I was the other one.  He wanted me to scatter his ashes wherever I thought was best, whenever I could.  He did, however, want you to oversee his goodbye.  In fact, he specifically requested if he did have to have some kind of funeral ceremony, you were to be the only speaker.  He didn’t want to waste anypony’s time… not when there would be others who gave their lives as well.”
“Of course I’ll give a speech,” Ray confirmed, causing Adant to nod.  Frowning, noting her distant demeanor still remained, he gently asked, “How’re you holding up, Adant?”
“I… I’m not… It’s just all so… painful,” she finally was able to get out, her voice shaky.  “How did you overcome this, Ray?”
“I’ve never lost someone as close to me as Garish was to you,” Ray admitted.  “I don’t think I have good advice this time.”
“But you’ve lost everything you had before, when you were first taken to Equestria,” Adant pointed out, looking away again.  “How do you come back from losing everything as powerfully as you did?”
“Trust me, Adant, I did so through many, many mistakes,” Ray revealed, a tinge of regret striking through him as he remembered his reaction.  “What I did was very unhealthy, and what I’m doing is still very unhealthy.  My advice is to feel the pain, keep it close, but don’t let it absorb you.  As soon as you stop feeling the pain of what you’ve lost, that’s when you’ve gone too far.”
Adant stared at him for a long moment as he fell silent, looking away himself.  “You no longer feel pain for the family you lost, the world you were taken from?”
“I don’t think I ever truly felt pain about that,” he admitted sadly, shrugging.  “I was more enraged that I had been pulled away from what I knew and was being forced to learn more.  I had stopped seeing my family as nothing more than a mission and group of people who I needed to try and protect.  But it is different with you, very different.  I don’t know how you can even stand talking to me right now, after what I did got your husband killed…”
“You aren’t responsible for his death, Ray,” Adant declared so firmly that it caused Ray to glance back at her.  “You did the right thing yesterday, and my husband wouldn’t have you thinking that he died because of you for one minute.  I’m talking to you right now because it’s what he would want, for me to get it done and over with so I could keep fighting the cause we’re putting our lives into.  I’m also talking to you because you're the person I trust the most after him.”
“It seems you’ve answered your own question then,” Ray replied with a rueful smile.  
“Oh, so I have,” Adant muttered in surprise, before smiling genuinely at the young man, her pain dissipating for a moment.  “Thank you, Ray.  May I hug you?”
“You didn’t have to ask,” he replied, leaning in and giving his friend a tight hug.  Somehow, in spite of what had been torn away from her yesterday, Ray felt as if the mare had become stronger.  Their conversation had somehow turned into an impromptu therapy session for him, and he knew Adant had realized that as well.  Yet, having such a barebones conversation with the mare, exposing one of the painful truths he’d come to know about himself in such a quick way, felt right.  As much as Adant trusted him, he trusted her back, in spite of them having only been casual friends just the day before.  It was only when he released her that he realized one more truth, another lesson he hadn’t been able to learn until he saw it in front of him.
The losses they were suffering only strengthened the bond between the Fallen.








The waning moon was only barely poking out over the dark hills when the ceremony finally ended.  The area was lit dimly by the glowing of embers from the large fire and the bodies of hundreds of Fallen.  In spite of the number, it was quiet.  Not a solemn, mourning quiet, but a peaceful one that bid the dead one last, grateful farewell.  Ray had asked his speech not to be recorded, the words to be private to the Fallen and them alone.  It wouldn’t feel right for those in Equestria to hear such words on a topic they would never understand as closely as the Fallen.
He stood beside Adant at the edge of the Big Face, looking out over the moonlit hills, the golden grass shimmering silver.  Silent tears dripped down her face as she held the cloth of ashes, but her face had a soft smile to it.  Slowly, she reached out over the sheer cliff face and dropped the cloth.  
It unraveled quickly, allowing the ashes to be freed into the wind.  A tear slid down Ray’s cheek as he watched them being blown away, towards the east.  Towards the coast.  Towards Equestria.  
The night was so peacefully quiet that, as he watched, he was able to hear Adant as she whispered softly, “Goodbye, my love.”
> Stalemate
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As it turned out, the day after the battle was not the busiest day, but rather the second day.  With the business of both addressing their gains and losses completed, as well as keeping morale high by celebrating the victory, the second day was what Ray had expected the first day to be.  Planning.
The entire day so far, from when he had woken up around six to halfway in the afternoon, had been spent assessing resources, replacement resources, positioning, and other miserably immaculate details.  In summary, almost nothing needed to change thanks to how the five generals had executed the strategic reposition to the Big Face.  That didn’t mean, however, that they could go on without reviewing every broad and narrow detail.  As a matter of fact, part of the reason the discussion was taking so long was because of the effectiveness of the movement.  It seemed that because everything had been placed so intentionally, one thing couldn’t be moved without disrupting everything else.
The problem arose that, if perhaps there was a situation in which the army needed to quickly launch itself to defend from behind or out over the cliff face, the archers would either be slow or in the way of the infantry.  While the likelihood of the situation was incredibly low considering the minotaurs had remained encamped throughout the past two days almost five miles away, it could still be a problem.  When the army did launch, it would be able to reposition itself for an offensive maneuver in under an hour.  That was how the current camp set up was designed.  If it needed to take on the defensive, then from almost every angle of attack, they were defended.  
Somehow, they needed to cover the ten percent that was inadequately positioned without corrupting the other ninety percent.  Ray was pretty certain everybody, including Kraven, had a headache from the problem, but because of their resilience, they had finally managed a solution in which two new paths were made, squishing some of the archers’ tents closer to make way.  It was an okay solution that would allow hundreds of infantry to spew out every minute, and while they could only know if they tested it, it was believed that the infantry would be in a defensible formation in about thirty to forty minutes.
With the internal problem out of the way at last, they could focus on the main one.  What next?
The crushing victory over the minotaur’s had allowed morale to soar and it was quite obvious that the Fallen were actually looking forward to their next confrontation.  The issue was in the minotaur’s and their position.  They had taken up a top of a hill as well, one about a mile and a half wide.  The position was defensible, had excellent vision of its surroundings, and almost three hundred soldiers on the four hills that surrounded it, according to scout reports.  It seemed that the minotaurs had taken up the defensive after they had been crushed in their own offensive movements.
The Fallen could technically attack or try to besiege the enemy position, but the biggest issue was their positioning itself.  While the Big Face was excellent for protection and repositioning, it was also southeast of the minotaur’s camp.  They would have to march not only diagonally to get to the minotaurs, but also weave around various hills for maximum speed and efficiency.  It exposed them greatly to a possible new army, or left a route for which the minotaurs could simply loop outwards and switch the Fallen’s position with theirs, getting behind them.  In such a position, Ray’s army would have to turn face and expose their backs to a potential third army.  
The arrival of two armies at the battle had been a serious wake-up call to Ray and the generals.  Presumably, the minotaurs had only sent the small number of troops to conquer Equestria because it didn’t have the capabilities to resist.  The two larger forces sent afterwards had probably been sent knowing that, at the very least, something was wrong.  The fact that two armies over ten thousand strong each had been thrown to the other continent gave them an idea of the minotaur’s total number, and it was rather bleak.  
Assuming the two boats they had sunk had a total of eight thousand minotaurs on them, then the Fallen and spiderlings had killed around thirty five thousand minotaurs.  The number was over two times that of the Fallen’s army, and if their estimation was correct, just around ten percent of the minotaur’s total army, around thirty-five hundred thousand strong.  Twenty times the size of Ray’s army.  Of course, those estimations had been intentionally large to account for the worst case scenario, but even with the number being half that, it would be nigh on impossible to fight the minotaurs evenly.
In order to smartly continue besting the minotaurs, they couldn’t take such extreme risks in attacking the enemy directly, as that would almost certainly double their casualties in battle.  They needed plans that lured the minotaur’s out into a valley or open plain to be rushed and bombarded into oblivion.  While the minotaurs couldn’t have realized this fact, it did mean that both sides now faced each other, waiting for the other to strike first.  Now, to get the minotaurs to finally move and break the stalemate, Ray and the generals needed a plan that could both lure the minotaurs into a favorable battle while keeping risks to a minimum.
Worse, however, it meant that the Fallen needed to remain within spying distance of the minotaurs, lest they realize that the army they were holding this mind war with couldn’t attack them.  If they retreated, it would give the minotaur’s back the ground they had unwittingly lost and show that the Fallen were incapable of a prolonged campaign.  The brutal truth of the situation they faced was that retreat meant concession of territory and control while attack meant heavy casualties and long-term, irreparable damage.  Even with a massive victory, the Fallen now found themselves backsliding.  
The one advantage they had in their favor offensively, however, was the now superior numbers.  With the Fallen alone, they outnumbered the minotaur army by over four thousand.  It was a comfortable lead that they could utilize in battle, but once again, finding the right battle itself was the challenge.  If anything were to go wrong, like a salient in the wave charge or a section hitting after the others, letting itself get devoured as Captain Rohan had, the losses would be amplified.  The lead seemed large, but in the perspective of longevity, it wouldn’t last if they tried to use it to simply win the objective.
Without the option of offense or retreat, they had two last options: defend or bait an attack into favorable conditions.  Defense seemed highly unlikely, since after the astounding victory of two days prior, the surviving minotaurs seemed skittish.  It was even exemplified from the positioning of the troops on the surrounding hills to their main camp.  More than likely, the minotaur’s would not attack the Fallen’s current position unless there was some extraordinary shift in their mentality or a surge in numbers.  In either case, it wouldn’t bode well for the Fallen, as it meant a battle which they hadn’t initiated, something they hadn’t done yet.  
So, the only logical solution was baiting them into a position where it was favorable for the Fallen to strike a lethal blow.  Narrowing down their options to that choice, even though it took an hour, had been the easiest part in hindsight.  Now came the most difficult task for Ray, both in scale and execution.  Choosing the time and place for his soldiers to die.
“Our soldiers need to rest for at least the rest of the week before we push them to fight again,” Yarem stated firmly, tapping on the map.  “If we’re going to ask them to fight again so soon after a battle, they at least need to heal from their previous battle.  Over two hundred are still recovering from serious wounds they received in the battle.  Another several hundred need the mental rest after losing friends, family, and other loved ones to the fight.  We can’t push them hard yet again.”
“I agree upon that point,” Skalos affirmed, staring at a position marked on the map as the minotaurs’ camp.  “I believe too that if we attack in the next week, it will convey urgency and desperation to the minotaurs, and whether accurate or not, it would be harmful to display such traits.  If they think we are on a timer, then they could intentionally stall out this confrontation.  Not only that, they could potentially receive reinforcements after stalling us for so long and then force us into an unfavorable retreat.”
“And if they already have reinforcements on the way,” Pelios passively questioned, opening up the thought.  
“Doubted,” Kraven shrugged, tracing a hoof from the minotaurs’ camp to the unmarked, blank parts of the paper.  “They sent two armies out to this area probably to see what was going on with their original armies, the ones we crushed on landing.  They wouldn’t have presumed the problem to be on their continent in this desolate plain, but rather in Equestria.  Most likely, they don’t have any troops on stand-by for the sudden revelation that there is a sizable army facing them on their own territory.  If they do, I believe their reaction will be sloppy and slow from the unpredictable situation we present to them.  The current encamped minotaurs seemed to have come from a long walk anyways, based on their physical exhaustion displayed in their lackluster marching two days ago.”
“Then it sounds like it’s a safe bet to let the army rest for the rest of this week at least,” Harbor concluded, jotting the note down on paper.  One piece of a huge plan that needed to be formulated.
“We are on a time limit, though,” Ray pointed out.  “I have to be prepared to give Twilight a full rundown of our first movements, the battle, all of those statistics, and most likely the same for this next fight.  We need to either scare the minotaurs off by the night of the next full moon or crush them so I’m not absent on what could be a night of battle.  I also can’t skip this one, as it’ll likely involve all of the major details for the resupply in two months.”
“Have to fight the battle before the next moon,” Harbor repeated as he wrote the condition down.  Looking up from the notes, he frowned and admitted, “I don’t think we can exactly plan a day to name for the battle, Ray.  We have to react to the minotaurs, and currently they’re inactive.  Even baiting out a fight wouldn’t necessarily mean fighting on the day we launch the operation, since it’s still dependent on how the minotaurs react.”
“Don’t set a day then,” the young man replied, rubbing his hand over his chin.  Stubble had grown thicker on his face since he hadn’t had the opportunity to shave in days.  “We just need to quickly bait out the minotaur’s army in between the end of this week and the night of the full moon.”
“I believe that’s an achievable goal,” Yarem stated, still staring at the map.  “I would propose an operation that required the Fallen to reposition into a ‘riskier’ position.  I say riskier because we would need to convince the minotaurs that they could attack us, potentially giving them the chance to if we aren’t careful.  However, the way I see it, if we plan the operation as a bait and switch to smash the minotaur’s we’ll also be prepared if they manage to strike first.  The problem is simply convincing the minotaurs to attack without actually giving them a legitimate advantage.”
“What about these hills over here,” Pelios asked, pointing to a grouping of hills two miles south of the minotaur’s camp, directly west of the Big Face.  “They have a plain in them large enough for wave tactics and the main hill is close enough for our archers to bombard them before the battle.  It’s also less of a walk for us than trying to flirt with them as we pass their camp.”
“That’s just the problem though, Pelios,” Kraven sighed, pointing to the same spot the other general had.  “It’s too advantageous for us and the minotaur’s would be fools not to realize it.  We would basically be able to set up our previous battle but facing only one army and not two.  It’s a generic area for us to fight in as well, giving the minotaurs the opportunity to counter us in whatever ways they may come up with.  We have to remember we no longer have the element of surprise on our side when it comes to attacking tactics.  Several dozen minotaurs witnessed out slaughter of the first army and survived to tell the second.  There will certainly be countermeasures to deflect us if we attempt the same thing.”
“Then it seems the next best thing to do would be to move our army across and cut behind them, trying to scare them into thinking we’re cutting their supply lines,” Yarem suggested.  “They may see our movement as too much of a threat and be forced into fighting us somewhere more advantageous to our army, whether they mean to or not.  The threat of cutting them off from the rest of their civilization could be too much to ignore.  It also gives us the opportunity to scout further out there, potentially finding a nearby source of support for them.”
“I like the idea, but moving closer to the minotaurs would almost certainly cause them to fortify their position further, locking themselves in,” Kraven once again pointed out.  “We don’t even know if these minotaurs have supply lines, since it's obvious you don’t technically need one to survive in the Tauran plains.  If they fortify further, they’ll be comfortable with us walking circles around them, unable to attack.  In fact, it may delay us even further because the arrival of yet another army could mean we need a wider path of escape from the two armies.  I also dislike the idea of circling the enemy, as it exposes too much of our sides for me to be comfortable with.”
The tent fell silent for a moment as everyone got to thinking on these words and any ideas they could receive from them.  After several long minutes of silent thinking, Pelios asked, “Do we have to keep the army in one piece?”
Ray’s brows shot up in surprise at the proposition, as did the other generals’.  Intrigued, the human stated, “Go on.”
“Well, suppose that we do something we shouldn’t do in order to achieve both our goal in proper position and proper bait,” Pelios began moving towards the map.  “All this time, we’ve been thinking we need to get near the minotaur’s in order to trick them and not retreat in order to not give ground.  Well, what if we take our archers and discreetly move them a mile down the Big Face, not too much, but enough to properly hide from sight while the infantry begin moving about.”
Tapping his hoof on their camp, he traced a line out towards and around the hill they had stationed on before the battle.  “We could move the infantry like so, as if they were beginning to advance towards the minotaurs before they suddenly realized they were outnumbered and had to retreat.  The enemy making such a bold and unprepared move would catch their attention and a chase would ensue, as we now have to walk around the opposite side of this hill and on the southern, cliff side of the Big Face to escape quickly enough.  For the infantry, it would be a mad dash to cover their mistake while the minotaurs attempt to capitalize on it.”
Pointing to the central part of the Big Face’s cliff ridge, he continued, “This, however, is where the archers come in.  They line up along the ridge with their ballistas and bows and begin raining down fire on the minotaurs while they chase our infantry.  In an instant, the spiderlings- perhaps supported by some infantry- then collapse at them from the back and pin them into this shooting gallery.  If the minotaurs attempt to break loose, a singular charge would suffice in keeping them trapped.  They would have been tricked into walking right under our bows and into superior numbers.  The battle could be over in under an hour.”
As silence fell, each of the general’s thinking on Pelios’ words, Ray glanced at Skalos and then Kraven.  Both briefly met his eyes, and while their expressions were unreadable, he realized they were probably thinking the same as him.  The plan was bold, daring, and incredibly risky.  It required the minotaurs to completely ignore or be oblivious to a large chunk of their army.  On top of that, it necessitated a need for haste from the infantry before sending them straight into a fight.  Unlike the battle of two days prior, it wouldn’t be a march into battle, but rather a march, panicked retreat, then quick turn about to attack.  
“It has potential,” Yarem finally admitted, a hoof dropping from his chin to the map.  “However, I’m concerned about leaving the archers without any way to defend themselves.  A slight reposition doesn’t mean that they’ll be safe from minotaur scouting, and if they see the archers the minotaurs could easily start chasing them instead.”
“And how would we position the spiderlings in a way that they could collapse on the minotaurs without our assistance,” Skalos further questioned.
Pelios stepped towards the map, invigorated as he pointed at it, explaining, “These hills down here have deeper valleys that flow towards the cliff face.  By putting the spiderlings in here, they would be completely invisible from minotaur scouting unless the minotaurs put a scout directly on top of their hill.  They could then hit them from behind, ideally with the Matriarch leading the way to both terrify and clear a space to deaden spiderling casualties.  Once the minotaurs were being hit from both sides, they would be forced back into the cliff face and the archers would only have to rain fire while we held positions.
“As for the archers, the minotaurs scouting so far has been horrendous.  Our own six scouts have, for the past two days now, been giving us all the information possible while also preventing the minotaurs from gathering information.  It seems the minotaurs don’t really ‘scout’ per se, but rather throw some of their soldiers outwards like a living net in an attempt to catch some information.  As of my last discussion with Captain Samson of the scouting unit, they have dispatched forty-four minotaur scouts, the closest of which was two miles away.  With continued diligence from our own scouts and their counter reconnaissance, we could easily maintain a deceptive radius around us that the minotaurs will have no information on.”
“Our scouts have been highly successful thus far, even in only deploying six at a time,” Kraven agreed, looking back down at the map.  “If we use them to maintain this deceptive radius around our archers, it would allow for their movement to be hidden and the infantry’s to be seen.  The minotaurs would have to think we’re trying to catch them by surprise with the archers, whom they won’t know are only archers.  The pressure we apply with our infantry will force them into moving with the threat of a second, unknown force.  But how do we guarantee the minotaur’s will chase us rather than completely retreat?”
“Sweet Celestia, it’s so simple now,” Pelios suddenly exclaimed, eyes shining with excitement.  “That was the only question I had as well, but if I take my army of infantry early and march off to connect with the spiderlings, the minotaur’s will surely see they now outnumber us by a large margin.  It’d be too tempting not to take their chances and strike the smaller, disconnected force continuing to march towards them!’
“So you propose that Skalos and I’s armies keep marching towards the minotaurs while yours breaks off,” Yarem clarified with a furrowed brow.  “That would mean our army would be completely disconnected for when we did want to turn and fight…”
“Not disconnected, Yarem, but spread out,” Kraven countered, his eyes wide in realization.  “It ensures the spiderlings would be supported by our infantry and that the strike from the front and behind is properly coordinated.  Casualties would be dampened, effectiveness increased, and the fear factor also exploited.  If any minotaur’s survive, they would tell their higher-ups that there are not one but three different armies in their homeland.  The panic that could potentially be generated from that misinformation would be invaluable.”
“So it’s a good plan, then,” Pelios asked proudly.
“It’s an excellent plan, Pelios,” Ray confirmed with a smile, walking over to pat the stallion on the back.  “Well done.  Kraven, Harbor, formulate a plan of action for the archers.  I want to know exactly where you plan to reposition and what we should do to signal volleys.  Skalos, Yarem, Pelios, the three of you need to map out both the trajectory of the three infantry divisions and where the split off would happen.  I’m going to go discuss the plan with the Matriarch in further detail.  We’ll still need to set a date to begin this, but for now let’s say in ten days.  It is very viable to change based on the minotaurs and their action or inaction and our soldiers’ recovery from the last battle.”
“Yessir,” came the responses of the generals, each instantly getting to work as Ray turned to leave the tent.  Before he was completely out, he heard Kraven loudly ask him, “Could you send for Zecora and some of my assistants, please?”
“Of course,” he replied, stepping out into the blistering heat.  Setting out for the medical tent, where Zecora undoubtedly would be, he signaled for the two guards that hovered a short distance away from the generals’ tent.  Instructing them to gather Kraven’s assistants, a group of soldier-scribes and scientists like him, he began walking towards the eastern wing of camp near the cliff’s edge.  
The medical tents had been set up intentionally far away from the side of camp facing the minotaurs to give them more of a buffer in case of an attack.  Despite only being occupied by about a hundred or so seriously wounded soldiers right now, it was given as much space as a whole brigade to prevent possible infection and disease from spreading.  More tents and more space also gave the injured less stress and more air, or at least that was what Zecora had said.  Ray had been able to learn much about the army, but the medical aspects he was still dangerously naive about.  Luckily, Zecora had snuck her way into the war.
It only took a few minutes to arrive, thanks to the relatively compact nature of Fallen camps.  Their style of almost suburban tent formations took up minimal space and gave the greatest amount of accessibility to other parts of camp.  It also allowed for distinguished zones such as the medical zone or the food and supply areas to be defined firmly.  
Each of the tents in the medical zone was marked with green triangles on the top of their squarish shapes.  Pushing through a flap, Ray grimaced slightly at the smell of both foul medication and blood.  Fallen blood, as it turned out, had a strange smell to it much like milk, and if that blood was allowed to sit, dry, or clot, it would quickly sour much like milk.  Resisting the urge to pinch his nose out of respect for the injured, he passed by several wounded soldiers who were either attempting to sleep or simply had their eyes closed.  The injuries in this tent seemed less serious, with either missing ears or long gashes that had been stitched up.  It was occupied by only twelve soldiers as well, though a few had friends or other visitors that stood beside them.  Ray nodded in acknowledgement to those who noticed him before moving on to the next tent.
This one had some of the more grim and serious injuries, as he found Zecora tending to a Fallen missing his left eye.  Pausing at the tent flap, not wishing to disturb the zebra’s important work, he waited.  There were only seven soldiers in here, all stallions, and all missing something.  Two didn’t have a front leg, one had both eyes covered with a missing ear as well, and another was bandaged heavily around his stomach.  Frowning, he almost jumped as a hoof tapped him on the ankle.  
Eyes darting down, he found a stallion laying in the space to his right, a front hoof wrapped in a cast while his neck and mouth were bandaged.  Not being able to talk, the stallion instead gave Ray a wave with his uninjured right hoof, his eyes shining proudly.  Smiling, the young man crouched down to be by the stallion as he whispered softly, “It’s good to meet you soldier.  When you’ve recovered, you should come and find me so I can learn your name.  For now though, what would you like?”
The stallion attempted to scooch a little to sit up, causing Ray to reach out and carefully press the stallion down as he said, “Whoa whoa whoa, don’t move!”
Resigned, the stallion instead reached up and tapped Ray’s shoulder, beckoning him in closer.  A little confused, Ray leaned in and was greeted by a halfway hug, the uninjured hoof wrapping slightly around his neck while the stallion’s eyes continued to smile.  Smiling as well, Ray carefully hugged the stallion back, touched by the injured Fallen’s emotional welcome.  Blinking back some tears, the young man wrapped both his arms around the stallion’s back to not touch his injured neck.
“Janera is the one you embrace,” Zecora suddenly said from behind Ray as he and the stallion parted.  “He’s always wanted to meet face to face.  He was in the front lines alone when a minotaur slammed into him, breaking his bones.  His jaw and neck were a mess, but in spite of this he has made excellent progress.  In a short time he will be free to go, but for now, his recovery is slow.”
“That’s good to hear,” Ray replied, still looking at the brave stallion.  “I’ll hear from you then.”
Turning to face Zecora, still crouched so he was eye level, he said, “I need to know how long it will take for the injured to recover enough to move.”
“I would like to say in under a week, but that prediction is very bleak,” Zecora admitted with a sigh, gesturing for him to follow her out of the tent.  “I can no longer work alone with so many harmed.  I need somepony else who is medically charmed.”
“I see,” Ray muttered, glancing back at the tent of injured soldiers.  
“Alone, I barely have time to save anypony at all,” Zecora murmured, drawing Ray’s gaze again.  She looked tired, more so than he had been, and there was a terrible sadness to her as well.  “Not enough medics will be my greatest pitfall.”
“Those soldiers you weren’t able to save aren’t your fault, Zecora,” he assured her.  “And you’re right, you do need more medics.  How about this: you take those too maimed to fight and have them be your assistants.  That way you can have them bandaging up minor wounds while you take care of the more serious wounds?”
“That sounds like a plan to me,” the zebra replied, glancing towards one of the tents as she spoke.  “Though I have a patient I now must see.”
“Before you go, I do have one last question,” Ray insisted, halting the zebra.  When she turned enough to meet his eyes, he softly asked, “Are you doing okay?  Do you need somebody to take over, even for just a few minutes?  You’re dealing with some of the worst… stuff I’ve ever seen and you aren’t even meant to handle that kind of violence.”
“I think it’s because I’m healing and not harming that I find this all less… alarming,” Zecora sighed tiredly.  “But thank you for your concern, it is appreciated.  Skalos, I fear, may be the one who needs to be alleviated.”
“I’ll make sure to check in on him privately, if you want,” Ray offered.  Smiling silently, the exhausted zebra simply nodded before turning and entering the tent.  The young man could hear groans of pain as he began to walk away.
It wasn’t a very long walk to where he needed to go next, but it was late enough in the day that the sun had already set by the time he made it to the cliff’s edge.  While most of it was a flat, rocky wall that fell hundreds of feet down, there was a strange slanted bit wide enough for Ray to walk down.  It was steep and the rocks weren't necessarily stable here, but with webs coating the wall here, he wasn’t concerned.  Even if he did fall, one of the thousands of spiderlings would catch him, the wall serving as the walls of Tartarus once had for the Matriarch’s brood.  Once, he might have been freaked out by having to walk past so many giant spiders, all easily big enough and strong enough to devour him, but these were the Matriarch’s children, and much like her, they didn’t look like the monsters he had once seen them as.
Many of them barely noted his presence, not out of disrespect but out of nature.  They moved about and thought differently than any other creature he had met so far, simply focused on whatever task no matter how “important” something else might be.   In battle, they barely noticed their own dying to minotaurs, simply focused on their task of destroying the enemy.  Once a battle was done, they set about wrapping up the corpses for food and didn’t relax until that task was done.  Simple, yet extremely effective single-mindedness.  
He was able to see the Matriarch from where he was carefully walking, the steep downhill forcing him to focus more on walking than watching her.  Still, he managed to make it about halfway down the short, jutting trail before she noticed his arrival.  She had been leaning against the stone face, legs spread across from the top of the cliff almost to the bottom, so that only her abdomen and part of her head could be seen from his vantage.  Pulling herself up so that she was standing flat against the cliff face, she reached out with one leg.  Smiling, he jumped and landed with both feet on the extended leg.
“Kinda fun how naturally that’s come,” he admitted as she lifted him towards her face.  
“It is indeed amusing,” the Matriarch agreed, a smile in her voice.  “Come, I wish to hear what you’ve to talk with me about.”
“Well, I’m sure you were listening earlier, but I’ve come to ask what you think of Pelios’ plan,” Ray stated with a shrug, walking off the Matriarch’s leg and onto her back.  She was taking them not too far away, just enough that they would have relative privacy.
“I think that you should give the stallion more credit for what he does,” the Matriarch remarked frankly.  
“Pelios,” Ray questioned, slightly confused.
“Indeed, Pelios,” the Matriarch confirmed.  “You were presented with a situation that required true tactical genius to even conceive a plan that presented an opportunity for escape.  The fact of the matter is Pelios saved you and the others a great deal of time and effort by simply thinking outside the box.  He’s been doing this the entire time, and sometimes it seems you overlap in your thoughts, but you’ve become too much like Kraven and Skalos, I would say.  While their treatment of Pelios isn’t toxic or intentionally snide, they and the others, including you, often seem to forget him.  The fifth general, if you will.”
“I’ll… apologize the next time I see him,” Ray promised the World Weaver, shocked.  He hadn’t even noticed it before, but now in hindsight he saw exactly what the Matriarch was talking about.  He had been surprised today when Pelios presented him and the other generals with a sound plan, if risky.  He shouldn’t have been, though.  Pelios was a general, the same rank and skill as any of the others, yet in retrospect, Ray realized he hadn’t treated him as such.  Angry at himself for the lapse in both kindness and professionalism, he vowed to pay more attention to how he treated each of his general’s personally.
“I don’t blame you for your actions, and I don’t wish to scold either,” the Matriarch clarified quickly.  “You are extremely busy, with many threads to connect and tend to.  This one was just one you had allowed to fray subconsciously.”
“Thank you for the reminder,” Ray said, trying hard to keep his voice from being stiff.  While he was frustrated at himself, he didn’t want it to come out as anger towards the gentle correction.  However, with a thought, he asked, “Did you speak with Pelios personally?”
“Of course, you didn’t think I only spoke to you, did you,” the Matriarch inquired, her voice humored.  It was a newer emotion that he was growing to like hearing in her wizened voice.  
“I guess I almost did,” Ray admitted sheepishly with a chuckle.  “It’s good, though.  You certainly should.  I’m guessing Pelios told you how he’d been feeling and you took it upon yourself to help him out?”
“Indeed,” the Matriarch confirmed.  “The stallion is willing to be open, but he’s also afraid of being open around those he wishes to impress.  It’s a problem I think each of your generals face.”
“It’s a problem I face,” the young man chuckled, staring down at the top of the Matriarch’s head.
“Speaking of which, I had a second question for you, but I wasn’t able to catch you at all yesterday,” she said, her voice softening.
“You want to talk about the battle, I’m guessing,” Ray assumed, feeling his voice going hoarse.  He had managed to keep himself from lingering on thoughts of Garish, but with the reminder of the gruesome reality that his friend was gone, his emotions were beginning to surface again.  With a shaky sigh, he managed to mutter, “I’m holding up okay for now.”
“It… doesn’t sound so, Ray,” the Matriarch carefully pushed.  “I haven’t heard such pained mourning since the terrible loss of… well, I shouldn’t say.  But it sounded as if you had lost your own child when you mourned after the battle.”
Ray was silent for a moment, throat tight.  Slowly, he turned and faced the camp on the cliff’s edge.  “Those soldiers, the Fallen.  I’ve always seen them as more than soldiers, more than friends, even.  Brothers and sisters, maybe, but I don’t think it’s much like that either.  They’re older than me by hundreds upon hundreds of years, but when I look at them and think of what I have to do to win this war, I only want there to be a future for each of them.  It’s strange that I would want to look after their future like a father would, yet I talk with them like a friend and give orders like a general.  I don’t know what to call my relationship with them.”
“It isn’t doctrine, but what I’d call it is being an outstanding general, Ray,” the Matriarch whispered.  
Accepting the answer with a quiet nod, Ray stated, “I do know one thing now, after yesterday.”
“Oh,” the Matriarch encouraged.
Taking a deep breath, the young man growled, “For the longest time, I’ve been training for and fighting this war to defend the ponies of Equestria.  I didn’t want to see such innocent, pure creatures be consumed by violence and death.  I defended them because they’re my friends and family.  I lead the Fallen like I do because I don’t want them to die.  I want every Fallen I know to get their second chance of life and to live it like they deserve to because I love them.  But I never really wanted to kill the minotaurs.  I did it because- frankly speaking- it’s the most effective way of protecting both the ponies and the Fallen.  It wasn’t until yesterday, when I watched Adant let her husband’s ashes float away in the wind on a completely different continent that I wanted to kill minotaurs.  
“I want to kill minotaurs now, because I need to destroy them.  I need to win.”
> Sweep
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A week and a half had gone by with no change.  Or at least, that was what Ray would report to Twilight.  Many, many things had occurred in the past week and a half, but all of the details he needed to know, the minute cogs and gears that kept his war machine moving, would take too long to explain to Twilight.  The young man had already realized that the coming full moon would be hard pressed for enough time to debrief the Princess of Equestria on every major detail of this past month, let alone all of the minor ones.  
A medic corp had been formed from injured and permanently debilitated Fallen, about twenty strong.  As Zecora had predicted, it had only taken the rest of the week for the injured to recover enough to be on the battlefield.  With the medic corps already being trained adequately to deal with the inevitable influx of injured soldiers to come from the battle that was being established, the Fallen were in a better position to rebound from their casualties quicker.  If they were lucky, they could implement field medics as well to save lives on the field of battle while also not risking the zebra.  
The minotaurs had repositioned slightly three days ago, but given they had only moved a half a mile closer than they had previously been positioned, there was no true reason to report it.  Not that the move was pointless, but it certainly wasn’t worth the time explaining to Twilight why the minotaurs had moved and how it changed nothing.  The beasts had repositioned to be in a tighter area, requiring far less scouts to establish a line of sight while condensing the army to make it that much harder to attack.  While the Fallen hadn’t been able to scout too closely to the hill the new encampment was on thanks to the tightened perimeter, they guessed it was also a position that allowed the minotaur army to suddenly spring into action.
Attempts to breach the perimeter or even move around the army to see what was behind it had all ended with the scouts being chased off, though thankfully none had been injured or killed.  Concerning though it was that the enemy position had tightened significantly, the Fallen’s goal had remained not to attack the minotaur army.  Pelios’ plan of baiting the enemy out with divisions of the infantry had been refined and tweaked since its conception.  More solid and infallible than ever, the generals had spent all of the past two days briefing their soldiers on their parts in the plan, and now the army was ready to move.  
Ray had ordered the scouts to loosen the perimeter, intentionally allowing the minotaurs to see the movements and mobilization of the Fallen once again.  By loosening, of course, he meant staging a failed ambush that killed most of the minotaur scouts but left enough alive to report back.  He worried that the minotaur generals, whoever or wherever they were, wouldn’t see through the ruse, though given the past two clashes with the minotaurs, intelligence seemed to be their lesser trait.  Still, as a precaution, he had tightened the perimeter again to ensure in their minds that the Fallen had slipped up in their hurried mobilization.
It was noon by the time the infantry actually began to move out, Pelios heading the army this time while Ray and Yarem held the center and Skalos covered their rear flank.  There wasn’t much planning needed this time, in fact, the morning’s debriefing was cut short for lack of issues to resolve.  The Fallen had learned while from the first time they moved out from camp and now repeated maneuver with agile lethality.  The Matriarch and her spiderlings were taking the long way around the east end of the Big Face and out to the southern hills where they would ambush the minotaurs.  Thankfully, the Matriarch would only need to hear the order from any one of the generals to strike instead of relying upon a messenger.  
As the infantry marched out now, Ray striding through the midst of Yarem’s infantry, there was a severe contrast to the army’s attitude from the last time.  This time, instead of the jovial and loud chatter that the soldiers had shared, there was a grim, determined silence.  The Fallen had come face-to-face with their dead now, the casualties they suffered, though small, a sobering and endearing reminder of what risk they were taking.  Ray knew they weren’t silent out of fear or anger, but rather determination and demand.  They weren’t marching into the unknown this time, their fate uncertain and what they faced shrouded in the fog of war.  This time, they were marching with their gaze fixated not on the minotaurs they would face, but on the victory they would achieve.  
This time, the Fallen were marching to victory.
They held their heads up proud because they knew they would not lose this battle, but remained silent, acknowledging that they would return in lesser numbers than before.  A harmonious balance of expectation and reality.  Ray had managed to discipline himself in it by now, Garish’s death in the greatest victory in Equestria’s history proving to him that, inevitably, the road to ending this conflict in their favor would require the blood of those who paved it.  He wasn’t at peace with that concept, not by a long shot, but at the very least he would no longer blame himself for each and every death on the battlefield.  Just whether they were justified or not.
“Lordling, it would appear some of our scouts have returned with important news,” Yarem stated.  Ray followed his pointed hoof out towards a hillside to their northeast, where two small tails of dust were being kicked up by rushing scouts.  Because of the size and intent of today’s operation, every single scout was deployed, mostly for the protection of and obscuring the archers.  These two coming their way immediately would be the only two scouts that were operating to watch the enemy’s known position, their current encampment.  Two other pairs scouted straight ahead and their flank.
“Indeed,” Ray muttered.  Instead of being a foreboding, or even curious, sign, the two returning scouts were exactly as intended.  Though their swiftness probably meant vital information needed to be shared, it also meant that the enemy was beginning to take the bait.  “I’ll see to it and inform you of anything that may present problems.  Have a messenger for Pelios and one for Skalos prepared to dash, just in case.”
“Of course,” the general replied tightly, watching as the human began to take quick strides out of formation and to the side of the marching army.  
Glancing at the army, he was able to, for the first time, see the entirety of it.  When he had headed the march almost two weeks ago, he was incapable of seeing the full stretch of the army.  Now, positioned in the middle of it, looking from left to right, he could see all of the almost seventeen thousand soldiers, aided by a slight incline of the hill they were marching along.  It was only with this broad look that he was reminded of how small his force was.  In every war he remembered from Earth’s history, over seventeen thousand people died.  Now he was attempting to quell a force exponentially larger than his own.  Before the Battle of the Big Face, as Kraven called it, he had thought it brinking on impossible.  
With a smirk, he crossed his arms and stopped walking, waiting patiently for the scouts’ arrival.  The army looked in perfect shape from the way it marched uniformly and purposefully.  Projections of casualties for this battle placed the number at around four hundred dead, a figure that Ray agreed with.  But, because of their last battle’s immense success, he no longer thought of those numbers as losing numbers.  They were intentionally baiting the enemy with a much smaller portion of their army, and it was likely some parts of it would be caught and scattered fighting would break out.  However, four hundred dead would still place their total losses at below eight hundred in the first six months of war.  
That had been an unpredictably positive outcome, as he, Twilight, the generals, and every Fallen in the army had presumed this war would be a blitz through the enemy’s nation, a bloody rip and tear of the minotaurs.  A thousand casualties had been assumed from landing alone, but ultimately, only forty-two soldiers had died.  Unbelievable, but considered luck thanks to the sparse landing area and split minotaurs.  This second battle, however, had proved to be something far more unique.  Both armies had seen each other and were aware of the other’s potential to attack.  Once again, the element of surprise had secured victory at the Battle of the Big Face, but beyond that, the Fallen had only suffered a third of their lowest projected casualties.  
They knew their strength now, and it was alleviating to finally be able to throw it around.  Those four months of utter stalemate were paying off as finally they were once again on the warpath, and if this battle went their way, they could presumably steamroll past the golden hills and into minotaur heartland.  However, those thoughts would have to wait until a victory was secured.  
“General Ray, sir,” the male scout saluted as he came to attention, several paces ahead of his comrade.  The stallion was surprisingly in control of his breath, allowing him to jump straight to the point.  “The minotaurs just received reinforcement, around five or six thousand in number.  They have moved a very small piece of their army forward, perhaps as a buffer, to the hillside in front of the hill they’re mobilized on.  It numbers around one thousand.”
The young man blinked at the stallion, reading past the attentiveness of the stallion to see his panic.  The news was troubling, or at least, numerically so.  The enemy had received reinforcements about fifty percent of their strength, making them once again equal to or slightly larger than the Fallen army.  Raising his hand slowly to his face, he covered his mouth as he rubbed his upper lip, deep in thought.  
They hadn’t seen anything even hinting to reinforcements, and suddenly they had arrived right as their operation was beginning.  Mentally, he reached in the back of his mind, attempting to feel for any semblance of the Spectre.  Nothing.  Still, he couldn’t help but feel that the vengeful shadow was somehow attempting to sabotage him and the Fallen.  He was banished, but perhaps his reach was still present in the minds and actions of the minotaurs.  It was a theory that was steadily becoming more and more grounded the more he thought about it.  
“This is… certainly an important change in the enemy’s numbers,” Ray finally stated, still covering his mouth with a hand.  The change in numbers didn’t affect the plan, at least, not when thinking about it right now.  In fact, with their numbers reinforced, perhaps the minotaurs would be more prone to charging and overextending themselves.  After all, even though they now had more soldiers than before, it was barely more than the Fallen’s.  The previous battle had been against more enemies, given at split times.  Still, this would be a final gauge in how the Fallen fared in an even battle.
“Tactics will not fundamentally change,” he finally declared.  Thinking for just a moment, he added, “I don’t care how long it takes, but safely wrap around the back of the minotaur’s and shoot outwards from in the direction you think the reinforcements came from.  There has to be some evidence to where the minotaurs got their numbers from so quickly.”
“Yes sir,” the scouts replied in unison before beginning to walk off.  As soon as their backs were turned, Ray let his mind race with the information he had, honing in on one specific and strange nugget.  The minotaurs had moved a force of about one thousand soldiers in front of their mobilizing army, a soft buffer to slow down a head-on attack.  Swiftly moving through the ranks to catch up to Yarem, he found the general in minutes and quickly explained, “The minotaurs have repositioned slightly and been reinforced by around five thousand soldiers.”
“Concerning,” the stallion grumbled, eyeing the captains around them who now stared in anticipation.  Usually, Ray would pull the general aside for such tactical and important information, but he wanted these captains to see firsthand his confidence in them.  
“Hardly,” Ray replied, letting a smug smirk escape.  “Tell me, general, if you saw a force half your size approaching your larger, reinforced army, would you restrain yourself from attempting to capitalize on their foolishness?”
“Ah, I see,” a similarly smug and understanding gleam in Yarem’s eye as he too smiled.  “I, personally, wouldn’t hesitate to strike at them for getting so boldly close.  After all, I want to avenge my destroyed comrades.”
“Precisely,” Ray agreed through the soft chuckles of a few captains.  “Have your messengers spread the word that the enemy's numbers have changed, but our plans have not.”
“Of course, sir,” Yarem answered, gesturing for the messengers.  Once he had given them their orders and sent them on their way, he turned back to Ray.
“I have a special operation in mind for us, Yarem,” the young man revealed, gesturing for him and the captains to step aside and allow the army to march onward.  Crouching down to be more level with the Fallen around him, he explained  “There is a force of some one thousand minotaurs that front the enemy position, and as it so happens, seem to be placed to bait us into attacking.  Now, this is far from a good idea, but what if we took soldiers from this infantry division and swept them out and across the enemy lines, removing those numbers from action and practically tugging the minotaurs into a chase?”
The general frowned for a moment in thought, staring intently at the ground.  It was a bold, borderline foolish proposal.  In practical warfare, it would probably be considered straight up idiotic, however, given their entire plan was already relying upon the enemy charging at them and chasing them into the ambush, it was perfect.  Yarem seemed to come to that conclusion as well as a smile once again spread across his transparent face.  
“We would cut down a small number of enemies and enrage the rest into a foolhardy chase to their demise,” he answered, earning some stomps and chuckles from the surrounding captains.  
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Ray grinned, looking around at the captains.  “Go and prepare your soldiers for a swift charge.  I only want the fourth and fifth wave soldiers in this charge, however, about two thousand soldiers.  Yarem, once the messengers return, have them tell Pelios and Skalos about our move.”
“They’re going to be jealous that we draw first blood,” Yarem scoffed, as he and the others began to move back into formation.
“They’ll have their time, but today is ours,” Ray replied, grinning as he clapped a hand on the general’s back.
> It Falls Like Rain
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The hour of marching that brought the Fallen within a mile of their foe was the quickest hour of Ray’s life.  One moment, he was directing the movements of soldiers with Yarem, carefully readying the soldiers for their sudden sweep across the enemy’s face, and the next the word was being passed along that they were now less than a mile from the minotaur lines, marching parallel to them.  Coincidentally, that also meant that the entire army was waiting for Ray’s mark to set off and lay the bait for today’s battle.  In the distance, over the steady drum of hooves on dirt, he could hear the rumbling of the minotaurs.  Without a moment's hesitation, he raised his kharamh in the direction of the noises, letting out a shout before breaking into a run and veering out of formation.  
Behind him, Yarem’s infantry also tore away from the main body of the army and began frantically climbing up the hillside.  Several dozen Fallen already had zipped past him, and if he had to guess, at least half of the infantry would engage the enemy before he could.  The attack was designed to be unorganized in execution, however they had taken care to not cause any blunders for Skalos or Pelios’ infantry.  However, aside from that, there was no plan except to hit the enemy hard and fast, enraging them into a daring chase.
Feet pounding, it took him only a couple minutes of hard running to crest the hill, which thanks to the hundreds of Fallen who were now storming past, was shrouded in dust.  Huffing, the other small hill came into sight, a thousand or so minotaurs crowning it.  They stood about unorganized, but now with a swarm of Fallen suddenly charging them, they were scrambling into a defensive formation.  A cloud of dust behind them on a taller hill about a mile and a half away indicated the much larger part of the minotaur army.  The Fallen’s own cloud of dust had probably alerted them to the sudden attack and they were now desperately attempting to protect their outlying forces.
Focusing on the downhill charge now, Ray watched as soldier after soldier passed him, weaving around slower soldiers and sprinting towards the enemy.  He could pick out Yarem not far from the front, though he seemed to be slowing slightly as more and more Fallen took the front.  In spite of how scattered the center of the charge was, the front was doing an excellent job of keeping together to form a wall of spears in front of the hundreds of scattered, charging Fallen.  The front line continued to extend outwards until it was about a hundred soldiers wide and several hundred thick.  
The sun beat down on the barren, golden landscape, creating little ripples of heat in the air that seemed to dance around the hooves pounding into the ground.  Ray watched carefully as the front line slowed slightly as they reached the incline at a sideways angle.  The minotaurs had expected a head-on attack, but thanks to the arching sweep the Fallen were executing, they were struggling to form up on the slant of the hill.  Their own frontline was broad but thinned towards the back.  Even before the first spears pierced the minotaur’s Ray knew the front wave would split the line in half, leaving the rest of the minotaurs to fend for themselves against the onslaught of Fallen.  
As the Fallen began running along the slope of the hill, parallel to the ground, the front began to sharpen as the center began sticking out, the rush of battle causing the Fallen to lose their focus in the final moments before the clash.  Ray didn’t slow down as he tensely watched the Fallen close the distance between them and the minotaurs.  In the last moments before the Fallen’s spears came into contact with the minotaurs, the minotaurs began to break, some stumbling back or turning around entirely as they realized they were watching their death approach.
There was a piercing crunch that momentarily drowned out all other noises as several hundred spears pierced through the hundreds of minotaurs.  The front of the Fallen charge cut the line in two soundly, though on the edges of the front, the minotaurs attacked those who were alone or too far out of formation.  The swing of an axe sent a Fallen into the air while another Fallen was beheaded entirely, their body sending up a puff of dust as its speed carried it into the ground.  It was only after the brutal crunch that the screams of minotaurs sounded, at least a third of the minotaurs felled by the front line alone.  
They scattered quickly, either running up or down the hill, anything to get out of the path of the charging Fallen.  In a matter of moments, more and more of the unorganized middle arrived in small groups or alone, beginning to mop up the minotaurs.  The battlefield became a swirling dust cloud as Fallen entered and exited the fray, and Ray lost sight of Yarem and the few soldiers he was running with as they entered the brown haze.  He had to disregard his concern instantly, however, as he realized his feet had swiftly carried him to the edge of the cloud as well.  Taking a deep, dry breath without slowing, he charged in.
He moved uphill, towards the right of the battlefield, as he leapt over slain minotaurs and fallen weaponry.  There were already so many minotaurs killed that he was hesitant at whether or not he would fight any during this part of the battle.  Skepticism aside, he kept his kharamh held high for fears that, in the dust, his silhouette would be mistaken for a minotaur;s and he would be accidentally attacked.  The crescent hook of his spearhead had become somewhat iconic, so hopefully through the frenzy of battle they would recognize it and his hornless head.  
As he did so, however, he came across his first minotaur, who was desperately stumbling away with a severely bleeding leg.  Without slowing, he swiped his kharamh at the minotaur, his hook cutting through the left side of the creature and sending it to the ground with finality.  Running past, he saw four more shadows through the dust, though right as he noticed, a trio of glowing forms rushed by, cutting down two of them.  Rushing the remaining two, he cleared the distance in a matter of seconds.  They turned to face him just in time for him to slip his kharamh past the first one’s axe, stabbing it through the center of its chest.
Yanking his weapon from out of its ribs, he side-stepped a quick slash from the second minotaur before it was suddenly jerked away as another Fallen rammed their lifted spear into its face.  Cursing at the sudden killing of the minotaur but grateful his soldiers weren’t confusing him for the enemy, Ray continued on.  The dust was getting thicker as the last of the Fallen were passing through, and picking up his pace, Ray was forced to ignore the few minotaurs he saw that remained in order not to be left behind.  Still, even if not all of the frontal appendage of the minotaurs had been killed, they were a completely inoperable group of survivors now.  
As he sprinted his way out of the dust cloud, he glanced backwards and saw the last of the Fallen also emerging from the din, trampling down a few more of the scattered minotaurs.  Satisfied, he turned and focused on returning to the main body of the army.  Now that his ears were no longer so clogged with the sounds of battle, he could hear the rapid approach of the minotaur army.  Panting hard from his almost nonstop sprint, he veered towards the small hill the Fallen army was marching behind.  Almost the entirety of Yarem’s infantry were ahead of him by this point, though they had taken into account Ray’s speed in the next step of their plan.  
Climbing the hill quickly, the human finally took a brief rest on the top of it, looking back and forth between his army and the skirmish grounds.  Pelios was preemptively taking his division of infantry and about a half mile towards the looming hills that flanked the Big Face.  There awaited the Matriarch and her spiderlings, with whom Pelios would then box the minotaurs in once Ray, Skalos, and Yarem had brought the minotaurs under the Fallen’s bows.  Skalos had turned his divisions to face the Big Face with Yarem directing his soldiers back into formation behind them.  The last of the raiding infantry rushed past Ray as he stood there, assessing the enemy.
Surprisingly, some minotaurs had survived the sudden attack, albeit only about fifty or so by how scattered and few there were.  The battleground was far more broad than even their last battle had been, with minotaur bodies scattered across what must have been about a mile of territory.  While Ray couldn’t quite pick out how many Fallen had been slain in the skirmish, having seen a few die in front of him, he knew they had taken their share of light losses.  Hopefully that wouldn’t translate to harshly later when they were needed to engage the enemy.
Suddenly, the clambering of the minotaur army became much louder as they suddenly rushed over the opposite hill, an unorganized blob of hundreds of snarling monsters.  Shouting another curse, he turned on his hill and practically flew downhill, shouting to whoever could hear him, “Minotaurs coming in hard and fast!”
A myriad of responses melded together, but thankfully the Fallen seemed to catch his message thanks to their general’s sudden sprint downhill.  By the time he had gotten to the back of Yarem’s block of infantry, Skalos had his infantry well on the move.  Pausing once again to pant hard, the human watched as Yarem came around to him, smiling brightly.  
“Seems we’ve got their attention pretty well,” the general noted, his eyes flitting to the new dust cloud that rose over their quaint hill.  
“Yeah,” was all Ray managed before gulping in more air.  “Don’t think I’ll manage another sprint like that for a few minutes.  My lungs’re dry.”
“Best to get a drink now then,” Yarem replied, sobering up as his eyes narrowed on the rapidly approaching dust cloud.  The sound of the minotaurs trampling the ground was uproarious, the very ground vibrating from their swift and violent approach.  “If we stay here much longer, our back end will be caught.”
“Good thing we’re back on the move then,” Ray pointed out, gesturing to the Fallen that had begun a paced run in front of them.  Wordlessly, the human and general began jogging along as well.  
Within just a few seconds of them beginning to run from the shadow of the hill, the minotaurs were cresting the top, roaring and shrieking as they came into sight of the smaller army.  In spite of the minotaurs being about a quarter of a mile from him, Ray was more worried that they had caught sight of Pelios’ army and would pull off.  Quickly glancing behind his shoulder, he watched as the minotaurs began pouring downhill, some so rapidly that they tripped and rolled down the coarse dirt or being trampled by their allies.  Thankfully, but terrifyingly, the minotaurs seemed to only be focused on catching the Fallen and paying back their losses tenfold.
Some of the Fallen who had also seen the minotaurs’ rapid approach began shouting for the army to speed up and keep strong, and whether they were officers or not, it seemed to work.  Even though the minotaurs were in a rage, the Fallen remained calm, and when Ray glanced back once again, there was a little more distance between themselves and the minotaurs.  However, as he stared, a singular arrow soared over the ranks of charging minotaurs.  Ray watched in shock as he watched it arch through the air over his head and strike a Fallen soldier only a few feet in front of him straight in the back.  The unfortunate stallion let out a cry of pain as he collapsed to the ground in a puff of dust, the soldier behind him tripping over their fallen comrade.  
Ray leapt over the two Fallen and was briefly tempted to turn back to assist the uninjured soldier, but looking back at them, he saw the tripped stallion’s broken leg, he knew it was hopeless.  Heart heavy, he kept running and kept his eyes forward even as  the stallion’s pleas for help suddenly became a short scream of pain.  Grimacing, he kept moving, training his sight on the strange formation not too far from his soldiers now.  He had never seen the Big Face from a front-facing angle, but now that they were circling towards it, he could see the broad granite features of the drop-off.
Glancing back over his shoulder, he cursed loudly as he saw several dozen arrows fly over the charging minotaurs and towards the Fallen.  Almost all of them fell short by a few dozen feet, save for one that disappeared into the back ranks of the Fallen without hitting any soldiers and another that struck a soldier only a few feet to his right.  The stallion fell silently, his body pinned to the ground by the force of the arrow.  Ray didn’t even have time to process the soldier’s death before he suddenly heard the wind whistle past his left ear.  
Yelping, he turned and looked over his other shoulder in time to see a small volley of arrows that seemed to be coming for him alone.  Stepping to the side, hurdling over one of his soldiers, he swung his kharamh through the air, managing to hit one of the arrows away as it fell towards him.  The others landed on or behind where he would’ve been, though by dodging Ray had slowed down significantly.  Growling, he knew that he was now easily within range of whatever the minotaurs were using to fire those arrows at the Fallen.  He had figured they had archery of some sort as a fundamental piece of warfare, but they hadn’t demonstrated it until.  Luckily, even though the minotaurs were gaining on him, the Fallen were increasing their distance to a range much too far to suffer any more casualties from loosed arrows.
Pressing on, Ray forced himself into the sprint of a lifetime, barely able to do anything but pant for air and pound his feet into the ground.  Breath puffing his chest up, he glanced back one last time as he realized the minotaurs were beginning to lose some of their steam.  Even though Ray had picked up his pace a little, it wasn’t enough to account for the sudden distance between him and the minotaurs, nor the growing of that distance.  The minotaurs still ran after the Fallen, but it was obvious they hadn’t expected such a long distance run.  
They had put almost a mile from that little hill now, and with the Big Face now looming over the front of the Fallen, it wouldn’t be long until the minotaurs fell into the trap.  Thankfully, the minotaurs were no longer in range of harming the army but still following it into the flat plain in front of the Big Face.  In spite of himself, Ray took a look at the upper rim as he and the rest of the back fell into the shadow of the massive cliff, scanning it for telltale signs of his archers.  Thankfully, they were hidden away well enough that he didn’t even know if they were in position where he was looking or further down along the edge.  
“Sir,” Yarem suddenly shouted as Ray found himself catching up with the infantry, “only a mile left to go.  Army still following?”
“Yeah,” he replied simply, panting twice as hard as his Fallen companion.  In spite of the ridiculous situation, the human found himself wheezing out a chuckle.  He thought he had been doing pretty great with his exercise, becoming a much stronger, more agile man than when he had first come to Equestria.  While that was of course true, for all his gained strength and agility, he still couldn’t match the pace of the elite Fallen he commanded.  
“Tired,” the general pressed, amusement in his voice.
“Yeah,” he once again answered shortly.  
“Just wait till we turn to fight them,” Yarem pointed out.
“Damn you,” was all Ray could shout back, though he couldn’t help but grin at the stallion.  The general began laughing regardless, a few other Fallen around them joining in as they had overheard the exchange.  However, the distraction was nearly enough for Ray to forget the enemy in hot pursuit of them.  
The clattering and bleating of the minotaurs had faded somewhat, allowing for Ray to focus on his own army for the briefest of moments.  They were quickly approaching a slight uphill incline, not quite a hill but certainly a change in elevation, that would be where the Fallen would halt and turn to face down the minotaurs.  The back lines of the army would be there in only a few minutes, and dismissing the tiredness he was feeling and the distractions all around him, Ray focused on what would have to happen next.  
Unfortunately, Yarem was very right about turning to fight the minotaurs.  They needed to keep them pinned down long enough for Pelios and the Matriarch to collapse their combined forces from behind and not let any of the enemy escape.  As much damage as the archers could do, there was no possible way the four thousand of them would be able to kill all seventeen or eighteen thousand minotaurs.  With the goal of total annihilation, crippling volleys would help approach, but not achieve, the objective.  Once again, that would be the grizzly work of the infantry.  
By the time he had made those assessments, he was climbing the incline, only now realizing that he was just moments away from the army halting and turning towards their foe.  Slowing down slightly as he came near to the top of where the incline flattened out, he saw Skalos leading his infantry as they turned in place, the stallion running alongside the entirety of the division to signal each column to turn.  Coming to a complete stop as Yarem’s infantry slowed down, the human let a small space grow between him and the stopping Fallen to assess the enemy better.  
Seeing the Fallen coming to a stop, the minotaurs were beginning to do the same, a distance of a little less than half a mile between their frontlines and Ray.  Behind them and to the south a little, the tall hills hid Pelios’ infantry and the Matriarch’s spiderlings.  Above them, Ray caught sight of movement along the cliff’s edge, and a sudden excitement filled him as he struggled for steady breath.  The minotaur’s had, once again, positioned themselves right where Ray wanted them.  
“Alright Matriarch,” he said to the wind, “close the gate on ‘em.” 
Without warning, there was a sudden shrill whistling sound that filled the air as a shadow suddenly shot from the top of the cliff’s edge.  Head jerking up to watch the arrows arch through the air, Ray’s jaw dropped slightly as the cloud of thousands of arrows temporarily blotted out the late afternoon sun before descending towards the minotaurs hundreds of feet below.  The deadly missiles shrieked in such an uncanny way that he took a few steps backwards, even knowing he was in no danger of being hit.  Squinting his eyes slightly to better see the minotaurs, he watched as the cloud suddenly broke on the minotaurs.
Hundreds upon hundreds of arrows fell straight into their ranks, peppering all areas of the minotaur’s army.  The minotaurs shrieked as the unseen archers felled thousands of them with one lethal volley as another launched just seconds after the first had landed.  Ray and the infantry watched in awe as more arrows began cumbling the enemy’s formation, dead minotaurs with a half a dozen arrows in them stacking one on top of the other.  By the time the second volley was finished, the minotaurs were scrambling over their dead, desperate to form a line against an attack Ray didn’t think would come.  
Yet another volley, this one now accompanied by ballista bolts, fell from on high, littering the ground and dead bodies with even more arrows.  The entire landscape became almost hellish, with thousands of dead or dying minotaurs stuck with arrows.  The ground itself was covered in blood and had arrows embedded in it, and with giant ballista bolts also lodged into the ground, there was almost no safe way to traverse it.  Signaling his army to hold, Ray continued to watch on as now the arrows no longer came in organized volleys, but rather fired at will.  
“I didn’t know it rained here,” a soldier not too far to Ray’s left muttered in disbelief as they watched the archers pummel the minotaurs into oblivion.  There were still a couple thousand alive, though they were now scrambling over and around their dead to try and escape.  Very few successfully dodged the suppressive onslaught the Fallen archers were releasing, minotaurs all across the battlefield crumpling to the ground as several arrows would strike them in the back or head.  
Behind them, the Matriarch suddenly emerged from the valley between the looming hills, Pelios’s division leading a mixed charge of spiderlings and Fallen in what was supposed to be a clever and decisive flank.  Instead, they would have nothing to come across but a few hundred minotaurs who had somehow escaped the seemingly endless rain of arrows from above.  There were still maybe a thousand minotaurs trapped with their dead and dying, the landscape turned impassible by the archer’s work.  They were quickly being whittled down by the archers, who seemed perfectly keen to keep the infantry from fighting.  
The original plan had been to let the archers do their damage in two volleys, but apparently Kraven had taken great disinterest with following order this time and had successfully directed his soldiers into stealing the battle from the infantry.  Smiling to himself, Ray raised his kharamh and simply began a slow walk towards the devastated ground.  He and his soldiers would clean up any surviving or wounded minotaurs and rejoin the rest of the army at camp before sundown, considering clean up wouldn’t take long.  He’d be surprised if even a hundred minotaurs remained to be cleaned up.
In the distance, the few hundred minotaurs were overrun by the combined forces of Pelios and the Matriarch with ease.  Some of the spiderlings stopped to feast on their kills while most pressed on slowly towards the main killing fields for more food.  The last minotaurs who were stranded among the corpses of their comrades would be easily dispatched by ravenous spiderlings, so, with a quick gesture to Yarem and some of the captains who had come up with him, Ray ordered the army to side-step clean up operations this time.  Still, curious, the human kept walking towards the thousands of dead minotaurs as the last arrow fell, sticking into an already fallen minotaur.
It was awe-inspiring in a terrifying way how many arrows had just been expended on the minotaurs, visible in each corpse having at least four or five arrows lodged into them.  The entire ground was soaked with minotaur blood, the ground too hard and dry to take in the minotaur’s viscous moisture.  However, in spite of the many, many dead, the battleground was less gory than Ray had anticipated.  The other battles had left far more of a mess than this one had thanks to spears beheading, gutting, impaling, or otherwise slicing open minotaurs.  Strangely, this battleground was very… clean.  Sort of.
Keeping his kharamh ready just in case of any minotaurs that may still have a little fight in them, Ray continued to survey the tarnished battleground.  For some reason, Yarem had followed him and was now verbally cursing at the sight, smell, and feel of the battlefield.  Even though he tried to ignore it, the human felt minotaur blood soaking into his thick sandals and wetting his feet.  He had to watch his step lest he trip on a corpse, arrow, or fallen weapon.  
“Admiring their work,” a curious voice questioned from above.  Looking up with a smile, Ray found himself grateful to be staring at the Matriarch, Pelios standing on her head.  “It was indeed a most spectacular work done.”
“Yes, albeit it left the rest of us a little bored,” Yarem replied.  “Given, it means way less dead, so I guess we should be thanking Harbor and Kraven for taking the lead on this one.”
“We got a little action,” Pelios commented as the Matriarch set him down near the other generals.  “Given, it was mostly the spiderlings who took on the remaining minotaurs.  If I had to guess, I lost less than ten of my soldiers in total.”
“We lost a good few in the raid and retreat,” Ray soberly noted, watching as the first spiderlings begin picking at the corpses around them.  Looking back up at the Matriarch with a smile, he asked, “Mind giving us a lift back to camp?  It seems we have a bit more free time than anticipated today, and I’d like to spend it congratulating the genius of my counterparts and the incredible work of their soldiers.”
> In the Enemy's Camp
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun was almost set by the time Ray and the generals finished up reporting to each other.  This victory was clearly their most significant, as with so few losses and the remnants of the second minotaur army completely eradicated, they had the clear advantage in the plains now.  The army would need maybe four or five days to recover, and while Ray needed to be back to the wayport to report to Twilight, the Matriarch could carry him there quickly enough to continue moving inland.  Excitement was welling in his chest at the thought, the entire plains now feeling like a free ticket to victory.  Unlike the previous battle, he had the time to wash the blood from himself and his kharamh, and felt fresh.
“Ray, if I might, one of my good friends was killed,” Pelios suddenly stated, and for the first time he could hear the shakiness in the stallion’s voice.  Brows furrowing in concern, the human turned to the general as he managed to ask, “Might I be relieved for the night to attend his pyre?”
“Of course, everyone’s excused for the night,” Ray replied with a wave, setting his cleaned kharamh against a stack of wooden boxes.
Before he could say anything else, Skalos quickly declared, “Only Pelios should be excused.  The minotaur’s camp has been abandoned, left hopefully in a state for us to learn something from them.  I propose we have the Matriarch carry us to the camp where we can investigate and gather what information they’ve left behind.  Surely such valuable information must be gathered as swiftly as possible.”
Ray rubbed his chin, nodding in agreement and glancing at Pelios to indicate he could leave now.  The stallion nodded gratefully and rushed out of the tent, nighttime already fast approaching, and thus the burning of their comrades’ corpses.  Still, the human didn’t have the opportunity to visit something as significant as his soldiers’ funerals when he had to consider the living's future.  It was harsh, but a reality he could scarcely ignore.  Focusing on what Skalos had proposed, however, Ray realized his friend’s idea was correct, but not its execution.  
“We’ll collect the information for certain, but I think we’ll need more soldiers than just us to carry it back, and I won’t give the Matriarch the indignity of being our mule,” Ray explained, noting how the remaining generals stiffened as he spoke.  Quickly, he ensured, “I don’t mean to take any soldiers from mourning our losses however, nor do I think this need to be ‘serious business’, I just believe it to be faster with many people sharing the load.  We also want an unoccupied general in the camp as well.  For that, I propose Yarem stays while Harbor gathers maybe a hundred Fallen to help collect information.  Skalos, Kraven, Harbor, the Matriarch, and I will all go to the camp and assess what to gather before soldiers arrive.  Yarem, take volunteers only.  Cap the number at a hundred and fifty.”
“Yessir,” the general replied before leaving the tent hastily.  Looking at the other three generals that remained in the tent, Ray crossed his arms and smiled.  
“Today has been a good day for us, a day in which we minimized our tragedy and maximized our strength for a victory so stunning I couldn’t have predicted it with a hundred guesses,” he declared proudly.  “For that, I credit you all, especially Kraven and Pelios, even though he just left.  From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for being independent of me yet entirely loyal as well.  Because of that, more Fallen will live to see themselves as ponies once again.”
“Thank you, lordling,” Kraven muttered hoarsely, eyes to the ground as his face was flushed.  The other two generals shuffled at the compliment, obviously not expecting Ray to offer his genuine emotions to them in such a way.  Smirking slightly, he motioned to the rear tent flap that would bring them to the edge of camp, leading them out.  
The Matriarch, already having heard the discussion, stood patiently just a little way beyond where the tents ended on the slope of the Big Face, but made no movement towards them.  They didn’t need to hurry, and even though the battle was now hours behind them, Ray still felt the weariness of it.  Taking his time to walk felt almost as good as sitting down, probably better since he wouldn’t cramp up after so much running.  Jerked out of his thoughts by a hoof tapping on his calf, he looked down to find Kraven gesturing for the human to lean in.
“Uh, Ray, the reason we all got… stiff at your comment on the Matriarch,” he whispered hesitantly, eyes darting to the other generals who pretended not to listen.  “Well… you called it an indignity to be a mule, but a mule is a close and sentient cousin of ponies.  It was… accidentally insensitive of you to say.”
“Oh,” the human muttered, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.  “I didn’t mean to offend, certainly.  As much as I don’t think about it these days, Earth still seems to influence much of how I think.  Mules are just pack animals there…”
“Interesting,” Kraven nodded, wide eyes now curious instead of hesitant.  However, the stallion didn’t seem to want to probe into how animals were on Earth and let the topic drop.  Thankfully, they had arrived at the Matriarch before an awkward silence could settle on them.  
“The stars are bright tonight,” she commented, eyes to the sky as she leaned down to let them onto her head.  Smiling, Ray rested a hand on her head as he waited for the other three to climb onto her.  
The Matriarch’s large red eyes seemed to focus on him now, amusement as she whispered, “Are you petting me, lordling?”
“I don’t know,” he chuckled, looking down at his hand pressed onto her chitinous skull.  “I guess I am.  I didn’t mean to offend.”
“Offend?  No, I’m honored,” the Matriarch assured, pausing as Ray took his turn to climb onto the massive spider’s head.  “After all, there isn’t much else you could do to show affection to me.  As amusing as it would be to witness, you couldn’t even hug one of my limbs, let alone my bodice itself.  Still, as small a motion as simply pressing your hand against my temple is, I know the intent and emotion behind the deed, and thus, am honored.”
“And I likewise,” he replied, sitting just above her topmost eyes.  “If I may say, I still think it’s strange that a creature as large, intelligent, and magnificent as you allow yourself to be used for transportation like this.  It feels… wrong, degrading, and disrespectful.”
“I have been worse things than an assistant to my allies,” the Matriarch replied with soft kindness.  “Trust me, it is simple work like this that I most enjoy rather than the brutalizing of mortals in combat that may ultimately be meaningless in the eyes of the Aspects.  I know, however, the importance of this all to you, and so do the Aspects.  It is why I’m permitted to be here with you.  They risk much by allowing one who knows the map of time and confluence of the cosmos so near to such a pivotal part of the plan.  However, Darkness is my master and on your side for this.  Thus, I can be in your presence.”
“And I in yours,” Ray assured, laying back and shifting into a comfortable position.  
In spite of himself, he let out a slight groan as some of his muscles tensely ached.  Some time ago, before he had dropped school, he’d learned the biological impact of sleep and its importance.  He hadn’t thought of those lessons once in the past four years, but now he was beginning to regret that.  So much activity with so few hours of sleep, even less than he’d received on Earth, meant his body wasn’t recovering as quickly as it should.  The Equestrian air, clean, enriching, and nigh-on magical, had split the difference, but now with almost half a year spent on the Tauran plains, he was quite exhausted.
It would be another late night tonight, and most likely for the next few weeks as he had everything from consolidating information to meeting with Twilight.  Not to mention all of the prep work that had to be done for the resupply, the subsequent work in protecting, securing, and distributing said resupply correctly, and consistent sleep looked like a distant dream.  
Be that as it may, though, given how exhausted everybody was becoming.  While technically the army should recuperate in a matter of days, the strain of battle was less damaging than the stress being caused by their own inability to predict what the future held in store for them.  They had won three major battles against the minotaurs and were still no closer to knowing where the minotaurs resided, how many soldiers they had, or even if it mattered at all.  If they came across another large group of minotaurs, it would more than likely mean the minotaurs could easily sustain tens of thousands of deaths each battle, in which case killing the minotaurs down to the last would be impossible.  Let alone the fact that Ray was gradually coming to understand the creatures he was killing as intelligent even in their bloodlust, and he knew internally that this war would be impossible to win from battles alone.  
He knew every other general was thinking the same thing as him, and since they were running out of time to continue into the endless hills before their resupply next month, it would mean this campaign had failed one of its purposes.  Even with two massive victories achieved in a short time thanks to their capabilities, the Fallen hadn’t found a single sign of where the minotaurs lived.  Almost four hundred Fallen had died and it seemed like another four hundred would have to die before they would find the information they needed.  This camp was the only hope Ray had of getting the information he needed without losing more friends.
Sighing softly, eyes lazily tracing constellations in the bright starlight, trying to take his mind off things he couldn’t control.  The generals were talking quietly amongst themselves, something about the battle and the logistics of the archers’ volleys.  Ray had already heard the important information about it, they were just talking about areas where it may be improved or what was impressive with the resources used.  Letting his mind drift away from the topic, he found himself thinking about the archers.
One of the greatest concerns the other generals had voiced early on was the disdain the infantry might have with the archers.  Given that one was in the heat of battle and losing numbers while the other kept their distance and attacked, there was almost a guarantee that once the fighting began animosity would arise between the two sects of the army.  Today, however, the archers had made it clear that they weren’t simply an auxiliary force.  They were a vital and lethal appendage of the army that could eliminate the enemy just as effectively as the infantry, and most importantly, prevent the infantry from losing soldiers.  Ray himself had needed the reminder even though he had seen firsthand the archers’ courage and capabilities at the first battle two weeks back.
Thoughts of the archers drew his mind to Adant and Garish, the soft smile on his lips becoming forlorn as felt a coolness in his heart.  The mare was still in mourning and given the relationship she and her husband had shared spanned centuries, he didn't know if she would be able to recover.  Was it possible for anyone to recover from that?  Ray had been able to witness that love, and it was inspiring.  Then, he had to be the one who ripped it away from Adant.  Time constraints- and more potently fear- had kept Ray from visiting with Adant since that time, but he knew she was still working diligently in her role as captain.  Once they were done here, he would meet with her, maybe, see how she was holding up.  
Talk.
Ray was terrible at talking.  It was actually one of the worst things he was able to do, talking.  He was far too direct and no-nonsense for normal conversation, and whenever someone else tried to dig into him and figure out he was thinking, he clamped up.  Sighing frustratedly to himself, he rubbed his tired eyes with both hands, already beginning to consider not bothering at all.  Maybe Adant had begun recovering already and bringing it back up would only make it worse for her.  Or maybe he would say something dumb and ruin their friendship.  Worse yet, she would start asking questions about him again and force him to face his own problems and admit them to her.  
Even Fluttershy hadn’t been able to remove every mask of his, but the mare had been successful in understanding why he wore them.  Still, that had only made her worry more for him than before.  If Adant pressed too hard and learned too much, would she be yet another on a long list of people crossing their fingers that he wouldn’t die?  It seemed… highly likely that any attempt from her to help him would end in disaster, and he couldn’t possibly say she needed his help.
“What are you pondering, lordling,” the Matriarch asked curiously from below him.   Laying one hand down on her chitin while the other still ran through his hair, he sighed yet again.
“I don’t know if I can help the Fallen,” he finally replied, the words hard to say especially with three of his best friends sitting just a scant few feet away from him.  “I know how to lead them, I know how to fight with them, hell I even know how to be friends with them… but I don’t know how I can help them.  We’ve lost close to a hundred soldiers today, though we won’t know exactly until the morning.  That means that we’ve lost almost four hundred soldiers in less than half a year.  The numbers are spectacular, actually, considering we’ve been in four battles now if you include the landing.  Honestly though, I’m lucky the numbers have been so low.  Otherwise, I wouldn’t know what to do.  Four hundred is a small statistic of our total soldiers, but it’s still such a large number of Fallen.”
“The Fallen have decided to take on the burden of carrying Equestria from the jaws of death,” the Matriarch reminded Ray solemnly.  “They have decided to die on the weapons of the minotaurs in order to defend the innocent ponies of Equestria, and for that they will be rewarded, in this life and the next.  The potential that so few will have to go the way of ash while so many live on should be celebrated.  A war cannot be fought without losing something in return.  Why do you mourn it, then?”
“Each Fallen has lived over seventeen hundred years,” Ray replied.  “I can’t even imagine myself in a year.  Combined, the dead have lived almost seven hundred thousand years, almost all of it together.  When one dies, the whole army feels the effects of that loss.  I’m younger than any of them were when they were first imprisoned in Tartarus.  I don’t know how to help them when they have lost so many friends.  Most armies are made of strangers, yet the Fallen have had centuries together to be friends and enemies.  When a Fallen is killed, it’s usually right alongside their friends and seen by all of their friends not in that unit.  I just have no way of helping anybody who's lost people important to them.”
“You can’t do everything, lordling,” the Matriarch gravely reminded him.  “You are the Orphan of the Cosmos, not the Lord of Worlds.”
“Lord of Worlds,” Ray questioned, a small panic passing through him at the thought of another cosmetic foe he might have to somehow face.
“Simply a fantasized creature, not real or cognizant being,” she quickly informed him.  “You are limited by your mortality, keeping you the most powerful of any creature who can die.  Remember that your potential is in leading soldiers and defeating enemies.  It has never been dealing with the aftermath of it.  That is the skill of somebody else who will step up to the occasion as you have.  Let go of your regrets and focus on what you can do.”
“But I feel like I can help, it’s just that I don’t know how,” the human grumbled, frustrated with himself.  “I feel like I should be able to talk to a Fallen soldier one on one and tell them that their friend didn’t die in vain.  I want to tell Adant that I’m there for her even if I don’t know what to say most of the time, to remind her I’ll always remember Garish.  It’s just… not something I’ve learned to do.  Deal with my mistakes.”
“Well, you certainly seem to be working on it,” Skalos suddenly said from behind Ray, causing the human to sit upright instantly, whirling around to look at the three generals.  From the soft smile on his best friend’s face, Ray knew the Fallen had heard the entire conversation.
“You didn’t encrypt our language,” he questioned the Matriarch, more surprised than angry.  Instead of an actual reply, the giant arachnid’s mandibles clicked together, her way of laughing.  With a sad smile, knowing he’d been duped, he simply knocked the hand that rested on the Matriarch’s head against her chitin like a very miniscule backhand.  “Tricky spider.”
“I hope you already know we won’t judge you for your struggles, lordling,” Kraven encouraged, taking a shaky step forward on the Matriarch’s back.  In spite of how unstable moving around was on the moving spider, the stallion managed to reach Ray and smile.  “After all, they are the concerns every great general should have.  In order for you to continue being a great general, I believe it is best for us to help you conquer these challenges.”
“Honestly surprised you didn’t see this coming,” Harbor added with a wry grin.
“You may be able to hide your struggles from the others,” the Matriarch continued from below him, “but I can see and hear your mourning.  I know the depths of your sorrows and will not sit by to let them idly consume you.  Your greatest strength is your irrepressibility, and your greatest weakness is your strength.  It does not make you invincible yet.  Reach out for help next time instead of edging yourself to the breaking point.”
“Noted,” Ray managed to choke out emotionally.  Reaching out a hand, he clamped it on Kraven’s shoulder in silent appreciation.  The stallion was a fine example of intelligence and scholarly wisdom, in fact, it was what the Fallen knew him for.  However, he was excellent at considering every angle of a conflict, including the emotional side.  The day the world wouldn’t have that intelligence in it, be it soon or decades in the future, would be a tragic one.
Looking around for the first time, he realized the Matriarch had carried them almost into the heart of the minotaur camp.  Although he hadn’t seen it before, now in the center of it, he could see exactly why it was taking the giant arachnid so long to navigate.  The camp looked more like a condensed, square mile of wooden poles and brown sheets haphazardly stacked on top of one another than a cohesive set of structures.  It fit the barbaric and beastly nature of the minotaurs well, and if he had to guess, this was at least partially intentional.  Organization was a must have for the Fallen, but it seemed that the minotaurs could function quickly without it.
“It looks… like a lot,” Kraven finally relented with a sigh, milky eyes scanning the hundreds of condensed tents.  There were little paths in between the structures that made a sensical road out of the camp, and a few larger paths divided the amorphous camp into six different parts, each varied in size.  The center part was circularly surrounded by a path and was the smallest, thus making it the most enticing for investigation.  While it didn’t seem like there was much of a command structure in battle, perhaps this was the central command center for when the minotaurs were just moving about.
“Then best we get started,” Skalos replied softly.  Hearing this, the Matriarch bent her head down and allowed the group of four off her.  Immediately, all four gagged at the awful scent that permeated from the camp, no longer high enough in the sky to avoid the smell.  The mix of excrement and rot had a hard foulness to it that required Ray to draw upon all of his strength to prevent himself from physically flinching away.  Raising a hand to his nose as he crinkled it, he gave his surroundings a slow look, a scowl across his face both from the stench and disorder.
“It seems the camp had no sanitation or effective drainage,” Ray commented dully, before spotting a patch of ground that shone in the moonlight.  “So, avoid puddles.”
“This is awful,” Harbor wheezed, one hoof raised to wrap around his nose while he stood still, also glancing around.  The tents were strangely tall, maybe three feet taller than Ray was, meaning they loomed over the group.  “Do they live like this in every war camp?”
“Maybe even in every settlement,” Kraven growled, also overcoming the stench to recompose himself.  Though he had a stark look of disgust while he did so, the stallion’s usual curious and educational demeanor returned as he gave the camp a judgemental stare-down.  “It would seem that, if these minotaurs were left to their own devices, plague would have killed more of them than blades.  This camp is a breeding ground for infections through consumption and inhalation.  Best not to stick here too long.”
“Ray, there’s something in-” was all the Matriarch managed to say before being interrupted by the wild bleat of minotaurs as six raced out of the tent right in front of the four generals.  
In the few seconds it took for the minotaurs to close the gap between him and them, he was able to recognize three things.  Firstly, that he had left his kharamh in the generals’ tent back in the Fallen camp, leaving him with only two small knives strapped to his right and left thighs.  Secondly, that the bleats weren’t only coming from in front of him, but also from either side of and even behind him, making them surrounded by an unknown number of minotaurs in the heart of their camp, and finally, Skalos, Kraven, and Harbor had no weapons either.  Not that it would do them any good, the space too cramped for the charging motion needed for spears and the distance for bows.  That meant that, on top of already being outnumbered, only one of them, Ray, would be carrying a blade.  
Minotaurs, however, were becoming increasingly predictable, and as the first one swung at him with an axe, Ray was able to duck underneath attack and rush forwards as he unsheathed his knife, slicing the blade across its stomach as he passed.  The second minotaur had been right beside the first but having raised its axe over its horned head to strike, Ray jammed the other knife into its exposed gut, the force sending the creature to the ground with a pitiful bleat.  The other four minotaurs seemed to be focused solely on the human, though out of the corner of his eye he could see another group of seven or eight minotaurs exit a tent to their right.  Chittering loudly, the Matriarch brought a feeler down on a tent to their left, crushing it and the minotaurs attempting to attack from it.
Adrenaline surging through him, Ray sidestepped another axe-wielding minotaur, dodging a downward strike before planting the knife in his right hand into the back of its neck.  Without the time to wrench the blade out, he left it there as he narrowly avoided losing his head to yet another axe, though this minotaur had stepped far too close for the attack.  Lunging forward with a shout, he grabbed the minotaur’s weapon hand with his right hand to keep it still while stabbing the minotaur in the gut and chest in a flurry of motion.  Gargling as it collapsed from the multiple stab wounds, Ray held it close enough to block any attack from the remaining two minotaurs.  
Eyeballing them, he thrust the dying minotaur at the closest one to delay it while diving at the further one to his left.  The minotaur clumsily tried to put distance between it and the human, but Ray was faster.  Keeping crouched, he sliced out both knees, letting the minotaur collapse before ramming his blade into the left side of its throat.  Without a moment to lose, he tugged it out with his right hand and stood up, ignoring the screaming bleats and shattering wood as the Matriarch swept aside another tent, looking for the sixth minotaur.  
It, however, had either been killed or lost in the chaos as the three Fallen generals had managed to put up a fight, keeping some minotaurs that had slipped past the Matriarch’s legs at bay.  Four minotaurs lay dead or unconscious, and as Ray engaged a minotaur with its back to him, he saw why.  Reaching around the front of the unsuspecting minotaur to slide his blade into its rib cage from behind, puncturing its lung, he watched as a trio of minotaurs attacked the generals.  While one focused on Kraven, the other had its leg kicked out by Skalos before Harbor ran by, throwing out his rear hooves to concave the back of its head.  With a loud crack, the minotaur fell forward with a heavy thud.  
Removing his knife, Ray turned and found another large group of maybe a dozen minotaurs rushing down the path towards them.  They didn’t get even two steps before one of the Matriarch’s feelers swept through them, sending all but three flying into the air.  The remaining minotaurs stumbled as they attempted to avoid getting crushed and continue attacking.  Frustrated with only having the knife, he took aim and threw it, satisfied as the blade stuck into the chest of the closest minotaur, dropping it.  Reaching down, Ray picked up one of the axes dropped by the slain minotaurs, having almost no time to feel the heft before using it.
It was far heavier than the kharamh, but for some reason felt easier to wield than the minotaurs made it seem.  Raising the weapon, he swung it horizontally, catching the first minotaur that approached in the stomach and almost halving it.  The weight carried through the strike however, and tugged the human along, bringing him dangerously close to the last minotaur of the group.  Cursing loudly, he let go of the weapon and fell backwards, clumsily avoiding being decapitated by a minotaur with a blunt sword.  Landing harshly on the coarse dirt, scraping his bare back and bruising his butt, he didn’t think about what he did next.  
The minotaur with the sword moved much quicker than the ones with axes did and was preparing its next attack while Ray was still regaining his bearings.  Giving a shout, he threw himself at the minotaur’s thinner legs, latching onto its right leg.  The minotaur let out a surprised grunt, unable to attack the human now attached to it.  Isolating the bottom of its leg from its knee, Ray jerked the bottom up and out, breaking it and tearing the muscle at the minotaur’s weak knee.   Shrieking, the beast went to the ground as Ray scrambled backwards and stood back up.  Before either he or it could react, Kraven suddenly appeared, rearing up and bucking it squarely in its nose.  The skin seemed to fold in as the cartilage gave way, the force of the kick enough to pop one of its eyeballs out of its socket.  There was a snap as the minotaur’s neck broke before its entire body went limp and slid to the ground.  
Nodding to Kraven and seeing that there were no more minotaurs approaching from his left or in front of him, he turned to the center.  The Fallen generals had, in spite of their lack of weaponry, killed at this point ten minotaurs, with only five left.  Even as Ray sprinted to take on one of them, another was crushed completely by the stomp of one of the Matriarch’s legs, blood muddying the ground.  The minotaur he was attacking was running directly at Skalos, who had his back turned on it as he faced off two minotaurs alone.  Kraven was rushing to help Harbor as the general dashed between the legs of an attacking minotaur and shattered its knee with a single kick back.  
Weaponless, Ray reached out and grabbed the minotaur by its shaggy mane, jerking it back with a grunt.  Surprised, the minotaur turned to attack Ray, but a hook across its face stunned the creature before it could utilize its sword.  Grabbing its unoccupied left arm with his own left hand, he pulled it in and stepped behind it.  Stumbling as it was manhandled by Ray, it fell into the perfect position for the human to kick in the back of its knee, sending it to the ground.  Filled with violent rage, Ray crossed his arms as he grabbed its left horn with his right hand and right horn with his left hand.  With a primordial bellow, he pulled on the two horns as hard as possible, jerking the minotaur's head 180° around with a sickening series of pops and cracks.  A last gasp escaped the minotaur before Ray kicked it to the ground.
Panting hard, he began running towards Skalos, who dove sideways at one of the minotaurs attacking him.  This got him out of the way of the minotaur’s axe and sent it tumbling to the ground as it tripped over the Fallen.  The tripped minotaur attempted to scramble off the ground, but Ray was there before it could recover.  It looked up at him with fear as he brought his foot down on its head, knocking it unconscious instantly.  He was prepping another kick when an unnoticed Kraven suddenly sent his rear hooves into the side of the minotaur’s head, ending its life.
“Help,” Skalos cried, the final minotaur trying to bring its axe down on him while he was pinned by the minotaur’s body.  
One of the Matriarch’s feelers suddenly swept at the minotaur’s legs, the size of force tearing them from its body completely.  The other feeler reached down and grabbed the minotaur while it shrieked and brayed, lifting it up to the giant arachnid’s mandibles where it was promptly consumed.
“I don’t notice the stench so much anymore,” Harbor nervously commented as he looked around at the bodies of the minotaurs that surrounded them.  Half of the tents in their immediate area had been crushed or swept aside by the Matriarch while the generals had been preoccupied with the minotaurs.  Torn cloth, broken wood, dead bodies, and fallen weaponry was scattered everywhere nearby, and the setting coolness of the night chilled the fresh blood covering Ray’s skin.  
“Is everyone alright,” Ray asked, breathless, looking around.as well.  There were no signs of any other minotaurs, and the Matriarch was now rapidly moving around above them to ensure they would not have any more surprises.  
“I’m good here, just bruised up,” Kraven stated, sitting down and nursing his left hoof.  However, seeing no blood, the human took his word for it and glanced over at Harbor, who was poking one of the limp minotaur bodies unaware of Ray’s question.  Guessing the stallion was fine based on his unfaltering movements and lack of spilled glowing blood, he quickly moved on to Skalos, who was still trapped under the legs of the slain minotaur.
“You good,” he repeated softly, reaching out a hand.  Taking it, the two strained for a moment as Ray pulled the stallion out.  
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Skalos finally replied as he stood.  Looking up, the stallion intensely demanded, “Don’t tell Zecora though.”
“She won’t hear a word from me,” Ray assured, before turning and making eye contact with the Matriarch.  Waiting for a glint of understanding in her unblinking eyes, he quickly asked, “Why didn't you warn us there were minotaurs in the camp?”
“I… was unaware of their presence entirely,” she admitted shamefully.  “I was not focused and was almost certain I didn’t detect any movement or hear any sound from them.  However, it seems they planned this without knowing how many they would face nor when they might face us.  It was a distraction, though, lordling.  While we were dealing with these minotaurs, others lit fires on the northern and western corners of the camp.  They are rapidly approaching now.”
“Dammit,” Ray growled, rolling out his shoulder.  As the adrenaline was beginning to wear off, he could feel pain in his shoulder, fist, and back.  Gesturing to the other generals, he ordered, “Get into these tents and grab anything paper.  The most important stuff will probably be written down, I think.”
“I will do what I can to slow the blaze, but it is already uncontrollable and ravenous,” the Matriarch warned.  Behind her head, smoke was beginning to rise higher into the sky, its smell quickly becoming stronger than that of the other foul odors.  With a frustrated sigh, Ray began ran into the first tent structure in front of him, following the other three generals.
“Scary as that was,” Harbor said, “it was exciting to literally fight by your side, gents.  I didn’t think I’d get that opportunity during this war.”
Forcing a smile, decidedly ignoring everything that was going wrong as he scanned the dark interior of the tent, Ray added, “It was indeed.  I didn’t know you had that powerful of a kick, Kraven.”
“Neither did I,” Kraven chuckled.
> Information
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was the first time Ray hadn’t been running late for his return to Equestria.  He was about half an hour early, standing on the sheer cliffside that overlooked the violent coast of the Tauran plains.  Even though the sun was already set, its fiery red and orange light still glowing from behind him, it was still at least thirty-five degrees out.  It was strange how many similarities there were between humans and ponies, both in language, customs, lifestyle, and even measurement.  Miles were the unit of measurement for long distance, yet meters for shorter distances and inches in even shorter distances.  It was confusing, the strange combination of the empirical and metric system.  Likewise, Celsius was the closest human unit of temperature measurement to the pony Sun-scale.  
One day he would ask her in detail about the similarities and differences between the human and pony world.  The fact that there were so many similarities while also being almost the polar opposite had to be more than coincidence in his mind, but the war called for his attention rather than these philosophical questions.  At one point in time, he might have been able to do both, but with the drastic turn this last month had taken, there were too many things to consider.  Their next move, the enemy’s next move, and the unseen Aspects’ hand in all of this had completely consumed him for the time being.
Unfortunately, the fire in the minotaur camp had destroyed it in less than two hours, taking with it any useful information that might have been stored there.  What they had retrieved from the camp was nothing that could reasonably help them fight the minotaurs in the coming months.  He had a bag of seeds and bread of different grains that they hadn’t been able to identify with him for Twilight to mull over.  For him, the most interesting discovery was rat bones in the charred ruins of the camp the next day.  It meant that his theories about centralization in the minotaurs were more confirmed.  With the number of crates, wooden tools, and other metals, there were undoubtedly cities of minotaurs out there, and with the abundance of wood in such a barren landscape as the golden hills, there was no doubt that there were different environments out there inhabited by the minotaurs.
 More concerning and far less interesting was the discovery of crossbows among the minotaur’s corpses.  The Fallen had been incapable of identifying the weapons given the strange lack of military technology in Equestria, but Ray had recognized the medieval weaponry immediately, and he had one strapped onto his back to show to Twilight.  He had known the minotaur’s had ranged capabilities, but never before had he considered them to have anything more than bows.  The fact that the minotaurs had superior technology to the Fallen on the battlefield scared him.  If they had developed weaponry like that years ahead of the ponies, what else might they have that could devastate the Fallen in battle?
The ponies had developed some gimmick catapults for impractical purposes, which in and of themselves were completely incapable of combat.  However, what if the minotaurs already had machinery like trebuchets or gunpowder weaponry?  What if, now that the war was undoubtedly known to the minotaurs, they mobilized the full might of their army with their superior technology?  It could prove to easily steamroll the Fallen, who stood no chance against weapons any stronger than what the minotaurs had flexed so far.  And from there, Equestria would have no hope of stopping the storm that would follow.  
“Ray,” a soft voice asked from behind, the mare speaking tragically familiar to him.  He turned quickly from the ocean, eyes finding Adant standing near the wayport.  She looked tired, her ghostly figure frail and more translucent than before.  However, she stood as tall as she could, her face resolute.  The human’s heart dropped slightly at the sight of her, widowed and hollowly stoic.  
In a matter of seconds, however, her strong face slowly melted into a deep frown as her head dipped, tears already beginning to drip from her eyes.  Instantly the human crouched down to be at her level, reaching out an arm and pulling her in for a tight hug, for whatever good it might do.  In spite of wanting to say something to help her, he couldn’t think of anything to tell her that would help.  Instead, he just held onto her, fighting back his own tears as memories of the Fallen stallion Adant had given her heart to flooded him.  For some reason, one particular memory surfaced of the day he had first spoken to the rankless stallion, and a little smile escaped him.
Taking hold of the little spark of joy he had received, he spoke aloud, “Y’know, the first thing Garish ever said to me was a question.”
Adant’s sobbing stilled for a moment as she looked up, tears still streaming from her milky eyes as she weakly asked, “What’d he ask?”
“He asked me, ‘Why are you so damn big?’,” he told her, his smile growing.  “I’d been talking to Fallen for three days straight and hadn’t been stumped or without anything to say that entire time.  I didn’t know how to answer a question so simple, yet so incredibly difficult to understand.  Finally, I told him that I was just a member of a species that tended to be large.  The next thing he asked me was if everything was to scale.”
A short giggle escaped her, interrupting her sobs and making her smile.  Before Ray could think of anything else to say, she muttered, “He did the same to me, actually.  We met shortly after we had both signed up for Equestria’s army to fight against Sombra, right as it was being organized to fight.  Our sectors of the camps shared the same bar.  It wasn’t romantic at all, just an overpacked tent that smelled like bitter beer and puke, and out of nowhere he tugs my tail and asks me, ‘If I took you back to my tent, would you beat me up or have a little fun for once?’
“I told him I’d do both, and he misunderstood completely,” she began to laugh uncontrollably at the memory.  “He thought I meant I’d give him some hoof and then some flank, when I really meant I’d have fun kicking him around!  He tried to take me back by the hoof and wound up needing somepony else to take him back to his tent.”
This time, Ray was laughing along with the mare, the story that had brought these two wonderful Fallen into each other’s lives incredibly fitting.  Suddenly, Ray felt his grief at Garish’s death slip away as he laughed, like the cold being blown away by a warm wind.  His laughter came to a sudden stop as this sudden emotion overtook him, something he had never felt before.  Brow furrowing, not in sadness, but curiosity, having no explanation for the sudden new emotions he was feeling, he slumped back against the ground.  Adant gave him a questioning look and may have said something, but Ray was too busy focused on trying to identify what he was feeling to discern it.
Blinking, he finally heard the mare ask him, “Ray, what’s the matter?  You look confused.”
“I am,” he replied softly, a lightness now to his heart he hadn’t felt before.  Slowly, he nodded his head as a silent voice in his head told him that this was acceptance.  Before he knew it, a few silent tears began to slide down his face, neither sad nor happy.  They were tears of both, a sadness that Garish was gone, but a joy that he had lived.  Yes… that was it.  He was coming to quickly understand that while the wonderful stallion’s life had been cut short, the story would continue without him.  That was okay.
“I’m glad I knew your husband,” Ray finally added, giving the concerned Fallen a slow smile.  “He’s a good stallion.  You’re right to be proud of him.”
“Thank you,” she whispered hoarsely with a little smile of her own, more tears escaping her.  Taking a deep, shaky breath, she admitted, “I never thought I would marry that stallion.  Garish was always so flirtatious and risqué, and I was lovers with Skalos in mortality.”
“Pardon, what,” Ray interrupted, shocked by the sudden, almost out of place admission.
“Oh yeah, we were together almost the entire time we were in the army before Luna cursed us,” Adant freely shared.  Chuckling a little, she continued, “As much as he’d ever hate to admit it, once upon a time he was just another fun-loving, playful, sometimes-vulgar young stallion who spent the nights looking for a romp in the hay.  He and I weren’t quite… together in a relationship way, but we certainly got to know each other.  Then, after we turned, he wouldn’t talk to me and had a complete personality change.  Skalos was who he is today by the time Luna damned us to Tartarus, and remained virtually emotionless during her condemnation and the hanging of his brother among other friends who took a commanding lead in the mutiny.”
“I… didn’t know most of that,” Ray admitted uncomfortably.  As if summoned by the conversation, Skalos had suddenly ascended the hill and was slowly making his way towards the pair.  
“He’s kept most everything he knows, feels, and thinks a secret from everypony but Zecora,” Adant shrugged.  “I’m glad he at least does have an outlet, and while I’ve never talked with the zebra before, I’m sure she’s a good match for him.”
“A perfect one, actually,” Ray replied, keeping a close eye on Skalos as he approached.  “No offense, of course.”
“None taken,” she said quietly, leaning into him more as if to hide her face from the stallion.  “It’s so weird, being both some of the oldest creatures alive, yet still feeling like I’m maybe thirty.  It was ages and ages ago that he and I were an item, yet I can remember it almost perfectly.  Comparing that young, hopeful stallion to this hard one, I’m glad we didn’t continue afterwards.  His depression wouldn’t have been helped by my company.”
“Depression…” Ray sighed, less a question and more an acceptance.  The condition had definitely been obvious in the Fallen from day one, though it seemed it had been helped by him being distracted, training the human and rallying the Fallen behind him.  Ray had been too preoccupied wrapping his head around the role he had volunteered for, and then the various tribulations that had arisen from it.  He still had no time to try and help each individual around him, and though he had learned a hard lesson to accept that fact, it still dampened his spirits to think about all he couldn’t do, even in the position he was in.
“Lordling, you’re… early,” Skalos slowly said, sounding slightly pleased.  “I had thought it would be routine for you to give our friends across the sea a heart attack every time!”
“Lots to talk about, so I figured I’d need every minute before sunrise,” he shrugged with a smirk.  “I don’t know, maybe I’ll make a habit of being early.”
“And I’ll make a habit of being awake to make sure you go to sleep,” the general replied, a bit more seriously.  “I was going to ask if you’ve been getting some rest, but clearly you haven’t.  While you’re there, you should ask Twilight for some more of that sleeping drug you mixed into your tea.”
“I’m fine, Skalos, but if it’d make you feel better, I’ll request some,” the human dismissed.  He was tired, but that didn’t translate into anything when it came to how he performed his duties.  Mostly, it meant that when he finally went to bed in the early hours of the morning, he would be asleep right away.  It was almost nice to keep himself so busy his thoughts couldn’t get in the way, the preoccupation of the war far too consuming for any enabling thoughts.  However, with the setting sun and the moon beginning to rise, Ray couldn’t spend any more time on his thoughts.
Carefully lifting Adant, he smiled softly as he told her, “I’m grateful for the company, Adant, and glad we could have this talk.  Truly, you’ve helped me more than you know.  Take care.”
“Will do, Ray,” she replied with her own warm smile.  Without another word, she took her leave, allowing Skalos to talk with the human in private.  Though, as he watched the mare go, he saw the Matriarch, just barely looming over one of the hills near the camp, watching.  It seemed that all of Equestria was attempting to give him therapy.  With a quiet chuckle, he looked down to his closest friend.
“What now, my friend,” he asked the Fallen willingly.  
“Before you go, Ray, I just wanted to clarify something with you,” he answered, gesturing for the human to crouch back down.  Doing so, he found the stallion resting a glowing hoof on his shoulder, looking him deeply in the eyes with his own milky ones.  Slowly, he explained, “These were incredible victories, regardless of the aftermath of either.  You need to project that onto Twilight, and thus the rest of Equestria.  Morale is high, and our enemies seem to fall like hewn grass whenever they meet us in combat.  Our losses have been a third the projected amount in almost every engagement, while we’ve almost completely annihilated every force we’ve faced.  Do not be humble, and do not skip any details.”
Pausing, the Fallen’s seriousness slipped into one of his rare, hopeful smiles, adding, “Besides, perhaps you’ll finally be able to understand how incredible of a job you’ve done when you have somepony else reacting to such dominating results.”
“Perhaps,” Ray repeated, smiling slightly.  “I’ve come to accept that I can't do anything more to prevent the deaths of my soldiers… Still, victory at the cost of even a few is a… heavy burden.  I just need to continue learning how to be strong enough to carry it is all.  I’ll be alright, Skalos.”
“I’ll hold you to that, lordling,” Skalos replied, his smile becoming sad.  “You used to talk so much about how you didn’t plan on returning to Equestria, or even surviving this war.  Now that we’ve fought it for so long, think about that again for me, please?  And if not for me, for everypony else in the world who cares about you.  In the eyes of all Equestria, you are their benevolent hero.”
“I know,” Ray muttered, feeling a familiar flustered sensation.  
Being a hero… out of all this sacrifice and killing- even of evil things- was not what he wanted out of this.  All he wanted to do was protect the rare innocence of the ponies he had witnessed firsthand.  Twilight and Skalos were the ones who had shot him into fame as the hero.  The fame felt undeserved and misled, and the only time he felt out of place in this strange, unbelievable world was when he was pressed before the masses of innocent bystanders to the greatest threat of their existence.  Once the war was done, there was a greater fight in store for him, one that he barely knew anything of and that Skalos only had the vaguest knowledge of.  Yet Equestria would want its “great protector” back when perhaps he was needed by someone or something else to prevent something worse from occurring.  After all, the Spectre had only been imprisoned, and even the Aspects had no clue as to how long until he escaped this time.
“Ray, you’re musing again,” Skalos softly pointed out, not attempting to hide the concern in his voice.  “I’d ask what you were thinking about if it weren’t for the rising moon.  That and your reluctance to share much of what you have hidden within that brain of yours.”
“Hypocrite,” Ray replied with a playful smirk, earning a confused- if understanding- side-eye from the stallion.  “I’ll tell you one day, I promise.  Maybe tomorrow, if tonight goes better than I think it will.”
“How could it go wrong,” Skalos questioned, retaining his professional face.  “We have done nothing but succeed.  Surely there is nothing to fear, correct lordling?”
“Indeed, general,” the human said, standing up and stepping backwards into the center of the wayport.  Raising the necklace around his neck to the moon, arm almost parallel to the ground, he added, “I’ll enjoy informing you of the proceedings upon my return.”
If there was a response, it was consumed in the intense warmth and light of wayport travel.  By this point, he was well acquainted with the art of wayport travel, and thus was unsurprised by the brightness and warmth, though appreciative of it regardless.  However, ever since he had been snatched from the wayport by the Spectre into its timeless realm, he had a stigma to it, only able to enjoy the physical comfort.  When the Spectre returned, he guessed this would most likely be the place he would strike back at Ray.  Given how little he knew about it and how unprotected it seemed to be… anything could happen.  His skin prickled in painful memory of what the Spectre had done to him in their last encounter, trauma he couldn’t rid himself of, making him uncomfortable.
In an instant, though, he was standing in a surprisingly chilly room, now well familiar to him.  Twilight’s private library in the Canterlot Castle, perfectly arranged and furnished, was dark and cold, with no sign of the alicorn who had belittled him so many times about being late.  Smirking slightly, he began to walk towards one of the couches to plop down and warm himself up.  Given the Tauran plains had only grown warmer, even at night, he wore almost nothing but shoes and the loose, breathable shorts Rarity had made for him.  
Right as he sat down on the nearest couch, the door slowly swung open, Twilight’s magic encasing it as she walked in, her face deep in a book also held up by her magic.  Raising his eyebrow at her, he said nothing as she slowly walked towards another couch almost directly across from him.  However, she still remained firmly focused on the book, unaware of the human staring at her with a growing grin.  Reading the title of the book she was reading as well made him snort softly, though she didn’t even flinch.  
Finally, unable to contain his amusement, he loudly read, “Soft Heartbeats of a Mare!”
“Sweet Celestia on haystacks,” Twilight shouted, the book flying into the air as she whipped her head up and lost focus on it.  Ray roared with laughter, leaning back into the couch as Twilight hastily caught the book with her magic and blushed deeply, tucking it away behind her couch.  
“Romance novels aren’t anything to be ashamed of, unless there’s something… shameful in them,” Ray teased, snickering softly.
“It’s a good book,” Twilight defensively shouted, before covering her mouth with a hoof.  After a second, she removed it and quietly said, “Sorry, you just scared me…”
“Weren’t ready for me to be on time, I see,” he observed with another smirk.  
“Yeah, you haven’t before,” she replied, shaking her head a little to gain her bearings.  “What happened?  Change of heart?”
“Necessity, actually,” he corrected, forcing himself into a more professional face.  “We have… lots to discuss.”
“Yes, I should’ve guessed with the whole offensive campaign occurring right before the restock,” Twilight sighed, looking worried.  “Alright, well, proceed I guess.”
“You’re gonna want a notebook for this, Twilight,” he cautioned, sitting up.  “We fought not one, but two battles.  The first one actually occurred on the first day of our march to search out the minotaurs.  As it turns out, they had sent two armies to either find us or investigate why they hadn’t heard from their armies that had previously occupied the area.  We still don’t know exactly.  However, we caught the smaller army about a mile or so ahead of the second one, about twelve thousand strong.  We engaged them at nightfall and decimated the entire army, leaving none alive.  The second army attempted to help their comrades, but thanks to the Matriarch and precise work from our archers, they were staved off with a loss of about five thousand.
“We lost two hundred and twenty-four Fallen, and just over five hundred spiderlings from the engagement.  Kraven named it the First Battle of the Big Face since we fought only about half a mile from the slopes of a cliff named ‘the Big Face’.  We fell back and set camp for eleven days while we recovered and assessed the situation, all while the second minotaur army began moving around us, apparently trying to scare us into moving.  However, it wasn’t until after our wounded were fully recovered thanks to Zecora that we made a move.
“Leaving the archers atop the cliff, we moved the infantry parallel to where the minotaurs had set camp.  They had a force of about one thousand soldiers sent to maybe dissuade us or to attempt to bait us into fighting them, however, that only played into our plans.   Skalos’ infantry broke off and attacked the smaller force, almost annihilating it and making the minotaurs attack from their camp.  At the same time, Pelios’ division broke off with the Matriarch and her spiderlings to hide in a valley between hills.  This left only Yarem and Skalos’ divisions, which the minotaurs began chasing after.
“We lured them to the cliffside of the Big Face and then the archers released several volleys and fired ballistas, almost expending all of their arrows.  From what we were able to discover after the battle, about eighty percent of the nearly nineteen thousand minotaurs were killed by these volleys and most who weren’t killed were injured.  They attempted to retreat, but that’s when Pelios and the Matriarch struck from behind, eradicating the last forces of their army.  Ultimately, about twenty thousand minotaurs were killed both from the brief attack on the minotaurs and the subsequent battle.  We lost eighty-four Fallen and only thirty spiderlings in return, and Kraven named it the Second Battle of the Big Face, of course.  
“After the battle, the generals and I decided to scour the camp with the Matriarch’s help for any useful information.  As it turns out, minotaur camps are unorganized, unsanitary, and highly compact.  We were ambushed by almost a hundred minotaurs who seemed to have been left there specifically for the purpose of killing anyone who investigated the camp and destroying it.  Thanks primarily to the Matriarch, we were uninjured, but it gave the minotaurs a chance to light the camp on fire, which spread rapidly and left the camp as nothing but ashes by the end of the night.  We did manage to procure some things from the camp, though nothing of interest to the army.”
“That was a lot,” Twilight agreed with a long sigh, looking over her three different notebooks.  He wanted to ask why she had so many out, but he knew it was probably a waste of time and looked past it.
“Here,” he said, lifting up a small bag that contained the rather useless discoveries from the camp.  “There’s some bread and grain samples in here, along with a vial of what we think might be ink, but we’re uncertain.  Since you’re the science person around here, we figured you’d be able to identify it for us once you got a chance to analyze it.  Still, there was one discovery we made that has me… greatly concerned.”
Standing up, he pulled the crossbow from off his back and presented it to Twilight, who picked it up with her magical grip.  Her eyes narrowed as she tried to understand the alien machine he had produced, though clearly it would take too long without any guidance.  Grabbing it again, he explained, “This is a crossbow, a weapon used to shoot projectiles called bolts using a spring-lock mechanism to propel them.  They're almost a thousand years outdated back on Earth, but here they seem to be the most advanced form of warfare technology I’ve seen yet.  It was found on dozens of minotaurs, meaning that this isn’t some prototype weapon.  It appears these have replaced bows among the ranks of the minotaurs.”
“Oh my…” Twilight whispered, eyes locked on the weapon.  
Fumbling with it for a moment as he pulled on the lever that tightened the string, he showed the alicorn exactly what he had been talking about.  The rudimentary weapon had its lever already attached to the crossbow, and quite cleverly, a little sight would pop up once the lever was cocked to help the user aim.  Lifting it to his shoulder, he aimed the empty weapon at the wall opposite to them just in case and dry fired it.  The loud snap of the string startled Twilight, who yelped and jumped back a little.  Having appropriately demonstrated the mechanics of it, he tossed it aside, onto the couch, letting his somberness show.  
“The unfortunate side effect of having no wars for over fifteen hundred years is that there was no advancement in technology for combat,” Ray stated, slumping back into the couch, prompting Twilight to relax.  “That is not the case with our enemies, who may have far outpaced us with the technology of warfare.  While we have the antiquated weaponry of bows, spears, and ballistas, they have more refined weapons like crossbows.  I doubt that this is the extent of their development either, since crossbows came about after some other rather nasty weaponry.  Pikes especially would be… devastating for Fallen to face.”
“Pikes,” Twilight questioned, concern scrunching up her brow.  
“Think spears designed for dealing with calvary specifically,” Ray informed her with as much menace as he could.  “Only a few hundred minotaurs in their front lines would need to be armed with such weapons to completely destroy the Fallen.  They could render our entire army useless, incapable of engaging without suffering extreme casualties.  However… the minotaurs thus far have been armed with axes and swords primarily, also very simple weapons that seem to be haphazardly distributed amongst their ranks.  I think that if they had pikes, we would have seen a few scattered around their armies.  Still, I wouldn’t count them out as a possible problem yet.”
“Sweet Celestia,” Twilight muttered, levitating the crossbow over to one of her study tables while peeking at one of her notebooks.  “Y’know, I thought winning two incredible victories would have made you less uptight about the war situation.  It almost seems like it’s had the opposite effect.  I mean, in the past six months you’ve killed fifty-eight thousand minotaurs for the loss of only three hundred and fifty Fallen.  That’s one Fallen for every hundred sixty-six minotaurs.”
“Yeah, and I don’t think that’s a good enough statistic, Twilight,” he snapped, his stress beginning to get to the better of him.  “Six months in and we’ve begun taking on bigger fights.  This should have happened two or three months in at the latest, not five!  This is supposed to be a blaze and tear, a surprise attack that will suddenly and unpredictably cut through the minotaurs and force them into surrendering.  The matter of the fact is all we’ve seen of minotaurs so far are their armies and the smallest breadcrumbs of what their society may be like.  That honestly scares me, Twilight.  If I had the capability to move around fifty-eight thousand soldiers in the middle of a grassy desert without any roads or towns, what would that say about my true size?”
“That it is… rather large, I guess,” the princess admitted defeatedly.  
“Exactly,” Ray pointed out, his frustration ebbing just a little.  With a sigh, he added softly, “We just don’t have the information to know if three hundred fifty Fallen was a good price for what we got back.  Trading corpses for corpses isn’t how we’ll win this war, Twilight.  It’s how we’ll lose it.”
“Then we best get to work finding the minotaurs,” Twilight determined boldly.  “We can’t just sit back and complain, right?”
“That was never the plan,” Ray replied, sitting up.  “I just needed to let some of my frustrations out.  Everybody else seems to be blinded by our temporary victories, and while as encouraging as they are, they’re also rather misleading.  We haven’t gained anything.  Skalos and the others tell me that I’m just now allowing myself peace for the times we succeed, but they have to know there’s more to this war than just bloodshed.  We need information and we needed it faster than this.”
“You're tired, Ray, and it’s definitely showing,” Twilight noted, giving him a raised brow.  “It seems along with not letting yourself have some peace, you also haven’t been maintaining a healthy balance of work and sleep.  Don’t even try to deny it, either.  I’ve been a victim of my own work more times than anypony else.  I could recognize your symptoms of it blind.”
“So what, Twi, I need to keep at it,” the human hopelessly shrugged.  “Skalos told me the exact same thing earlier, but between the war and the Aspects, there doesn’t seem to be a moment of time I have to spare, even to rest!  We’ve locked ourselves into a position I have to figure a way out of, but time isn’t on our side either.”
“You look a little bit thinner too, Ray,” Twilight added, completely dismissing his excuses.  Standing up from the table, she stepped towards him, reaching out a hoof to his face inquisitively.  Rolling his eyes, he leaned down and let her inspect him.  “Sunken in eyes, bags beginning to form under them, distinguished cheekbones, and moodiness.  All signs of malnutrition and exhaustion in any animal.”
Pausing, Twilight bit her lip and turned away from the human, leaving him mildly confused and slightly offended.  After only a few seconds of silence, however, she hesitantly explained, “You've been on a diet completely free of meat ever since your arrival, but humans are omnivores that directly benefit from consuming meat.  Even though I don’t have the ability to provide it to you… the griffons and hippogriffs do.  I think that maybe by adding meat to your diet will help you maintain your strength in such a demanding environment… even if it’s something we ponies could never imagine.”
“You think my moodiness is caused by not having enough meat,” Ray questioned sarcastically.  
“No, it’s mostly the stress, but a good diet means good rest, and good rest means less stress,” Twilight surmised, turning back around to face the human.  She quickly ripped a page out of one of her notebooks with her magic, using a levitated quill to pen something as she told him, “While I don’t know the extremities to which you’re being tested out there, it’s definitely having more of an effect on you than you realize.  Don’t be ashamed, though.  It happens to everyone who's ever been in charge of anything.”
With that, the note was suddenly teleported away, leaving Ray with his brows raised at the mare.  She moved to sit down again, before another thought seemed to strike her, slowing her movements as she looked over her shoulder at him, a sudden sadness etched into her eyes.  Softly, she apologetically said, “Oh Ray, I’ve been quite callous, haven’t I?”
“I have no clue what you mean,” he replied, confused by the alicorn’s sudden change in demeanor.  
“Who did you lose, Ray?”
Caught off-guard by the question, the human hissed slightly as he took a deep breath in, a jab of sorrow at suddenly being reminded of Garish’s death.  Letting it out, releasing his pensiveness, he muttered, “Garish, one of the few regulars I befriended.  He was a close friend of mine, almost as close as Skalos and the others.”
“I’m sorry,” was all Twilight could seem to say, a sullen understanding of her place in the war. 
“I had to inform his wife, Adant, who I also am friends with,” he continued, wanting to let the sorrow slide away into acceptance as it had earlier.  “They had plans to have children together, after the war with the minotaurs.  Garish would be a farmer and Adant would be his wife and they would have as many children as they could.  It would be a slow life.  She can’t have that now.  It’s not okay and it isn’t right, but we’ve both come to accept that there is another future for us, one without Garish with us.”
Looking Twilight dead in the eyes, he felt compelled to say, “My Fallen are dying for Equestria, not just giving their lives up, but their hopes and dreams.  Each of those are given as a sacrifice for the hopes and dreams of Equestria.  The longer this war goes on, the more lives and dreams will be taken.  That’s why I’ve been so melancholy, Twilight.  I’ve had to see firsthand a dream die, a very loving, beautiful dream that ended with a stallion split in half by a minotaur’s axe.  It’s what each and every one of us out there signed up for, but we need to know that these sacrifices aren’t in vain, Twilight.  That when Equestria is saved, the Fallen won’t once again be forgotten.  I need you to promise me that the lives and legends of the Fallen will outlive all of us.  Can you do that for me?”
“There won’t be a history book written without the names of the Fallen etched into them,” Twilight swore earnestly.  “There won’t be a town without a memorial to them, nor a city without a statue.  The names of the Fallen and Ray will live on forever in the memories of my ponies.”
“No, Twilight, the Fallen,” Ray softly corrected.  “Not me.”
“But… all of this is impossible without you,” she pointed out, concerned.  
“Yes, but I feel like I have a more sinister role to play in the scheme of the Aspects, even if for the greater good,” he revealed seriously.  “I’m the hero right now, but I doubt that, when all is said and done for my story, that will be the case.  I have a looming dread about the Spectre and what it plans to do upon its escape into Equestria again.  Maybe I’m to be the Aspects’ champion to defeat it, or maybe I’m just the glorified bait to draw it to its destruction like a worm on a hook.  Either way, I doubt history will look kindly on me when everything is over.”
“So mature, so solemn, and yet so dumb,” Twilight sighed, shaking her head.  “You keep doubting yourself, Ray.  At every corner, at every turn, you keep saying the same things and you keep getting proven wrong.  When will you finally take the hint that life’s trying to give you?  You aren’t the villain, Ray, and you never have or will be.  You’re a hero by nature.  You’re just too selfless to ever see yourself as such.  A little bit of selfishness would go a long way in letting you finally see yourself for the incredible person you’ve become.”
Something in Ray wanted him to resist the compliments, to fight back.  However, he was getting tired of everyone around him telling him his doubts were incorrect and then proving him wrong.  Worse, with everyone practically babying him for his perspectives, it felt worse to be right than it was to be wrong, since being right meant problems.  With a soft sigh, he gave in and muttered, “Skalos wanted me to get some more sleeping powder to mix into my tea at night so I could sleep better.”
“There you go, you big dummy,” Twilight teased with a cheerful smile.  “You’re finally letting yourself be a real person for a little bit.  Doesn’t it feel a bit better now?”
“Maybe,” he replied, legitimately uncertain.  “We need to focus on things other than myself, though.  We’ve got over sixteen thousand mouths to feed for the next six months, though honestly the greater concern might be water.”
“Really,” Twilight questioned, tilting her head slightly.  “The water we had given you seemed to be enough for a six-month period.”
“Yeah, and as crazy as it sounds, I think that was enough water for how warm it was then,” Ray explained.  “It seems like the days are just getting hotter out there while they cool down here.”
“Speaking of which,” Twilight quietly interrupted, lighting a fire in the nearby hearth while also summoning a blanket for Ray.  The human blinked at the levitating blanket for a second, prompting her to say, “Oh come on, you can’t not be cold.  You’re wearing as close to nothing as you can be while remaining appropriate.”
“Yeah, I was just enjoying it for a moment,” he said with a smile, grabbing the proffered blanket and wrapping it around his shoulders.  The calluses on his hands caught on the soft fabric of the blanket, an uncomfortable scratchiness to it until he let go.  “I haven’t had the opportunity to be cold since the last time I was here, y’know.  While Equestria’s entering winter, I think the Tauran plains are beginning their summer.  It’s almost impossible to believe that it’s getting even hotter out there, but the temperatures seem to be stabilizing around forty-five degrees out there.  It’s too hot in the middle of the day to continue operations anymore without being in the shade or near the ocean.”
“That’s… a strange phenomenon,” she muttered, brow furrowed in confusion.  “How is that even supposed to work?”
“I don’t know,” the human shrugged.  “Science and magic seem interchangeable here.  Where one begins and the other ends, I have no clue.”
“I’ll see what I can prepare last minute,” Twilight assured him, sounding calm about the sudden change in required materials.  
“Really, it won’t be a problem,” he pressed curiously.  
“Well, Equestria has an abundance of everything, and considering we already began the process of storing away thousands of gallons of water in barrels in case the minotaurs invaded, we could transfer that to the sunport,” she explained passively.  “You seem to have control of the situation across the sea for the foreseeable future, so we can gladly spare resources for you to continue your victory out there.  As for the… uh, meat for your diet, I’m hoping I’ll get a response soon, though it may take Spike a little bit to get back to me because… well, he’s in Ponyville.  With everypony else.”
“Unfortunately, I doubt we have time for that,” Ray sadly pointed out.  “Sunsets have been getting later and sunrises are earlier now in the Tauran plains.”
“You don’t have to worry about that this time, remember,” Twilight reminded him.  “You can cross through the sunport with me in the morning instead.  It’ll give you a bit more time to stay here with us and- Sweet Celestia, I forgot to tell you!”
“Tell me…” he questioned, raising an eyebrow at her.  
“We found Otolo only a few days ago,” she cheerfully informed him with the brightest smile he’d seen a while.
Instantly, a surge of joy made him laugh at the news, his stresses leaving momentarily at the genuinely good news.  Standing up, he pulled Twilight into a hug as he proclaimed, “I knew she was alright!  The whole time I knew it!”
“Yeah, and you wouldn’t believe how she was found,” Twilight exclaimed excitedly.  “A few weeks back, some seaponies noticed a little bird flying out over the ocean and decided to follow it almost twenty miles out from the coast before it fell into the water from exhaustion.  They brought her back to the coast, but two days later it happened again, and this time she made it almost twenty-five miles off the coast before once again dropping into the ocean.  They rescued her again, and the cycle repeated every two days for nine days more before they finally took the little bird to Queen Novo.  She reached out to me asking what strange phenomena would occur to cause a bird to fly almost fifty miles from the coast, so I looked into it.  When the bird arrived three days ago, Spike, Fluttershy- who I called in for help- and I immediately recognized her as Otolo!  She’d been trying to learn how to fly across the ocean to get to you!”
“That’s…“ Ray began trying to vocalize, quickly losing the capability to speak as his throat tightened.  The little bird’s life-threatening attempts to cross the ocean all for him struck his heartstrings like a chord, sending goosebumps across his skin as he realized just how attached the bird had become to him, and how much he found himself caring for her.  Finally, he managed to choke out, “I don’t know what to say.  She’s incredible.”
“Indeed she is, and she’s waiting in Ponyville with everypony else,” Twilight commented, patting him on the back with a hoof.  
Letting out a sad sigh at her pushing, he pointed out, “We don’t really have the time to visit Ponyville.  Even if I’m able to stay here all night and into the morning and just travel back through the sunport, all I’d be able to do at this point is explain that we fought a few battles that we won, and then everybody would just get more worried about what the future means.  Just tell them I’m fine and that the resupply had us busy all night.”
“I’m not gonna lie to them,” Twilight flatly told him, pulling away to look him in the eyes.  After a moment of tense silence, she asked, “Do you not want to see them?”
“No, I do,” Ray quickly assured her, a sigh escaping as he whispered to himself, “I really do…”
“Then,” she pressed, encouragingly.
“I can’t help but be worried how they’ll all see me after just how much killing I did over there, Twilight,” he confessed defeatedly.  “I killed when we first landed on the Tauran plains, but there were only a couple I killed myself and it didn’t feel… visceral.  This time, though, the fighting was much longer and much bloodier.  It didn’t bother me at first, but then after the First Battle of the Big Face, I fell asleep still covered in the gore.  Sometimes when I wake up, I still feel the itchiness of dried blood or smell the stomach acid that was spilled on my legs.  I just… don’t feel like I can face the others with what I’ve had to do to simply survive out there, let alone win.”
“PTSD,” Twilight grimly nodded, obviously disturbed by what Ray was telling her.
“No, I don’t think so,” the human replied.  “I mean, I don’t actually fear the past.  The only thing that’s seemed to traumatize me so far is the torture the Spectre subjected me to.  Otherwise, it’s just me doing my job to protect Equestria.  How could ponies ever understand that, though?  You don’t even seem to be able to handle it, let alone softer ones like the CMC and Fluttershy.  I’ve been desensitized to this sort of stuff for a while now, and that fact is more disturbing to ponies than that I actually kill.”
“Well, it’s in our very genetic code to be disinclined to any violence, and you can’t really blame them for that,” Twilight pointed out.  “Yet at the same time, I think I understand your problem… I honestly don’t know how to help though.”
“So, for today, no visits to Ponyville,” Ray stated softly.  
Finally, after a moment of thought, Twilight nodded and said, “I’ll tell them you weren’t feeling up to it after everything that’s happened.”  Looking up, she added, “You do know that means they might take it the wrong way or worry more about you, right?”
“Make sure they know I’m in perfect health, then,” he shrugged.
“I can’t do that, Ray,” the alicorn replied firmly, looking into his eyes.  “I promised I wouldn’t lie to them anymore.”
> Revitalization
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had been six months since Ray had seen an Equestrian sunrise.  The snow sparkled with new, golden light as the cold made his skin rise, a welcome sensation.  It was almost impossible to believe how long a time it had been since the last sunrise he had seen was, but at the same time, six months was a comparatively very short time.  Still, given how bland Tauran sunrises were, the beauty of this one felt like a renewal to Ray.  Snow and sun somehow worked together here thanks to the early December weather, but even knowing that it could thanks to the Equestrian winter, Ray’s mind refused to fully believe it.  The sun burnt up the land and made the ground brittle and hot, while snow was reserved for dark, which it never quite was in the Tauran plains.  
They had only just stepped outside, teleporting to the site of the massive sunport mere moments before the sunrise per Twilight’s suggestion.  Like the one across the sea, it was made of silver embedded into the earth itself to prevent it from burning up from the sheer energy that would be passed through it.  Located just outside of Baltimare, it was a new area of Equestria he hadn’t been to before, chosen for its incredible capacity to rapidly produce and consolidate resources..  More south of Canterlot, and thus received more sunlight, even if still cold.  However, in spite of fresh snow, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky per Twilight’s orders, which meant everything was in perfect condition for the sunport to work.
Watching his breath puff in the cold morning air, Ray silently waited.  The sun only needed to be up for a few minutes for the sunport to be effective, but those few minutes would be uncomfortable not from the cold, but from Twilight, who stood watching him silently.  He knew why she wasn’t talking, still frustrated that he had refused to talk with the ponies who had waited for him.  Along with sending Spike a thanks for sending some sleeping powder for Ray, she had informed them that Ray would be… “unavailable”, as she phrased it.  He also knew she didn’t blame him for it, which concerned him because if not him, she would only blame herself.  Grimly, he shifted the bag of sleeping powder from finger to finger in his hand while he waited.  
The sunport was quite spectacular, actually, hundreds of wooden boxes stacked on top of each other into piles sometimes twice as tall as Ray.  Hundreds of thick, sealed barrels full of water also lined the entire perimeter of the stacks.  Here and there were other oddly shaped items, such as rolls of fabric to help rebuild tents if necessary or bags filled with feathers for stuffing pillows and sleeping bags.  It felt oddly utilitarian to be standing on the outside of this massive stack of supplies in the middle of a random field with only there.  However, in spite of the oddness, Ray smiled to himself.
Otolo was alive and well, like he had felt.  
That gave Ray an unprecedented boost that he knew he needed.  His little friend, the companion that had witnessed many of his trials and helped distract him from the bitter future, was missing trying to get back to him.  While he wanted her to stop, a selfish part of him hoped she would somehow fly across the sea to him, a small piece of Equestria that remained with him as he fought through the Tauran plains.  The miracle of Ohs’ wellbeing was something he could hold onto as an uncorrupted moment of joy, especially now that times were going to get hard.  
“Ray…” Twilight began, trailing off uncertainly.  
He wasn’t quite ready for conversation either, but feeling the tension, he forcibly told her, “We haven’t got long, Twi.”
“I know, but I still think I should join you,” she insisted, stepping closer to the human.  
“Twilight, it’s too danger-”
“You chose a secure spot to set camp, right,” she determinedly interrupted.  Sighing, Ray nodded his head, crouching down to be eye-level with the mare.  “It shouldn’t be dangerous then, right?  I can teleport myself back to Equestria as soon as I need or want to, since I know the areas by choice.  Besides, then I can also teleport back and forth to the Tauran plains myself if you ever need me.”
“That’s the dangerous part, Twi,” he chuckled dryly, placing a hand on her shoulder.  “You’d teleport back and forth every day, probably multiple times a day.  It wouldn’t be helpful to you, me, or the Fallen.  A lot of them wouldn’t mind the visit, and in fact, I think Skalos and the generals would love to spend the day talking with you.  However, what if things go bad, or you get worried and things are bad when you show up.  I won’t have any way of knowing you’re there or not and couldn’t protect you.  Besides, Equestria still needs their Princess, and the Fallen don’t.  That’s what makes us capable of fighting the war.  You’ll be what makes us want to survive it.”
“I… I don’t- No, that’s not…” Twilight tried to argue, cutting herself off with frustration.  
“There’s no logical argument against that, Twi,” Ray shrugged, giving her a kind smile.  “Trust me, I’d love to show you how our army is in person, but it wouldn’t be beneficial.  It’d only put you in danger.”
“Fine,” Twilight snapped, looking away from Ray in frustration.  Smiling softly, he reached out and pulled her into a tight hug, the alicorn’s fur warm on his skin.  For a few seconds, she ignored the embrace, however, with a shaky breath, she threw her hooves around his neck and ducked her head into his shoulder.  
“Why do you have to be so complicated,” she complained into him.  
Laughing at the question, the human replied hardily, “I don’t know, but it seems to be a question I or someone else is constantly asking.”
“Yeah, you should really get that figured out,” she joked, the last of her apprehensiveness leaving.  “Maybe somepony should stop you from going out there so we can get a conclusive diagnosis.  Then again, it may take too long to be valuable.”
“It’s almost as if human nature is a bit weird and messed up,” Ray chuckled, shaking his head slightly.
Twilight gave him a short squeeze, muttering softly, “Then again, it’s also what makes you the wonderful person you are, so maybe we should stop complaining about it.”
“Just wish it wasn’t so damn complicated,” he sighed, still holding the alicorn.  He had never noticed it before, but her wings also joined in the hug, draping his shoulders almost protectively.  Idly, he wondered if that was intentional or just habitual by this point.  He had only ever known Twilight as an alicorn, but he knew she had been simply a unicorn not too long ago.  Had she already gotten used to the two new, strange additions to her body in such a way to use them as she was now, or was this simply reflexive?  Either way, it was something he found uniquely intriguing, that she was putting all of herself, new and old, into this embrace.  
Slowly lifting her off of him, he gave her his warmest smile possible, telling her calmly, “I’ll see you next month, I promise.”
“I believe you,” Twilight assured him, as he set her down.  Lighting her horn to begin the sunport, she smiled contently as Ray leaned back onto a stack of crates.
The warmth of the light beginning to take him, he shouted cheerfully, “Things are about to get very exciting, Twilight!”
> Gather the Legions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun burned so hot in the sky that the minotaur felt as if he couldn’t continue on.  His unsteady legs had carried him from the bloodshed and massacre of his brothers to the footsteps of the palace, but even knowing She awaited him, he could not move further.  Water had not helped, and with his hair mangy and tangled from the long, unstopped run across the continent, he felt on the brink of death.  This was his duty, though, to die for the Priestess, even if only to serve as a messenger of terrible news.  
What terrible news it was indeed.  The things he had seen, out there, on the Golden Plains, were nothing like any of his brothers had ever experienced before.  Giant spiders and ghost ponies and a terrible wraith of skin that stood nigh as tall as he, a mockery of nature.  It was an abomination he wished not to share with the Priestess lest he cause Her grief.  He could only hope that instead of disappointment, sorrow, or surprise, his message would kindle Her unstoppable wrath, to call upon all his brotherhood under Her watch to avenge minotaur blood and drive off the invaders to their own lands. 
Yes, it was that hope that would get the minotaur through the imposing doors of stone into his Queen’s palace.  He was immediately greeted by a pair of high-brothers, the two guiding him by the arms to the throne hidden behind the massive Veil.  The Priestess was talking with other silhouettes, Her powerful voice echoing in the chamber like a god’s.  Immediately made revenant by Her presence, he fell to his knees as soon as the two released him.  He dared not to listen to Her words, nor the words of those She spoke with.  He had no right to listen or understand high words, words of grace and intelligence.  The shadow of Her Horns occasionally passed right before his hands as they moved, a promise of power and might that made his ragged breathing hitch.
So, this was his destined fate, a survivor to give his Queen the words of defeat and loss.  A stormcrow on the winds that brought with him tidings of war on their eastern shore with his meager hands.  Would the failure of his brothers be placed on his head?  Would the Priestess in Her justice take it as retribution?  He could not know, and even if the Queen showed him Her mercy, there was nowhere for him now.  His brothers were all dead or lost to the wilderness, what few that escaped like him.  Perhaps some others would make it back, but he knew with almost complete certainty that it was him who would first bear the message to the Queen.
“There is a messenger for you from the Golden Plains, my Priestess Sovereign,” one of the high-brothers declared, his great voice booming deeply throughout the chamber.  Immediately, the conversation stopped, and the shadow Her Horns moved towards him as She looked their way through the Veil.  “A minotaur from the Golden Plains has ran himself nigh unto death bearing a message he had neither the time to write nor give to a superior.  None came with him, but his determination breathes terrible omens.  I sense… misadventure is his report.”
There was a deep silence that made the minotaur’s very bones chill, the heat and exhaustion dissipating momentarily as the Queen’s thoughtful silence filled the throne room more than the high-brother’s proclamation had.  Finally, she beautifully pronounced, “Give him parchment and a stylus to write his account.  We will see what our eager servant has to say then.”
Almost immediately, a sheet of parchment was laid out before him and a stylus with syrups were presented to him.  He dared not move a muscle until the high-brother behind him commanded, “Write.”
Eagerly, he followed the instruction and began writing as quickly as possible.  His thick hands and swollen fingers, unskilled in the practice, struggled to articulate well and the syrups quickly became stuck on the fur of his hands, but he did not care.  There were far too important things to attend to than his own wellbeing.  
I come from the command of the 11th Army of Mino Tauris, sent to destroy Equestria and the treacherous Changeling queen.  We were on the march for many sunsets, when out of the sun-up horizon came an army not our own.  The 3rd Army or Emry, numbering fewer than us and ahead of us, was ambushed and destroyed by this foe, and we attempted to engage.
	I was in the rear of the army and did not witness what wrought devastation on our numbers the first engagement, but from our twenty-five thousand walked away twenty thousand.  It was then that we found our enemies were in smaller numbers than us, and not wishing them to get away, desired to stay near for a chance to attack.  
	Eleven days from the destruction of the 3rd Army, we were tricked into attacking a small detachment of the army.  They are like ponies, but ghostly, their bones visible, eyes empty, and spears sharp.  They had archers in the thousands, and many, if not all, were slain by their arrows, large and small.  A was near the rear and had time to run, when a second number of their army emerged from a valley.  This one was of both ghostly ponies and large spiders, one so tall that it looked as if it could consume the sun.
	I escaped, though very few others had the opportunity.  For thirteen days have I run to bring this information.  An army of ghostly ponies aided by monsters that could destroy villages roams the Golden Plains and defeats armies larger than it with almost no casualties.  Worse, they are led by a treacherous wraith wrapped in bare flesh, as tall as a minotaur and thrice as strong.  We are at war with Equestria, and they are attacking us.
His hand cramping, shaking from the fear of what he had written, he bowed his head once again as he fell to his hands and knees, awaiting the Queen’s reaction.  The high-brother snatched the note up and passed it through the Veil to the Priestess within.  Silently, She read the words he had written, and in spite of his fear, the minotaur felt a humbleness as he knew it was his words She was judging, and not anyone else’s.  
“That traitor Chrysalis has decided that, rather than facing the consequences for her failure, attacking us is her best course of action,” the Priestess suddenly scoffed, her voice neither angry nor disappointed.  “Ah, it is unfortunate that we are now fighting two wars, but so be it.  Have all armies of Emry, Pahem, and Hysten raised in defense of our east, and have my own armies in the west withdrawn.  Gylren can finish his foolish conquest out there with his own armies and allies.  Once Fray completes her mission in Cynotere, have her summoned at once.  I will allow her blade the honor of slitting Chrysalis’ throat, if the bug survives long enough to face my daughter.”
Suddenly, the shadow of the Priestess moved, enlarging and swallowing the minotaur’s entire form.  His heart stopped beating altogether as the Veil shifted in a calm, rapturous swishing of holiest silk.  The clack of the Queen’s steps on the golden brown stone trumpeted her approach, until she was standing right before him, the drapes of her mighty garments mere inches from his hands.  
“Arise but do not look, my son,” the Priestess softly commanded.  The minotaur did so, his entire body shaking in the glory of her presence and power of her gaze.  So, this was the feeling of being seen by the Queen, gloried by the Priestess.  He felt as if a darkness would overtake him at any moment, the exhaustion of the weeks of travel and terrifying, enrapturing presence of the Priestess stealing away his consciousness in exhaustion and wonder.  
And then, She rested a hand upon his chest.
“Your brothers are not dead in vain, my son, and your work will not be without its glory,” She promised.  “The monsters you faced were but amalgamations of Chrysalis' demented magicks.  They will be picked apart soundly by the pike, axes, swords, and arrows of the minotaur.  
“You will not have to be present for such a struggle, however,” She prescribed, taking a step back.  Calling to the high-brother, the Queen instructed, “Prada, prepare the ramna sah for this one.”
Without hesitation, the minotaur fell back to his knees and silently, eagerly praised the glory of his merciful Queen and divine Priestess.
> Monsters
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ray couldn’t have been more wrong.  As if to prove him wrong, the weather had once again taken a turn for the worst.  The day the army had marched out to continue onward, resupplied and invigorated, the temperature had soared to over fifty degrees, beyond the capacity the tools Kraven had for measuring the heat.  It had killed three soldiers by noon, and the return trip had seen twice as many die, even after waiting till mid evening.  He had been fuming at the time, twelve Fallen having died to the elements being one of the most infuriating and helpless factors he had encountered to date, yet now, he was glad to have been dissuaded so promptly early in the month.  
Firstly, the army seemed to need the break.  After two incredible victories against the minotaurs in such a short time, it seemed right to at least give them a time to relax. There hadn’t been any real time for that before, not knowing if the minotaurs were coming or whether they knew of the invasion.  After the First and Second Battles of the Big Face, however, there was no doubt that the enemy now knew the Fallen were on their continent.  Furthermore, the cost of such ignorance to the threat presented in over fifty thousand slain soldiers had surely put the minotaurs in a more stressful predicament than the Fallen’s.  With the heat being so suppressing that the army could hardly move a mile a day, Ray knew that there was no way the minotaurs could attempt an attack either.  Only traveling a short distance in the cooler times of the day had killed a dozen Fallen, but if they had attempted to finally breach the Golden Plains during this blistering summer, day after day, hundreds of Fallen would have undoubtedly also died.
Secondly, it meant that Ray would be able to report back to Equestria tonight.  An unspoken- and perhaps forgotten- part of Ray’s plan for a continued offensive after the resupply had been the notion that the Fallen would have to abandon their camp on the coast.  It would mean that the wayport would be inaccessible, even with the Matriarch to potentially give Ray a ride to it.  Truth be told, he had a growing shame in him over his dismissal of the opportunity to see everybody last time.  The emotional turmoil of battle, the walls he had put up to deal with the pain of loss and the terror of killing, had fallen after his return to the Golden Plains.  He was looking forward to this trip now, even if it meant he owed everyone an apology for how he had acted last time.
Finally, he was growing again, he could feel it.  His legs and shoulders especially began aching throughout the days, the familiar feeling of his body trying to expand annoying and encouraging at the same time.  He had no way of measuring how much he had grown during his time here, but he knew it was great.  He had arrived in Equestria as a kid, barely tall enough to be mistaken for an adult, but now he stood as tall as a minotaur, perhaps taller after this growth spurt.  Twilight had once told him the Equestrian environment harbored great growth and prosperity, but he hadn’t imagined it literally.  Even in a different continent, he felt the freshness of the air and the strength that coursed through him from his very breath.  
Honestly, he was glad he had been wrong a month ago.  It had passed by quickly and quietly, the Fallen resting in the harbor and relaxing in the waters while the spiderlings nested and raised new young.  The minotaur they had feasted on had given them the ability to create more little ones and foster growth in some.  Even though two broodmothers had been killed, the Matriarch had told him this was the largest birthing in a long while.  Though it meant another few weeks after the full moon- almost to the next one- that the spiderlings were ready for battle again, it would be well worth the wait.  Besides, it seemed like the weather would remain scorching for at least a month longer anyways.  
A strong gust of the sea breeze suddenly blew its way through Ray’s hair.  Eyes still closed, he breathed in deeply, taking in the smell of the magnificent ocean.  Letting it out, he smiled softly, hands in his lap as he remained kneeled at the edge of the cliff.  It was his little spot he had come to call his own, a place to relax and think in quiet while also staying cool and connected to the land around him.  Taking in another deep breath of the ocean air, he drifted his hands towards the wiry, smooth blades of golden grass that covered the entire cliff.  
He had long grown tired of them as a sign of endless hills and burning sun, yet he had come to a realization regarding their nature.  In a land as scorched and barren as the Golden Plains, they were the only permanent sign of life in such a place.  Without them, the Golden Plains would just be a wasteland of hard soil and dead brown.  While it had still not rained once since the Fallen’s arrival, the sungrass seemed to have no problem surviving such an extreme drought.  They were hardy, and Kraven’s pastime was investigating the only native flora of the Golden Plains.  Ray would have to catch up with the general on their properties some time, but for now, he simply enjoyed the sun, sea, and wind all from the cliff’s edge.  
Given it was the day of a full moon, many of the Fallen had come to recognize it as a complete break day.  Nothing could happen today since Ray would be off in Equestria for the night, leaving them to their own devices.  Likewise, the generals decided on leaving Ray to rest in preparation for the long night in Equestria, allowing him to be well-rested and prepared sooner.  After what had happened with the First Battle of the Big Face, they had begun taking measures to make sure none of them, especially Ray, would be exhausted.  Zecora and Skalos had gone with the Matriarch somewhere in the morning, and he didn’t know if they had returned yet, but every other general was down at the beach to relax with their soldiers.
The Fallen was unlike any army Ray had ever heard of and it was not only because of their equine genus.  The soldiers in the army had fought war before, though it had been centuries ago, and none of their original leaders had remained after Luna’s damnation.  It had left them to find their own leaders, and that meant entrusting their closest and most trusted friends to lead them.  The generals of the Fallen had to learn to be generals just like Ray had, and while Skalos, Harbor, and Kraven had taken to it naturally, much like Ray, Pelios had and was still struggling to adapt to the newness of being in command of his friends.
In the off time, however, it meant that boundaries such as rank and status ceased to be, and the generals and captains could mix freely with the unranked soldiers, and vice versa.  Almost everybody knew one another, and that also made them a tighter group of soldiers.  The entire army felt loss, but it meant they would fight twice as hard for each other than for themselves.  When Ray had first taken into account the Fallen’s connectivity with each other, he had wrongly assumed it would be a hindrance that would severely affect the morale of the soldiers every time they suffered losses.  As each battle had shown him, it only served to unify the army.  Even the infantry and archers no longer had any derision towards one another after the archers’ impressive showing at the Second Battle of the Big Face.
“Meditating are we, lordling,” a voice Ray immediately identified as Yarem suddenly asked.  
Opening his eyes and turning to look at the infantry general, the human smiled and replied, “No, just thinking.  I don’t really understand meditation.”
“Ah, that’s a shame,” he said, taking a seat beside Ray at the edge of the cliff.  “I’ve learned many things about myself through meditation.  It’s how I got over my guilt and shame, actually.  I spent hours a day for years on end slowly learning to accept my faults and mistakes in the quiet of my home in the middle parts of the city.”
“Huh, well it certainly paid off, didn’t it,” the human pointed out with a smile.  
“It did,” Yarem agreed with a nod.  A small amount of seawater sprayed from his bare head as he did so, causing Ray to chuckle slightly.
“Enjoying some water games with the troops, general,” he asked, knowing the answer.
“Indeed I was,” he confirmed with a proud smile.  “We were using the wrecked minotaur dock for king of the hill.”
“Did you win?”
“No, Kraven and Pelios were on the other team,” he chuckled, shaking his head slightly.
“Really, Kraven joined in the games,” Ray questioned, genuinely surprised.  
“More like he commanded the games,” Yarem corrected with a smirk.  “He sat on top of the wreckage and calmly told his teammates how to wrestle us off the wood and keep us in the water.  I think he was only there to see for himself the durability of the remnants of that dock.  To be fair to the minotaurs, it’s survived hundreds of Fallen wrestling on and ramming into it, so it must’ve been built well.  I think he’s building up the courage to take a dive and investigate the sunken ship a bit further out in the harbor.”
“Huh, well, so long as he doesn’t drown,” Ray shrugged, glancing down at the waters.  Hundreds of Fallen swam in the choppy cove, undeterred by the depth or sharp shoreline.  He would have to join them in the ocean one of these days.
“Um… if I’m being honest though, lordling, I didn’t come by to make small talk,” Yarem clarified softly.
“Of course, what would you like to talk about,” he asked, looking back at the general.  
“Well, I know this is going to sound silly and… unprofessional,” Yarem began hesitantly.  “But I figured… I’ve known you for over a year now and we’ve been fighting this war together for seven months, so I might as well ask before I no longer have the opportunity to…”
“Go on,” Ray encouraged as the stallion trailed off.  
After a moment’s hesitation, the Fallen looked up at him and asked, “What’s it like only having two legs?”
The human opened his mouth to answer the question, only to find that he had nothing to respond with.  Closing his mouth and furrowing his brows as he contemplated what the question even really meant, he found himself completely stumped.  With a chuckle and a shrug, he told Yarem, “I’ve had all sorts of questions about being a human in Equestria, yet for some reason, that’s the one I don’t know how to answer.”
“I guess it is kind of a ridiculous question,” Yarem sheepishly admitted.  “I mean, I wouldn’t know how to answer if you asked what it’s like to have a tail or four hooves.  I guess I’m just confused on how you’re able to walk on only two legs while also having all of that weight on your top half.”
“I’m not that heavy,” he joked, giving the general a friendly punch.  “I mean, humans start out crawling on all fours when we’re babies, but then we just… decide to stand up and walk around.  I’ve honestly never thought much about it before.”
“Sorry for such a strange question, sir,” Yarem apologized, glancing away, embarrassed.  
“Oh, it wasn’t strange, just challenging,” Ray assured the general with a pat on the back.  “To be fair, I am a strange creature to you in a world that’s very strange to me.  There’s bound to be some impossibilities that we’ll just never understand about each other.”
“It’s a lot easier to think about it that way,” the stallion agreed.  “Everypony else has questions like that too.  Plenty of my soldiers come to me asking questions about you like how you can eat meat or why you have only the tufts of hair on your head and some on your arms and legs.  I’ve even had a few wondering if there was any way you could have a child with minotaurs… since-”
“Okay, that one’s a bit far,” Ray cringed, raising a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose at the uncomfortable thought.  “If you get any questions like that, tell them I won’t have children with minotaurs 'cause they’ll all be dead.”
“Yessir,” the general replied, unable to hide the amusement in his voice.  “I’ll make sure to put them on privy duty as well, since their minds seem to already be in the gutter.”
“Sounds reasonable enough, general,” Ray replied with a masked smile, looking back out over the ocean.  Sometimes it was hard to believe that it had only been seven months since they had crossed the great sea and entered the war against the minotaurs.  It would only be another seven months before marking Ray being on this continent longer than he had been in Equestria.  If the war did last that long, what would it look like at that point?  How many Fallen would he have lost?  How many friends?  
With the current numbers, an additional three hundred and fifty Fallen would die, bringing the total to seven hundred dead.  It was less than ten percent of what they had started with, merely four percent of the original number of Fallen.  It would mean that more Fallen had killed themselves in the time before this war than the war itself had taken.  Over sixteen thousand Fallen would get to be restored and live whatever life they wanted to afterwards, free from their damnation and redeemed in their own eyes as heroes of Equestria.  That thought made him smile happily.  So many Fallen would do Equestria good.
“Thoughts, lordling,” Yarem softly questioned, clearly noting the smile on Ray’s face.
“Just thinking about the future,” he muttered, looking back at the general.  There was a moment’s hesitation before he added, “More like hoping about the future, to be honest.”
“Yes,” Yarem insisted patiently.  
“I like the idea of thousands of Fallen getting to live after the war,” the human detailed.  “I’ve always want as many Fallen as possible to survive and live the lives that they deserve, but I guess I hadn’t really thought about what it’d be like.  So many strong individuals joining the population of Equestria and bettering it through their experience.  I mean, just to have the opportunity to see you with your fur, mane, and eyes the way they once were would be special as is, but I can’t even began to appreciate what might be.”
“I’ve always loved imagining the children of Fallen I know,” Yarem admitted.  “To get to see them fulfill their dreams of having a family and becoming parents.  Skalos and Zecora, Glandor and Fortra, even Pelios and Inda.  Their children would have the best parents in all Equestria, and I’d love to see the future of the Fallen be intertwined with Equestria once again.”
“Inda,” Ray questioned.
“Pelios’ lover,” the general clarified, looking confused.  “He hasn’t introduced her to you?”
“No, I haven’t had the pleasure,” he replied, feeling slightly dismayed.  For as great of a general and friend Pelios was, Ray knew shockingly little about him.  In fact, that was true with many of his Fallen friends.  A side effect of Luna’s damnation and their life before was an abundance of guilt in each Fallen.  Even with the war now ongoing and the Fallen proving themselves, it would probably only be after the conclusion of it that many of the Fallen would feel comfortable with divulging their personal lives.  
“I’m sure you will meet her soon,” Yarem assured him with a nod.  “Pelios is a bit shy when it comes to his emotions.  I don’t know if he’s talked about it with anypony else, but he once told me that he doesn’t feel like he belongs as a general.  The first time he met you, he was late because he and Inda had been… busy.  Told me he fears that the mare is too good for him and distracts him from what's more important.”
“Bullshit,” Ray stated, angry more at himself than at the stallion for his self-doubt.  “The Matriarch told me that I would need to talk with Pelios about his place as a general, but I’ve clearly put that off for far too long.  I’ll make sure to pull him aside and talk with him today.  I won’t have him giving up on love for this war.”
“I’ll look forward to seeing them raise a family one day, lordling,” Yarem said with a smile.  
“And you,” Ray inquired.  “Do you have a mare you aren’t telling me about, or any plans with anybody?”
“No, I don’t,” the general replied with an honest shrug.  “If I’m being honest, lordling, these past fifteen hundred years have been very… slow for me.  I focused on doing what I could for the Fallen.  Many of the soldiers in my army I stopped from taking their own life, and a few have also seen me try to take mine, including Skalos.  It was hard, but after they convinced me of my worth, I decided on putting it into the Fallen.  I wanted to play my part in the army, to make sure we were prepared to fulfill our role and serve out our damnation responsibly.  It’s why I started what became known as the Grims.  I wanted us to always be ready.  It wasn’t until after you showed us how much it divided us that I realized I’d only served to harm and restrict the Fallen.  So now, I’m working on making sure that we aren’t only ready to win this war, but that we will have a life afterwards.”
“It’s an honorable work, Yarem,” Ray commented, patting the Fallen on the back.  “I’m glad to have you as one of my generals, and proud to call you a friend.”
“Thank you, Ray,” he said gratefully.  “Genuinely, it means the most coming from you.”
Standing up, the general saluted the human and told him, “I think I’ll leave you be now.  I came to ask you something ridiculous and you’ve taught me more than I could have ever hoped for.  Have a good night, lordling, and get some good rest in the morning.”
“Of course, general,” Ray promised, remaining seated and looking out over the ocean once again.  A particularly strong wave crashed just below him at that exact moment, and the powerful sea breeze lifted the spray up to him.  Smiling at the refreshing coolness, he considered momentarily if he should stay as he was, waiting only a few dozen paces away from the wayport until he needed to use it.  Glancing to the side, he could see where the cliffs dropped into the cove, though the cove itself remained hidden.  Given the strong tide and that it was inland enough that it was too far for the Fallen to swim out to open ocean from the beach, he couldn’t spot his soldiers relaxing in the ocean.
Tempted by the thought of joining him, he closed his eyes for a few last minutes of personal relaxation before heading down to the beach.  Once again, his thoughts drifted to the ponies back in Equestria: Fluttershy, Rarity, AJ, Pinkie, and the Crusaders.  Even though it was probably he didn’t see them last month, given his turbulent mental state and the gruffness of having fought so much in such a short time frame, he regretted not visiting.  He was determined to not let the war prevent him from enjoying their company this time.
Having reaffirmed himself, he stood up and nearly let out a frightened yelp as he spotted the Matriarch crawling horizontally along the cliffs in his direction.  Chuckling dryly at himself, he stood still and waited for her to finish her approach, the entire cliff shaking slightly from her many footfalls.  Her unblinking red eyes were fixated on him, and wordlessly she reached out to him expectantly.  Taking her invitation, he stepped on her feeler, and immediately was set on her head as she scuttled over the rim and back the way she had come.
“Good to see you, my friend,” he told her earnestly, resting a hand on her head as he sat.  “What brings you into the heat today?”
“I’m sorry for my absence,” she apologized, her steps falling as she approached a range of the seaside cliffs at least a mile from where he had been.  “Unfortunately, I don’t come bearing excellent news or new wisdom.  I’ve seen something in the changes.”
“What,” Ray asked, already lost.  “The changes?  You mean the map of the cosmos?”
“No, but perhaps,” the Matriarch replied, hesitant.  Ray’s throat tightened at the statement.  There was very little the Matriarch didn’t have some knowledge about, almost all of it pertaining to the Aspects.  If something had changed to sever that, then his anxiety about them and the Spectre would spike.  They had well and truly begun the war, with two major battles under their belt.  A paradigm shift in his priorities and the threat the Aspects presented would be catastrophic for them.  
“That is part of the problem, Ray,” the Matriarch hushly admitted.  “I cannot identify if this change is a result of the Aspects tampering with my abilities, the Spectre attempting to influence the world beyond its imprisonment, or my own immortality dimming as I begin to coordinate more with the mortal world.  I have delayed the map of the cosmos by agreeing to assist in Equestria’s war and encouraging you to fight in it.  Though it dismayed my gods, I see the wisdom in it that they may not understand, being immortal.”
“What are these changes, then,” Ray inquired tensely.
“My vision is dimming and my hearing receding,” she muttered, a small but sharp tinge of fear in her voice.  “When I used to be able to hear all of Equestria, now I cannot even hear the grunts and whinnies of the minotaurs.  When I used to see the monsters of the deep, now they are lost in the darkness, hidden once again.  I spent all day, and yesterday, looking for them, searching.  I could not believe that they had vanished from my sight and thought they might have retreated from this world, but I finally saw one when I prodded too deeply into the ocean.  I’m afraid I’ve made my presence here known to them and awakened their hate for me once more.”
“Once more,” Ray repeated, bewildered.
“In the beginning of lifes, I was one of the first creatures of Darkness, and am the only remaining of the first four, as I have explained,” she clarified.  “But there were others after me.  The darkness of the land was populated, but Darkness knew of the black depths of the seas and wished to fill them also.  I do not know how many cousins I have in those depths, nor even the extent of the power of those I know of.  All I know is from when they encroached upon our territory above the waters of the ocean.  I and Scorpan fought them for many long weeks before we wrested control of our domain and dominance of mortal creatures from them, returning them to their inky darkness, for while they were larger and more viscous, I am the World Weaver and Scorpan the Mage Maker, may Darkness rest his soul.
“I fear my journey has roused their hate, and my literal blindness has caused a situational one that may cause us and Equestria much grief.  The monsters of the depths look towards the shores of these lands with hate and desire, a desire that only I can repulse if they attack.  I fear, without Scorpan, I cannot,” the Matriarch solemnly warned.  “Should they arise from the depths, I will face them and take them and our battle as far from the continents as possible, providing you as much time and safety as I can.  They will not kill me, but they may cause me to be banished back into the depths of Tartarus in shame.  They would kill me if not for my favor with Darkness, though that too may be rapidly fading.  I am no longer the pride of my Aspect, now that Luna has restored herself and purged the evil from her soul.”
“I won’t let you be replaced by anything,” Ray swore, even knowing his word was nothing against that of an Aspect.  “I’d follow you to battle against those monsters.”
“I know, Ray,” a smile in the World Weaver’s hum.  “I would accept such assistance, save it were for the futility of it.  I can face each monster individually; it would only be when they were a group that I would find them a difficult adversary.  Even then, though, it would not matter if you were by my side.  They wouldn’t even see you, I expect, until you had utilized their flawed and crazed instincts against them.  However, that is not truthfully the focus of my talking with you.  I’m afraid I’ve gone on a tangent concerning my past and wasted time.  What I wish to say is that, from henceforth, I cannot be relied upon as I was in the Second Battle of the Big Face.  I’m unsure of capabilities now.  My silk is still strong, my legs still carry me, and my children heed my words, but my sight and hearing have both dimmed from perfection.”
“Well, you were able to hear my conversation with Yarem, correct,” Ray questioned, resting a second hand against the worried spider’s head, rubbing circles into the hard chitin.  He had never seen her so… disturbed before.  It did not bode well, but he couldn’t have the one person that seemed resolute no matter the conditions begin to slip into self-doubt.  
“That is correct, lordling,” the Matriarch confirmed thoughtfully.  “And my sight is not so bad that I cannot see my children and your soldiers from great distances and know them and their numbers.  Perhaps- though clearly occurring- my degradation is not so bad as it could possibly be.  I shall continue trying to be an asset to the war.”
“That’s all I need to hear,” Ray said with a relieved sigh.  Being honest with himself, he didn’t know how well he could play therapist with a giant ethereal spider who had seen more years than anything else living in this world.
“Thank you, Ray, your words are wise and kind,” the Matriarch stated.  She reached up a feeler, gently pushing it on Ray’s chest as he lay on her head.  
Chuckling at the move, he couldn’t help but ask, “What is this?”
“If you could wrap your arms around my feeler, it would be the world’s most disproportionate hug,” she explained, voice humming with amusement.  Happily relenting to the request, the human did so and leaned in as much as he could for the embrace.  After what felt like too short a time, the Matriarch’s feeler retreated and Ray sat up, curiously looking down at the massive arachnid.  
“What is it,” he asked.
“I enjoy your presence greatly, lordling, but it’s greedy of me to keep stealing you away from your friends and comrades in the army,” the Matriarch explained, already beginning to walk back towards the camp.  “So, I will give you back to them before you must go to Equestria and make amends for your misbehavior last time.  Besides, you have a promise to keep with myself, Yarem, and Pelios.”
> Unmasked
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Pelios, how’s it going,” Ray hollered as he walked up to the water’s edge.  The general was maybe six feet into the ocean, where the water swelled to just above his abdomen.  The beach was crowded, of course, with possibly thousands of soldiers down at the shore to relax and stay cool even as the sun began to set.  The stallion glanced away from the group of Fallen he was chatting with and smiled brightly as he spotted the human nearby.
“Excellent, Ray,” he shouted back over the din, quickly gesturing for the human to join them.  Not needing any further invitation, he stepped into the waves, sand tickling his feet as it sifted between his toes.  The ocean was by no means cold, the warm water a relief that would only be noticed given just how hot the day was.  Still, as he closed in on the group, it only came halfway up his shins, leaving him virtually untouched by the water.  Reaching up a hoof for an informal shake, Pelios gleefully asked, “You got time for a game or two before you hafta get to Equestria?”
“No, unfortunately I don’t, but that’s why I’m here, actually,” Ray replied regretfully.  “You see, Pelios, I’d like you to escort me to the wayport, if you have the time, of course.”
“For you, sir, always,” the stallion replied without his smile fading in the slightest.  Turning to his pack of friends, he told them, “Guess this evens out the teams anyways.  I’ll be back as soon as I wanna be, just make sure you don’t lose the stones again!”
“You got it,” one of them, a greenish stallion replied before filling in the gap left by Pelios as he joined Ray.
“Sorry to pull you away from that,” Ray apologized as he stepped out of the ocean, Pelios close behind him.  
“Oh, it’s no problem, lordling,” the general faithfully assured him.  “Whaddya need?”
“Well general, it’s come to my attention that some of your actions have gone unnoticed, and frankly I must address them properly,” Ray determined grimly, not turning to face him as he walked up the slope and towards the camp.  “You see, I usually monitor and direct my army with precision, confronting anything that may pop up with the utmost clarity.  However, it seems that I may have overlooked some vital occurrences concerning you, Pelios.”
“Sir,” the stallion questioned, his voice betraying a twinge of nervousness.
“If you’d follow me to our tent,” Ray directed, striding through the camp swiftly.  He didn’t have that much time if he wanted to be on schedule for his visit to Equestria.  After only a few long moments, though, they had made it to the generals’ tent, Ray pushing the flap aside and stepping inside.  Pelios nervously followed, clearly confused as to this sudden tonal shift.  
Leaning against a stack of crates near the table with a half-drawn map on it, Ray took a deep breath in before telling him, “Pelios, I’ve been talking with our peers.  It seems we’ve all come to a conclusion about you and your actions as of late.”
“Ray, I assure you that I only meant to help, whatever they may be,” the general stated, before glancing away.  “Though I will face punishment for any shortcomings that may have occurred from my commandment of my soldiers.”
“That’s the thing, general,” Ray said, before cracking a slight smile at the stallion.  “You’ve been an invaluable commander and incredible general, both when it comes to leading your soldiers on the field, planning and executing an operation, or simply caring for your soldiers off-duty.  Your plan for the Second Battle of the Big Face was immaculate and worked wonders against the minotaurs, and while it was the archers who shone in combat, without your unique ploy, the minotaurs would’ve been in no such position.  There is no doubt in my mind that you single-handedly prevented the deaths of hundreds of Fallen by presenting such a bold and unconventional plan to I and the others.
“However, there seems to have been nothing to show for it on your part, general.  You see, after the First Battle of Big Face, the soldiers celebrated my aggressive plan that secured us the victory.  I noticed no such celebration for your cunning scheme to bait the minotaurs to their deaths.  It seems like a shame, especially because it saved many more lives than my own battle.  Now, while I can’t try to force a celebration out of my soldiers, especially considering how far past the battle it is now, I can and will personally thank you.  Thank you for your work, Pelios.  Because of it, you’ve won us an incredible victory and allowed many hundreds of soldiers to continue fighting this war.”
Pelios was clearly taken aback, sitting stunned and silent as he stared at the human with wide eyes.  Seeing he was wordless, the human crouched down to eye-level with the stallion and reached out, resting a hand on his shoulders.  With a sincere smile, Ray summarized, “You’re an incredible general, great friend, and everybody should recognize that.”  
“The Matriarch told you to say that, right,” he squeaked emotionally, in denial of the praise he was receiving.
“She said nothing of what to tell you,” the human replied softly.  “She just informed me of how you were feeling and reminded me of a problem that I need to address.  No general of mine will go unacknowledged for their contributions to our victory.”  Pulling the stallion into a hug, Ray added, “And no friend of mine will begin doubting themselves just because I’ve been too blind to realize they need some encouragement.  You were there for me when I had my moments of grief.  I’ll be here for you if and when you have yours.”
“Thank you, lordling,” Pelios whispered hoarsely, wrapping a hoof around the human as well.  
“It’s my pleasure,” he assured the stallion.  Pulling away and standing up, he gave the stallion a nod and said, “I have to leave here shortly, but tomorrow, I’d like to meet this Inda I’ve heard about so much and seen so little.”
The stallion blushed clearly as his milky eyes flitted away, though he still replied, “O-o-of course, Ray.  She’d like to finally meet you… I think…”
“Good, I’m looking forward to it,” the human cheerfully encouraged.  Pushing through the tent flap, he stepped out into the camp and made his way swiftly towards the cliffside once again.  The sun was rapidly descending, and given he wanted to spend as much time as he could with his family across the sea tonight, he couldn’t afford to be late.  Picking up his pace, he began rapidly ascending the hill to the edge of the cliff, only taking a few minutes before he was once again out of the tents and nearing the edge of the cliff.
The Matriarch loomed near the southern cliffs, directly opposite of the wayport, and though it was clear she was communicating with someone in the bay, he felt her eyes on him.  Smiling slightly, he gave no mind to her observant nature and continued on his way.  There was a consistent dry wind blowing right now, rustling his hair and giving the night an early coolness, perfect for his visit.  He arrived at the cliff top right as the sun finished its descent, the horizon glowing orange yet the moon and darkness dominating the sky.  With an appreciative glance up at the celestial body, he quickly pulled out the medallion to activate the wayport.  
Looking around briefly, he realized that this was, in fact, the first time he would not be accompanied with his departure, Skalos and everybody else doing something else.  It wasn’t a sad thought, though, just a strange one.  He would be leaving and returning perhaps without anybody even noticing his absence.  Honestly, it was probably the preferable way to do it, his soldiers trusting in his timely return and Skalos not needing to nag Ray about being late.  With a smile, he lifted up the medallion to the moon and caught a beam of its light, instantly becoming enveloped in soothing warmth.  
Whether it was familiarity or tranquility, the moment of warmth passed quickly, and Ray gained his bearings in a matter of seconds, just in time to catch sight of Twilight sitting down in her chair.
“Oh, you’re promptly on time again,” she stated softly, looking pleased more than surprised.  “I was hoping it wouldn’t be a one-time thing.”
“I plan on being more consistent,” he told her with a slight smile.  “As much as I can control that factor, that is.  This month, I just happened to be free and eager to return to Equestria.  I miss the others.”
“Thought you might,” Twilight muttered with a nod, losing the pleased look.  “We’ll be as fast as possible if we can.  Have you…”
“We attempted to use the resupply to boost ourselves into a long offensive, but the weather has turned against us,” Ray explained quickly.  “The heat reached over fifty degrees and when we moved to march out, several Fallen died of exhaustion and heat stroke.  Had we attempted to push through the scorching weather, we would’ve suffered dozens, if not hundreds of dead and wounded from the venture.  Any battle under those conditions would have also exacerbated our losses and left the army in disrepair for longer than usual.  Given the heat is so intense, we remained at camp ever since we returned, with only a small number of spiderlings sent to scout out the north leaving since.  Honestly, it’s probably for the best.  The Fallen are having a vacation from the war, knowing the minotaurs can’t possibly reach us if we can’t attack them.”
“How sure are you of that fact,” Twilight questioned, brows furrowing slightly in concern.  
“A hundred percent,” the human replied with confidence.  “Minotaurs are built to withstand the sun, but not the heat.  Their fur probably protects them from sunburns like yours does and keeps them warm in what are, presumably, cold winters.  Much like your fur, though, it can entrap heat and give them a greater risk of strokes than our Fallen suffer from.  Besides, fighting them from our current camp would be easy with the positioning of the Matriarch’s spiderlings and the three valleys they would have to strike from.  Warfare in the Golden Wastes is predictable thanks to the dust an army kicks up while marching.  We’d have ample time to recognize and react to any threat that approaches.”
The answer seemed to satisfy Twilight, who let out a soft sigh and stood up, relaxed.  She stepped close to him and reached up, a silent invitation for embrace that Ray took gratefully.  The alicorn was a strange friend, but one that Ray found comfort in now after so long of simply having a strictly professional relationship with.  She was evidently correct about bringing him to defend Equestria, regardless of ethics, and that had been made clear in the past couple months.  And, much like her, he was now a leader making choices that changed the course of tens of thousands of lives, bearing the weight of such responsibility he had never imagined.  They were alike in that way, like he was with the Matriarch, only bound mortally.  
“Are you ready to go then,” Twilight questioned, pulling from the embrace with a smile. 
“More than ready,” Ray replied with an equal smile.
There wasn’t even a moment’s hesitation from Twilight as suddenly the world became a muddle of purple and sparkly magic.  In an instant, though, it was all gone and the coolness of a winter night overtook him.  He shook off the initial shock of the cold, having barely been in the palace long enough to register its diminished heat, his bare arms and legs now having grown used almost exclusively to heat.  Still, there was a familiarity with the chill from last winter.  
“Geez, last winter in Equestria,” he muttered looking over his surroundings.  They were on the hill his home was built on, facing over a bright town that hadn’t quite gone to sleep yet in spite of the risen moon.  His own home was alight and the windows open to let the yellow light flood the snow-spotted grass.  He couldn’t actually see into the house from this slightly downhill angle, but he could certainly guess who all was in the house.  It felt a bit strange, staring at the place he had lived for over a year after four months or so without seeing it.  On Earth, he’d only known one home and one city, with the very rare travel to suburbs a few miles away for… bad tasks.
Dismissing those thoughts instantly, he turned to face the house- his house- on the hill and began walking up the frosty path to it.  In spite of himself, he had let his guard slip at the unexpected and distracting thoughts of his life on Earth, and now Twilight was staring at him indiscreetly to his side.  She already knew everything, maybe not quite understanding, but knew thanks to her prying into his life when she scouted him out.  Still, she didn’t know what he was thinking now and based on who they were about to reunite with, he didn’t want her to get any of the wrong ideas.
“Just had a thought about Earth,” he explained quietly, slowing to almost a stop to look her in the eye.  “Regrettable thoughts.  Not… Pittsburgh in December, but… times when I helped bad things happen to people.  It’s still strange my life ended up this way, but you know what the weirdest part is?”
“What,” Twilight eagerly indulged, eyes widening slightly.
“I no longer ask myself ‘How did I get here?’  These days, I find myself asking, ‘Who was that kid?’,” he admitted.  There was a long moment of silence, Twilight clearly not knowing how to respond to such a statement.  Finally, Ray took a breath before softly inquiring, “Twi, how did you know to pick me?”
“You were an incredibly talented, yet determined boy with so many perfections that would make you-”
“Not my characteristics, Twi, everyone’s told me enough about those,” he said with a sigh, noting how his breath puffed white in the air.  “How, out of seven billion humans, did you find me?”
“I… I don’t know, exactly, I was just… drawn to something,” she explained quietly.  “I kept searching through the humans that made sense, generals, leaders, idealists… and each wasn’t what I thought they were.  Finally, I listened to that… well, it wasn’t exactly an audible hum, but a vibration I felt in my horn and heart, guiding me to… you.  And when I saw everything, I wanted to turn away and reject the idea, but I kept watching, kept learning, and saw… saw the person you could be, the one Equestria would shape you to be.  Somehow, I found you… an imperfect creature with the right constitution to become a leader.  A hero.”
“It helped that I wouldn’t have any effect on Earth with my leaving,” he lightly added.  
“And yet your life has irreversibly altered Equestria to be better,” Twilight countered brightly.  “Your name is known in every land as well as my own or Celestia’s.  I worried that I had been wrong, that I should have let you be and tried a different way, and yet-”
“Life has never been better for me, nor was it ever,” he concluded with a grateful smile.  Looking up at the night sky, bright stars more abundant than on Earth occasionally interrupted by a puffy white cloud, illuminated by the blue moonlight, he thought out loud, “Maybe I was never meant for Earth.”
“I… maybe,” Twilight mumbled, conflicted.  “If you think that’s the fate that you were meant to have.”
“The Matriarch always speaks of me like I’m a prophesied being, come for some sacred fate,” Ray shrugged.  “I don’t believe I’m going to be a king or anything like that, maybe not even a hero, like you say, but I do think I was fated to be here.  I have more purpose here than I ever dreamed of having.  Perhaps it’s because I never dreamed on Earth.  There was only a waking nightmare.”
Pausing silently, he finally added, “I do miss my family.  Occasionally.” 
“I’m sorry,” Twilight once again mumbled, guilt in her voice.
“I don’t regret this though,” he added before she could waste her breath on further apology.  Kneeling down to be level to her, he stated clearly, “You gave me a new life, a better one, and I don’t care if the universe decrees that right or wrong.  In my eyes, I’ve learned it was a good thing.  You’re not a bad pony.”
“I-”
Twilight’s words failed her as Ray simply pulled her into another hug, this one not to ease her worry like before.  Now, it was to show her clearly that he respected, admired, and was grateful for her.  She had made the difficult decision of villainizing herself to cause a greater amount of good to be done, not just by Ray but by everyone else as well.  A decisive, truly necessary evil that had brought to Equestria a chance to continue unyielding in its peaceful path.  
After several long moments, he parted from her, giving her an embarrassed smile at her confused look and quickly explaining, “Sorry, but I can feel frost forming on my shoulders.”
“Oh, yeah, sometimes I forget you aren’t immune to the elements,” she laughed softly.
“They’re my one weakness,” Ray agreed jokingly, standing up and making his way up the path in step with Twilight.  Before he even reached the door, however, it was yanked open and a pink flurry of motion shot out, completely enveloping his neck and shoulders with a loud squeal.  
“Hi Pinkie-” was all he managed to say before the rest of the ponies within swarmed him, hugging him from wherever they could, the pegasi of the group wrapping themselves around his shoulder.  He even felt Discord’s chicken claw somewhere on his back, though his vision was too obscured by fur to tell where the draconequus was.  Laughing wholeheartedly, Ray did his best to reciprocate his affection with his arms while careful not to fall onto the ponies hugging his legs.  Even Otolo managed to squeeze her way onto his shoulder, nibbling fiercely at his ear.
One by one, the ponies embracing him let go while he and Twilight continued to laugh - him in absolute relief and joy at seeing them all and her probably due to how enveloped he had become.  He scanned the room as Ohs settled on his shoulder, all but one pony letting go of him.  Looking down at his right leg, he found Apple Bloom latched on still, softly crying into his bare leg.  His smile disappearing into a frown, he wanted to crouch down to her level and ask what was wrong but was at the same time prevented by her presence down there.
“Don’t make a scene now, Apple Bloom,” AJ chastised, though it was a half-hearted attempt at best.  Apparently, she had some clue that this might happen, and glancing at a few of the ponies who hung around the back of the room, he found their faces equally… upset.  
“And why can’t she make a point,” Rarity tightly questioned.  She was seated near the entrance of the kitchen, her eyes slightly narrowed at the human.  Instantly, a heat began to rise on the back of Ray’s neck, shame and regret for not visiting for at least a moment coming back to bite him now.  “We had no clue as to whether we would see him tonight, nor do we know the next time we’ll see him again after dawn.”  
Pursing his lips, Ray glanced around and mentally took note of each of the ponies who seemed most upset at him.  Rarity, obviously, but also Big Mac, Sugar Belle, and Fluttershy.  Interestingly, though he didn’t intend to notice, he saw Tender Taps just a few inches from Big Mac’s side.  Now why would the Apples bring him into this?
“Eeyup,” Big Mac agreed shortly, his voice hard and his frown deep.
“You coulda at least said hello, showed us you were all right,” Sugar Belle stated, though of the four she seemed less angry and instead tired.  
“Could I have, maybe, but I don’t think it would’ve been too reassuring had you seen me last month,” Ray replied, trying not to sound defensive.  They were in the right here, but at the same time how could he explain to them the maelstrom of emotion that had clouded his judgment last time?  “What did Twilight tell you?”
“Only that you were alive,” the alicorn informed him, taking a step out from behind him.  Her expression was passive, expecting him to explain himself to them without her assistance.  It was probably for the better, but he hated that she had left him out to dry on this alone.  Then again, she had warned him, so he shouldn’t have been too surprised by this.
“We fought two battles,” he began with a sigh, looking down at the filly still hugging his leg.  Carefully, he bent his left leg and kneeled so he was more on level with Apple Bloom.  Reaching out and slowly running a hand through her soft mane, he continued to explain, “Last month, we moved out like we had planned to, and we found the enemy on day one.  We fought them late into the night and won, but… we lost a good many soldiers.  Then, for another almost two weeks we maneuvered around a second army that was present until we manipulated them into engaging us, and finally wiped out the enemy.  From there, we retreated back to camp, with over three hundred less than we left with.  One of them was a very close friend of mine, and a good stallion.”
“But wouldn’t seeing us help with that,” Sweetie Belle asked, earning a quick hush from her older sister for her outburst.  
Looking up from Apple Bloom, he gave the other filly a sad smile and explained, “I wasn’t in the right mindset to see you.  After everything that happened, I just couldn’t stop thinking about it all.  My head was a mess of battle plans, fighting, and… death.  You wouldn’t have been pleased to see me then, because I wasn’t the Ray you knew.  I still wish I had gone to see you, but it would have only been more alarming for you to see me in that state, I think.”
“I still don’t get how makin’ us worry ‘bout ya even more by not showin’ up is any better,” Apple Bloom barked, finally speaking up bitterly.  
“It wasn’t… isn’t, Apple Bloom,” he admitted softly.  “I was being selfish at the time, thinking about myself, worrying what I might do to make you think things.  Maybe Sweetie was right and seeing you would have alleviated the pain and confusion, but I still don’t think that’s the case.  If you had known the things I had seen during that month or understood what choices I was forced to make-”
“If we knew, we would understand, but ya don’t tell us those things,” the filly snapped, looking up with furious, teary eyes.  “How’re we ever s’posed ta know what yer thinkin’ if we never know you, huh?  You’re just gonna leave us whenever ya want an’ expect us ta never question it?”
Shocked both by her anger and questions, Ray glanced at Applejack briefly.  At first the mare seemed confused, though after a moment, she came to understand.  With a slow nod, she told him, “Maybe it’s best if ya do explain yerself.”
From across the room, Ray caught slightest movement in the corner of his eye, and though he didn’t turn to look at it, he knew it was Fluttershy perking up.  Instead, looking back down at Apple Bloom, he once again began petting her as he softly stated, “The Fallen aren’t so different from other ponies.  In fact, they really are just glowing ponies with a knack for warfare.  That makes them some of the best ponies in Equestria, and why I love them all dearly.  I’ve made dozens of friends of all ranks and walks of life in the Fallen, and they’re all spectacular individuals with the potential for a whole new life when this is all over.  It makes me hopeful, knowing that so many of these great people will one day get to live in a free, happy Equestria.
“Then, we go into battle and dozens of those lives are snuffed out in minutes, leaving their dreams and the dreams of those who loved them… dim.”  Ray paused painfully.  Three hundred fifty-eight lives and countless dreams gone after three battles and seven months of war.  “See, a lot of the Fallen are married as well.  You all probably already know about Skalos and Zecora, but there are at least a couple thousand married Fallen in the army.  Not only that, but they’ve also had over fifteen hundred years to befriend one another and learn each other’s names, lives, and personalities.  The death of even one Fallen is felt across the majority of the camp, and I am responsible for each Fallen death.”
“That’s not true though-” Scootaloo began to protest, before abruptly being silenced by Rainbow with a stern look.  Glancing once again around the room, he found the ponies were no longer angry, but enthralled in his every word, horrified but wanting to know more.  
“Every command I issue, every battle I engage, every choice I make to fight the minotaurs kills those beautiful ponies that willingly fight for me,” he punctuated.  “It’s inevitable that there will be death on the battlefield, but my movements with the army and how I plan each battle is what decides who will be fighting where and when.  That first battle we lost two hundred and twenty-four Fallen, five times more than we lost in the invasion, and while we killed tens of thousands of minotaurs, it did not feel like the astounding victory it was.  I also lost one of my best friends in that battle, Garish, and informed his wife of the tragedy myself, another friend of mine.  I… did not have the constitution to face you after that, even with weeks and another battle between that time.” 
After a brief pause for contemplation, he continued. “The worst thing about fighting in the front lines with my soldiers is seeing them die.  I’ve watched dozens of Fallen die in nameless ways, not even knowing who they were as they were speared or halved.  I didn’t see Garish die, but he was cleaved through by a minotaur’s axe.  All we could do was burn his body, as with those of all our Fallen, and release his ashes on the wind.  The Fallen and ponies are not so different that, in my mind, I can’t unimagine the same happening to any one of you.  I’ve seen the ruthlessness of minotaurs, and even those that can and do fight back against them can falter and be slain horrifically by them.  Unarmed and incapable of resistance… Well, after two battles of killing and witnessing death, I only had the ability to explain what happened to Twilight and make sure that everything was set correctly for the resupply.”
The room was gloomy now, and in spite of the warm lights that staved off any shadows, Ray knew his words had left a darkness on the ponies around him.  Most didn’t look at him anymore, staring at a fixed point in the floor or eyes closed and mouths pressed tight at his description of his struggles.  Resolved, knowing they understood, he restated, “I really do regret not being with you all last month, and genuinely hope that we can have a wonderful rest of our night, but I need you to understand.  Some nights will be like this, when things have calmed down and I look forward to visiting you, and others you’ll have to forgive me for showing up dour and unable to smile.  I promise that- from now on- I won’t miss a single visit, but if I’m being silent, or if I’m barely able to force a smile, know it’s because I’ve most likely had to release more of my wonderful Fallens’ ashes to the wind.”
“Okay,” Apple Bloom agreed, her voice so quiet Ray didn’t know if anyone but him had heard it.  Looking up at him, she managed a little smile and reached a hoof up to his face, wiping aside a few tears that had begun to slide down his cheek.  The filly looked as if she’d had her share of crying for the day, and was set out to look as strong as possible for him.  Smiling at the sentiment, Ray gave her one last pat on the cheek before standing up again and allowing Tender Taps to take her hoof comfortingly.  In spite of himself, Ray’s eyes flitted to the older Apple siblings, finding AJ… stone-faced and Big Mac simply nodding.  Well, at least one of them approved.
“There are raspberry pies in the kitchen,” Sugar Belle suddenly proclaimed, giving Ray a nervous smile.  He could tell his words had left the ponies shaken, and rightfully so.  They weren’t designed for the kinds of things he had described, hence his being here, but if they were going to push and prod, he would draw back the curtain on his dark life out on the Golden Plains.  Maybe then they would at least recognize his turmoil and leave him be for their own sakes.  In spite of victory after victory thus far, there was always the dark potential of him not returning one night.  
“That’s great, because I forgot to have dinner,” Ray stated, smiling warmly and pushing away thoughts of the world across the sea.  “I was busy getting caught up in the ocean, y’know?  There are these massive cliffs all along the coast save for the few miles stretch we landed on.  They give you the most spectacular view of the ocean from so high up.”
“Wow, really,” Scootaloo asked, her attention instantly piqued.  Sweetie and Pinkie also seemed enthralled by his description of the distant land, so he continued on.  “There are many incredible scenes out there, on the Tauran plains.  The hills are endless and covered in a thin layer of grass burnt golden by the sun.  This month it hit fifty-five degrees outside at noon, or at least that’s what Kraven is guessing since our thermometers only go up to fifty.  There’s one particularly big hill that has its north side completely sheared off, leaving a hundreds-foot long cliff.  Kraven named it the Big Face.  There’s also a valley out to our south that Kraven aptly named the Deep Crevice with a massive waterfall and lake, the only freshwater source we’ve seen in all our time there.”
“No lakes or rivers,” Scootaloo questioned, befuddled.
“Not even a creek,” the human confirmed, stepping into the kitchen and smiling wide at the raspberry pies stacked onto the table.  Otolo swooped from his shoulder and landed next to the most prominent of the bunch, taking a large peck out of it.  Grabbing the slice the bird had taken a nibble out of, he called over his shoulder, “These look delicious, Sugar Belle.  Anything new to ‘em?”
“Not intentionally,” she replied.
“Well, they certainly look delicious,” he determined before taking a bite out of it.  
“Yo, leave some for us,” Rainbow jokingly protested, flapping over to land on the other side of the table.  With a smirk, Ray gestured at the remaining slices and other pies on the table, mouth too full to say anything. 
Ohs let out a little chirp of approval as she swallowed down her bite, and as soon as the human managed to force the massive chomp down, he told the cook, “That was really good, thanks.”
“No biggie,” she waved off with a shrug, hoof intertwined with Big Mac’s.  
“You should check out my new scarlett velvet strawberry cupcakes,” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing to Rainbow’s side and revealing a tray of deep red pastries.  Eyeing the miniature cupcakes with mock caution, he reached out and grabbed one before popping it into his mouth.  Giggling a little, the pink pony rubbed her head as she stated, “Guess I forgot to make ‘em human-sized, eh sport?”
“What,” Ray sputtered with a confused smile, not quite sure where the crazy mare’s new slang was coming from.  
“Well, I’m Momma Pinkie now, so I gotta begin practicing my momma talk with everypony,” she surmised with a proud grin.  “I really wanted to bring the twins, but Cheesy pointed out that they would not be happy campers at this party.  So, he’s staying home with them while I’m here with you all!”  Sobering up slightly, she softly muttered, “It’s actually been a while since everypony was here…”
“It sure has felt like it, that’s fer sure,” Applejack joined in, scooting up next to Rainbow’s side and taking their hoof.  In spite of himself, it made Ray smile a little harder.  The two deserved each other, for certain.  
“Sometimes I forget how many of ‘us’ there are,” Discord commented, slithering through the air to nab a cupcake from Pinkie’s tray.  “There’s almost not enough room for us all in a house built for a giant!  Isn’t that a conundrum?”
Even though he had grabbed the cupcake, the draconequus simply turned it into solid silver before lazily stuffing it straight into his stomach, causing Scootaloo to roll her eyes at the demonstration.  Swallowing her bite of pie, she grumbled, “It’d be a little cramped if we weren’t all crowded in the same room.”
“And that, my dear filly, is where you’re wrong,” Discord disproved the pegasus, his arms detaching from his body.  “You all and you’re surrogate older siblings are in here, while Fluttershy and Rarity are-”
While the draconequus’ claw continued to point out each pony present, his paw smacked over his mouth to silence him.  At first, Discord gave the rogue appendage a confused glare, reattaching his other appendage and peeling away the paw.  Thoroughly annoyed, he loudly inquired, “Now what was that fo… Oh!”
His eyes went wide and he realized something so abruptly that, for a moment, he forgot to uphold himself.  Flopping out of the air, he landed smack dab in the middle of the table, splattering pastries everywhere.  Otolo fluttered off Ray’s shoulder, twittering furiously at the clumsy draconequus while the others let out little shouts of surprise or dismay at the sudden shower of fruity goos.  
“Aw, c’mon now,” Scootaloo angrily exclaimed, looking down at the raspberry splattered all over her.  
“Sorry, sorry,” Discord quickly apologized, snapping his fingers while sweating an unnecessary amount considering it was still relatively chilly inside.  In an instant, a menagerie of cleaning utensils appeared and wiped away the mess, leaving everyone sputtering and shoving the intrusive cleanup crew away.  With an embarrassed little bow, the draconequus assured them, “I’m sure I can pull a few cakes and pies from… somewhere.  Just give me a sec!”
With that, Discord popped out of existence, leaving Ray stunned and slightly confused.  Staring at the spot where he had been, the human slowly took a bite of his remaining slice of pie, Ohs settling back down on his shoulder, disheartened.
“Yeah, Discord’s been a bit weird ever since he moved in with Fluttershy,” Sweetie Belle nonchalantly mumbled through her own bite of pie.
“Wha-” Ray began to exclaim before choking on his bite of pie, devolving into a coughing fit.  Turning around and stumbling to the kitchen sink, he coughed out the pie into the sink before wiping his face down and turning back to the wide-eyed filly.  “What?”
“Discord and Fluttershy are sharing a home now,” Sugar Belle quickly explained.  
“And we don’t know if they’re sharing anything else,” Rainbow added with a smirk, earning a light punch from AJ.
“It ain’t like that,” the earth pony clarified, rolling her eyes.  “Fluttershy’s jus’ given him a place to stay now.  He doesn’t gotta make his home wherever now.”
“Okay,” Ray nodded, wrapping himself around the new information.  He was glad for them… at least, he thought he was.  It was hard to tell.  The news was broken in such an unorthodox fashion that he still found it a bit difficult to set aside his surprise from his actual emotions, but he hoped he was happy for them.  Glancing into the living room from where he stood, he saw there was nobody within, meaning the only places the three missing mares could be was upstairs, undoubtedly in his room.  So they had something to talk about… 
“Hey, I think Rarity and Fluttershy need to talk to me, so I’m gonna see what they want,” he informed the group bluntly.  No reason to try and hide the obvious from them, especially because he was trying to prove he was being open with them.  
“Yeah yeah, go do your adult things,” Scootaloo drawled.  “Just don’t let it take too long.” 
“Of course,” he assured them.  He opened his mouth to tell them he was going to back in only a few minutes, when suddenly Discord popped back into reality with a whole new set of cakes and pies.
“Tada,” he exclaimed, proudly presenting the new assortment of pastries, setting them neatly across the table.  
Smiling at the draconequus, whose back was to Ray, the human slipped through the entrance of the kitchen back into the living room and made his way up the stairs.  Discord was such a distraction that he doubted they would notice until after the Lord of Chaos had settled down a little.  Making his way down the short hall, he found the door to his bedroom cracked open expectantly.  Hovering by the door for just a minute, he listened in.  
“I think the hemline was just a bit too revealing on my last piece,” Rarity was saying.
“Well, most times I wouldn’t wear a dress anyway, so it’s only revealing what everypony’s already seen,” Twilight thoughtfully reminded the mare.
Small talk.  Maybe a good sign that he wasn’t walking into a verbal minefield?  He couldn't be certain, but there was no use in delaying regardless.  Breathing slowly, he pushed the door open and walked in without missing a beat.
Instantly their conversation died, all three mares turning to look at him as he entered.  Rarity and Fluttershy were sitting on his bed and wore impartial expressions, though thankfully Twilight gave him a warm smile to ease some of his tension.  Giving Rarity and Fluttershy a wary look, he softly stated, “Figured you wanted to talk with me.”
“Indeed we do,” Rarity agreed, nodding… politely?  She didn’t seem expressly upset now, not like she had before his explanation, but clearly there were still some reservations.  After a long moment of silence, the unicorn turned to Fluttershy expectantly, but the mare simply shrank back more.
“I don’t want to say it… now that I know why,” Fluttershy meekly mumbled, refusing to meet any of their prying eyes.  
“You were upset,” Ray carefully prodded.  
The mare flinched at his question, glancing over at Twilight before slowly nodding once.  “I… after not having heard from you in a month and upon hearing I wouldn’t for at least another one, I honestly didn’t know if I’d ever see you again.  None of us did.  Discord was the only one who had hope that you would return tonight, and it was only because of him I made it to today.  Even then… I did end up taking a train to Canterlot two weeks ago to demand a better answer from Twilight than just ‘He’s alive and he might tell you next month’.  Rarity came along because she was having the same problem.  
“We’re the only two that knew ahead of time that you had fought in two battles, and while that gave us some clarity, Twilight would only tell us that much.  She kept saying…”
“You had the right to tell us whatever you needed to, but Fluttershy, Rarity, and everypony else has the right to at least know,” Twilight finished somberly.  Ray turned to face her, confused slightly, but also ready for an explanation.  “Ray, I wanted you to choose how much the rest knew about the war and your struggles out there.  It’s not my place to tell everypony else what you don’t have the strength to say, either.  Whatever you think we can handle, you tell us, and what you may wish to keep private, do so at your own discretion.”
“We knew you were at least alive and unharmed, but we… didn’t know about your friend,” Fluttershy muttered, her eyes once again refusing to meet his.  There were tears slipping down the fur of her face now, causing Ray’s heart to twist in his chest.
“Fluttershy, you were right to be worried, and I was wrong to have not at least showed up, like I said,” Ray restated, rushing to his bed to comfort the crying pony.  “You have every right to feel mad at me for being negligent.  It was my choice to leave you in the dark and let things sort themselves later, and now it’s time to sort them out.  You don’t need to feel guilty just because you learned the reason why I decided to stay away.”
“You warned us about this though, before the war even started and you had to go,” the pegasus protested, breaking down completely.  “You told us what you might go through, and we disregarded them as just words, hazards that were real and pains you would suffer.  For some reason… for some reason I never thought you’d ever lose somepony so close to you.  I didn’t even think that many Fallen would die!  B-b-but… I just- I know I’ve been ignorant.  We’ve ignored those things, a-a-and now you are suffering and we’re only worried about yourselves.”
“You mean you’re so worried about me it’s made you sick,” Ray corrected gently, resting a hand on Fluttershy’s back as he settled on the bed.  “It isn’t selfish to be worried about me, or to demand that I assure you I’m alright.  Sure, knowing is for your wellbeing, but you’re only demanding such because you love me.  Just knowing that once a month I can take a small break from the war to spend time with you all gets me through these rough months.  Now you know that I’m safe and dealing with the loss of Garish… better.  It stings still, it’s a fresh wound, but I’m not leaving it open.  In time, it’ll be a scar, a memory of an immortalized friend.  Knowing that I’m alright- with everything- would you please forgive yourself?”
“I… suppose when you… phrase it like that,” Fluttershy sniffled, finally looking up at the human with mournful eyes.  Smiling sadly at the mare’s misery, he pulled her into a half hug, shooting a glance at Twilight as he did so.  The Princess was staring grimly at a spot in the floor, obviously in deep contemplation, but at the very least she seemed satisfied with Ray’s handling of… whatever this was.  
“Hey,” the human inquired, earning Fluttershy’s tearless gaze.  Smirking, he told her, “I heard Discord moved in with you.”
The singular statement caused the mare’s face to go from cream to red in seconds as her eyes widened and she shrank away slightly.  Looking away, she mumbled something so inaudible, Ray only knew she was talking thanks to the slight movement of her mouth.  Withholding a chuckle, he slyly asked, “What was that?  You don’t talk loud enough when you’re all flustered like that.”
“Meanie,” Fluttershy spat, though there was a notable lack of bite to her bark.  In fact, looking closer, he realized she was smiling through her embarrassment, turning his wry grin into a gentle one.  
“Well, I’m glad for you two, really,” he told her encouragingly.  Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Rarity sitting patiently at the edge of the bed, waiting for him to be finished with Fluttershy.  More to come then, he mused to himself before giving the pegasus a quick squeeze.  “Discord’s doing what Discord does downstairs.  He’s already managed to accidentally destroy Sugar Belle’s pies.  Would you mind making sure he doesn’t intentionally destroy anything?”
“Okay,” Fluttershy agreed hesitantly, only momentarily shooting a look Rarity’s way.  “Thank you for this, Ray.  And thank you for being so honest too.”
“Twilight, would you please help Fluttershy,” Rarity asked suddenly.  
“Oh,” Twilight lightly exclaimed, unable to hide her surprise at the unicorn’s request.
“I need a moment alone with Ray,” the white mare clarified bluntly, and even though there was undoubtedly something concerning about the request, the human couldn’t stop himself from smirking at Twilight’s befuddled expression.
“Of course, if you wish,” the Princess replied, clearly confused.  However, she followed Fluttershy out of the room with one last uncertain look over her shoulder before shutting the door behind her.  
“So… what did you-” began to ask before finding himself once again interrupted by the tight embrace of a pony.  Rarity’s hug squeezed him around his stomach as she leaned face first into his side, letting out a shaky sigh as Ray slowly returned the motion.  
“I’m sorry, I just really needed to feel that you were actually here,” she shuddered, relaxing her grip slightly.  “For this past month all I’ve done is think I should’ve given you a tighter hug last time.  I was confident that you were okay, even when everypony else was certain some terrible fate had befallen you.  As soon as Twilight told us that you were alright but couldn’t see us, though, I knew something else was wrong.  Even though Fluttershy was certain you were hurt or had something worse happen, she was upset that you hadn’t proven you were alive and recovering.  Personally… I was stricken that you wouldn’t confront us with your problems.  It was only after we forced your confession from you earlier today that I realized we were no match for the problems you were facing.”
“You knew I was alright but still upset,” Ray questioned, confused a little by the mare’s mantra.
“I knew no harm had befallen you, or at least, I thought that, even though it seems the truth is otherwise,” Rarity confirmed.
“Wait, but I wasn’t injured at all,” the human replied, confused.
“Don’t play the fool with me, dear, I saw that little scar across your back and know it’s new,” the unicorn scolded unhappily.  
“No, I swear I don’t- Oh wait, I do remember,” Ray exclaimed before chuckling to himself.
“What’s so funny about it,” Rarity inquired curiously.
“I didn’t sustain that injury from a minotaur,” the human revealed with another snort.  “My first injury of the war came from a Fallen who ran a bit too close to me with their spear.  I honestly forgot that even happened.  Did it really leave a scar?”
“Yes,” the white unicorn confirmed, her gaze going from his face to his shoulder.  Reaching up a foreleg, she rested the cool chitin of her hoof on his scar there, the one left by Cohin’s spear.  Ray watched as it slowly drifted its way down to his prominent stomach scar where it hesitantly hovered right over the patchy skin there.  Finally, though Rarity pressed her hoof against it, shuddering slightly.
“So many scars, and so young,” she wondered out loud.  “You walk around baring them without a second thought, and so often we look over them without a care as well.  Yet they represent how close you’ve come to death already, before this war even began.  You’ve always been on the front lines of some conflict, yet you survive nonetheless.  I think that’s why I’m so confident in you, Ray.  No matter what, you’ll win the day for us and your Fallen.  
“These scars… they’re your Cutie Marks, the definition of you as an individual.  We should stop concerning ourselves for your wellbeing as we have.  This lifestyle is your domain, and those distant wars are what you are best at doing in life.  Maybe if we paid more attention to the fact that you have yet to fail, we’ll have the confidence to stop prying at you for more than what you need to give.  We’ve already taken so much from you… it’s time to stop being vultures and instead try to be doves.  We know you’ll be alright because you’re Ray, an unstoppable, loving force of nature that would do anything just because it protects us.  I think that’s our mistake, forgetting exactly who we’re talking to and worrying about.
“That being said… while you’re able to handle war better than us ponies, we can still teach you a thing or two about your emotions, namely your self-worth,” the mare concluded with a caring grin.  “You still seem hung up on the idea that, when this war is over, everything will be right in this world if you simply didn’t return.  I’m going to change that.”
“I’m sure you will, Rarity,” Ray agreed, smiling slowly.  Standing up and walking towards the door of his room, he opened the door, quietly telling her, “You almost already have.”
> Somepony
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discord didn’t know how he had ended up so lucky.  In his almost four thousand years of life, he hadn’t even thought of love or finding a companion until about a thousand years ago, right before he had been turned to stone.  Even then, it had been more of a coy plot to have anyone to share his chaotic domain with instead of… romantically.  Even when he had been released, there hadn’t been the slightest inclination in his mind at first that he would ever fall for anyone, let alone a pony.  Yet, instead of rejection and fear, he found a new Equestria when he awoke from his imprisonment, and a wonderful, beautiful mare to guide him through it.
Now, he found himself staring at her sleeping face just inches from his own.  It was strange, knowing that with the slightest movement forward he could kiss her, do the thing he had dreamed of for years before they had… become a couple.  They still rarely shared a deep or prolonged kiss, much less did anything physical, even though they literally slept together.  Fluttershy’s chastity and Discord’s own… disregard for such things meant the thoughts only ever crossed his mind when others would mention it.  Like had been mentioned several times.  Last night.  By everypony.
They would never ask such questions to Fluttershy’s face for fear of offending her and certainly not around Ray for fear of angering him, but they apparently had no qualms about grilling the draconequus over his emotions, actions, and intentions with the beautiful mare.  He couldn’t blame them, yet it was still mildly offensive they would think he would ever do anything uncomfortable to Fluttershy.  Having to clarify for the fourth time that they were only living together because they wanted to be each other’s comfort during this trying time had begun to put a strain on Discord.  It wasn’t like Applejack and Rainbow were receiving the same intense questioning as he was.  Then again, maybe that was because they were quite blatant about the stage of their relationship.  Lucky mares.
Truth be told, he was just as shy as his pegasus companion when it came to their relationship.  Were they dating?  By some definition, they were, given they went on dates often and generally stuck near each other, but not once had he called her his marefriend nor she called him her special somepony.  It was unspoken, yet undeniable.  They were both just too scared to admit that they had something.  
Undoubtedly, Ray played a huge role in this.  His relationship with Fluttershy was close, and possibly romantic, though Discord was afraid to ask.  He needed to, at some point, but it would be counterintuitive to have Fluttershy lie to him if she did have feelings or tell the truth.  Or, if she didn’t have those types of feelings, it might make her uncomfortable and give off the impression that Discord was trying to manipulate her feelings.  
Once upon a time, Discord had watched such romantic debacles with glee and amusement, as they often created turbulent, frenzied situations.  Some would result in a lifelong marriage; others would catastrophically end in separation.  Either way, when he was simply Lord of Chaos, such squabbles were easy sources of entertainment.  Now he found himself regretting ever enjoying such things.  Experiencing it firsthand, he found it was much more stressful than he ever could have imagined, and the fear of losing somepony he cared so deeply about was nearly paralyzing.  He just hoped that all of his bad karma had been paid for by his imprisonment in stone.  
On the flip side, having seen so many relationships succeed or crumble, he generally knew what to do and what not to do.  Mares were complicated creatures, individuals who were as similar to one another as they were different.  With this knowledge, he knew which buttons to certainly not push, what words meant the most, and to never, ever underestimate how badly one could be misunderstood.  That last one had been the reason he was even in this situation, knowing that Fluttershy wanted him in her home not for sex or other physical relief, but as an emotional support to keep her fears and paranoia under wraps.  
Given the delicate balance of love and respect he was maintaining with her, he feared one wrong move would see him sleeping in caverns or summoned cottages out in the Everfree again.  Maybe Fluttershy wanted him to make the next move, maybe she was building up the courage herself to define their relationship, or maybe this limbo was all they could maintain while Ray was a concern.  He was perfectly fine with remaining in the balance, so long as it was just that.  He had lived his life for four thousand years before finally finding his heartstrings tugged at.  He could wait however long she needed to be ready to officialize their love.  
Unless, of course, her heart lied with Ray and she was just placating Discord out of the kindness of her heart.  Instantly, Discord snapped himself with a firecracker in his brain, sending a searing pain throughout his skull.  It had the intended effect though, shaking away that terrible thought about an innocent and kindly pony.  It was something she would do… but it wasn’t what she was doing right now, he was sure of it.  She and Ray had never done more than hug, and he had even denied her attempts at a romantic relationship early on… but still, she had attempted.  
Frustrated at himself for the terrible thoughts, the draconequus prepared another head firecracker when suddenly the mare’s eyes blinked open.  He felt his own eyes widen as her eyes focused on him, a little smile forming with the lightest blush as she meekly asked, “How long have you been staring at me?”
“I… uh… I wasn’t staring, I was thinking, and you happened to be in my line of sight,” he tried, his excuse growing weaker the longer he talked.  
“Oh, Discord,” the mare simply giggled, before giving him a quick peck on the nose.  Giggling once again as the draconequus’ face grew redder than hers, she sat up and stretched with a slight groan, a few joints cracking.  “Woof, I didn’t think I was that tensed up.”
“Well, you do only sleep in one position,” Discord idly commented.  Smirking slightly, he flexed his fingers, each snapping louder than the last, before reaching up and twisting his head a full three-sixty degrees, eliciting even more cracks.  “Although I guess since I sleep like a hurricane I need to crack more.”
“Mhm, that’s why,” Fluttershy agreed sarcastically with an amused smile.  “Nothing to do with trying to make me smile?”
“It worked, right,” he pointed out, levitating himself out of the bed, shivering slightly at the cold outside of the blankets.  With a snap of his fingers, the house became as warm as a spring noon, prompting Fluttershy to fully leave the bed.  In spite of himself, Discord’s smile became much softer as he watched her shake herself into better shape, unmatting some of her fur and getting some hair from her face.  
“What should we have for breakfast today,” she asked casually, moving to her nightstand, grabbing a brush and beginning to fix her mane in its mirror.  
“I could make you some cinnamon toast, if you wish,” he told her knowingly.  “I myself ate myself twice over last night, so I’m not that hungry.”
“I… may have forgotten to eat at all,” Fluttershy reluctantly admitted, refusing to even glance at him in the mirror.
“Flutters,” Discord softly scolded, settling down next to her.  Reaching out and resting a claw on her shoulder, careful not to disrupt her self-grooming, he gave her a concerned look.  “Ponies need three meals a day, at least.  Some days you go entirely without eating.  Need I remind you I’m more than willing to force-feed you sweets and treats until you’re back to your normal weight.”
“It’s not that bad, Discord,” she tried weakly.
“I can practically see your ribcage, Flutters,” Discord countered, not holding back his concern.  “You’ve grown noticeably more tired, there are circles beginning to form under your eyes, and your flank-”
“You’ve been keeping track of my flank,” the mare questioned, trying to give Discord a wry grin but failing as she blushed.
Though the draconequus also flushed at the implications, he continued regardless, “Well, I haven’t seen a pony so thin since the famines brought about by Sombra’s final conquests!  It’s like you’ve completely forgotten to function from time to time.  I know we were all worried about Ray, but it can’t be healthy for him to come home once a month and see you thinner than he left you probably just makes him worry.”
“There’s no way he noticed,” Fluttershy denied, continuing to fix up her mane.  “He would have mentioned it if he did.”
“Everypony’s noticed, Flutters, even you,” Discord refuted, using her inadvertent admission against her.  He watched as the mare flinched in the mirror, her eyes drifting down to the desk.  Softening himself, the draconequus landed on the ground and took a few normal steps towards her.  “I’m not trying to embarrass you, my dear.  I’m worried you’re letting yourself go and disregarding that concern because you think what Ray’s going through is worse than a little hunger.”
The pegasus turned to stare him in the eyes, a little off put by his guess.  “Is it really… that obvious?”
“To me it is,” Discord mumbled, reaching out his paw to caress her cheek, but hesitated.  Maybe this wasn’t the right time to-
Fluttershy leaned into it, closing her eyes as she stated, “I’ll do better then, I promise.  Cinnamon toast it is.”
In short time Fluttershy finished brushing her mane and tail while Discord went downstairs to prepare the meal.  It was one of the simpler foods he could make without the assistance of chaos, though he still used it at his leisure to help cooking.  He just didn’t need to summon ingredients from far-off lands or steal fire from the mountains to warm it.  Fluttershy’s well stocked kitchen was enough for his cooking.  Funnily enough, he knew perfectly well how to cook without any chaos at all, given how often he’d come to do it while with ponies.  He wasn’t one to be lazy with his powers.  In fact, he preferred to think of it as spicing up life whenever he used chaos instead of making life easier.
By the time Fluttershy made her way down the stairs, Angel had given Discord the routine chittering lecture and Otolo had briefly swooped by to say hello.  The pegasus gently picked up the bunny and took him to a different part of the house to feed him, though all of them knew it was just to stop the little white rabbit from glaring at the draconequus.  It seemed that no matter how innocent, appropriate, or chaste they kept their relationship, Angel would not approve of Discord living with him and Fluttershy.  Whatever, he was just a little rabbit anyways.  In spite of himself, Discord listened in with a summoned earpiece while continuing to cook, holding it up with an extra arm.  
“No Angel, nothing happened,” Fluttershy informed the bunny, sounding… disappointed?  There was a series of short squeaks, quickly followed by the pegasus scoldingly telling the bunny, “You shouldn’t say things like that, Angel.  Discord’s too nice for such things!”
Smirking a little to himself, a little flustered, he decided the mare would handle the bunny well enough without his listening in.  Focusing on the cooking, he let his head remain empty quite literally, making him lose track of time until Fluttershy suddenly tugged on his tail with her mouth.
Looking over his shoulder, resummoning his brain, he quickly asked, “Yes, my dear?”
“You weren’t answering me,” Fluttershy noted.  “I was guessing you were doing the empty head thing.”
“Yup,” Discord affirmed, taking the meal off the stove.  It was smelling particularly good on second thought.  Maybe he would duplicate some for himself…
“Trying not to think about anything,” the mare prodded, raising a brow at him, silently accepting her breakfast.  
“Well, that’s kinda the point,” he replied offhandedly, hoping the right twist of zaniness to his voice would convince her there wasn’t anything in particular he was trying to avoid thinking about. 
“Discord…” she pressed relentlessly, stepping to be side by side with him, trying to catch his eye.  Reluctantly, he looked down into her beautiful teal eyes, pooled with concern.  Well… he had grilled her.  Only fair that she did the same.  With a sigh, he replicated the food in her hoof into his own claw, before slumping into the nearby table chair.
“So long as you’re okay with what’s on my mind,” he warned her, giving her a wary stair.  
The mare sat down next to him, placing her hoof in his free paw as she assured him, “I want to know, so long as I can help you with it.”
“Well… what’s going on with us,” Discord hesitantly asked, giving Fluttershy a sad look.  “I know we’ve basically become… more than friends could ever be, but we’re both too scared to say anything about it.  I know you still have feelings for Ray, or at least, that what it seems like, I just can’t understand what those feelings are.  I want to be more than just friends who live together, but I’m afraid I’ll overstep my bounds and offend Ray.  It’d be awful if he was trying to maintain a relationship with you through the war and I were to try to drag you away from him.  We’ve been friends since day one, even though we butted heads when it came to, well, you.  I’m afraid of acting too hastily or waiting too long.  I’m used to having more time to sift through these things and let the rivers shape the land before settling it.  I… I can’t do that when you only have so much time…”
“Oh… Discord…” Fluttershy muttered softly, her eyes growing even softer and deeper as her hoof drifted up to his face.  For a moment it lingered there, pressed against his cheek while her brilliant eyes flitted over his face, before she finally admitted, “I guess I’ve been too busy worrying about how little time we might have left to appreciate the time Ray’s bought for us.  Yes, once I thought to pursue Ray, but we were both confused at the time, fate throwing us onto each other's path.  I could never see him as anything more than a violent, conflicted soul, and he could never see me as anything but his embodiment of Equestria, to protect and see thrive.  We were symbols to each other; Ray said as much to me.  There’s nothing romantic between him and I, even though we once thought there might be.
“You, though, Discord… well, I’ve been rather selfish to not say sooner, but you’re one of the few things keeping me calm and bringing me joy during this hard time.  Whenever I worry, you ask me what’s wrong.  Whenever I’m afraid, you comfort me.  Whenever I doubt, you give me the strength to believe.  You help me be a better mare because you hate seeing me not live up to what I can be and push me outside my comfort zone because that’s when I finally learn.  Nopony else has the courage or care to take on the challenges I present and make me a better pony for the sake of being better.  Without you, Discord, I’m not sure where I’d be right now.  
“And yet, you seem to hardly notice that you do all that for me.  Others would hold it over me or point out that they’ve helped me, but you do it without a second thought because it’s what you do.  You love me, Discord, I know that, and for too long now I’ve been scared by that.  Scared that I’m not good enough, that I’m too afraid or conflicted to love you back!  Yet, it’s clear now, isn’t it?  This whole time, the reason it was you I asked to stay with me and comfort me and the reason you accepted.  The reason I hug you, talk to you, and kiss you.  It’s because I love you.  You’re my special somepony!”
Discord stared as the mare softly panted from her confession, staring at him with a strange intensity he couldn’t quite identify.  He was numbed by joy, unable to feel the hoof on his cheek or the presence of her other hoof on his knee as she had leaned into him.  He was only able to stare at the spectacular mare before him, alive with honesty and alight with her own joy.  Dawning a self-confident smile, the mare suddenly lunged forward and pulled him into a deep kiss, snapping the stunned draconequus out of his trance.
He was defenseless against her, simply slipping into the embrace as she climbed onto him to push her advantage.  He’d never seen or felt her like this, confident and unabashed as she enfolded him with her wings.  There was no telling how long they were like that, only at last being interrupted by a sudden gurgle of Fluttershy’s stomach.  
Pulling away, flushed, the mare giggled at the awkward interruption, earning a chuckle from Discord.  With a wry grin, he joked, “No wonder you were so ravenous.  You must’ve mistaken me as your meal!”
“Oh, sweet Celestia, Discord,” the pegasus scoffed with mock offense, pawing at his chest with a hoof while holding herself with the other.  Getting off, she returned the sly smile, replying, “You know I don’t have dessert for breakfast!"
“Aw, that was sweet,” the draconequus cracked, earning a rare, amused eye roll from her.  Sitting up in his chair, he looked around at the empty room and muttered, “I’m a bit surprised Angel didn’t come in and interrupt us.  It was nice.”
“Are you kidding, Angel’s been mad that this hasn’t happened between us yet,” Fluttershy told him, laughing at his ignorance.  “Why, every morning he’s surprised we haven’t-”
Fluttershy abruptly silenced herself, growing beet red in actual embarrassment as her eyes flitted away from Discord and her wings clamped to her sides.  Instantly the draconequus’ eyes went wide, finishing the sentence for himself and clamping his own mouth shut to keep anything unwise from slipping out.  For a very, very long moment of silence, the pair kept their eyes on anything but each other, waiting for the other to break the silence.  They needed to talk about it but…
“I want to wait, Discord,” Fluttershy finally informed him, sounding… surprisingly calm.  There wasn’t an air of professionalism, or a stoic act being put up.  She was being honest with him, saying what she wished.  “At least until everything is over and we can begin a family in peace.”
“I would… like that,” Discord agreed, trying to smile.  Ultimately, it died on his face, and he looked away.  Was that smile too hopeful?  Did it come off wrong?
“Good,” was all the mare next to him could force herself to say before falling into uncomfortable silence again.
Determined not to be saved by Fluttershy again, he quickly asked, “So nothing changes, right?  We’re each other’s special somepony but we don’t… change?”
He smacked himself in the face for how illiterate it came out, praying he hadn’t just ruined everything.  Four- no, three thousand years of observation and apparently, he hadn’t learned a thing!
“Well…” Fluttershy began before trailing off, this time slowly standing up in her chair and leaning in.  Methodically, she brought her lips to his and he was more than happy to accept.  After a moment, they parted, and the mare finished, “I would like to do that more often.”
“Yeah, me too,” Discord agreed with an uncontrollable ear-to-ear grin.  Sweet Celestia, she was too perfect.
Seating herself once again, Fluttershy thoughtfully told him, “We’ll also have to tell everypony else that we’re official, though I’m guessing they already thought so much.  Still, I’ll tell the girls next time I see them.”
As if right on cue, the door suddenly burst open as Apple Bloom rushed into the room, wheezing from a lack of air.  She tried to say something, but the words died in her throat as she was forced to take a massive gulp of air.  
Concerned, Fluttershy stood up and inquired, “What is it, Apple Boom?”
“Rainbow Dash proposed ta Applejack,” she exclaimed, smiling brighter than the sun.  “My sister’s gettin’ apple-buckin’ married!”
> Rainfall
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In spite of Ray’s fears, history did not repeat itself, and the following month passed calmly.  There were moments, even, when he forgot why he was in the Tauran plains of all places, thinking of Equestria and his friends there.  The languid passing of time was alleviating, and unlike during the first months of the war, there was no building stress over not taking action.  It wasn’t because they were growing lazy or reluctant, nor were they allowing the burden of war to consume them.  The results of the battles had given them the confidence to relax when they could, knowing that even though defeat was still a possibility, they also could win.
Most of the month had been spent slowly planning their next move, waiting for the weather to return to just blistering instead of scorching.  They needed a little more information before the plan could be finalized, but the weather had begun dropping rapidly.  When before it would consistently reach the mid-fifties by midday, by the last week of the month, it was now only reaching the low forties, about where it would mellow out and stay consistent.  If what they had experienced when they had first arrived was anything to go by, then they would reach their lowest temperatures about two months from now, or by the tenth month of the war.  
Kraven’s focus had been solely on the weather and the strange effect it had on the land, attempting over and over again to write weather charts and predictions.  Where he had received the knowledge to do that, not even Skalos knew, but he had been correct by a margin of two degrees every single day of the month.  He was still attempting to understand the wind patterns, complicated by their static state at the moment and the ocean wind currents, but Ray had no doubt the intelligent stallion would come to a conclusion when given the information he needed.  The information could easily prove itself useful, marching into the wind and allowing their dust trail to scatter and dissipate, hiding their movements.  
However, there had been one event neither Kraven nor any of the other Fallen participating in his weather project could have predicted.  Two days ago, a wave of big, puffy white clouds had suddenly been blown in from the west.  It was the first time the Fallen had seen such clouds since they had surfaced in Equestria, and was the first natural shade given to them.  It was such an event that the generals and him had all come to an agreement that the army was relieved for the day to enjoy the weather.  The spiderlings spent much of the day blanketing the nearest hills and exploring the locations, thanks to temperatures dropping to the mid thirties in the shade.  It was still hot, but just cool enough outside that activities could occur outside of the shade or ocean.  
Those two days of massive formations of cloud passing overhead gave the army the biggest morale boost Ray had ever seen.  The cooler temperatures, relief from the sun, and increased activity had naturally invigorated the army.  Some asked why the army wasn’t moving out and taking advantage while the weather was amicable, but most were content with remaining while they enjoyed the calm.  In truth, Ray wanted to move the army out and further into the interior with the dramatic change in weather, but Skalos and Kraven had talked him into waiting for the return of spiderling scouts.  
The Matriarch had sent them out at the beginning of last month, and they were supposed to return sometime this week before Ray returned to Equestria.  However, with three days left and the Matriarch silent on where her children might be, he was growing doubtful they would make it on time.  
That concern was compounded by yet another shift in the weather.  That morning, just after sunrise, the sky had darkened and it had begun raining.  It wasn’t a hard rain or steady downpour, more of a sporadic drizzle here and there, but remained consistent.  At first, it was an exciting endeavor, warm freshwater falling from the sky and giving them even greater relief from the normally sweltering sun.  However, after three and a half hours of on and off rain, the camp was beginning to flood.  The hard ground didn’t seep up the water and there was no drainage from the camp into any of the surrounding valleys, given it was one of the lowest.  The more eastern wing of camp remained in stable condition since it began sloping towards the sea, but the rest was gradually filling with inches of water.  
Much of the day until lunch was spent moving the camp more towards the top of the nearby southern hill, which was just barely large enough to allow them to fit the entire camp on its crest.  It would be cramped, but better than losing their tents and equipment to a flood.  Luckily the procession was quick work and not too tedious, the rain serving to keep the Fallen from getting too exhausted.  Pulling the ballistas to the top of the hill was the only real challenge, and even then Ray alone was enough to help any team get their machine up.
It was just a few minutes before the official dinner time, and most soldiers were finalizing setting up their tents.  Ray was struggling to move through the crowded center of camp, too many soldiers circling around trying to either get back to their tents or to one of the areas where food would be served.  A slight bonus to the steady rainfall was how much water they were able to store for later use, though it did mean a whole other team of a few hundred Fallen was needed to capture, store, and catalogue the information.  
As expected, Kraven took care of that job while Skalos and Harbor worked on making sure everything still ran according to the daily schedule, even with the major changes present.  Yarem was ensuring the tents were all positioned in their correct spots and that sanitation centers were correctly established, while Pelios was busy overseeing the distribution of food and assessing any potential damages the rain may have caused.  Ray himself had been the only one doing the manual labor of moving equipment, supplies, and tents, but now that he was finished, he was hoping to take a long enough break to have a meal before checking in on the spiderlings.  
Finally reaching the commanding tent, he pushed through the flap and let out a sigh of relief at how much relative space he had.  Kraven and three of his staff were finishing up running numbers on the opposite end of the table in the center, paying him no mind as he sat down on one of the crates in the tent.  With nobody else in the tent, it felt far more open than the narrow, crowded paths between tents he had just been on.  He was soaked to the bone, his surprisingly long hair matted over his eyes as he looked around nearby for his meals.  Thanks to the warmth of the falling rain he wasn’t cold, just wet and a little uncomfortable.  
He kept his meals in the commander’s tent given how, more than all other places in the camp combined, he spent the most time here.  The crate was wet but sealed well enough that the interior was not affected.  Pulling out one of the parchment wrapped, pre-prepared meals, he opened up and made quick work of the fish, bread, cheese and grain bar, and little chocolate placed within.  It was a dense meal, meant to pack as many calories into as few bites as possible, but Twilight had included the sweets as “a little treat”.  
As soon as he was finished, he found Kraven expectantly staring at him, nobody else in the tent.  He was polite enough to wait for the human to finish his meal before asking, “Are you finished?”
Wrapping the fish bones in the parchment and placing it back in the crate, he told the general, “Yes.  what’re the numbers?”
“The water isn’t important right now,” Kraven replied offhandedly.  “The spiderlings returned about an hour ago.”
“And I’m just now hearing about it,” Ray questioned, not mad, just surprised.  Usually he received news like that in minutes.
“Well, Pelios was the first to hear of it from one of the broodmothers, and he took that information to Harbor.  Harbor managed to pass it along through one of his assistants to Skalos.  It took Skalos a little bit to give the information to Linium, who passed it along to me.  I waited for you to show up here since there was no use trying to find you in this mess.  I just received the news not five minutes ago, so well done finding a perfect opportunity to take a break.”
“Thank you,” Ray accepted, standing up.  With a slightly concerned look, he asked the general, “Do you need to take a meal with you, or are you okay to begin heading over to the Matriarch right away?”
“I ate early, given I had a few moments in here while my team compiled a file for the water,” Kraven informed Ray, moving towards the tent flap.  From the sounds of it, the rain had just barely stopped, giving them maybe fifteen minutes before the next session of rain.  “If you need to know, we’ve already collected enough water to supply the army for a whole week.  Another few days and we could save enough water to allow bathing not in the ocean.”
“It would be nice to have cooler, less salty baths,” Ray agreed, looking up at the sky as he exited the tent.  It was still about two hours from sunset, but the darkened sky made it seem like night was much closer.  They had, theoretically, four more hours to decipher whatever information the spiderlings returned with and establish a framework for their true plan of action.  
“Indeed, though if we moved to the valley you uncovered, we wouldn’t have such problems as well,” Kraven pointed out matter-of-factly.  “It would be nice to have a consistent source of freshwater nearby, and the natural terrain there sounds defensible.  Have you at least considered it as an alternative plan?”
“It’s the primary backup plan,” Ray assured the stallion, looking down at him.  Kraven wasn’t prone to many emotions, but he had a strange fixation on the Crevice.  The stallion acknowledged that, at current, it wasn’t the best option for the army, but he was clearly still insistent that at some point or another, they set camp there.  Ray agreed with most of his reasons to establish a base at the Crevice, but having seen it himself, he was hoping the north provided more opportunities than it.  If there was a river, lake, forest, or even just green grass, it would probably be in closer proximity to a major population center… theoretically.  
The minotaurs needed water and food, but based on the amounts they had discovered over time in the camp after the Second Battle of the Big Face, perhaps it wasn’t nearly as much as they thought.  Still, the Golden Plains seemed utterly devoid of animal or plant life save for the sungrass, so a new environment was probably their best bet.  
“Very well then, lordling,” Kraven nodded in understanding.  The general bumped into a Fallen on accident, distracted by looking up at Ray.  The Fallen dropped the food she was holding, yelping in surprise as apparently she hadn’t seen the general coming at all.  Turning bright red instantly, the stallion quickly apologized, “I’m so sorry, my friend, I didn’t mean to…”
“Kraven,” the mare asked, a bright smile spreading across her face.  “You just can’t seem to stay away from me, can you?”
Ray’s eyes widened as a disbelieving smile spread across his face.  Unable to help himself in spite of Kraven’s dark blush, he asked, “Now Kraven, who might this be?”
“Nidina,” she greeted, looking up at Ray.  “Wow, I… you’re a lot taller up front than you are from the archer lines…”
“That’s how distance proportionality works,” Kraven mumbled, looking away from the mare.  
“Oh come on now, Kraven, you know I’m not as smart as you,” she complained in a ditzy way.  
“Nopony is,” Kraven replied simply, avoiding eye contact at all costs as Ray began catching on.  The blush was certainly of embarrassment, but the way the stallion was being cold to the insistent mare was far from playful.  
Growing concerned, he told the mare, “Sorry about the meal.  Go back and get more food if you need.  Tell them Ray gave you special permission and to take it up with me in Tent 31 if they don’t believe me.  Unfortunately, we don’t have the time to talk since Kraven and I have important business to attend to at the moment.  I do hope you’ll understand.”
“Oh of course, sir,” she said with a quick bow.  Then, smirking at his companion, she teasingly told him, “I’ll see you later, Kraven.”
Instantly the stallion was off, walking twice his normal speed with Ray struggling ever so slightly to keep up with him.  Ray wanted to question the interaction, but given how public they were and the lingering stares of some Fallen who had watched them, he knew now wasn’t the time or place.  Still, it left him feeling uncomfortable in a way he didn’t quite know or understand.  Kraven could occasionally be blunt or impassive to certain things, but he was compassionate when it came to the Fallen specifically.  Ray had never seen the stallion be so… maliciously cold.
Soon enough, though, they were out of the camp and walking down the hill, avoiding the occasional puddle or loose soil.  The ground was too hard to be truly muddy, but the water had loosened enough of the soil that, from time to time, one of them would slip.  Distantly, almost already at the spiderlings’ hole, was a small group of Fallen he knew would be the other generals, waiting for Kraven and Ray.  Given they had all learned the news before him, he wasn’t surprised they were ahead of him and Kraven, but it was surprising that they were already almost there.  Shaking away his thoughts, he took the opportunity the open, empty plains gave him to question the general beside him.
“So, Kraven, what was that all about,” he asked bluntly.  
He received a surprised look from the Fallen, probably from how direct the human had questioned him, though after a moment, he mumbled, “It’s a long story.”
“And it’s a decent walk,” Ray countered immediately.  “We’ve got time.”
“I guess, if you really want to know, sir,” Kraven began, interrupted by Ray raising a hand.  
“I’m not asking you as your commanding officer, Kraven,” he corrected the general.  “I’m asking as a friend.”
“Oh,” was the only response the young man received, the stallion falling silent.  After a long moment of slow silence, the stallion simply said, “I was married before the war.  I had a daughter.”
 “Oh shit,” Ray couldn’t help but stammer, almost losing his footing as he walked alongside the forlorn Fallen.
“I joined in the turning of the army because I was worried I would never see them again,” Kraven continued, undeterred.  “I thought Sombra would kill us all and would leave my wife widowed and my daughter without a father.  I didn’t realize that by joining the Bastard Prince, I was securing my fate and theirs.  After we surrendered to Luna and she damned us, they would have only been left with the knowledge that I had either died before the treachery or had been among the traitorous and cowardly.  The shame I must have brought to them in their lives must have been ruinous, and all because, in the end, I was too scared to die a hero of Equestria and not live a traitor to it.
“At first, I was enraged with Luna for our damnation.  How could she not see that many of us had only done what we thought was needed for survival?  But then, I began to recognize exactly what our treachery had led to.  Thousands of more ponies had died because of our cowardice than would have if we had stood our ground and fought back against Sombra.  We destroyed the Oppotimare Valley and the towns there and let Sombra’s forces into Equestria.  Once I came to recognize that, I became a melancholic mess.  I set about learning everything I could while in the Harkening, sharpening my mind and expanding my knowledge about anything and everything I could.  I promised I would never do anything so stupid again.
“I was one of the first Fallen to rename myself.  Perhaps I was the one who really began the trend, though that’s a hard thing to trace.  All I know is that before our fur began to fade and our eyes grew misty, I refused to go by my Equestrian name.  I didn’t deserve it and let it get lost to time.  There isn’t a singular Fallen than can remember what my name was before the Harkening, and I prefer to keep it that way.  I gave myself the name of Kraven as a constant reminder of my cowardice and what it’s cost me, my wife, and my child.  I’m one of the few Fallen that remained celibate throughout the entirety of our time there, and not once did I even consider suicide.  I didn’t want a way out.  My punishment was well deserved, and if given the chance, I would strive to earn my life back.  That was how I saw our stay in the Harkening.  It wasn’t a damnation, but a test, and I’d be damned if I’d fail it and Equestria once again.”
“I’d say you’ve proven yourself twice over, Kraven,” Ray told the stallion fervently, his mouth feeling strange as he said the forsaken Fallen’s name.  Knowing exactly why he had chosen such a humiliating name… it made the human feel an odd sense of respect for him and a greater feeling of sadness.  Kraven had a child and wife he lost because of his choice, and even if he survived the war and was restored, there was no way to get them back.
“That’s hardly the truth,” the Fallen replied, his voice firm.  “The war has yet to end, and I haven’t faced the blade of the enemy and held firm.  I'm a general of our archers and fight from the back, away from the front lines and the casualties.  Once I have stood before the charge of the minotaurs and felled them without taking a step back… maybe then I will have proven I am not that cowardly colt from before.”
“If you say so,” Ray hesitantly agreed.  He didn’t want to endorse the stallion’s tough definition of his success, but he knew Kraven’s mind wouldn’t be swayed.  Besides, they had neared the spiderlings’ abode rather quickly, and he would likely want this conversation to remain between just the two of them.  It was kind of unfair, considering every general had made a point of their concern to help Ray with whatever internal struggles he might be having, but that seemed to be the way of them all.  Desperate to help each other but reluctant to face their own issues.  
Even though they were near the spiderlings' hole, it was still almost three miles away.  At this distance, however, the Matriarch had made her way over and the other generals were waiting at the designated point already.  It was a bit strange how Ray hadn’t even noticed how the giant arachnid had emerged from the earth and traveled towards them until she was right on top of them.  The other generals were standing in a strange formation, a number of puddles forcing them to spread out in order to not be in the muck.  
“So, the spiderlings have returned,” Ray surmised, looking around at each general.  They all wore official, attentive expressions, though some clearly had seen more water than the rest.  The sun was beginning to set, and thanks to the cloud cover, it meant a slight mugginess to the air that wasn’t quite comfortable.  That and the exhausting day meant it was best to quicken the meeting as much as possible.  “Well, what’s the news then, World Weaver.”
“There are forests to the north,” the Matriarch unceremoniously revealed, causing Ray’s heart rate to increase rapidly.  “After about ten days of travel north along the coast, my spiderlings came across a stretch of grasslands and small coves along the cliff sides.  They spent many days exploring these places and went further north.  Though they lost track of distance after about forty miles, they estimate that seventy miles north and five miles inland, they found the first trees.  The forest became much denser the more northwest they traveled, until they were in a warm, thick forest of trees unlike that of Equestria’s.  They were still green and brown, but they were thicker and much more evenly placed, less wild and more self-controlled.
“There are birds in the trees, little rodents on the ground, and fish in small creeks that permeate the forest.  Very distantly, they believe they saw snow-capped mountains.  However, when they turned back southward and reentered the grasslands, they could find no trace of minotaurs.  The grasslands are small, maybe five miles from north to south, though they stretch to hills and what may be mountains in the far west.  It seems that they do not inhabit the grasslands themselves.  Furthermore, in spite of finding creeks, there are no rivers, lakes, or even ponds that they found.  They became behind schedule because Hdakdeala was certain the patterns of the land would reveal water.  Alas, that was not the case.”
“So, no major bodies of water,” Kraven inquired, a look of deep thoughtfulness on his face.  
“No, it would appear there aren’t,” the Matriarch confirmed.  Suddenly, a broodmother crawled from the giant spider’s back and down one of her front legs.  “This is Hdakdeala, one of my first-broods.  She led the scouting and can tell you some of what she saw herself.”
The broodmother, who loomed almost an entire pony above Ray’s head, peered at the group with wide, curious eyes.  Then, in a broken, slightly feminine voice, she told them, “Strange things there.  Greenery, but no water.  Clouds but no rain.  Heat, but no burning.  Life, but no living.  The birds taste of meat but are not Equestrian.  Very strange, indeed, and hospitable for life.  Why no life, then?  Mother cannot say.  Hdakeala cannot guess, does not know!”
“That is strange,” Skalos agreed, staring at the broodmother.  “Hdakeala, do you know if there could be any life up there?  Any chance that trees were missing or animals gone?”
“Some trees, yes, cut from the roots,” the broodmother confirmed, nodding her head ecstatically.  “The stumps are old, but young.  Minotaurs have been to the trees, not recently, but in this lifetime, yes.  Wood and timber and lumber they have stolen, but to the plains they go.  The hills and weapons, they vanish to.”
“Then it seems the minotaurs have left something of a trail we can follow,” Pelios declared, looking around at the others.  “If they use the trees up there as their source of lumber, then a settlement can’t be too far away, correct?  They wouldn’t drag trees they’ve chopped down hundreds of miles away, especially if the forest is particularly large.”  
“We know the minotaurs must be up there, then,” Ray agreed.  “There’s tangible evidence they are there, and we can guess that because of the relative abundance of life and water, they would be somewhere nearby.  Maybe not within immediate distance of where the spiderlings scouted out, but they are nearby and not out of reach.”
“It seems, then, that we’ll need to put our plan into action, make it official with Twilight and prepare our soldiers to march,” Harbor added.  “We have plenty of time tomorrow and the day after to make preparations to move camp out, especially considering we’ve already had to move it around a bit.  I would go so far as to say we could begin moving out the day of the full moon to get that much more ahead in schedule.  The Matriarch could bring Ray back to the wayport and the rest of us would rest the night.  We’d wait out the day out of camp, seeing one last time if there are any enemies approaching, before continuing up northward.  It took the spiderlings at least ten days to reach the grasslands, so it’ll take our army at least two weeks of marching.”
“That means Ray wouldn’t make it back to the wayport in time for a visit with Equestria,” Yarem pointed out.  “The round trip would be too long, and we couldn’t afford to lose him and the Matriarch for two whole days.”
“We can’t be leashed to the wayport,” Ray stated firmly.  “As much as I’d like to make such appointments, our job isn’t reporting to Twilight.  I’ll explain to everybody what we’re doing.  They’ll understand.  With that in mind, what’s our next move?”
“Well, we’d rest once we reach the grasslands,” Pelios stated.  “We’d need to after two weeks straight of marching.  After a couple days of resting while our scouts and the spiderlings do reconnaissance should provide us enough time and information to decide our next move.  If we spot an enemy army, we pursue and destroy.  If we don’t, we dive westward, away from the coast and seek out anything hinting to a minotaur army or settlement.  Either way, we’d be filling out more of our map and finding things that may be useful to us.”
“What about the harbor,” Skalos questioned, glancing between Kraven and Pelios.
“The harbor would be of no use to the minotaurs for at least a month, and even then, there’s the matter of constructing a sea-worthy boat there,” Kraven answered intuitively.  “Based on our current knowledge, the northern forests would be their closest source of wood unless the barren lands south somehow hide a forest in them.  That would mean that, in order to have the supplies to build a ship and repair the harbor, they would run directly into us.  Let alone the fact that the bay itself is currently clogged not only with the wreckage of their own ship, but our own sunken vessels, and they would have to also take the time to somehow clear those obstructions.  Even if we spent two entire months in the north, they would barely have begun construction on their vessel before we returned.  Logically speaking, that is.”
“The minotaurs seem to at least have a basic sense of logic, so I suppose we’ll be basing our plan off those presumptions,” Ray finalized.  “With that in mind, I take it we keep with our current draft of a plan and apply the new information we have to it, correct?”
Each of the generals looked back and forth between one another, seeing if there was any point that needed to be brought up before confirmation.  Seeing there was none at the moment, they each silently nodded in agreement to the plan.  So, it was confirmed.  They would be going north now to seek out their next, and hopefully last fight.  
“Then are we leaving the day of the full moon, as Harbor proposed, or do we wait until the day after to set out on our march,” Ray questioned, looking around at the generals to see what they thought.
“Well, this question is mostly taking into account you, lordling,” Skalos pointed out respectfully.  “If we march the day of and then wait the day after, you at least get some rest after your journey before we set out on a long march.  If we set out afterwards, it could essentially become what it was life for you at the First Battle of the Big Face.”
Cringing at the memory of his exhaustion and the general pain of that day, the human stated, “I think I would much prefer the first option, in that case.  However, feel free to-”
“We’re all going to agree with you on that,” Pelios interrupted with a slight smirk.  “If this is going to be a much larger and prolonged campaign than our first one, it’d be preferable for all of us if you got a good period of rest before any major confrontations.”
“And, continuing to be blunt, it’d be much nicer for everyone to march one day, rest another, and then continue onwards,” Harbor added.  “If we were to go at it in one long attempt, perhaps we would find ourselves too exhausted to face the minotaurs in our best shape, and that, of course, would be a major factor to consider in battle.  We’ll still be exhausted from some thirteen days straight of marching, but maybe the day’s rest after the initial march will be like a little booster to our speed and energy.”
“I’ll have to agree with Harbor, his plan is much more appealing from a certain standpoint,” Kraven spoke up.  “It’d also be useful to gauge what a day of marching in this changing weather would be like.  If the rain persists, we may have to postpone, or if the heat returns.  Either way, having a day to march and then a day to evaluate what continual marching may look like would be excellent as well.  There doesn’t seem to be any deterrents from such a strategy, save potentially from some time we may lose.  However, we aren’t in a particular rush to find our next battle, and if being a day quicker comes at the expense of performance, I would argue it is much better to be slower and more prepared than quicker and exhausted.”  
“Agreed,” Hdakdeala clicked thoroughly.  “Spiderlings get a day ahead of army too.  Warn of enemy.  See any signs.  We will kill spies.  Obscure our lines.”
“Then it seems we’re in agreement,” Ray said.  Looking from one general to the next before ending on Hdakeala, he gave a slight nod.  “In two days, we’ll march out on the full moon.  At nightfall the Matriarch will return me to the wayport for my visit, during which I will inform Princess Twilight of our plans and warn her that I will not be making the next full moon.  From there, we take a day of rest and evaluate what our march will look like.  If there seems to be no hindrance, either from the weather or minotaurs, we continue northward for thirteen days until we presumably reach the grasslands.   From there, we take another couple of days to rest and recuperate, scouring the area with spiderlings and scouts to find any signs of minotaurs.  If we spot an army, we attack and destroy it.  If we do not, we delve westward until we find something to conquer, destroy, or report back to Equestria.  After two months from when we’ve set out, we’ll begin our return if we haven’t fought a battle or needed to return to ensure the harbor is secure and free of minotaurs.”
“Sounds like a solid plan,” Pelios declared, a satisfied grin on his face.  “I’d say that our work, for the moment, is done here gentlecolts.” 
“I agree as well, best not overthink any ‘maybes’ or ‘ifs’ right now,” Yarem surmised with a wry grin at a hesitant Kraven.  
Noticing the look, the intelligent Fallen let out a reluctant sigh before simply stating, “Perhaps.”
“If we are all in agreement, there is one more subject I’d like to bring up before dismissing you for the night,” Ray quickly announced with a pointed look up at the Matriarch before letting his eyes drift down to Hdakdeala.  Raising an arm to point at the broodmother, he stated, “We would not have been able to form our plans tonight without the information and input provided by Hdakdeala, here.  We’ve long known we need more than just the Matriarch to represent the spiderlings in our planning and execution of this war, however we never had a proper candidate.  Well, Hdakdeala has proven herself well-spoken and informed on the proceedings of war, as well as an invaluable source of firsthand information.  Therefore, I propose that from here-on-out, the broodmother is formally a part of our war councils and an official commanding officer of the spiderlings, second only to the Matriarch.”
“I second the motion,” Pelios quickly voiced, stepping forward slightly.  “The spiderlings have been an invaluable part of our war machine and will continue being so until it is concluded.  I agree they need more representation, and even though we don’t know her well, Hdak- Dakhela-”
“Hdakdeala,” Ray said for the struggling stallion.
“-yes, Hdakdeala, is undoubtedly a trustworthy and valiant ally to have in our circle,” the general finished confidently.  
“I have no grievances,” Kraven stated simply, glancing around at the other three.  There seemed to be no vocal disagreement to the idea, and even though he could see some slight hesitance from the generals only familiar with the Matriarch, Ray knew that in order to get over such aversions, this was the move to make.
“I don’t hear any objections,” Ray declared, “so I’m making it official.”  Reaching out a hand to the confused broodmother, he told her, “Welcome to the command staff of the army.”
Giving the outstretched hand a curious stare at first, Hdakdeala finally reached out her own feeler to take hold of it, nervously stating, “I will serve as best I can beside you.  We will overcome.  Together.”  
> Breaking the News
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ray wasn’t looking forward to tonight, but he desperately wanted to see the ponies once again.  It had been a long day of marching, and the brief respite he was given by riding the Matriarch back to the wayport was a welcome, almost necessary moment to recollect himself before returning to Equestria.  However, having to tell them they wouldn’t see him next month after expressly promising that he wouldn’t skip out on any more visits if he could felt… like a betrayal, even to him.  It was necessary and there was no getting around it, but if they would understand was still anyone’s guess.  Perhaps the older ponies would, since he had reminded them of the gravity of the war, but Apple Bloom?  The filly was emotional, demanding, and he hadn’t shown her much of his… dark side, so she didn’t understand quite as deeply how draining the war and everything around it really was.  
Today’s march had gone perfectly.  The clouds from four straight days of rain had remained, though the downpour had stopped the night before.  While there were giant flooded patches that the army would sometimes have to navigate around, by now much of the rainwater had in fact drained away.  There was also a pleasantness to the shaded warmth, making today’s march less of an effort and feel leisurely, even if it was for a dark purpose.  If the clouds remained even another day, there was no doubt they could make their goal of reaching the grasslands by the end of next week.  The mugginess that followed the rainfall was the only slight issue the army had with temperature, and even then, compared to the suppressive sun it was nothing.
Camp had been set up on a hill not any different from those around it, though because of detours around flooded valleys between hills, it was about a mile inland.  Ray could easily see the ocean from atop the Matriarch, though they were now moving much closer to the coastline.  It was strange to think that in a singular day they had marched past the entirety of the harbor area, demonstrating just how small it really was.  Twelve miles in one day was a new record, given they hadn’t had to stop frequently due to heat or exhaustion.  It also put them considerably ahead of their original timeline, but there was already an unconscious agreement among the generals to stick to the current timeline.  
They didn’t need to arrive early to the grasslands for any particular reason, and forcing the soldiers to keep a pace that was surprisingly swift wouldn’t pay off after even three or four days.  Instead, they would probably take the blistering days slower when they came, a fair tradeoff for how far they had come on day one.  Besides, even if they were early to the grasslands and found a battle sooner, what difference would it make?  They had given up their advantage of surprise and now the war was entering its ninth month, and it had been over two months since the last battle.  The minotaurs were already consolidating their forces against the Fallen or consolidated.  Now was the time to bide their time, map out their enemy, and find their vulnerabilities.  
Sitting up, Ray saw the harbor to their side, recognizing they were nearing the wayport rapidly.  Having felt the human stir, the Matriarch idly questioned, “Do you believe they will be forgiving this time, Ray?”
“This time,” he questioned, resting a hand against her head.  He felt more connected this way, able to read her better, and vice versa.  
“Well, certainly this won’t be the last time something like this will occur, I presume,” the Matriarch stated, slowing down as the shining silver of the wayport catching the last rays of sunlight came into sight.  “I’m just wondering if they will be permissive to reality this time, or if it will take this occasion to finally familiarize them with the inconsistent patterns of war.”
“Both, probably,” Ray sighed, holding on as the Matriarch came to a full stop, reaching up a feeler to the human.  When once he would have found it humiliating or frightening for the gigantic arachnid to pick him up and set him down, he now knew it was simply an affectionate way for her to help him down.  The appendage blindly wrapped around his waist so gently he barely noticed, though he wrapped an arm around it to keep his upper half balanced.  
“Then who are you worried about,” the Matriarch asked.
“Apple Bloom, Fluttershy, and Rarity,” he named rapidly, before taking another moment to think.  “Twilight, Sugar Belle, and maybe Big Mac, but only if it really tears up Apple Bloom, I think.” 
“Sugar Belle,” the Matriarch pressed curiously.
“Big Mac’s wife, so my sister-in-law, technically,” Ray explained.  “She makes some of the best food I’ve ever had in my entire life.”  Pausing momentarily, he looked up at the Matriarch as she set him down, inquiring, “Can you taste pastries?”
“Not in a way you can, I don’t think,” the World Weaver replied, though there was humor in her tone.  “I’ve never truly tasted food, and pies made by ponies may not ever register a response.  Even minotaurs are like singular tufts of grass, though I usually consume enough of them per battle to perpetuate homeostasis.  Although, that is a manner of illusionment.”
“Pardon,” Ray requested with the slightest smirk.  Sometimes the Matriarch forgot his lexicon was much less diverse than her own when it came to rapidfire conversation.  
“I don’t require constant nourishment, especially not since the earliest days of my creation, hence the two thousand years in which I resided in Tartarus,” the Matriarch stated.  “However, I can still consume, my body just has a more unique way of dealing with excess food.  It promotes reactions in my body that give me the urge to lay eggs, raise spiderlings, or build a hovel.  I’ve already turned the shabby mines of the minotaurs into a rather delightful residence for myself and my kin.  The next most convenient urge to fulfill would be having more children, though at this time I have no desire for that.  Instead, I think I would need to use my silks for something more draining and fantastical or resign myself to slowly gaining more weight.  I’m very conscious of it, however, and don’t wish to gain any more than what I have currently.”
“Wait, you’re worried about your weight,” Ray questioned, doing a mental doubletake.  “You're the most massive creature I’ve ever seen, and you’re worried about your calories?”
“Of course,” the Matriarch confirmed meekly.  “The ground already shakes with every step I take.  It’d be quite embarrassing if it shattered.”
Ray blinked at the spectacular spider before laughing at the statement, unable to help himself.  “You’re such a confusing creature.”
“Likewise,” she replied, lowering her head so that her mandibles were mere inches from the ground.  “Now, I recommend you make your way to Equestria before you get chewed off by Twilight for being late and the rest for next month.”  
“Yeah, I probably should,” Ray reluctantly agreed, looking at the western horizon.  The sun had definitively set, with the moonlight filtering through the lasting clouds.  It was still strange to see the puffy white bodies floating in the air, especially in such numbers after five days of rain.  Finally looking back into the face of the Matriarch, he told her, “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Good luck, lordling,” she endeared in return, watching as he stepped into the center of the wayport.  Without much gusto, he raised the pendant into the air and allowed the beams of silver moonlight to activate the portal.  In an instant, he was surrounded in warm, bright light.  
In the blink of an eye, he was in the Equestrian throne room, standing on top of the little wayport there.  Blinking into focus, he didn’t even have time to turn around as Twilight said from behind, “Y’know, I should have told you to just teleport to Skalos’ cabin instead.  It would’ve been much easier for the both of us.”
“Yeah, but I actually have something to talk about this time,” Ray told her, turning over his shoulder with a slight frown.  “And you definitely won’t be happy about it.”
“Oh, sweet Celestia, tell me it wasn’t a battle,” Twilight demanded, her eyes widening in fear.  
Raising his hands in an attempt to make an easing gesture, he told her, “No, we didn’t fight any battles.  We remained in place, mostly.”
“Mostly,” the Princess questioned with a quizzical look.
“We began marching today,” Ray told her, quickly continuing before she could interrupt him.  “The spiderlings we sent out last month finally made it back a few days ago, and we made plans to march to the new areas they discovered in hopes of finally finding the minotaurs.  There are grasslands and forests to the north that indicate a greater likelihood of minotaurs and maybe even permanent water sources.  However, they’re pretty far north, two weeks of marching by our estimate, and we wanted to set off as soon as possible.  That does mean that I won’t be able to make it back to the wayport by the next full moon, even if we encounter nothing on our way up there or once we arrive.”
“You’re not going to be here next month,” Twilight interrogated, her voice slightly angry.  “Why wouldn’t you warn me about this plan?”
“I fight this war how I see fit and I listen to the advice of my well-experienced generals, Twilight,” Ray rebuked firmly, holding his ground against her.  She was above guilt tripping him and he had to remind her that.  “What must be done in this war may go against your best wishes Twilight.  The element of surprise has been lost, so now we need to fight this war more conventionally.  We can’t afford to wait around another half a year before our next battle.  The pace needs to pick up and we need to learn more.  If we’re lucky, our incapability to face the enemy rapidly won’t cause us as many troubles as we fear, however, there is still a reason we feared dilly-dallying.”
“Fine, but what do you plan to tell everypony else,” Twilight questioned, still visibly upset.  “You’re kinda betraying expectations here, Ray.”
“I know, but it’s too important,” Ray replied, crossing his arms over his chest.  “If anything, I’m keeping my promise I first made to protect Equestria no matter what.  Their lives take precedent over their happiness when the war is concerned, not to mention the lives of my Fallen.  I won’t let the wayport and my connection to Equestria restrict us.”
Twilight spent a sullen moment staring at the human, trying to pick apart his argument in her head, but ultimately she seemed to give up.  “Very well, but don’t expect me to back you up in front of the others.  I really would have appreciated some warning.”
“If I could have given you more than this, I would,” he promised her, letting his arms drop to his side.  “Really, I do feel guilty about having to go back on my word, but the end of the war is somewhere out there, and it isn’t just coming to us like we hoped.  We have to take charge now and dive into the enemy’s land, as far as we can and as deep as we need in order to destroy them.  I just hope the others will understand, or at least forgive me.”
“I hope they will as well,” Twilight mumbled with the slightest tinge of empathy in her voice.  Without a word, she lit her horn, a silent question that Ray answered with a nod of his head.  As always, the flash of Twilight’s magic was slightly shocking and arriving so immediately in a new location left him slightly off-balance, but a moment was all he needed to steady himself.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he turned and walked towards the door of his house, barely registering his surroundings.  There was hardly any need too, given he could clearly see the ponies in his home through the open window.  He did note, with a little surprise, that the air was cold and dry, the ground stiff but not frigid.  There were small patches of snow here and there, but ultimately, winter seemed to be passing away.  What month was it in Equestria?  February?  March?  It was a little concerning that he couldn't remember.
The door burst open and three smaller forms rushed out in excitement to greet him, showing the slightest mercy as they only tightly wrapped themselves around his legs instead of completely tackling him.  Laughing, he bent to scoop them up, surprising all four of them with how easily he managed to pick them up.  For a brief, happy moment, he forgot the bad news he’d have to bear as he held the CMC, glad to feel their hooves wrap around his neck.  Once he had set him down, he took his time to embrace each of the others independently, before ending off with Discord, who had a strange glint in his eye.
Before he could question it, though, Applejack hurriedly stated, “It’s so good ta see ya, Ray.  We’ve got some very excitin’ news ta tell ya, if’n ya don’t have anythin’ ta tell us first.”
“Well, AJ, I do have some unfortunate news, but I’ll make it quick,” Ray told her with a sad smile.  Seeing the entire group tense up fearfully, he quickly abridged, “Nothing bad has happened, but we do have to march far from the wayport this month.  We’ve discovered lands that are promising, and we want to investigate them for minotaurs.  Unfortunately, because they’re so far away, I won’t be able to visit you all next month.  I promise, this wasn’t intentional, but luck turned in our favor and we’ve finally made a breakthrough on the Golden Plains.”
For a long, quiet moment, the ponies stood staring at the human, each waiting for the other to say something, until at last, Rainbow Dash simply shrugged, “Coulda been worse…”
“At least… you were here,” Scootaloo added, though her attempt at sounding optimistic was half-hearted at best.  
“I know I promised I would do what I could to visit you guys every full moon, but this is an important discovery that can’t go unexplored,” Ray endeared, crouching down.  Their eyes were on him, though he noticed the way they also briefly shot from one to another when they thought he wasn’t looking.  Sighing deeply, he forced a smile as he promised, “No matter what, I’ll be here in two months, and that’s gotta count for something, right?  No matter what, even if the entire minotaur army shows up, we’ll fight them off and keep Equestria safe, and I’ll be there for you all in two months.”
“And you’re here with us for tonight, and that’s all we can ask from Ray,” Fluttershy spoke up.  “He promised he would be here tonight, and he looks- and kind of smells- very tired, so let’s just give him a rest.  He’s doing what he promised.  Thank you, Ray.”
The human blinked at the kind pegasus, unable to read anything past her warm smile.  An indescribable wave of relief washed over him as, silently, the rest of the group came to the same consensus, nodding in agreement or moving to return to the house.  Trying his best to shake off the lingering air of hesitance, Ray asked Fluttershy indiscreetly, “What do you mean I kinda smell like I’m tired?”
“Humans seem to have a particularly detectable odor, dear,” Rarity explained for the pegasus with a smirk.  “Usually it’s been washed off whenever you visit us, but this time it’s quite fresh and clear that you’ve worked hard today.”
“Well, we set out on our march today,” Ray explained, uncomfortable about revisiting the topic of the Fallen.  “We marched twelve miles north, so it was a bit of an exhausting day.”
“And ya still made it back ta us,” Big Mac questioned incredulously, gesturing for the human to enter before him and his wife.  
Giving him a thankful smile, he explained as he entered, “Well, the Matriarch helped me get back to the wayport in time for sunset, but it was close.  I was technically a little late, but that’s also because night seems to be a bit later over there than here.  Can’t really confirm of course, but the moon seems to have raised a fair bit more here than there.”
“I’m sure Twilight has some fancy-pants theory about why or how or whatnot, but we’ve got some news to break,” Rainbow Dash excitedly informed the human, piquing his interest.
“Well, I’m all ears then,” Ray declared, seating himself in the rocking chair.  He couldn’t help but notice the way everyone wore the same sort of expression, excitement, apprehension, and the slightest hint of mischievousness at knowing something he did not.  
He barely caught the look AJ and Dash shared before the former proudly proclaimed, “Well, I proposed to Rainbow Dash the day after you left-”
“- and I said yes,” Dash interrupted with exhilaration.
“- so we’re gettin’ married this August, on th’ full moon so you can be there,” Applejack finished with the most joyous smile he had ever seen.  Rainbow pulled her fiance in for a quick kiss, leaving Ray more than speechless as he grinned ear-to-ear at the news.
“Wow, geez- I mean, congratulations you too, I’m so happy for you,” he said, leaning forward in his seat as he met the two mares’ proud gaze.  “Really, this is great news!  How did you do it?”
“Ah, well, shucks, it weren’t much,” Applejack began with a modest blush, before getting playfully shoved by Dash.
“Oh shut up, you, it was perfect,” the rainbow pegasus silenced playfully.  Her eyes grew dreamy as she told Ray, “The sneaky mare invited me on a little run, and of course I went along with it.  I didn’t expect anything to happen, but then- bam- we were on the same path as the Running of the Leaves.  We got to where the starting line always is, stopped, and pulled out a ring and asked me if I’d start another adventure with her here, where we had begun so many other ones.  And I mean, how could I ever say no?  It was just too perfect!”
“It was so sweet, man,” Scootaloo suddenly sighed.  “We were all watching from the bushes because the girls and I had spent the morning hyping up AJ to finally do it, and when Rainbow said ‘Yes’... well, she was blushing so hard she was only one color of the rainbow!”
“It was pretty romantic, coming from her,” Rainbow agreed, nuzzling against the earth pony mare.  She returned the gesture and Ray couldn’t help but beam at them.  He didn’t know exactly why he felt so radiant at the news, but he indulged in the rare, pure bliss.  His friends were getting married, a couple almost too perfect to have been made in anything but a dream.  
“Wedding’s gonna be here, at the farm,” Big Mac explained.  “Gotta gather th’ family for it, which is half th’ reason we’re waitin’ ‘till August.”
“That and it’s both a’ our’s favorite season,” Applejack added.  “A full moon wedding in th’ crisp autumn air is just perfect fer an Apple-Dash union.” 
“I couldn’t agree more,” Ray nodded with approval.  “No matter what, I’ll be there,” he promised them, slapping his hands against his knees energetically.  “I’ll see what I can wrangle as a wedding gift for you two, but no promises it’ll be the coolest thing in the world.” 
“Ray, your life is already a legend,” Rainbow teased.  “Just having you there will be enough.”  
Much of the rest of the night was spent talking about the wedding.  Not once did Ray’s smile waver or his emotions change.  He was stuck in his shocked state of joy and delight for the two mares.  Tales of the two from their youth to events he had missed while in the Tauran plains were shared, along with some of Sugar Belle’s finest catering.  It wasn’t until the waning hours of the morning that Ray had to take a break to use the restroom, and even then he did so in a hurry, not wanting to miss a moment with the happy couple.  However, when he emerged from the bathroom in his room, he found Fluttershy and Discord there, the mare flying in the air beside the draconequus, both waiting nervously for him.
His joy fleeing at the sight of them, he immediately paused, looking them up and down before asking, “Hey, what’s the matter?”
“Well, we didn’t want to say it in front of everypony else because they already know, and it is kinda personal, but… well, Ray…” Discord began, his confidence fading as his words became indistinct mumbles.
“We’ve decided to make ourselves an official couple now, Ray,” Fluttershy finished, staring intently at the human.  For a moment, he stood there, slightly perplexed.  They had been a couple in everything but word before, so what did them making it official have to do with…
“Oh, I get it… do you want me to approved,” he realized, giving them a questioning quirk of his eyebrows.  “Why?”
“Well, I know we clarified that we weren’t ever going to be anything romantic, but I still highly value what you think… and thought it’d be best to tell you about Discord and I, since you’re the only other creature I’ve had feelings for like this,” Fluttershy revealed with a tinge of worry.  
“Of course I approve, but you didn’t need my approval,” Ray told the pair, still giving them a quizzical stare.  “You’re both your own people.  Do what you want.  I’m happy for you, actually.  You two definitely do good for each other.  Enjoy this, if anything, and don’t worry about me.  This is what I want, for all three of us.”
“Honestly, I thought you’d be more offended,” Discord said before snapping his mouth close with a claw.  Fluttershy gave the draconequus a befuddled stare as if to ask why he would say such a thing while Ray simply rolled his eyes.  Prying the claw from his face, Discord defensively stated, “Well, to be fair, it kinda looks like he goes off to war and I just swoop in and steal the mare.”
“She was never anyone’s to be stolen, and both of us already identified that our feelings for each other were misguided,” Ray patiently explained, eliciting a relieved sigh from Fluttershy.  “I mistook my need for friendship and closeness for romance.  I can’t speak for Fluttershy, but I’m guessing it was similar for her.”
“Exactly,” the mare agreed with a mature smile.  They had a perfect understanding, and now Discord’s eyes seemed to light up as he realized he had both been wrong about Ray and that he wasn’t competing with the human.
“Well, in that case, I’m very happy we had this talk,” the draconequus said with a confident grin.  After a second of thought, he hesitated and asked, “You do approve, though, right?”
“Of course I do,” Ray assured him, looking back and forth between two of his closest friends.  “I’m looking forward to the future you’ll have together.”
> Greenery
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shockingly, the grasslands were far more beautiful than Ray had imagined them.  Maybe it was just how bland the scenery of the Golden Plains had become, but he had only expected the same rolling hills covered in grass instead of what they had found out here.  The grass was a much darker green than in Equestria, a deep emerald color that glistened in the sun.  It was wild and tall, in some areas almost up to his stomach and twice the height of the Fallen, yet it was as soft as silk.  There were a number of flowers that grew among the blades of grass, blues, whites, and purples sticking out among the greenery.  The hills were a bit more sparsely placed, and instead of hard dirt that would scrape his skin, the soil here was soft and somewhat dense.  Rain had recently visited as well, and there was a morning dew that made the whole horizon glimmer like diamonds in the rising sunlight.
The hill they currently were encamped on was a bit taller than the nearest neighbors, though not by much.  However, there was a distinctive ring of grayish rocks that created a ridge about ten feet high, allowing access onto it only from the east side.  It also wasn’t that large, meaning the camp spilled slightly down its slope. Otherwise, though, it had a perfectly spherical top that gave it a fantastical look to it.  With the commander's tent at the very top of the hill, he could see the horizon from within the camp between the other tents.  
It had taken them longer than they had anticipated to get here, however.  The spiderlings had been off by twenty-two miles, meaning another two days of travel were required to actually reach the grasslands.  Then, a third day was spent trying to find a strategic location to pitch their tents while they rested and surveyed the area.  While the grasslands were beautiful, it deprived them the advantages of the Golden Plains.  The hills and valleys kept the army hidden while immobile and gave them ample vantage points.  The ground also didn’t kick up dust, even with almost seventeen thousand Fallen stomping on it, meaning they wouldn’t be able to track the movements of minotaurs or get a warning unless it was from the scouts themselves.
In the north, easily visible from the top of the hill, was a forest that looked nothing like Ray had seen, even from the Everfree.  It was hard to distinguish from this distance, being about three miles from its edge, but the trees had a wild symmetry.  The forest didn’t just start like the Everfree did but had a small distance of trees that gradually became thicker and larger before reaching the definitive treeline.  Many of the trees were at least three times taller than Ray, and incredibly thick, allowing him to distinguish individual trees from one another.  He was tempted to take a party and go explore the interior of the forest for any signs of life beyond the rich vegetation, but he knew he’d have to leave that task to the spiderlings.
Hdakdeala had apologized profusely for the inaccuracy of the spiderlings in estimating the distance, and while it was a nuisance to have to extend their plans, it didn’t have any consequences.  Ray had ensured the broodmother that she was perfectly alright and that the spiderlings were forgiven since they had given them accurate accounts otherwise.  Still, she had a strange anxiety about any mistakes and promised him to immediately investigate the forest herself to ensure no misinformation was shared.  In a humorous way, she seemed to be very nervous about being a general with the rest of them.  Ray would allow that anxiety to ease naturally.
Today was the first day of being firmly camped, the entire army entrenching themselves and unpacking.  The occasional rain had kept the entire march bearable, especially as they neared the grasslands.  The soil was able to accept more of the water, and while it became muddy, there were no large puddles they had to navigate around.  The rain was also less intense, with only an hour or two of light sprinkling at a time, and never any lightning.  The rainwater they managed to collect on the march was about equal to what they had while back at the harbor, if not greater.
It struck him then, as he stared at the remarkably beautiful surroundings, that they had traveled so far.  It hadn’t felt like it while on the march, moving in chunks every day towards a distant goal, but now they had reached it.  This hill they were camped on was over a hundred miles away from the hill outside the harbor.  It sounded like an incredible distance on paper, and truthfully it felt like a long way from where they had been, but he also knew that, comparatively, it wasn’t even a trip from Pittsburgh to Cleveland back on Earth.  There was, however, a satisfaction in knowing that he and the Fallen had done it all themselves, walking such a large distance and making it with ease.
“Morning, lordling,” Linium greeted as he turned a corner and came upon the human.  The stallion was becoming a familiar face around the commander’s tent.  Yarem had taken him in as his only assistant, given the general was only involved in a small number of tasks that would require his assistance.  Compared to Kraven’s staff of nearly two dozen, though, it did seem rather sparse.  Harbor and Skalos had also employed a couple of Fallen, mostly as messengers for communicating whenever needed within the camp.  Even Pelios had three stallions he entrusted with managing communication and giving out orders on his behalf whenever the need arose.  
“Good morning, Linium,” Ray replied with a small smile, opening the tent flap for him.  The stallion entered without another word, and Ray let the flap fall back in place as he continued to survey the surrounding area.
The grasslands were rather small, as from here he could see the scrubby, half-baked mix of grasses to their south where the Golden Plains and grasslands met, while further to the north he could see the forests.  The sparsity of hills in the grassland allowed for him to see far to the west, while in the east he was able to tell where the landscape dropped away to the cliffs around the ocean.  There were only a few clouds in the sky, allowing him to see the brilliant blue sky above the grasslands.  With the lack of dust hanging in the air, he could see better, the sunlight no longer reflecting off the little particles and making the entire world glow harshly.  
Skalos was the next to turn the corner, though his eyes also seemed locked on the horizon.  Smiling at his friend and opening the tent flap, Ray asked, “What’s caught your eye, Skalos?”
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen trees, Ray,” the general answered, finally tearing eyes away with a small, wry smile.  “I didn’t even know I missed how they looked.  Now I can’t seem to stop looking at them.”
“Well, hopefully we’ll have some time to take a closer look at them later,” the human told him, following him into the tent.  Everyone else was already present save for Harbor, though considering he slept in the same area as his army, it made sense for him to be slightly tardy.  Knowing the other generals had been listening in, Ray gave Kraven a look and said, “I know Kraven wouldn’t mind a proper investigation into those strange trees.”  
“Indeed, they seem like a strange genus, perhaps an odd branch of Equestrian oak,” Kraven mused.  Accepting a paper from one of his staff, he glanced at it briefly before telling the group, “All Fallen and equipment have made it to their proper place in camp.  No major injuries or missing soldiers to report from the march.  The status of the army is tired, but operational.  Should the need arise, it can be called upon for battle today, though it’s recommended two or three days of rest before any action is taken again.  Scouts have already been sent out, and the spiderlings have set up a den for themselves in the hill three-fourths of a mile northeast of our own.”
“Perfect,” Ray surmised contently.  “If that’s the case, then I believe we only have the future to discuss right now before I release you for the day.  I want to hear plans, ideas, and predictions.”
“I’ve compiled some information that may be of some use,” Yarem stated, gesturing for Linium to present a piece of parchment.  On it, a rough map of everything they had explored thus far was drawn on it, with locations of battles, major structures, and routes articulated.  Much of it remained blank, a blatant example of exactly how little they knew of the land they had set about conquering.  “This map shows us a rough estimation of how large we believe the continent to be.  From everything we know, we have discovered perhaps five percent of the continent, none of which has been habited.  From our best understanding, we can guess from the population of the number of minotaurs we’ve encountered thus far that only another five to ten percent of land would be inhabited.”
“So, we need to narrow down our efforts, eliminate wherever we think they won’t be and search where we assume they will be,” Pelios concluded.  
“Well, that much is obvious,” Yarem shrugged, still staring at the map.  Placing a hoof on the map where they currently set up camp, he began tracing a path.  “What I mean to suggest is that we use what we already know to eliminate as much territory in as short a time as possible.  We’ve moved a decent way up along the coast, and while we could certainly just continue that way, I don’t think it would be the most efficient path.  Firstly, our soldiers haven’t had to march through the forest yet, and I highly doubt there’s any clear paths or roads to take.  Therefore, I propose that we head due west for about fifty miles before beginning a wide arch down southwest until we begin heading east, toward the coast again.  Optimally, we’d reach the eastern coast about some distance south of the harbor to work our way up from there if we haven’t somehow discovered the minotaurs on our way.
“Though we wouldn’t be outright exploring the interior of the continent, by taking this big outward arch, perhaps we could discover the minotaurs or come across anything that could hint to their whereabouts.  We may also be able to find the western coast and properly estimate the size of the continent.  Either way, we’d be getting the most out of our venture for as little movement as possible.  Preferably, we’d not have to take such a long, meandering journey, but there is no time to waste.  Or, perhaps we’ll find and destroy whatever minotaur presence there is and be done with it all.  It’s something we need to do, and anything could happen.”
“I would have to object,” Harbor suddenly declared, everyone turning to give the general a look as they realized he had picked up most of the conversation without being noticed.  “In my opinion, we should remain in place here for the next two months.  We’re in a strange area of the land that’s new and abounding with life.  Undoubtedly, this is more likely to host minotaurs and our position is much less hidden.  We’ll be able to scout out the approach of any enemy army and prepare a proper defense.  We want to remain fighting defensive battles instead of forcing potentially dangerous or hasty confrontations.
“If we remained here, we would have yet another well scoped-out area of the continent to use to our advantage instead of pressing on.  Attracting attention to ourselves, forcing the minotaurs to come after us, and beating them will give us an opportunity to follow their shattered army back to wherever they come from, as we have failed to do so yet.  In the Golden Plains, it was nearly impossible thanks to the conditions, but here, surely we'll be capable of pursuing them until they reveal what we’ve failed to find for nine months now.”
“But what if the minotaurs don’t come to us and we waste yet another couple months waiting for a battle that isn’t coming,” Skalos challenged, looking concerned.  “There isn’t a guarantee that the minotaurs are out here, as lucky and logical as it would be.  The minotaurs have yet to present themselves our entire march here, so perhaps they don’t even reside on this part of the continent.  What if the base of their society is on the western shores, wherever those are?  Then sitting and waiting for them would just further cause issues of allowing the minotaurs to react however they please.  Their army could take one look at us and just decide to begin building their strength even further until they overwhelm us.”
“Or we could march out to fight them and get ourselves stuck in some fight we aren’t able to take,” Pelios jumped in.  “What if we do find them and begin conquering whatever nation they have only to find it too large or their cities too strong?  They could be too large to take by force and then we’ll have plunged ourselves into the heart of the enemy only to be stuck there.  The advantage of staying in a cautionary, defensive campaign is our ability to prevent ourselves from getting surrounded.  With the sea behind us, they could never strike from behind or surprise us at all.  We had dust trails to follow, but now we neither have the sea nor the dust.  We can’t make a mistake or rely on environmental handicaps on our enemy.”
 “Diving right into their nation would indeed set us up to be encircled and overwhelmed,” Kraven agreed, looking back and forth between Yarem and Skalos.  “Such an aggressive maneuver could condemn us to being overrun and destroyed.  The minotaurs’ true numbers are still not known, and considering they have lost so many already in what my eyes appears to be a disposable manner, I think we still remain well outnumbered.  Caution must be taken in marching out to meet the enemy.  I agree; we can no longer sit around and play the stone that breaks the waves.  We have to move, we have to find the minotaurs, and we have to end this war.  But charging out to meet them is a fool’s errand.”
“Then how do you propose we compromise,” Yarem questioned intensely.  Kraven’s stance dead in the middle of the other generals’ extreme views was a precarious one, but Ray agreed with him.  They couldn’t afford to sit around and wait for the war to end.  At the same time, without any knowledge about the continent and scale of the minotaurs, it was foolish to just go blindly into the heart of the continent.  The ocean had been a wonderful deterrent from being surrounded and served as a barrier they didn’t have to concern themselves with, the half of the world that was safe.  Leaving the coastal cliffs and delving into the continent’s interior was a frightening prospect, but a necessary step they had to take to finish the war.  Still, they needed to take acute caution in their plan to take on the world.
“We could use the outline of Yarem’s plan still,” Kraven proposed thoughtfully, sitting back on his haunches.  “If we began to march straight west along the grasslands, our tracks would be hidden, but we could monitor both the forests and the Golden Plains for signs of minotaurs.  By marching through the grasslands, we could keep an eye on all three environments we’ve discovered and carefully protect ourselves from sight.  We wouldn’t curve back around and take a wide berth back to the coast, rather we’d retrace our steps and decide what to do next if we failed to come across any minotaurs.  That way, we have secure knowledge of our path and can maintain a catalogue on what’s where and why.”
“That… could still be a waste of time and energy,” Pelios pointed out, still trying to digest the plan.
“Yes, but so could everything we’ve proposed this morning,” Kraven replied.  “We have no knowledge to confirm whatever plan we choose is the best one.  The only thing that will ever confirm our fears or show them false is whatever information we’ll be able to gather from the minotaurs, whenever we finally gather it.  The ‘ifs’ and ‘coulds’ are all concerns each of our plans has.  The ‘ifs’ and ‘coulds’ of this plan, however, are the most harmless, at least in my mind.”
“Kraven has a strong point,” Ray pitched in.  “The minotaurs, intentionally or not, have remained discreet and kept wherever they are hidden from us.  They take their time to confront us and have shown they’re capable of doing damage.  Those are details that should concern us; however, we also have a mission to carry out here. Waiting for the minotaurs to strike could just be giving them time to rearm and revamp their efforts, slowly grating away at our numbers until we can no longer hold.  Now we have to begin considering the ‘ifs’ and ‘coulds’ of this war lasting another year, and whatever plans we may need to stop that from becoming a reality.  I hate saying it like this, but right here and now we have more soldiers at our disposal than we thought we would.  We have the ability to fight a huge battle and press on, or fail at finding that battle and retreating back to the harbor to hold out once again.  Kraven’s plan allows for either to happen without major consequences.”
“It does reflect our ability to juggle tactics,” Pelios agreed after a moment of thought.  “It has my vote.”
“You have mine as well, Kraven,” Skalos nodded, his face almost unreadable.  There was just the slightest hint of concern.  
“If this has the majority anyways, I guess it doesn’t matter that I approve as well,” Yarem added in, looking around at the other generals.  Only Harbor remained silent, though knowing the others were expecting him to say at least something of his thoughts, the stallion sighed.
“It’s a good plan, I supposed,” the general hesitantly stated.  “I don’t agree with charging into battle, but there is a point to be made about the lack of time we do have.  I won’t have any dissenting opinions other than what I’ve already said.”
“Then we’re in agreement,” Ray confirmed.  “We’ll take three days to rest and see what news the scouts bring back, then we’ll march out due west.  How far do we travel until we turn back?”
“Well, in distance, I would say fifty miles at least,” Yarem proposed.  “It’s a good chunk into the interior, further than we’ve ever been before, and it’ll take at least four days to make that distance.  If we’re concerned about the minotaurs moving up and striking us from behind, it does give them ample opportunities, but it also isn’t that much space they can move through without our noticing.”
“That’s conservative enough of a distance for me,” Pelios agreed, smiling slightly.
“Then that’ll be our plan, then,” Ray declared decisively.  “If we spot the minotaurs, then we take a day to strategize before striking, if they don’t rush into battle first.”
“Sounds like a deal,” Harbor nodded, patiently awaiting dismissal.  
“In that case, I’ll go tell the Matriarch and Hdakdeala our plan,” Ray informed them, before giving a light salute.  “You’re dismissed for the day.  Inform your soldiers at dinner.”
With the end of discussion, the generals broke off, but Ray didn’t make it far out of the tent before he stopped in his tracks.  Hdakedeala stood in the middle of the path, halfway on top of the commander’s tent to allow Fallen to squeeze past her.  For an awkward moment, the broodmother stared at the human and he simply blinked back, bewildered.  Shaking it off, he told her, “You could’ve come inside.  You’re supposed to be part of those types of conversations.”
“Nothing to add,” she said simply, her eyes wide in what he could only guess was embarrassment.  “No space too.  The plan is smart.  Good balance.  Safe.”
“Okay, glad to hear you agree,” Ray assured her, before falling into silence.  He really didn’t know how to talk to the curious arachnid, and he couldn’t blame her for not knowing how to respond.  While she was certainly exponentially older than the human, her communication capabilities were fundamental at best.  He had enough trouble trying to talk to and get along with the dozens of different Fallen, and now he was trying his best to understand how a thousands of years old spider thought.
Without warning, the broodmother turned and began making her way out of the camp, calling behind her, “Going to tell Mother.  Rest and think.  Much to do.”
It was only after Hdakdeala had disappeared from sight that Ray realized none of the Fallen around him, going about their morning business, had even understood their conversation.  With the smallest chuckle, he put two and two together.  The broodmother had scrambled his language to be like hers, much like the Matriarch always did.  The smaller spider really was learning to be like her mother.  
> Brutality
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“The ground is trembling, lording.  Tens of thousands, maybe even a hundred thousand, steps are taken every second.  They are not far from us, but their movement is hidden.”
The Matriarch’s dire warning, only an hour old, echoed for the thousandth time in Ray’s mind as he crouched at the top of the grassy knoll.  It had come unexpectedly, almost like the news was simply blown in on the wind, but Ray had known it was true from the grim solemnity of her voice.  Now, as the sun slowly began to set, there was a growing tension as he stared at the space where the grasslands became the Golden Plains.  Distantly, he could see the army he had been forewarned about.  The Matriarch’s senses must have diminished greatly in the few months since their last battle or the minotaurs had simply made ground quickly.  Either way, they were practically at his feet.
His scouts had yet to return from that direction, making him fear the worst.  If they had been caught and killed, the minotaurs undoubtedly knew the Fallen were close, hopefully without any sense of direction where.  Currently, it was hard to tell if they were oblivious to the Fallen army sheltered on the north side of the hill, spears equipped and ready to charge.  There wasn’t a real plan, not yet.  The minotaurs were just outside of range for a surprise attack- if it was a surprise- and they were visibly slowing down.  Thanks to the long grass and distance, Ray wouldn’t be easily spotted by any looking minotaurs, let alone set apart from any of the stones that frequently sprouted from the ground on these softer, rockier hills.  
The Matriarch and her spiderlings had moved further back to the east in an attempt to hide their mass, which seemed to have worked.  It was humbling to realize that the army of the Fallen could be hidden by the shadow of one hill while the spiderlings needed an entire valley.  However, the force they faced may be the first that was truly overwhelming in number even if outskilled and outmaneuvered.  The Fallen did excellently in battle if each wave only had to charge once and could shatter several layers of the minotaurs’ defense.  With the immense horde they would be facing, even a perfect attack may not be enough to stagger the enemy.  As soon as their advantages were taken from them or nullified, the Fallen were susceptible to being slaughtered.  
Defense was also not an option.  The Fallen’s small pony bodies could hardly hold their own against the strength of minotaurs, especially not when they had to remain stationary in the face of the enemy.  This left attack as their only true option against an opponent like the minotaurs.  It was an emerging problem with pony warfare, but one that, if they remained conscientious of, would be a hindrance rather than a detriment.  Even if the minotaurs charged, they had shown to be disorganized and nigh-on feral fighters, which could easily be swept aside by an organized charge like the Fallen were specialized in.
In the distance, the minotaurs seemed to pick up their pace, continuing to march towards the Fallen’s hidden position.  Cursing under his breath, Ray quickly scurried back to the other side of the hill, the sight of his own army crowded around the shadow of the hill giving him some relief.  It was an impressive army, even if outnumbered, and he knew that if any army would overcome the odds, it would be his Fallen.  He remained crouched until he was completely sure he wouldn’t be spotted before racing down to where the other generals were gathered, all apprehensive.  
“Minotaurs haven’t stopped moving,” he told them grimly.  “They’re marching right towards us still.”
The generals shared a look, each understanding the dire situation as they processed the dark news.  Taking a breath, Ray explained, “There’s at least thirty thousand by what I’m able to see, but most definitely more than we’ve ever faced before.  They’re maintaining a huge block formation, wider and thicker than our own waves could handle.”
“So don’t use waves,” Skalos replied, thinking on his feet.  Using a hoof, he outlined a quick map on the ground, depicting the minotaur’s block and the Fallen’s own position.  Speaking as he depicted, he said, “Don’t use the wave formations since they’ll be too small to survive a head-on engagement.  Instead, take each infantry army as our formations.  Use mine to wrap around the east of the hill first, charging the minotaurs.  Then, before engagement, we’ll turn due southeast and slice off that wing of the minotaur formation.  Follow it up with Yarem’s infantry, wrapping from the west immediately after us and slicing off due southwest.  This leave’s Pelios’ army, which would have grouped into a formation in front of the hill.  The archers would release a volley once Yarem’s infantry are out of the way, followed by Pelios’ infantry charging the shattered frontline.  By what I can guess, at least half of their army would be dealt with by that point.
“From there, I and Yarem’s infantry will have formed rank to either side of the enemy army.  Once again, as Pelios’ army falls back, they are covered by another volley.  Both infantry columns would then promptly collapse onto the sides of the minotaurs, before sweeping up north to regroup back at the hill formation.  If the minotaurs are still in fighting shape by that point, we should consider retreating having done all the damage we can without overextending ourselves.  In the meantime, Hdekdeala and the spiderlings will be focused on wrapping all the way around from behind to catch any retreating minotaurs.  We want to go for a full wipe, of course, but with how many there seem to be, it’s entirely possible they could decide to send an entire battalion back as messengers.  The battlefield itself requires too much organization and swift, decisive movement for many of the younger spiderlings.  This way, we utilize them without setting them up for failure.”
“Approved,” came the immediate response of the sole broodmother, her unblinking eyes focused on the drawn map.  
It had quickly become somewhat confusing without the knowledge of Skalos’ timeline, prompting Ray to ask, “When did you come up with this plan?”
“It isn’t mine,” Skalos admitted freely.  “Old war tactic for being outnumbered.  There was a counter to it, but it required pegasi and unicorns, and even then it would almost certainly cost the enemy their earth pony forces.  I don’t think it’s ever been used on such a large scale though, even for how massive wars used to be.”
“We don’t have time to form another strategy anyways,” Pelios pointed out.  “We need to move now to get set up properly.”
Nodding in agreement, Ray turned to Harbor and Kraven and instructed, “Bring your archers up right away.  If the minotaurs begin closing in before we’ve set up, fire as many volleys as you need to stagger them.  We’ll wait for the arrows to stop falling before charging.”
The two generals scattered to give the orders to their soldiers as Ray turned to Hdekdeala and the remaining Fallen.  “Hdekdeala, get back to the spiderlings as discreetly as possible.  The minotaurs emerged from a valley with a hill behind it.  Find a way into it and be ready to face at least a few thousand minotaurs.  The rest of you, get to your armies and tell them what’s going on.  Emphasize to stay as an army instead of taking wave formation.  We need to be charging those minotaurs as soon as possible.”
“Ray, stick with Pelios’ army,” Skalos quickly told the human, earning a confused look.  
“Why the hell would I do that,” he questioned, slightly insulted.  “I lead my Fallen into battle, every battle.”
“Not this one, lordling,” Yarem agreed in sudden realization.  “You’ll be left behind and easily dispatched, or accidentally swept away by our hasty movements.  If you join Pelios’ army, though, you’ll be head-on and far less likely to fall behind on the attack or retreat.  You’ll also have the benefit of volleys to cover you before and after the attack, in case you are slow.”
Ray wished to protest, frustrated at his own incapabilities and the situation, wanting to point out every time he hasn’t succumbed to such hindrances, he also felt the mounting pressure of time they were wasting.  After a short, difficult moment of thought, he bitterly spat, “Fine, I’m sticking back with Pelios’ infantry.  Skalos, the battle starts on your lead.”
“Yes, lordling,” Skalos acknowledged reverently, before breaking off from the group to sprint to his army.  Taking a breath, lagging just barely behind the other two Fallen, Ray took off after Pelios as he made a beeline for his infantry.  
Already, he could see the archers swiftly moving to drag the ballistas to the top of the hill as neat rows and blocks of archers were formed, four thousand archers quickly mobilizing into their position for the coming battle.  Undoubtedly, the army’s movements had been noticed by the minotaurs, but Ray couldn’t see the reaction of the enemy yet.  He followed closely behind Pelios as he began giving orders, shuffling waves to mesh together and organize his four thousand infantry into a cohesive formation that could take their position.  The mere presence of Ray in their army, though strange, seemed to galvanize the Fallen to move swiftly, and within only a couple minutes, they began moving out from behind the hill.
Simultaneously, Skalos’ army suddenly began rapidly marching out into their position, not quite running, but moving quicker than normal.  It was only then that Ray had the realization that he had just given his best friend the responsibility to lead the Fallen into battle.  His heart froze as he thought of several terrible outcomes from that decision.  Skalos had fought in every engagement Ray had and survived just as unscathed as him, the logical part of Ray’s brain argued, but at the same time he also knew he had no power if he lived or died now, not close enough to defend his friend if trouble caught up with him.  
Physically swallowing his worries down, he watched closely as the Fallen suddenly picked up their pace even more as a war cry sounded from the amassed infantry, kicking up the slightest dust cloud as they took off.  The minotaurs, just now coming into view, were shockingly close, less than half a mile from the base of the hill Ray and Pelios were leading his army around.  They were still marching, seemingly not anticipating such a rapid attack.  Right before his eyes, he saw their panic.  They were a massive block already, at least a third Skalos’ block’s width larger, but the scattering of the minotaurs into unprepared defensive positions spread them out even more.  The entire face of the minotaur army seemed to be a mile wide, but then just seconds before contact, it happened.
Skalos’ entire army suddenly turned due southeast and sliced through the right wing of the minotaurs with almost no resistance.  The move caught the minotaurs completely off-guard.  He watched with relieved satisfaction as the mass of glowing infantry trampled through a large number of the minotaurs, leaving hundreds, then thousands, of corpses in their wake.  The sound of crunching metal, screaming, and bleating echoed back to Pelios’ infantry, but having moved as swiftly as possible, they were now in position.  
Even before Skalos’ army had begun peeling away from their attack completely, Yarem was directing his army in their charge, a second, possibly louder roar of Fallen heralding their attack.  The minotaurs, now in a misshapen formation missing what looked like an entire half of their frontline, tried to adjust for a similar attack, however, they didn’t anticipate Yarem turning his army southwest.  Once again, mere feet before the two forces clashed, the infantry turned sharply to the southeast and sliced through the already bewildered minotaurs.  The effect was almost identical to Skalos’ army, who finally pulled away and ran to regroup parallel to the minotaurs.  
As Yarem’s infantry finished their work with the minotaurs, having shaved away the other half of the minotaur’s frontline and a great deal more to their left wing, the minotaur army resembled an upside-down house, like a pentagon pointing right at Pelios’ army.  Even though thousands of minotaurs now lay dead, dying, or wounded, a small majority remained, a little over a third of the army now destroyed by the looks of it.  However, the minotaurs had no time to think as suddenly the air over Ray’s head screamed, four thousand arrows and several hundred ballista bolts rocketing towards the paralyzed minotaurs.  The volley slammed indiscriminately into the formation, and thanks to the short distance, Ray and the rest of Pelios’ infantry were able to see firsthand the devastation it wrought.  The minotaurs were felled like blades of grass, their positions shattering further as holes formed in their decimated formations.
Looking down at Pelios, who stood beside him, spear at the ready, Ray asked, “Would you do the honors?”
“Of course, lordling,” Pelios agreed with a small, thankful nod.  Turning to his soldiers, the stallion shouted at the top of his lungs, “To their deaths!  Charge!”
Without further thought or consideration, Ray let his feet fly, thundering down towards the minotaurs.  The short distance between the two forces shrank so rapidly that it felt like hardly a moment before the human could read the terrified, panicked looks in the minotaurs’ eyes as they desperately attempted to address the ruthless Fallen.  Ray was only overtaken by three lines of Fallen before they slammed into the minotaurs, the force of the head-on collision sending both minotaurs and Fallen in the air.  After having been hoodwinked twice, the minotaurs had been utterly unprepared for any attack, demonstrated by how swiftly they fell before the face of Pelios’ charging infantry.  Five, six, then seven entire lines of minotaurs were slashed through before Ray finally made it to the front of the line again, watching as over and over, minotaurs would be impaled by a Fallen only for them to keep charging, ripping the spear from them with the ferocity of the charge.
Ray slammed the spearhead of his kharamh through the chest of a minotaur attempting to defend itself from an entirely different spear, killing it instantly.  Tearing the weapon from the minotaur’s bleeding chest, he picked up his feet again, already behind the continued charge of Pelios’ infantry as it dug deeper into the minotaurs.  Leaping over corpses, he reached the frontline once again and took the position of a Fallen who was suddenly caught out by the upward swing of a minotaur’s axe, sending his head flying.  The minotaur paid the kill with its life as Ray placed his kharamh right through its face, shattering its skull completely.  Yanking his weapon free, he slashed it at another nearby minotaur, the hook tearing out its stomach and leaving it to fall dying, disemboweled.  
Finally, having driven its way deeper into the minotaur’s army than any of the previous attacks had, the infantry began to turn and fall back to their starting position.  The human moved to cover their retreat as best he could, though two Fallen were already turned upon by minotaurs and sliced to pieces.  In a flurry of movement, he managed to behead one of the offending minotaurs with his hook before planting the butt of the kharamh through the upper abdomen of another one.  Ducking underneath a third’s hastily swung axe, he used the momentum of standing up to wrench the kharamh from his victim’s dying body and plant the spearhead in the heart of the brazen minotaur who attacked him.  
Satisfied and already falling behind the retreat, he swung at another minotaur, catching it in the head with his hook and killing instantly, before breaking into a sprint, praying there were no crossbows that could be trained on him.  He struggled not to trip over the dozens of minotaur corpses on his path out of the carnage or slip on the gallons of spilled blood that flooded the battlefield.  The Fallen in front of him looked almost horrific, their shining colors clashing violently with the red spilled over them.  The moonlight served as the only censor to the carnage all around him, and even though the corpses almost entirely consisted of minotaur bodies, he almost felt sick at how much there was.
Glancing over his shoulder, he found that the minotaurs weren’t attempting to pursue the retreating Fallen forces, instead regrouping into something of a recognizable formation.  However, almost cruelly, just as they seemed to get a footing, the air once again filled with the screams of arrows and bolts.  Finally making it back to roughly where Pelios’ army had been originally positioned, he got a good look at the carnage of the archers’ second volley.  Once again, the minotaurs were left in shambles, though a primal fear left them less a formation of soldiers and more a group of cowering creatures desperate for survival.  However, they still wielded their weapons, and the occasional splash of Fallen blood glowing in the fresh night betrayed their frightening nature.  Without warning a second volley slammed into the crippled minotaurs, and though once again it killed large numbers of them, there was little it could do to worsen the minotaur’s current position.
Looking to either side of the army, he saw both Yarem’s and Skalos’ infantry at the ready.  Taking the second volley as their cue, the two armies charged almost simultaneously, moving in to sandwich the minotaurs with deadly intent.  Ray stood watching in awe as both Fallen armies slammed into the sides of the minotaur forces, slicing through them with such ease and lethality it almost didn’t look like a battle at all.  The Fallen simply seemed to be running past the minotaurs as they made their way cutting through the army.  However, even with all of the losses inflicted thus far, by the time they each turned and made their way out, the minotaurs were still at least ten thousand strong, held together by small contingents of untouched minotaurs still capable of putting up a resistance or attacking.  Even surrounded by tens of thousands of corpses, the minotaurs somehow seemed ready to charge.  
Horrifyingly, Ray realized in a flash that’s what they intended to do.  Now knowing that the Fallen needed to retreat and reset before being able to fight, they were weathering the devastating charge and planning to take advantage of the Fallen’s vulnerability.  Without the time to explain, Ray turned to the Fallen and raised his kharamh into the air, the butt pointing towards his heart and the head threatening the moon in a bloody salute.  With a roar, he commanded, “Charge, Fallen!  Charge!”
Turning, he took off as fast as he could, and even with short notice and incapable of properly understanding why, he heard Pelios’ infantry following closely behind him.  As he had predicted, the minotaurs had begun to move from their faulty positions to try and chase down the retreating Fallen.  However, at the sight of the charging Fallen, the minotaur’s realized their folly, but far too late.  There was no time to try and reconsolidate, as within only a matter of seconds, the once attacking minotaurs were being shredded by the merciless charge.  
Ray didn’t even slow down as his kharamh pierced through, then ripped out, the gut of a minotaur.  Continuing his charge, he slammed the body of his kharamh into the swing of a minotaur’s sword.  Blocking the hit, he swiftly slid the hook of his weapon down the blade, where it severed the hand of the minotaur holding it.  It let out a bleat of pain and attempted to stumble away, but a swift, precisive jab from Ray pierced its throat and sent it to the ground with a tortured gurgle.  Coming to a full stop, he parried the strike of another sword-wielding minotaur, though this one was suddenly swept away by a passing Fallen, dragged several feet before the spear finally tore free of the minotaur.  
Moving to the next minotaur in sight, he stabbed it through the back as it tried to attack a passing Fallen.  Letting it drop to the ground, he barely had to move at all as another minotaur ran at him, its massive axe sweeping low.  Ray leapt over the wild strike, but landed awkwardly, slipping on a pool of blood and almost falling down right on top of the minotaur.  Instead, he jabbed the minotaur through the chest, using it to stabilize before kicking the dying creature off his spearhead.  
All around him, the charge had broken down into hundreds of Fallen chasing and destroying whatever remnants of the minotaur army wasn’t running for the valley.  This final charge was the straw that broke the camel’s back, the remaining minotaurs leaving whatever formations they had attempted to make in lew of the brutal, relentless assault.  Having taken sufficient stock of the situation, Ray set himself on a trio of minotaurs that had somehow gone unaddressed by the passing Fallen.  They remained huddled near several ballista bolts planted in the ground, the large bolts and bodies propped up by them almost allowing the three to go unseen.  
They noticed his approach with terror but moved to fight him regardless.  The nearest minotaur brandished its sword threateningly, but a simple jab bypassed its poor defense and practically took off its shoulder.  One of its comrades stepped in to draw Ray’s attention away, attacking from his right.  Ducking beneath the high swing of its axe, he whirled his kharamh expertly, cutting through its stomach before standing up and planting the hook in the wounded minotaur’s side, killing it instantly as the hook pierced its heart.  The final minotaur wielded a spear, but stepping past the unimpressive spearhead, he grabbed it by the body and pulled, dragging the minotaur chest-first into his own unique spearhead, impaling it.
Removing his weapon from the minotaur as it let out a last gasp, he let go of the spear, letting both drop to the ground.  Looking around once again, he found that there were no longer any living minotaurs near him.  In fact, there were only a couple dozen Fallen, exhausted or injured, that were slowly making their way back to the hill.  Panting, the battle slowing to a conclusion in the distance, Ray began to feel his own tiredness wash over him.  Everything had happened so quickly, going from a steady march one hour to a battle in the next, throwing his army at the minotaurs with the first plan they could think of.  It was reckless, foolish, and had utterly crushed the superior numbers of the minotaurs.  Chuckling slightly at how stupid it was in hindsight, yet how unstoppable the battle was, Ray turned and also began to make his way towards the hill, alone.
The distant chittering of spiderlings had grown into a strange symphony of arachnid speech and predatory shrieks that made the battlefield all the more haunting.  Ray couldn’t tear his eyes away from the unabashed devastation he and the Fallen had brought to the minotaurs.  The scale of death was nearly catatonic, tens of thousands of corpses, more than double the number of Fallen, surrounded him for hundreds of feet in every direction.  It was apocalyptic, the mangled corpses, freely flowing blood, and ballista bolts making the entire area look like the surface of a foreign, bloody planet.  Moonlight and Fallen blood added strange, horrific contortions to the field of dead, colorful illuminations that only helped amplify the carnage.
It was only once he was completely out of the field of death that he was able to take his mind off it, though the smell and taste of blood in the air remained.  About half of Pelios’ infantry had made it back, though they didn’t quite retain any formation.  Most seemed exhausted as well, a day of marching and then a rapid, violent, turbulent battle, a nasty combination that would wear down anyone.  He moved past them with the slightest acknowledgement, knowing that, at the very least, Harbor and Kraven would be at the top of the hill.  
Now, he began to worry.
Looking to the west, then east, he assessed the status of Skalos and Yarem’s infantry.  From what he could see, they hadn’t suffered any devastating losses, visibly indifferent from before the battle itself.  That bade very well, though with how slowly Pelios’ army seemed to be coming back together, perhaps that was where they had suffered the most casualties.  He also hadn’t seen the yellow stallion, but even as he thought that, he noticed the glow of his friend as he led a large group of Fallen away from the spiderlings.  The Matriarch loomed over her children as they tore through whatever minotaurs remained or started their feasting on slain minotaurs.  Some of his worry alleviated, he finished the climb to the top.
Around him, archers began to cheer as they stowed away their bows, quivers, and began preparing the ballistas for being put away.  Camp would be set very late tonight, so this would help speed up the process some.  The archers wouldn’t have lost a single soldier, which also helped morale since at least a portion of the army didn’t have to worry about reconsolidation or changes in command.  Reaching the top, he found Harbor and Kraven already talking softly together, not an aide or lieutenant in sight.  Kraven was pointing something out on the battlefield with a hoof while Harbor watched intently.  
“Ah, lordling, welcome back,” Kraven suddenly said as he noticed the human’s approach.  
“You look a little worse for wear,” Harbor commented offhandedly, giving him a good stare up and down.  “How many minotaurs did you kill?”
“Don’t know,” Ray replied honestly, falling into a sitting position in the grass.  It felt too good to be sitting down…  “Hard to keep track, y’know?”
“Not really,” Harbor admitted honestly.  Cracking a light smile, he said, “That was quite the final charge you led there.”
“Minotaur’s were going to attack the infantry as they moved to reset, so we needed to re-engage them,” Ray explained, lying back on the soft grass.  He suddenly felt unbelievable gratitude that they hadn’t fought this on the Golden Plains, if just for the silky-smooth grass.   
“Wasn’t questioning, sir, just observing,” Kraven clarified.  “Glad to see you unharmed.”
“Thank you,” Ray replied with a sigh, relaxing just a little.  “I saw Pelios, but I don’t know how Skalos and Yarem are…”
“Well, I’m doing just fine, Ray,” Skalos suddenly affirmed as he emerged at the top of the hill, causing Ray to sit upright.  “How’re you faring?”
“Ain’t the damndest,” he joked with a tired, wry grin.  “Nice work today.  Your plan worked like a charm.  Completely caught out the minotaurs and thrashed them.”
“You took some creative liberty there at the end,” Skalos replied with rare humor, sitting down beside Ray with a similar, exhausted sigh.  “Thanks for thinking fast on your feet.  Could’ve been… much worse.  We lost a few good ponies as far as I know, but nothing crippling and nopony in command that I know.  I just hope it’s the same around the other armies.”
“Me too,” Ray agreed softly before catching sight of Yarem climbing the hill, panting profusely.  The last of his stress vanishing, he called out, “Yarem, we did it!”
“That we did,” he shouted back between hard pants.  After a few more seconds, he collapsed beside Ray and Skalos, whistling softly in appreciation.  “I can’t believe we destroyed the entire army.  It felt like there were always more minotaurs to kill after each charge.”
“There were, but we got ‘em all,” the human proudly pointed out.  Looking between Yarem and Skalos, he informed them, “Pelios is alive, by the way.  I saw him beginning to make his way back with most of his soldiers.  I’ll join you in helping the cleaning up of the battlefield.  We’ll assess everything we can before setting about making camp.”
“Yessir,” came the uniform, tired reply of the generals.
There was a moment of silence, each general catching their breath, before Kraven deductively stated, “We maintain a lossless streak here.  Four victories.  It seems, my friends, that the Fallen are still coming out on top in this war.”
> Think Fast
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ray hadn’t thought much about clearing the battlefield before.  It was a necessary part of closing out their operations and making sure the dead were counted correctly while also ensuring no surviving minotaurs made any problems for them.  He hadn’t expected it to be so somber, however.  
Slowly making their way through the horror show that was the battleground, he was in the left wing of a long, one soldier thick line that checked every body on the field.  If the minotaur was dead, they moved on to the next, and if not, then a thrust of their spear into the dying creature’s chest was all that was needed.  They went about the task silently, adding to the strange atmosphere, as every few seconds it seemed like there was a sudden crunch and final bleat of pain before silence retook the battlefield.  He himself had lost track of how many dying minotaurs he had put down.  Strangely enough, it presented him with an opportunity to see how lethal his Fallen were. 
Even though there was a large number of dead before they had taken to clearing the battlefield of any living minotaurs, at least a third of the minotaurs they came across were still living, if barely.  The Fallen were effective in downing their enemies, but not killing them instantly.  That could be problematic, given how there would almost certainly be battles when they wouldn’t have the time to clear the field.  Leaving an entire third of their opponents to remain as informants on the Fallen’s tactics and numbers before and after the battle would essentially be handing their enemies all the information they would need to know in the next battle.  
Ray’s thoughts paused as he came across a wheezing minotaur, a terrible gash in his stomach deep enough to be lethal, but not enough to kill quickly.  Even though the creature was the enemy, the human couldn’t help but feel the slightest tinge of pity for it.  The battle had ended some two hours ago, the waxing moon now high in the sky.  He could see the pain and fear in the minotaur’s glazed eyes as it looked up at Ray.  Pressing his lips together, he quickly pressed his kharamh through the creature’s ribcage with a crunch.  It tensed up momentarily before closing its eyes and relaxing into death, finally free from its pain.  
That was the difference between them and the minotaurs, Ray told himself as he moved on, finding a dead minotaur in front of him.  They were the ones who went back and made sure that their enemy’s suffering was cut short, even if just for a strategic reason.  The Fallen would massacre the minotaurs by the tens of thousands, but they did so to guarantee less death, not cause more.  Another dead minotaur, this one facedown and nearly halved by its wounds.  
“It’s grim work, isn’t it, lordling,” Yarem asked from Ray’s side, pulling his spear from a dead minotaur’s chest.  He wore a look somewhere between disgusted and satisfied.  Ray gave a silent nod, finding another dead minotaur in front of him.
“It’s important work, though,” the stallion continued solemnly.  “I think every soldier should have an opportunity to clear the field.  It gives you a new perspective on who we're fighting.  I mean, I never would have thought it while charging them, but these minotaurs are living creatures kinda like us.”
“Yeah,” Ray audibly agreed, feeling a tugging of remorse as came across another dead minotaur.  This one had its legs torn off somehow, but was otherwise unharmed, meaning it had died from blood loss.  He could explicitly see it from the pool of blood it rested in.  
“They feel fear and anger like us,” Yarem stated, keeping in step with the human before passing another few dead minotaurs in silence.  Finally, however, he bitterly added, “But they’re just as ruthless.”
Ray glanced over, surprised by the sudden statement, only to find the general staring mutely at the mutilated corpse of a green Fallen, his translucent blood already losing its glow.  The human sighed deeply at the sight, a pair of Fallen already moving to remove their slain comrade from the battlefield.  It wasn’t the first corpse they had come across.  As a matter of fact, it might have been the hundredth one at this point, dozens of dead Fallen dotting the battlefield.  Most of the corpses had been at the very front, where the two armies first smashed into each other, but here and there, another dead Fallen would be found.
It made him wonder how many Fallen they had lost in this battle- which until he consulted Kraven, would be nameless- given the number of dead he had seen.  He didn’t want to guess, but in his head at least five hundred had been lost.  It was more than their previous battles combined, which while sobering, was expected from such a large-scale confrontation.  There had certainly been more minotaurs present in this battle than any other, and having worked clearing so much of the battlefield already, he was confident that over forty thousand minotaurs had fought here.  
“It is surprising that-” Ray began to say before the minotaur in front of him lurched forward, swinging its axe desperately.  The human slammed his kharamh into the creature’s face while he felt a tug on his stomach, like someone pulling on his shirt.  Except he wasn’t wearing a shirt.
Letting go of his kharamh, he stumbled backwards slightly, looking down at his stomach.  The moonlight let him see the damage, the right side of his abdomen dark with blood as it flowed down his stomach and leg like a river.  The shock of the sudden wound delayed the pain, but Ray knew immediately how severe it was.  
“Ray, what the hell happened,” Yarem practically shouted.  Other nearby Fallen began to move closer to Ray, their questions and exclamations of surprise drowning each other out.
The pain hit him like a burning fire, pain he’d only felt once before scorching him like lava in his core.  With a grunt of pain, he looked up to the sky, away from the wound as he clasped his hands over it.  He couldn’t let himself go into shock.  He had to act fast.  There was no time to think.
“Move outta the way,” he roared, lurching to the side.  He needed to get somewhere clear of Fallen.  There wasn’t time to get back to Zecora.  He needed something quicker.  
He tried his best to run, each step sending a spurt of blood shooting in front of him.  Blood loss would kill him quickly.  He’d be lucky if he had ten minutes.
The Fallen listened, at least, moving out of his way.  Some of them began running back for help.  
“Skalos is in charge,” he shouted over his shoulder, though it came out more as a choked cry.  His legs were weakening already.  
Thankfully, he was in the left wing, and far left at that.  He was out of the battlefield in only a minute, shambling towards the open as best he could.  His head was woozy though.  His thoughts were slowing.  Maybe it had been more than a minute.
Reaching a bloodied hand to his neck, he desperately grabbed the pendant hanging there.  If this failed, he was dead.  He didn’t have time to consider it though.  It needed to work.  
He ripped the pendant off from around his neck and lifted it to the moon.  Even without the full moon and wayport, he felt the pendant begin to grow warm.  The familiar glow of traveling through light surrounded him.  
The light began as the warm whiteness he had become accustomed to, however, as it became all consuming, it began to glow brighter and harsher, yellowing as the warmth became searing.  Gritting his teeth, he shouted as the pendant became burning hot, searing his fingers.  He forced himself to hold onto it, not wanting to know what would happen if he dropped it mid-teleportation.  
When the process was finally over, he fell to the floor, seeing steam rising from his skin.  He dropped the pendant as he collapsed, his fingers badly burnt, as were other parts of his body.  With a groan, he checked the searing pain in his stomach, which was quickly overwhelming his senses.  Blood still spilled from it, but it seemed the heat of the teleportation had cauterized some of his wounds.
Looking up, he found Twilight’s library empty, though a fire was lit in the hearth.  Summoning all the strength he could, he bellowed, “Twilight, I need your help.  Now!”
Surprisingly, the alicorn burst into the room as soon as she heard his voice, asking, “Ray how did you - Sweet Celestia!”
Her question was cut short at the sight of him, but he didn’t have the time to answer her questions.  
“I’m wounded pretty badly and am losing consciousness,” he explained quickly, his eyes growing heavy.  “I’m about to go out, actually.  You need to heal this wound and somehow stop the bleeding before it kills me.  I don’t have much time.”
“I don’t think I can,” Twilight mumbled, staring with wide, terrified eyes as he bled.  
“I don’t care what you think, dammit, you need to do it,” the human growled, the burning pain worsening, forcing him to lie flat on the ground.  Then, controlling himself a little, he managed to say, “I know you can.  That’s why I took this risk.  Twilight, please, you’re strong enough to help.”
Whatever her response was, Ray couldn’t hear it.  A surge of strange warmth overtook him as his eyes began to tunnel vision.  He tried to reach an arm out and say something, anything to encourage her, but the world faded to obscurity before he had the time.








Twilight set to work instantly, heart racing as Ray’s arm dropped to the carpet with a soft thud and his eyes drifted closed.  His blood was spilling all over the place, his stomach terribly red and sticky while other parts of his body were inexplicably burned.  She didn’t have time to worry about his minor wounds, however.  She needed to focus on what was wrong, but even then, there wasn’t enough she alone could do.  Thinking fast, she shot a short, telepathic burst in Discord’s direction before setting to work.
Focusing on Ray’s split side, she lit her horn and squeezed her eyes shut, probing into the wound without physically touching it.  The cut went deep and wasn’t particularly clean, leaving shredded skin that wasn’t evenly sliced.  It ran diagonally down his body from near the center of his abdomen down right to near his pelvis.  Gritting her teeth, she went deeper and found the edge of the cut, which had damaged his large intestine and kidney.  The kidney was what was causing so much bleeding, but if either one was neglected for too long, Ray would die in minutes.  Taking a deep breath, she finally took action.
She had studied healing, of course, but it wasn’t her strongest suit, so she made sure she was extremely cautious in proceeding.  She had to heal his organs first to prevent blood from getting trapped within and causing infections.  Carefully, she surged magic into his cells there, prompting a rapid recovery in the kidney.  Thousands of cells a second began reproducing and sealing off the wound, but it was incredibly tedious.  At that rate, she would heal his kidney in time for him to die.  She needed to work faster.
“Twilight what’s-” Discord began to ask, suddenly appearing somewhere near her.
“Help me save Ray,” she interrupted.  “He needs strong sources of iron and copper to boost his erythropoietin immediately.  I’m trying to heal his wounds; you need to summon whatever you can to help bandage him and reproduce blood cells.  Treat his burns if you can.”
“On it,” Discord replied, the seriousness in his voice like nothing Twilight had ever heard from him before.  
Refocusing, she surged herself, trying to enhance her magic to make the boost it was giving Ray’s body more powerful.  It seemed to work, as suddenly the wound in the kidney began to rapidly seal itself.  She kept having to pull excess blood away from the wound, but in mere moments, the kidney was repaired to a point that she could leave it be.
Turning her attention to the intestine wound, she found it much more severe, a deeper and longer cut than in the kidney.  Steeling herself against the draining effects of such intense magic usage, she set about repairing the damaged organ.  It was already filling with blood, so in an act of desperation, she purged it by pulling it out from within, her stomach churning as she heard the blood splash on the ground.  With a grunt, she managed to shield the rest of the blood from entering the wound and began the process of restoring the cells there.  It was slightly different from the kidney, the larger cells needing more time and effort to heal.  She felt the healing process rapidly draining the energy from Ray’s body, but at the same time, the bleeding was quickly slowing down.
“Discord, force nutrients into Ray,” she instructed as she finished sealing the intestines after a laborious minute of work.  She felt dizzy, the toll using so much magic so quickly and concisely quickly draining her as well.  Ignoring it, though, she began work on the other internal damage he had suffered, working to restore the severed muscles within his side.  
Muscles were by far the hardest, the tough, dense cells needing proper prompting and balance to grow in the right places and not fill in areas where skin and arteries would go.  Hayfeathers, arteries!  
Backtracking, she began to restore the thick veins that were deeper in his body.  The bleeding began to significantly slow down by the time she had sealed those away, but the strain it was taking on her was evident.  She was practically collapsed on the ground, mane matted with sweat and coat suffocating as she panted hard.  Still, there was work that needed to be done.  
Returning to the muscles, she did her best not only to restore them, but to match them to the strength of the muscles on his left side.  She was rapidly getting used to balancing the restructuring of cells into the shape they should be, so even though the muscles were draining the last of her energy, she was completing them quickly.  Ray’s breathing had grown shallow, but whatever Discord was doing seemed to have kept him from the brink of death.  
Twilight felt exhaustion finally beginning to overtake her, her closed eyes now working against her as she felt her head dip down momentarily.  Jerking herself upright, she attempted desperately to focus on healing the rest of Ray’s destroyed muscles.  Her attempts were successful for a few moments, before once again she felt her energy puttering out.  With a frustrated grunt, she forced a surge through herself, and while once again, she was briefly able to focus and restore more of the damage, she found herself nearly drifting out.
“Sweet Celestia, why are there so many muscles,” she growled out loud, pushing herself that much harder.  It didn’t work this time though, and in spite of her best efforts, her horn’s magic sputtered to a stop.  Instead of any relief from the exhaustion she was feeling, however, she only felt even more tired.  She couldn’t even lift her hoof to try and help Discord as he mutely applied bandages to Ray’s burns.  
“Discord, I’m gonna pass out,” she warned him, her eyes closing before she even finished speaking.  “Bandage whatever I couldn’t heal.  I’m sorry…”
“Woah woah woah, Twilight,” Discord eased, catching her as she almost fell onto Ray.  “I got you.  Just take a moment to…”
Twilight didn’t hear the rest of the sentence, her mind eagerly rushing to rest from the traumatic exertion it had just undergone.  The last thing she felt was being gently laid onto something soft and warm as she drifted into a deep sleep.
> Delirium
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ray had no way of telling how long he spent passing in and out of consciousness.  It could have been hours, days, or even weeks.  From time to time, he remembered coming to for more than a few painful, hazy minutes, only to find his surroundings intimidatingly unfamiliar.  He was always alone when he woke up as well, or at least, the times he remembered waking up.  However, after what felt like too much awful sleep and not enough time, he was finally able to open his eyes all the way without the urge to immediately seel them again.
It was red outside, with sunset or sunrise, he couldn’t tell.  His first thoughts went immediately to his surroundings, recognizing the marble, satin, and comfort of the palace.  He was somewhere safe, but far, far away from where he needed to be.  Where he wanted to remain.  The pain in his stomach and side was bearable, though still sharp.  He wasn’t entirely sure what medicines he was being treated with were, but they seemed to have taken away the brunt of his agony.  In spite of that fact, he knew he couldn’t even sit up at the moment, thanks to how tender and weak he was feeling.  He knew he wasn’t actively dying, but it felt exactly what the final few weeks in the hospital felt like.  
The thought made him reach out his left arm and pull aside the sheets to try and get a good look at his wounds.  They were still covered in bandages, but the entire area where his scar had previously been was now the epicenter of the cotton dressings.  The minotaur’s axe would certainly have done far more damage than Jackson’s knife had done.  From how close he had come to death so instantly… he might’ve had three minutes left in him after he passed out in Twilight’s library.  Thought of the alicorn gave him mixed feelings of guilt, fear, and awe.
Even with magic, it seemed almost impossible to bring Ray back from the brink as she had done.  Modern medicine and the sorts had struggled to keep him steady during the first two weeks after his initial injury.  While he wasn’t sure how much time had passed, watching the light slowly brighten and reveal itself as a new dawn, he figured it couldn’t have been two weeks already.  Even in the hospital, he wasn’t so delirious to lose track of time entirely.  It did make him wonder where anyone was during the times he had woken up.
His first thought sent him in a short spiral of panic before he reeled himself back into reality.  There was no chance the minotaurs had attacked or anything of the sort.  They would have to spend several months clearing out the Fallen first and then build a new port with ships from the wood two week’s travel to their north.  Equestria had at least half a year if anything disastrous had happened.  More likely, they didn’t have the opportunity to be around him all day every day, considering Twilight’s duties and the relatively small staff she had on-hand for her castle.
However, right as he made the excuse, the door suddenly creaked open to his left, a pony in ceremonial armor creeping in as softly as he could, eyes behind him as he tried to quietly shut the door.  He visibly cringed as his armor creaked slightly, his eyes darting to the human lying on the bed.  Seeing Ray watching him, he let out an embarrassed squawk, dropping the cinnamon roll from his mouth and snapping to attention.  
“I’m sorry, sir, I didn’t know you were awake, sir,” he quickly apologized, his voice pitched with fear as his face flushed with embarrassment. 
“It’s no problem at all,” Ray excused with a dismissive wave of his hand, before resting it by his side.  “Though probably best to go fetch Princess Twilight.”  
“Of course, right away sir,” the guard dutifully exclaimed before bolting out the doors, without a second thought.  Ray chuckled slightly at the brief distraction from his concern, though the harsh reality of his situation set in quickly.  
He was stuck in a bed in the palace in Canterlot, hundreds of miles across the sea and unable to contact his soldiers.  At best, he would have to wait until the next full moon to use the wayport to get back, which he hopefully hadn’t slept through.  At worst, he had done something terribly damaging that prevented him from returning anytime soon.  If that was the case, he was now isolated from his Fallen and leaving them to fend for themselves.  It was beyond frustrating, almost completely infuriating.  
A simple lapse in judgement, a moment of oversight and stupidity may have just cost them the war.  Ray had underestimated his foe in a humiliating way, nearly dying to a minotaur’s axe outside of battle.  If that wasn’t bad enough, he hadn’t had the time when he left to warn Skalos or the Matriarch about what had happened to him, nor would any of them have a clue as to his health.  Worse, Yarem had seen just how badly his wound had been, leaving the general’s imagination to roam free about what could have happened to Ray while away.
This whole situation also made him look like a completely incompetent coward.  He had been severely wounded by a presumed dead minotaur, and his first reaction had been to run away all the way back to Equestria for help instead of Zecora.  It wouldn’t be until Ray’s eventual return that the Fallen that they would be able to see his gambit had paid off, and even then by that time there would certainly already be circulating doubts about his capabilities as general, as well as his character itself.  He had grown so close to so many of them, had been respected and loved, and in return admired and adored his soldiers in return.  Now, with the slash of a minotaur’s axe, it would all come crashing down.
Furthermore, if another battle came, regardless of outcome it would further paint Ray in a bad light.  Albeit, an accurate light given his absence, but an awful light nonetheless.  The Fallen would almost certainly incur more losses than normal and blame it on Ray’s abandonment of their army.  If the opposite occurred and they won a significant battle with barely any losses, they would doubt the value of his leadership, and move to replace him with more worthy generals like Skalos or KKraven.  
They wouldn’t be the only ones doubting his capabilities either, Ray shamefully thought, sinking back into the soft bed he lay on.  It was the nicest surface he had enjoyed in a long time, soft with plenty of give and warmth, without suffocating him in heat.  None of his soldiers in almost a year of war had enjoyed this type of comfort, and even their beds in the Harkening were little more than moss and cobwebs from normal spiders stuffed into sacks.  A bed like this, feathered and sewn in satin, was the type they might have never enjoyed in their eons of life, yet here Ray was, lying idly on one, waiting to be doted upon.
“Ray, you’re awake,” Discord suddenly cried as he appeared at the foot of his bed, his paw and claw squeezed together as he smiled with relief.  He had brought Fluttershy with him, though the mare was too emotional to speak, instead opting to smile through her tears.  Ray returned the smile, the pair a welcome reprieve from his retrospection.  
“Hey guys,” he said, not really sure what to say.  “How did you get here before Twilight?”
“I’ve had a watch over your breathing ever since we put you in that bed,” Discord explained.  “There’s a bit of delay, lots on the mind and in it and whatnot, but when I realized that you were waking up for real, I grabbed Fluttershy as quick as I could and took us here.  I’m assuming there’s a guard off to summon Twilight, so she’ll be here soon.”
“Yeah, exactly,” Ray confirmed with a small chuckle.  Pointing a finger to the floor by the door, he commented, “Poor guy was off in such a hurry he left his cinnamon roll behind.”  
“No matter,” Discord dismissed, uncharacteristically serious as he made the pastry disappear with a simple snap of his claws.  “How are you feeling?  You’ve been quite feverish for a bit.”
“Wound’s not badly infected as far as I know,” Ray commented, looking down at himself.  While it wasn’t much, he realized that in his body’s struggle for its life, he had shed more than a couple of pounds, including some of his hard-earned muscle.  “I’m feeling a bit of pain, but not unmanageable amounts.  Just sharp aches and some minor cramps.  Like a really bad bruise or something.  I guess I’m feverish, but I don’t know, I’m still waking up fully.”
“Okay, but we’re here for whatever you need,” the draconequus reassured Ray solemnly, looking over Ray of his own accord.  His face was scrunched in concern, but after a moment he recognized there wasn’t anything immediately concerning.  His gaze returned to Ray’s face as he said, “Twilight really put good work into you.  Stopped you from bleeding out and the sorts.  Tried to do all sorts of fancy magic healing, and it really worked.  Also drained her.  She slept two straight days afterwards.  I’ll let her tell you the rest though.”
“You were there,” Ray questioned incredulously.  
“Yeah,” Discord clarified, his face looking haunted as his eyes drifted away momentarily before snapping back to the human.  “Yeah, Twilight gave us a special telepathic link that we can use in emergencies.  I didn’t do much.  Healed your burns, summoned whatever medicines would help replenish blood and the sort.  Minor stuff.  Twilight’s the one that saved your life.”
“Thanks anyways,” Ray thanked with a smile.  Then, noticing Fluttershy’s lips pressed together in anticipation, he asked her deliberately, “Yeah?”
“Is it okay- I mean, it won’t hurt you if we give you a hug,” she inquired, her voice shaky.  
“Of course not,” he replied, before reaching out an arm.  Fluttershy carefully embraced him, and though it did cause a spike of pain in his side, he kept it internal as he squeezed the mare slightly.  With a sigh, he mumbled, “I’m doing fine.  Really, I am.  I’m hoping to be outta here quickly and back to my Fallen soon.  By the next full moon if I can.”
“Well, there’s a slight problem with that,” Twilight suddenly said, having silently appeared behind the couple.  
“Twilight,” Ray couldn’t help but exclaim, reaching out his arm to embrace her as well.  She gave him a smile, accepting it, before continuing, “I’m not quite sure how you managed to get the pendant to work without a wayport or a full moon.  It wasn’t supposed to be able to work whenever, especially not without the wayport to give structure and guidance to the light.  Maybe there’s a way to harness that, but right now the concern is getting you back to the Fallen as quickly as possible.  Unfortunately, with the full moon in five days, there’s no way you’ll be back by then.  I’ll need at least two weeks to finish the next pendant, which means you’ll have to wait for the next full moon to return.”
Unable to help it, Ray let out a long sigh, glancing away briefly at the terrible news.  There was no avoiding that he had messed up big time, and now they were going to be feeling that both here in Equestria and out there in the Golden Plains.  He had hoped that some of that damage could be mitigated by the ability to return to the Fallen before his opportunity passed.  Now, it seemed they would go an entire month more without him, and he without them.
“I’m still baffled you managed to get here,” Twilight told him honestly.  “The pendant was little more than a red-hot teardrop of metal when it finally got cleaned off the floor.  You were burned all over the place, but Discord was able to treat you to such a degree that I can’t even tell where you had been charred before.  Anyways, since it was destroyed by you getting here, I need to make another one from scratch.  Luckily I have the entire process recorded from the first time, so it won’t take months.”
“I’m sorry,” Ray apologized guiltily.
“Sorry,” Fluttershy spat indignantly.  “Ray, if you hadn’t done what you did, we would have lost you.  Don’t be sorry for doing something that kept you alive.  Without you, there is no hope for a future of Equestria.  Stop being so bucking selfless for a minute and remember you’re more important than some stupid little metal necklace.”
Ray’s eyes widened at the mare’s outburst, shrinking back into the pillows a little further.  Seeing this, she backed off slightly, apologetically muttering, “Sorry, just a bit antsy because you almost… died.”
“What happened anyways,” Twilight inquired eagerly, the question obviously having been the main one eating at her.  
“Not anything… normal,” Ray explained shamefully.  “We fought a massive battle against the minotaurs.  They came out from the south while we were marching through the grasslands, almost catching us by surprise.  They didn’t detect us though, so we were able to launch our attack effectively.  There were over forty thousand of them, more than any other battle, but thanks to Skalos’ battle plan, we shredded through them.  Not a single one survived.  I was going through the battlefield, clearing the field, as we call it, to make sure that every minotaur was a dead one, when one of them suddenly caught me distracted.
“I didn’t have much time to think, but I knew from the blood and whatnot that I didn’t have the time to make it back to Zecora at her station.  I did whatever came to mind and I guess it worked out.  I knew I could put my trust in you, Twilight, and I’m glad you were there to help as well, Discord.  I honestly forgot all about the burns.  I don’t even feel them now, which is strange because I could’ve sworn some of my fingertips were nothing but ash.”
“They were,” Discord solemnly responded to the joke, dead serious.  “I… never really have seen anything like that before Ray.  Honestly, I haven’t.  I’ve known of wars, I knew they were dangerous and serious, but I’ve never been so… scared.  You could’ve been lost.  I think I’ve finally realized why you’re given the distinction you receive, and I know you certainly deserve it.  I mean, you risk that every time you fight, and now apparently even when you aren’t fighting.  It’s just… all so shocking.  I’ve never seen so much blood in my life before.”
“Yeah,” Twilight agreed, looking queasy.  Reaching out a hoof, she rested it on Fluttershy’s shoulder.  “I’d be glad to have you for the day, but Ray needs his rest.  He may be talking and thinking well right now, but every hour of sleep speeds up his healing that much more.”
“Of course,” the demure pegasus agreed, taking Discord’s paw.  The draconequus seemed much more hesitant to leave the human’s side, amusing Ray slightly.  There would have been a time when Fluttershy would have demanded to remain by his side until he was fully recovered and walking again.  However, she knew it wasn’t what he needed.  How mature they had both grown…
“Ray, I would recommend not thinking too much about anything right now,” Twilight suggested with the slightest smile.  “You’re going to want to get as much rest as possible.  The needs to be weaned off after only two weeks, and you’ve been on it for nine days now.  Even though the wound will be much better by then, it won’t feel like it with the loss of those extreme painkillers.  Besides, everypony else from all over Equestria will want to visit.  I already have news from Ember that she will arrive three days early for the celebration to give you the Dragonlands’ best wishes with Redar.”
“Celebration,” Ray questioned, unaware of what there was to celebrate.
“Oh, yeah, that’s another thing,” Twilight remembered, her eyes lighting up slightly.  “One of the bright sides of you still being stuck here with us is that you’ll be here for the celebration of my coronation in mid-May.  Since there’s no way you’ll be back to the Fallen in time, I would also recommend trying to enjoy every free moment you have here while you recover.  For your sake.”
“I’ll try,” Ray agreed, though he already knew that the war was going to be in the first and foremost of his thoughts no matter what.  He couldn’t change that part of him on a whim.  
“Good, then we’ll leave you to your rest,” Twilight told him with a satisfied nod.  With a simple gesture of her hoof, she led Fluttershy and Discord from the room, taking them to wherever they would stay the night herself.  Though Ray hadn’t felt tired when the trio had left him alone, he found himself returning to sleep just moments after the door closed, his exhausted mind and body demanding time to recover.  With a drowsy yawn, he forced his doubts and loathing aside and let the sleep overtake him in mere moments.
> Gamblers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In spite of Twilight’s wishes, Ray was out of his bed three days after he had first woken up.  He had already been moving around the room during that time, getting used to the slight stab of pain with every step he took when there was no one watching.  Twilight’s guards were surprisingly strict with him, probably on her orders, making it almost amusing when soldiers less intimidating than an unarmed Fallen were demanding he lay back down on his bed.  However, he also understood they were doing their jobs and that Twilight was being her overtly overly-cautious self, so he did as commanded whenever caught.  
Today, though, was different.  He had been given plenty of time to rest, and had been visited by everyone else.  The Apples and Dash, Rarity, Pinkie, and even a few of the ponies from around the town who had heard the news paid him a visit the past couple days.  They all came in with the same worried looks, and in spite of all his reassurances and jokes, they would leave just as concerned as when they had entered, if not more so.  It frustrated him, though he understood why.  The same question would always be brought up, and with it, the same resolute answer.
“Are you really going back out there?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“The war isn’t over yet.”
Ray sighed as he rounded a corner, ignoring the shocked look he received from a young mare who was walking down the hall.  He had crossed paths with more than a couple of maids, but so far no guards.  So long as he kept off their path, he should be able to find his way to where he was trying to go.  His foot slipped on the smooth marble of a different hall, causing him to wince in pain and press a hand over his bandaged wound.  Glancing down at the pristine white cloth, he growled in frustration at the pain.  
Twilight had explained that she had done a good deal of healing through her magic, but much of that left the new muscles and repaired organ tender.  From when they were changing his bandages, he could also see that the skin wasn’t quite resealed yet.  The area of the cut had scabbed over by now, showing where the scar was going to form once it healed fully.  As he had thought, the cut had dug its way through the scar on his stomach, removing it completely and replacing it with this new wound.  He… didn’t know how to feel about it.  
The scar was from a terrible time in his life, a punishment for choosing to give up a corrupted and wrong lifestyle.  Yet it also had been the one last physical link he had to Earth, evidence marked on his body of his time and life in his native home.  Now, the only evidence to his heritage was his unique body itself, and that really wasn’t much considering the likes of Discord and the Matriarch.  Strange creatures roamed Equestria and lived among its inhabitants in every other town.  Now, he was really just any other oddity in this strange world, the lone specimen of violence and skin in a world of peace and fur.  
It was almost fitting then, that his scar had been removed during his struggle to defend such a place, as if fate or the Aspects were attempting to entrench him that much deeper into Equestria.  Thoughts of Earth had already grown distant, almost grey in comparison to the vibrant, violent life he now lived.  It was a difference so conceptually impossible that, for his own sake, he simply stopped trying to compare.  There were too many differences between who was when he arrived and who he was now, too many differences between Earth and Equestria.  It was no surprise, then, that he had come to this isolation, away from the soldiers who had become family and with the family who had grown into strangers as the war took its toll.
He wanted to change that, he truthfully did.  Those early, happy months with the ponies, even with the occasional inconsistencies and challenges, were now what yearned most to return to.  Working on the Apples’ farm, walking through the Everfree after dark, and talking with Fluttershy, Rarity, and Discord.  Simpler, happier times.  Instead, there was this.  Isolation, pain, and loss.  Garish dead and Adant growing distant and quiet.  He wanted to talk to her again.  He didn’t quite know why, maybe it was that connection with Garish or maybe it was simply to ease the sorrow, but he felt a need to talk with the mare.
Of course, that was impossible right now.  He tried to keep his mind off it, since worrying would do him no good, but it was an unavoidable fact that he had abandoned the Fallen.  Cowardice, even if intelligent, had possibly doomed to Fallen.  There were endless possibilities for what could be occurring at that very moment, each one as terrifying and damning as the last.  Now that his mind was on them, he couldn’t turn them away.  His woes wouldn’t even end with a swift return, since he would have to face the judgement of the Fallen for his actions.  
“Ray, what in Tartarus are you doing out of your room,” Discord demanded, suddenly appearing in the air before Ray.
Swerving around the draconequus without stopping, he answered over his shoulder, “Walking.  Care to join me?”
“I would much prefer if you would stop,” Discord grumbled, though he landed on the ground and fell in step with Ray.  “You should be getting your rest right now, not frollicking through Twilight’s castle.  That would could still-”
“It’s not possible for it to get worse at this point,” Ray interrupted, giving the Lord of Chaos a side-eye.  “Since when were you the one who lectured me?”
“Since I saw you inches from death, bleeding out on the floor,” he replied, once again deadpan.
“I know this is a rather serious topic, but why are you acting so… cold,” Ray probed with a frown.
“You almost died, Ray, do you not understand what that means?”  When the only answer Discord received was a silent stare, the draconequus let out a frustrated huff before growling, “It means I felt your heartbeat slow to a crawl.  I heard your breathing become shallow and saw your blood flow freely.  I could feel you… I knew that… You were almost gone, Ray, forever.”
“I know that,” Ray quietly muttered, measuring his reply carefully.
“I’ve seen people die all around me Ray, for centuries, and having to live beyond that is the burden of eternal life,” Discord firmly continued, undeterred.  “It’s what initially drove me away from order and life, drove me to madness.  I would be friends with a pony their entire life, then friends with their children and grandchildren, until one way or another, two hundred years down the line, they either no longer cared or had all died off.  I don’t know how many friends I have had, because no matter how hard I try, I can’t remember them all.  Even those whom shared their entire lives with me faded away after only a few centuries.  It’s worse when their deaths come early.”
“I know that, Discord, because I’ve seen it too,” the human reminded the draconequus, raising his voice in irritation.  “I’ve lost one of my closest friends to this war, and seen his wife suffer firsthand that devastation as well.  Don’t lecture me about loss.  I’m becoming quite familiar with it.”
“But they aren’t,” Discord hissed angrily, staring Ray down in a way he’d never seen from anyone else before.  There was anger, yes, but pain and intelligence too.  “Think of what the kind of loss you suffer would do to the ponies who love you.  They’re weak, Ray, even the strongest of them.  Twilight’s first trial of her life will be watching those she first came to love pass on without her, leaving her on this world.  It was Cadence’s first trial as well, one she barely passed.  Luna never made it far beyond hers before becoming Nightmare Moon.  Only Celestia has remained sane, even if the toll it’s taken on her has led to some wrong choices.  Don’t you understand, Ray?  If you died in such an awful way… the devastation it would leave behind now would be irreversible.  I’ve seen ponies killed by heartbreak before.  Don’t underestimate how much your death would hurt our friends.”
Ray didn’t have an answer to Discord, though thankfully they had reached where he was trying to find by now.  Pushing the door open, he stepped into Twilight’s library and paused just inside the room, staring at the floor.  The carpet was stained red in the center of the room, and from how large of a splotch it was, Ray finally began to grasp what the draconequus had been telling him earlier about his wounds.  This was much worse than when he had been stabbed in Pittsburgh or in the Harkening.  With a slow sigh, he sank to his haunches where he stood, staring at the bloodstain.  
“I know you can’t control whether you live or die, but you need to be less callous about that fact,” Discord pressed, sitting down beside the human.  “Your recovery is more than just a matter of being alive.  Realistically, there’s no way you’d hurt yourself here, and you’re no longer in danger of your wounds taking a turn for the worse.  It’s just important to the rest of us that we see you taking your health and care seriously.  This… suicidal drive to endure and emerge victorious doesn’t give anyone, not even the CMC, a very strong hope that you’ll return after this is all over.”
“Y’know, I’ve talked with Twilight and Fluttershy at length about this,” Ray revealed, wrapping his arms around his knees as he pulled them into his chest.  The motion hurt, but pushing through the pain, he relaxed again the wall, letting his head rest against it.  “I don’t think I can return to Equestria permanently.  This place, the ponies… my friends here… they’re all fantastic, but I can’t live in a fantasy.  I’ve seen it now, firsthand, and felt it.  War is… horrific.  I’m numb to it, but I’ve killed dozens of minotaurs already.  I don’t regret it, hell I don’t even really think about it all that much, but when I was venturing through the battlefield, all that I could see around me were the heaps of dead, mangled bodies in lakes of blood.  It was like something out of the apocalypse, just death and destruction and carnage.  
“Now, it’s looking like the war won’t be over before the anniversary of our invasion.  A whole year of war.  It’s passed by so quickly, hasn’t it?  I’ve seen you all only ten times this year, including now.  Waiting for it all to start was torture, yet endurable because I had you all by my side.  Now, fighting this war, killing and strategizing and worrying and gambling with lives… I’m tired, Discord, and it hasn’t been a year yet.  I’m not sure if the Fallen are able to endure another year of war.  I’m not sure if I am.  Even if we keep winning every battle, what good will it be if we can’t end the war.  We’ll just be grinding ourselves down until, one day, the minotaurs overwhelm us.”
With a sad chuckle, Ray dropped his head against his knees, continuing, “Of course, we knew that was a possibility if the war droned on and on and on.  We have no chance  of winning a prolonged, bloody conflict.  Four battles in ten months isn’t that much, but then again, three of them have been in the last three months.  It just isn’t viable and there’s nothing that we do that seems to ever work, nor will it based on our track record.  The minotaurs aren’t so dumb as I thought.  We’ll be lucky if, in a few battles, they haven’t figured us out and taken advantage of how long we’ve overstayed our welcome.  There’s no retreat though.  Oh no, never a retreat.  Have to keep what they need out of their hands, no matter the price.  That’s where ideologies clash here, Discord.  No matter the price, the Fallen have to win, even if that is without me.  I guess now is the perfect time to test if they can do that, given that they think I’m either dead, a coward, or both.”
“Coward,” Discord questioned, craning his neck at the human.  “How would you be a coward for saving your life?”
“I abandoned them and left them to fend for themselves, even if it was to keep myself alive,” he explained, not looking up.  He could feel the tears beginning to form.  Not sad, not angry, not anything, really.  Just… tears that needed to escape.  “I left as soon as my life was in danger without even giving a proper explanation.  Even though it would have been a pathetic death, perhaps the best strategy was to die giving orders, a final act of strength and resolution against the minotaurs before my martyrdom.”
“Those are the exact words that I despise hearing from you, Ray,” Discord sighed, no longer angry.  “I and the others… can’t think of you gone.  Even with all the life I’ve lived, I’ve never lost a friend to war before.  I was imprisoned in stone during Sombra’s wars, and before that most pony conflicts were well away from me.  I’m a harbinger of chaos, not destruction.  The two go hand-in-claw, but they aren’t happy partners.  Destruction benefits from chaos, not vice versa.  Sometimes, I would hear that where I went, shortly thereafter came destruction and war.  Part of my self-induced isolation at first was out of fear of ponies… but then they hunted me down.  So I decided I would make the world chaos and chaos alone, no room for destruction between the soap roads, cotton candy clouds, chocolate milk rain, and checkered sky.  I was wrong then about how, but right about why.”
“Is that why you wouldn’t fight this war,” Ray asked softly, finally looking up at the draconequus’ strange, gray face.  He saw the conflict behind the Lord of Chaos’ eyes as he struggled to find the right answer.  
Finally, he answered, “There’s no chaos in death; death is an absolute.  Once anything is dead, there is nothing chaotic about it.  No, death and destruction are partners, while chaos and creation are the closest of friends.  When something is created, there is an imbalance as it finds its place in the world and life.  Likewise, an instance of random chance, a chaotic happenstance, can create any number of possibilities.  Chaos breeds destruction when unchecked by creation.  The imbalance of randomness can lead to someone getting hurt… by accident.”
“I see,” Ray said softly, nodding understandingly.  Then, with a long sigh, he dragged his hand through his hair as he stated, “There’s also the Spectre somewhere out there, waiting to return.  I’m sure it’ll target me first if it can, given how much I’ve stood against it.”  The young man paused as his skin prickled at the thought of the shadowy beast.  “When it returns, I don’t know if the Aspects will intervene again.  I think they want to test me against my will, see if I can resist the Spectre or, if left alone, I’m too weak to matter against it.  It is the next threat against us, after the minotaurs.  
“I’m glad I’ve forgotten about it, but I think it would also enjoy if I remained ignorant of its return.  Other than the Aspects themselves, I’m the only one that can fight back in any way.  Even the Matriarch’s been cast aside by it with ease, and I’m certain if it wanted to it would kill her or anyone else that tried to fight it.  Maybe not you, considering what you are.  Discord the draconequus, Lord of Chaos.”
Looking up from the floor, Ray’s brows furrowed as he trained his gaze on his friend.  Noting this, Discord glanced around the room briefly while Ray’s mind began frantically putting pieces together.  Finally, concerned, the draconequus asked, “What is it, Ray?”
“You’re not an Aspect, are you, Discord,” the human inquired, almost in disbelief of his own question.  It would be unbelievable that this entire time he had been in the presence of such a powerful, influential being this whole time.  At the same time, it made so much sense that he was one.  The vast lifespan, the unexplainable power and unlimited threshold to use it however he wished.  Even the knowledge of balance and his place as the embodiment of chaos, if not Chaos itself.
“I… don’t know,” Discord replied honestly, maintaining eye contact with Ray.  “I wasn’t born that I remember, but there has been no indication from anyone or anything else about the possibility of me being one.  Twilight asked me the same thing not long after she learned about Aspects and the many variants and roles.  The answer was the same for her then as it is for you now.  If I am an Aspect, then I’m… well I don’t know exactly what it means for any of us, since I guess I’ve been doing an awful job being a villain, then a hero, then a passive citizen of the world.  If I’m not, then I’m somehow some sort of harbinger of Chaos, considering there must be an Aspect for such an important facet of life.”
“Huh, well, it doesn’t explain much,” Ray stated matter-of-factly, “but it does mean that I potentially already have one Aspect in my corner.”
“That you do,” Discord affirmed with a gentle smile, resting a paw on the human’s shoulder.  After a silent moment, the smile slipped away with the draconequus as his paw fell back to his side, eyes drifting to the bloodstain in the carpet as he muttered, “But we’ve gotten away from the whole point of this conversation, haven’t we?”
“I suppose,” Ray agreed reluctantly, once again resting his head on the wall.  The pain in his side was beginning to sting viciously once again.  “There’s no changing how the war must be fought, at least from a risk standpoint.  So long as I’m in the Tauran plains, I’ll be in danger.”
“You could do better about accepting our concerns though,” Discord reiterated.  “You could act accordingly as well.”
“I suppose that I could do,” Ray said with a grunt, before beginning to force himself to stand.  The attempt was painful and slow, a jab of pain across his entire stomach almost making him buckle.  With a slow hiss, he finished standing, looking down at Discord, offering him a hand.  Even though he didn’t need to, the draconequus took it and allowed Ray to pull him to his… hooves.  Sometimes the human forgot all the strange amalgamations that formed his friend.  
Noting the large bloodstain in the carpet, the human said, “I feel bad about the carpet.  I honestly forgot that it was… well, it wasn’t a top concern at the time, but now it’s all ruined.”
“Yeah, and I don’t think Twilight has the stomach to stay in here while it’s looking like that,” Discord agreed, also staring.  
“Hey, can you go back to my house in Ponyville real quick,” Ray questioned, an idea popping into his head.  “I never spent that much of the money I got from working on the Apples’ farm.  I really only ever bought food and train tickets, so I probably have a couple thousand bits to spare.”
“Okay, I see,” Discord agreed, popping out of existence in an instant.  
While the draconequus was gone, he allowed himself to digest their conversation, most importantly the admission that he could in fact be an Aspect.  It changed the game for Ray if he was, considering that it meant Aspects could and would apparate into the physical plane if they so wished.  If the Spectre was an Aspect, then that would mean it would just appear whenever it felt comfortable enough to.  It hadn’t yet, possibly because of Discord’s presence.  Either way, as with everything so far, it would be a blessing and a curse if it turned out Discord was an Aspect.
After another moment of deliberation, Discord appeared, and with him, hundreds of bits fell to the floor.  They silently watched as some of them rolled to a stop, before Ray looked up at the Lord of Chaos with a quirked brow.  
“There wasn’t really anything to hold them in,” he sheepishly explained with a shrug.  
“That’s okay, Twilight will be thankful nonetheless,” Ray excused, before giving it another moment of thought.  “Or she’ll be annoyed that I’m ‘wasting my money’.” 
Discord chuckled at the assessment, before reaching out and grabbing Ray by the shoulder, floating to be at eye level with the human.  “Now, I insist that you leave right this instant and get yourself some more sleep.  I can see the way you cringe whenever you move even slightly.”
“Yeah, guess it’s about time for me to chug some flower juice and catch some sleep,” Ray admitted, looking down at the bandages around his stomach.  








Twilight remained hidden as she listened to the sounds of Ray and Discord walking down the hallway, back towards his room.  As soon as they were gone, she slipped into the library, nearly tripping over the pile of bits on the floor.  It was more than she expected there to be, and while she was thankful for Ray’s thoughtfulness, it was also a minor annoyance.  She had a personal allowance for a reason after all.  Nevertheless, she rang a bell in the room with her magic to summon somepony to help her.  
Standing still, just inside the doorway, she stared at the frequently mentioned bloodstain in the carpet.  It was larger than she was, some of it snaking to under the sofa while another had flowed towards the hearth.  She couldn’t unsee the blood that had stained her hooves, Ray’s blood as he lay dying right before her.  He was alive though, she reminded herself, and she was alive because of her efforts.  She had done the best she ever could.  There was no reason now for guilt.
Except there was.  Ray was only here because of her, and he was only in danger because he was fighting a war Twilight should have figured out how to avoid instead of chase.  It was her fault he was suffering everything he had heard him describe, concerns and pains he would have never enclosed to her willingly.  Discord was arguably his second friend in Equestria after Fluttershy, and he was the first to help him feel like a welcome outcast.  Twilight hadn’t done anything to earn Ray’s trust for months.  Quite the opposite.  
Her concerns now, however, were diminished slightly at present.  The stubborn young human was listening to Discord’s insistence and taking the value of his opinions, and that was all she needed.  While completely accidental that she had come across the two of them, it did serve as an important reminder to her, one that had been bitterly portrayed these past few days.  
Ray was strong.  He wasn’t invincible.
> Fireworks
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Twilight had predicted, she wasn’t able to finish the pendant in time for Ray to make it back to the Fallen on the full moon.  It had been an expected disappointment, but the young man had found himself sulking as he stared at the moon practically all night, thinking deeply about what it meant.  An entire month in Equestria before he could return, and infinite possibilities of what could be occurring on the other side of the world to his friends there.  Those possibilities and fantasized tragedies had tortured Ray all night long, leaving him restless as the first week of the month passed by gruelingly.  
Discord and Fluttershy had returned to Ponyville, and while Ray himself was tempted to join them, he determined that he would remain with Twilight in the castle.  Spending his days in Ponyville would be like a vacation, and he refused to allow himself to fall into comfortable slothfulness.  Even if his wounds weren’t fully healed, he needed to utilize this time as best he could.  The castle staff had gotten used to leaving him be, given how he didn’t ever request anything from them, and they really didn’t have the authority to tell him where to be.  
Twilight also remained incredibly busy, not just with rebuilding the pendant, but also general Princess things.  It had also been nearing her coronation day- which if Ray remembered correctly was now today- making her free time next to null.  The human had tried to assist in building the pendant, but as it turned out, he was no good at forging or engraving, as the project required.  So, instead, he spent the days doing whatever he could to heal his wound and rebuild his muscles.  The only reason he wasn’t training out in a private patch of the castle’s vast garden was because Twilight had given him clear instructions to be ready by noon for guests.  
Whether he liked it or not, his presence in Equestria was well-known, as was his state of recovery.  Every now and then, some creeping journalist would suddenly appear mid-training session to bombard him with a flurry of questions before any of the guards noticed and carried them away.  While he had given these journalists a more civil approach, after an entire day of them sneaking in and finding him, he started tossing them out with impunity.  The castle guards didn’t really watch over Ray anyways, considering who he was, so it was almost always his responsibility to deal with intruders.  It was kind of cathartic to be the one dismissing the pesky press members, but more than anything it was an annoyance and a danger to them.  Especially considering he had spent a majority of his time practicing archery.  
He had figured that, given the arm strength required and how much he needed to work out his right side again, archery was the perfect weapon to master.  He had been pretty standard at the bow when they had set off for the Tauran plains, but he hadn’t used the weapon at all since, and was far out of practice.  After a little more than a week of hours of practice every day in the temperate Equestrian sun, he had gotten much better, though not at a level he was confident with.  Sure, he could hit a standing target with above average accuracy, but minotaurs had a habit of moving whenever they felt endangered, whether it was a lethal valley falling on them or a wave of Fallen charging their lines.  
There wasn’t much else to practice with anyway, considering in his haste to make it back to Equestria, he had left his kharamh on the battlefield.  He wanted to kick himself for leaving his valuable weapon behind, but realistically the impractical use of the pendant and ensuing burning may have melted the weapon.  If he had brought it with him, he might have lost it in transit.  Even though there were spears that the guards used, they felt like they were made of paper and had no sharpened tip to them.  Practicing with them would be much like using a twig as a sword.  Luckily, there was an abundance of bows and arrows that were military grade, so archery was his best option.
It was getting late enough in the morning that he needed to put his equipment away, so he took the small walk to where the weapons were stored.  There was no one around, and aside from the servants he had seen when he procured breakfast early in the morning, he had been alone all day.  He enjoyed it as much as he hated it, giving him the time to think while also bluntly demonstrating his isolation from ponykind.  It wasn’t surprising and quite normal, but with thoughts of the future still fresh in his mind from Discord, it was a… raw subject.
Regardless, he made his way into the castle and, after a few minutes of walking through the spacious building, returned to his room for a shower.  However, as soon as he entered the room, he spotted Rarity standing on a stool, working on a large suit.  He paused in the doorway, waiting patiently for the unicorn to notice him, which didn’t take long considering how rapidly she was circling it.
“Ah, Ray darling, perfect timing,“ she greeted him breathlessly, stepping off the stool and moving it to behind the suit.  “I’m just giving it the final touches before I’ll have you put it on.”
“I… didn’t know you’d be here,” he stated simply, slowly moving to observe her work.  The suit was impressive, Rarity’s finest work for his human body so far.  It was made of a solid, soft black satin fabric with some golden embroidering making its way from the collar down the center and across to the shoulders.  The sleeves were long and tight, though obviously Rarity had taken into account the muscles Ray had built up since her last piece for him.  
“Oh, I planned it to be more of a surprise, but I didn’t quite expect you to return yet,” she hummed, busily threading the back of the collar to make it tighter.  “Twilight did say she wanted us ready for everything by twelve, yes?”
“Yeah, but I need to shower and such first, y’know,” Ray half-joked, pointing at the sheen of sweat he was still sporting.  The unicorn gave him the briefest glances before cracking a smile, getting back to work.
“Yes, well, that would be the best for everyone wouldn’t it,” she agreed.  “If you're comfortable with it, I’d like to stay in here to work on this while you clean up.”
“Oh, sure,” Ray replied, before chuckling dryly.  “I already basically walk around naked as is, and I trust you not to peek… but, um, I’m not sure if I want to wear that…”
“And why not,” Rarity inquired, unoffended by the statement.  
“Well… I just don’t want to put on a costume for everyone,” Ray explained, sitting himself down on the bed, watching as she continued to work.  “It isn’t like me anymore to put on a fancy suit and a proper face to talk with a bunch of important people.  I don’t need to bend to their fashion and customs just because they’re present.  They want to see me as akin to them so they can relate to my struggle, and more importantly, the struggle of my Fallen.  I won’t bend, though, and I won’t hide what this war has done.”
Rarity didn’t reply at first, carefully setting her sewing tools aside and stepping off the stool.  She looked him up and down slowly, thoughtfully, before reaching out a hoof and carefully touching the new scar across his stomach.  The skin was tender, but no longer hurt.  Even so, the feeling of the cold chitin against it made him shiver ever so slightly, though he didn’t back away.  Finally, the unicorn softly commented, “You want them to see your damage, what happens to those who fight Equestria’s war.  They’ll never know the names of the dead like you do, but they’ll recognize the scars on their champion.  It’s a very pragmatic and frank approach, but it isn’t the correct one.  At least, I don’t think so.”
Removing her hoof, she turned to her work and continued, “The creatures and nations of Equestria are already frightened by what the world across the sea can send our way.  They also are already enthralled by your and the Fallen’s heroism in stepping up to such a bold task.  What they need isn’t a show of what war means to those who fight it, but a demonstration of resolute resolve to continue the silent task of finishing the war.  Even if the war isn’t so close to an end as we all hoped, they want to know they’re safe and need to know that, no matter what, you’ll continue fighting.
“This suit is a perfect example of that because it isn’t the style in season this year,” she explained, giving him a sly smile out of the corner of her eye.  “The colors in style right now are teals and purples, mostly in celebration of Twilight’s coronation and an overall ‘spring’ feel to clothing.  Fabrics are light and threaded thinly, giving a flowy freedom to whoever wears the clothing.  Your suit, however, contradicts it all.  It’s bold, rich, and determined.  Black is a universal color and gold embroidering solidifies it in its uniqueness.  When ponies look and see this, they will see your height and strength outlined by a tightly fitting suit and a rich coloration.  They will see that you are about what you say, not whimsical or dismissive but firm and present.”
“Huh, I guess I’m not really fluent in fashion, then,” Ray chuckled slightly.  “I trust you.  I’ll try it on as soon as I've cleaned up.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Rarity smiled, stepping back onto the stool to finish whatever she was still working on.  “I’ll leave you be for that.”
Standing up, Ray walked into the bathroom that was joined with the bedroom, grabbing a towel from the rack in there and flipping the water on.  He slipped out of his clothes and stepped in, setting the loincloth on the floor to let it wash out.  The cool water helped quickly wash away the sweat and small amounts of soot on him, as well as easing tense muscles.  Today’s exercises weren’t necessarily strenuous, but they did leave his muscles achy enough to be called exercises.  Within a few minutes, he had finished washing up, his mind focused almost solely on making sure he was properly cleaned.
When he stepped out of the shower, however, he realized he didn’t have anything dry to put on underneath the suit itself.  For several long seconds, he stood there awkwardly, looking around as if he could simply find a pair lying out somewhere.  With a sigh, he knew there wasn’t really anything he could do about it, having to leave the bathroom in a towel to find some underwear or something.  
“Hey, I’m coming out in a towel,” he called to Rarity, cringing slightly at the admission.  “I forgot to grab anything to wear after the shower.”
“All good, I’ll close my eyes,” came the reply, prompting Ray to quickly dart to a drawer and grab a pair.  Racing back to the bathroom, he swiftly put on the clothing and made his way back out.
“Alright, you’re all clear,” he told the unicorn, sitting down on the bed once again.  “Might as well put the suit on.”
“Yes, I’m quite finished with what I can do without you wearing it,” she commented, giving the piece one last look, before nodding contently.  “Go ahead, try it on.”
Slipping on a simple white undershirt that hung on the rack first, Ray proceeded to put on the night-black pants with ease before realizing how complex the suit itself was.  Frowning as he carefully took from the rack, he looked it up and down before finally slipping it over his head.  The heavier, soft fabric clung tightly to him, not in an uncomfortable way, but should he need to move fast, it would almost certainly tear apart the costume.  It was also a little warm already, and considering the summer weather in Equestria, he was worried that being outside would lead to discomfort.
“Um, Rarity, it’s a bit hot,” he commented, earning a confident smile from Rarity.
“That won’t be an issue,” she assured him.  “According to the schedule, from noon to four, or dinner, you’ll be inside with all the other dignitaries, ambassadors, and foreign rulers at Twilight’s side.  After dinner, she’ll go out and address the crowd at a quarter past five, then return to the palace whenever she’s done and continue to propose what she plans to do in the next year or so as princess and so on.  However, after eight, we’ll all go onto the upper balcony of the palace and watch the light show before calling it a night.”
“Oh, so it’s designed for tonight’s schedule,” he realized with a nod.  “Alright, that makes sense then.”
“Yes, even though summer is here in all her warth, nights on the mountain still get awfully chilly,” the unicorn explained, beginning to look at different areas of the suit.  She hummed idly to herself as she observed each little hem and stitch.  However, after several minutes of her circling him over and over, looking over each inch of the cloth, she took a step back with an appreciative hum, muttering, “Well Tartarus, I’m getting the hang of human bodies, aren’t I?”
“Feels like it,” Ray replied with a smile, rolling his shoulders to demonstrate how well the fabric endured such use.  “This sure looks like quite the piece in my opinion.  Striking, if not my norm.”
“Hm, yes, well, it’ll certainly garner you a proper amount of lasting attention,” she said with a bright smile.  Then, winking at him, she suggested, “Perhaps you’ll even find a certain female friend tonight interested in more than just your muscles and heroics.  With a striking piece to match your striking personality, I’m certain you could spark a relationship with whomever your heart desires.”
“How many times am I going to have to tell you that I’m not looking for a relationship,” Ray sighed, shaking his head slightly. 
“Oh, I’m not telling you to go looking for your special somepony,” the white unicorn mare replied innocently.  “I’m just saying that if one comes your way, don’t ignore it or your heart.  It’d do you some good to finally have somepony that truly has caught your eye.”
“And when will you follow your own advice,” Ray shot back, ignoring the direction the conversation had been headed.  Rarity looked slightly taken aback by having the question turned on her, prompting him to press on.  “You and Spike have been apart for more than a year, and he seems fine and dandy, and you seem like you haven’t given it a second thought.  Are you just waiting for some dashing stallion to whisk you away?”
“Well, I’m not really… pursuing anypony,” she admitted hesitantly, before taking a stand.  “But I’ll have you know it’s not for lack of wanting.  I’ll try if I think I have a chance-” 
“And so will I,” Ray interrupted with a victorious grin, making Rarity sigh and roll her eyes at the human, realizing she had been beaten.  
“Just have fun tonight if you can,” she encouraged, putting away her stuff in a small kit.  Then, glancing at a nearby clock, she said, “Probably should be heading downstairs now.  The rest of the girls should be waiting down in the lobby early and we wouldn’t want to keep them waiting.  I was barely able to convince them to stay put and let me be the only one to invade your privacy as is.”
“Alright, I think I’m all set anyways,” he replied, silently slipping a knife into the belt hidden beneath the suit as soon as she turned her back.  He didn’t need it, he knew, but it was still a comfort to know he was prepared for… whatever.  
They left his room silently, entering the empty hall and making their way down to the main foyer.   It took only a couple minutes before they were at the grand staircase that took them down to the marvelous room.  Over the marble railing around the opening, he could see the others waiting, each mare wearing a striking dress of their own and Discord with a uniquely fancy suit as well.  Twilight was with them, looking surprisingly calm considering what a hectic day today probably was for her.  It wasn’t a surprise to see them talking softly amongst each other, but for the first time he realized that Pinkie was not only present but bouncing happily beside what he presumed to be her husband, an equally poofy yellow-orange pony.
Allowing Rarity to take the stairs down first, he carefully followed behind her, his footsteps padded by the simple cloth shoes he wore.  It wasn’t really surprising that Rarity hadn’t made him fancy dress shoes to match the ensemble, all things considered, but it was funny that everything but his feet were covered in the finest clothing he’d ever worn. Rarity’s hooves clacking on the granite stairs gave away their approach, and he smiled and waved at the group as they saw him.
“How’re ya doin’, Ray,” Applejack questioned, as he reached the bottom, only to be greeted with a reckless hug from Pinkie as she practically shrieked, “HE LIVES!”
“Yep, I’m living,” he replied to both, chuckling at the pink pony’s antics and prying her off.  “I’m doing perfectly fine, thank you.”
“That suit’s one heck of a piece, Rarity,” Rainbow complimented, whistling at the sight.  “I mean, you made Ray look even taller somehow, and his mangled ol’ mane looks proper scary like that!”
“It isn’t mangled,” Ray replied with a pout, running his hand through it to prove his point, only for it to get caught in the mess.
The cyan pegasus gave him a cocksure grin, before saying, “Oh really?  When was the last time you got a haircut?”
“Um… only a few months, like fourteen or something like that,” he admitted with a wry grin of his own.
“Wow, keep it up and curl your hair and you’d be stealing my look,” Pinkie squealed, taking her baby from her husband’s hooves.  “Ray, meet Cheesy.  Cheesy, Ray!”
“Cheesed to meet you, pal,” the stallion greeted with a wild handshake, his voice like a radio broadcaster.  “I’ve been hearing so much about your wacky adventures with everypony here and how much of a great guy you are!”
“Oh, they mythologize me,” Ray dismissed with a warm smile, letting go of the stallion’s hoof.  Then, with a playful wink, he told Cheese, “I’m more of a legend than a myth.”
“Careful, Ray!  If your head gets any bigger and it might fall off your shoulders,” Discord warned, his own head inflating to at least twice its normal size before falling off with a pop.  This made the earth pony couple, Fluttershy, and Dash laugh while AJ, Twilight, and Rarity shared an exaggerated eye roll.  
“Hey, this guy’s funnier than you warned me,” Cheese teasingly complained to Pinkie in between chortles.  
“Well usually he’s gloomier, but it seems like Discord’s been rubbing off on him,” the mare replied with a laugh, and even though the comment elicited amusement from the others, Discord and Ray fell silent, sharing a glance.  They hadn’t talked since their last conversation in the library, and even though the two had come to an agreement, the human couldn’t help but feel a lasting tension between them.  They had agreed that no matter what, they wouldn’t agree on Ray’s role in Equestria during and after the war.  It wasn’t a comfortable arrangement, and not knowing if he had told Fluttershy or not left a secondary layer of tension.  However, that could be put aside.
A sudden flare of trumpets overpowered the chuckles of those who were still laughing, and the sudden groan of the giant front doors opening prompted all to take position in whichever way looked most formal.  Ray looked down at Twilight, who met his gaze with equal confusion.  It wasn’t quite time for guests to be arriving, so this was an impromptu meeting.  However, as the doors opened enough to reveal who was at the steps of the palace, things made a lot more sense.
“We’re not late, are we sis,” Twilight’s brother asked as he began to step into the castle, Princess Cadence holding his hoof as they did so.  
Before Twilight could answer, a streak of purple, white, and pink shot past them and straight into the alicorn’s hooves with the shrill cry of, “Auntie!” 
“Hi Flurry,” Twilight squealed in delight, squeezing her niece tightly in a hug.  “How’s my favorite niece in all of Equestria doing?”
“I lost three teeth,” the little filly exclaimed proudly, grinning to display before noticing Ray as he stood over her and Twilight.  Her eyes lit up as she exclaimed, “Oh my gosh, it’s my big weird uncle!” 
This time, Ray laughed with the rest of the ponies.  The filly was a year older than last time, still retaining that very distinct childishness, but now also knowing a little better.  He couldn’t tell if that was truly her nickname for him or just a joke, but either way, it was funny.  What he didn’t expect was for the filly to suddenly wrap his leg in a small hug, much to Twilight’s dismay.
“Hey…” she pouted, though a glimmer in her eye revealed her joy at her niece sharing a bond with Ray.  “What about me?”
“I see you all the time, and you’re awesome all the time,” Flurry explained bluntly.  “I only get to see my big weird uncle once every blue moon.  He’s always… where are you?”
“Across the ocean, doing human things,” Ray explained without missing a beat or dropping his smile.  Reaching down and patting the filly on the head, he told her, “It is a shame I don’t get to see you often, though.” 
“How’re doing, Ray,” Cadence asked, her concern hidden well behind her warm smile.
“I’m doing perfectly fine, Princess, thank you,” Ray answered with an equal smile, bowing as a subtle demonstration of his recovery.  Satisfied with his response, the Princess moved on to greet the others in the room, her husband doing the same as Flurry returned dutifully to her parents’ side.  Even with her young age and clear vibrance, there was a regality in how she held herself and was able to keep her excitement under control as she took turns talking with those around her.  Ray subtly took a step back, knowing that these conversations were for the much closer family and friends.  
They talked until the next guests arrived, a group of politicians and nobles representing Canterlot, Baltimare, and Vanhoover.  The group noted Ray with amazement, but either out of respect or fear, none of them conversed with the human, instead accepting Twilight’s greetings before being guided to the ballroom by a butler.  It wasn’t long until there was a slow, steady stream of important nobles, politicians, and business leaders making their way through the doors.  Much like the first batch, the other attendees gave Ray wide-eyed stares and whispered to each other, though never daring to get near enough to talk.  He was expecting that sort of behavior, and simply reminded himself to be thankful they were now scared of him because of the legend Twilight had been building here in Equestria and not his strange, intimidating physique.  
At some point, the others left, leaving just Twilight to greet the guests with the human standing a few paces behind her, smiling respectfully and watching.  He was a bit surprised that there were so many guests, considering the last event he had been to in the castle was so exclusive.  Then again, the matter on the table was much more dark and entirely secretive, rather than a celebration.  Honestly, it was encouraging to see how many guests were appearing for Twilight.  The Princess deserved the support of her people, especially considering everything she was doing to both keep in touch with the war, prepare Equestria for defense, and keep it from panicking.  Even though Ray no longer was able to see it firsthand, he knew from the guests that they were indeed respectful of and thankful for Twilight’s leadership.  
That was another thing he noticed about the guests.  Even though many of them were richly dressed and of high standing, they were less cordial than he would have presumed.  Less… pompous.  Many of them carried themselves casually and spoke honestly, saying what they wanted to and keeping themselves humble before their Princess.  It was refreshing to see that the ponies in charge weren’t a group of snobbish, upright bastards and thieves like he had expected.  There were times when even the setting of Equestria surprised him with its genuinity.  
“Princess Twilight Sparkle and the human lord, Ray,” a sudden booming voice sounded, as another trio of guests entered through the main entrance.  
“Redar,” Ray greeted the black dragon, stepping forward to embrace the lizard.  Where once the dragon had been several inches taller than Ray, it was now he who held the advantage in height.  The shock of this change in appearance wasn’t hidden from either he or Ember’s faces as they stared up at with disbelief.  Smirking as he stepped back into his place, the young man asked, “Surprised?”
“Indeed!  What happened to the smaller Ray,” Redar questioned, smiling even if in shock.  
“I grew, got more trained, led my army, killed a few dozen minotaurs, almost died,” Ray surmised with a coy smile, before playfully adding, “The usual human business.”
“Sounds like it,” Ember chuckled, giving Ray a small bow.  The human couldn’t veil his surprise at the gesture, but the dragoness waved it off with a dismissive smile.  “Oh, don’t worry about it.  You deserve the respect you’ve earned.”
“Indeed,” Redar agreed, looking the human up and down appreciatively, before asking, “And you’re doing fine now?”
“Yes, I’m in perfect health, if that’s what you meant,” the young man replied reassuringly.  The pair of dragons gave each other a look, before each inspecting Ray once more, before Ember nodded.
“You seem alright,” she stated simply.  “Seems not even a life-threatening wound could keep you down for too long.”
“I’d be careful speaking too loudly if I were you,” another familiar voice chimed in as Pharynx suddenly stepped into the conversation.  “Many of the ponies here either don’t know why he is with us today or don’t want to be reminded.  Most of them, like us, would rather consider that Ray has everything under control across the ocean than that things are going poorly.  Speaking of which, considering we’re nearing a year of you being out there, I’ll go ahead and congratulate you for carrying on, Ray.  It can’t have been easy…”
“No, no it hasn’t,” he admitted with a sigh.  Then, putting on a smile, he told the changeling, “But it hasn’t been for a preponderance of troubles.  We’ve been victorious in every engagement and have secured a large swath of territory in the minotaur’s homeland… though we haven’t discovered any of their settlements yet.”
“Peculiar, perhaps they live in caves or mountains, somewhere hidden,” Redar suggested helpfully.  
“Haven’t found many of either, but we’ll keep our eyes out,” Ray joked, easing some of the tension the other three had been showing.  Ember once again looked up towards her mate, tugging slightly on his arm.  The male dragon blinked, but nodded silently in understanding.
Smiling apologetically, Ember explained, “We need to get going.  Many ponies have vested interests in the Dragonlands as they continue to open up to Equestria but don’t have the time or means to visit.  We’re hoping to settle as many matters as possible before Twilight’s speech.  If you don’t mind, I’ll be taking my husband from you.”
“Husband,” Ray questioned.  “When did that happen?”
“Oh, three months ago,” Ember explained casually.  With an apologetic smile, she told him, “We would have invited you, but there was no way to line it up with a full moon and Redar and I couldn’t wait.”
“Well, the world doesn’t revolve around me,” he assured the Dragon Lord with a respectful nod.  “I’m glad for both of you.  You’ll do well together, I’m sure.”
“Thank you, Ray,” Redar said with a slight bow before following his wife down the hall and making their way into the ballroom.  The human remained where he stood, noting how the trickle of guests was now beginning to show a little more diversity in species.  The buffalos walked right past him and Twilight with a simple statement of greeting, while other guests like Pharynx and Thorax lingered.  Though the former didn’t have much to talk about, the latter was buzzing with conversation as he managed a few words to Twilight between each greeting.  
Ray listened in, but it wasn’t the sort of conversation that he was too interested in.  Prosperity in the changelings’ hives and a great amount of cooperation between them and other species.  The occasional grievance of a minor inconvenience or a peculiar situation that popped up since the two had last seen each other.  Twilight humored the conversation, replying whenever she could and adding tidbits of insight.  Pharynx waited patiently with his brother, occasionally also talking with some entering ponies.  
Within an hour, most of the guests had arrived, and the changeling brothers had left to join the rest of the guests.  Even though there were mere hours to go until Twilight gave her speech, she was giving any passing official their own personalized speeches for whatever questions they were asking.  Ray didn’t get to see the Princess’ political side very often, especially with her as the one in charge of the room in such a way, but it was clear she was a natural.  If a pony came to her with a problem, they were quickly assured in a genuine way that Twilight would see to their concerns.  If someone approached her to talk about some mundane scientific discovery, she engaged in a deep conversation about the topic.  Knowing she had everything on her end under control from the get-go had allowed the human to slowly but naturally drift to the outskirts of the room, watching both the entrance of guests and the ballroom at the same time.
When it came to him, the large creature looming in the corner of the castle entrance with the dark purpose, most ponies simply gave him a passing nod.  He wasn’t able to tell if it was out of respect, acknowledgement, or fear, but it was the most he would get from them.  They seemed to have a perfect understanding that he wasn’t there to tell them about how the war was going, and that they really didn’t need to ask either.  There were maybe three stallions that had the courage to verbally greet him, but otherwise the whole hour he spent in the entrance after guests began arriving was simply observation.
However, when it was silently decided that enough guests had been greeted by Twilight, she moved to the ballroom.  Ray didn’t follow right away, lingering in the main foyer to simply watch the next few guests arrive before also stepping into the ballroom.  There was a group of instrumentalists that rotated out every few minutes, playing what sounded almost like classical music, if just a bit more chipper.  The music was proper, but not uptight, and that was the biggest takeaway from the ponies here.  Many of them were simply that: proper, but not uptight.  Some talked loudly, others joked with Pinkie Pie, and still more were dancing along to the music almost carefree.  It was… alleviating.
“Crowds aren’t really your thing, are they,” a sudden sharp voice piped up near him.  Confused, not recognizing it, he looked down to find the griffon girl from a year back at his feet.  The little bird cat’s bright eyes gave him an amused smile even while her beak remained respectfully passive.  Although she was certainly the same excitable griffon from a year ago, Ray quickly recognized a maturity to her he hadn’t seen during their previous encounter.
“Gabby, was it,” Ray asked in return, giving her the slightest nod.  When his only response was a nod in kind, he knew she wasn’t going to simply let her question drop.  With a breath, he looked back over the crowd and explained, “It isn’t that crowds aren’t my thing, more that I much prefer observing this crowd than getting involved with it.  Soldiers are more my type, I guess.  I could talk to tens of thousands of them at once and know they’re listening to my words for what they mean, not what they might mean in different contexts.  Here, every conversation is a dance, and I’m not the smoothest dancer.”
“Even this one,” Gabby asked, curious.
“Especially this one,” he emphasized, slowly crouching into a sitting position, having to work around the tight satin.  Now eye level with the griffon, he told her, “You’re young and apparently very important, given your presence here.  You have a future ahead of you in these political games that will undoubtedly cross paths with me over and over, given my importance to Equestria.  What I say now will stick with you until you meet me again and give you a preconceived notion of who I am.  You’ll also probably tell all of your friends about how you talked with the human and give them an honest answer to what I’m like, so whatever you say will sway them to like or dislike me.”
“Yeah, that’s what Gilda’s been teaching me,” she said with a sigh.  Then, with a more chipper smile, she told him, “I’m being taught by Gilda and some of the other reformist griffons how to be an ambassador.  Given how involved I’ve been these past two years in Equestria, Seaquestria, and the Crystal Empire, they asked me to step up as a validated ambassador.  It’s pretty neat how you knew that right off the bat.”
“Well, you’re one of the youngest creatures here, and I remembered you from last year,” Ray noted.  “It makes sense after how well you did then that you’re taking on larger roles now.  How’s it been treating you?”
“It’s been great,” she exclaimed softly, her characteristic enthusiasm much more reserved now.  “Exhausting for sure, but a great time.  I’ve traveled to all sorts of events across Equestria, and made quite a few friends, but I’ve gotta say, comparing conversations to dances is a great analogy.  Even when talking with friends, they have things they want to know about you without asking or push a certain idea without saying it.  I’d be upset, but I’ve been doing it as well.  It’s kinda refreshing to have someone who just upright points it out.”
“Well, I don’t quite have the time or patience to do dances, which sometimes comes off as offensive to more sensitive politicians,” Ray replied with a slight smile.  “I’m blunt with my soldiers, generals, and friends alike.  It’s just how I’ve come to be after everything I’ve learned with my time here.”
“Huh, don’t dance with creatures that have large toes,” Gabby stated thoughtfully.  There was a moment of silence as Ray attempted to pick up on what the griffon was putting down, but at last he had to concede he had no idea what she was trying to say.
“I… don’t get it,” the human admitted with a sheepish smile.  
The griffon squealed awkwardly, blushing slightly as she explained, “Well, bigger toes are easier to step on, so you don’t dance with creatures with big toes… because you’re more likely to step on them…”
Once again, Ray paused as he came to understand the little metaphor, before chuckling at the explanation.  It tickled him in a way he couldn’t quite explain, but the young griffon’s wide eyes and honest demeanor had him laughing at the silly comparison.  
“That’s the truth right there,” Ray wheezed, leaning back against the wall and looking up at the ceiling.  “You’re very fun to talk with Gabby.  I don’t think I’ve felt this relaxed talking to anyone else in… well, it’s been a while.”
“Not even with your friends,” she inquisitively pressed.
“Being honest, not even then,” he told her truthfully.  “I don’t suppose you quite know why I’m here, on a day that evidently isn’t a full moon and is, well, daytime.”
“No, I don’t,” she answered, before glancing at the crowd.  “I don’t think most of them do.  Maybe just the really important leaders.  Why are you here?”
Resting a hand over his new scar, patting the satin ever so slightly, he explained, “I was almost killed, and in surviving I destroyed the device that transports me to and from Equestria.  It’s taken a while for Twilight to fix it since it’s such a complicated little mechanism.  I was wounded after we won a very crucial battle, so I was able to leave without leaving my troops in the middle of a battle or anything.”
“You almost died,” Gabby whispered in disbelief, looking him up and down.
“Yes,” he confirmed with a slow nod.  “I’ve almost died twice now, once in my world and once in this world.  It was because of my own negligence this time.  The minotaurs, though easily beaten, are smart creatures and take what advantages they are given.  It is why I’m even here in the first place, because without me and my Fallen, they would have taken advantage of Equestria’s peacefulness and goodwill.”
“But you’ll return,” she inquired, tilting her head slightly, her wide eyes focused intently on him. 
“I’ve rarely gone an hour without the desire to go back,” he told her with a broad smile.  “Those Fallen, the generals and soldiers alike, are my closest friends.  Together, we’ve seen each other through thick and thin, no matter what adversity we face.  Hundreds of them have died not just for Equestria, but for each other.”
“Hundreds,” Gabby questioned hushly, the shock on her face evidence enough for Ray to realize he had said something she had no knowledge about.  Before he could ask, she quietly stated, “We’ve been told the war’s been going extremely well for us… but not at what cost.”
“Yes, there’s been a great cost for what we’ve gained,” Ray affirmed sadly, his thoughts drifting to Garish, Adant, and Rohan.  “But what we’ve sacrificed has been returned to us a thousand times over, and for that we can claim victory.”
“I’m sorry,” the griffon muttered, clearly having nothing to say for the heavy news he had borne.  
Smiling once again, he told her, “We’ve volunteered ourselves to keep up this war, to continue forcing ourselves out there, and it is our pleasure and purpose to do so.”  Then gesturing at the hundreds of guests and their happy, smiling faces, he told her, “Your job is to make the most of that time, to celebrate people like Twilight who ensure things go smoothly and help those of us who struggle to become stronger, more capable versions of ourselves.  That’s why tonight is about her, isn’t it.  Her three years of leadership, though challenging and turbulent, have been greatly successful and have seen Equestria becoming a better land every day.”
“How old are you, Ray,” Gabby questioned, her eyes once again curious, though this time there was a defined purpose in them.
“Not quite seventeen,” he answered.  “Why?”
“You’re very smart,” she stated simply, nodding her head while her eyes scanned the floor distantly.  “You’re only two years older than me, yet you know so much and carry yourself in a way that makes sense.  I think that’s why you were chosen; you’re able to be smart and strong at the same time.  I’m going to try and be like you.”
“I have my flaws,” he insisted with a flushed smile.
“I wouldn’t know them with a hundred guesses,” she replied simply, standing up on her paws.  With a kind, intelligent smile, she bowed her head and told him, “Thank you for humoring me, Ray.  It's been a privilege and an honor talking with you.”
“And it’s been a blessing to see the promise of Equestria’s youth,” Ray stated in kind, standing up to his full height before bowing his head.  
“Oh, shut up, you’re still just a kid too,” she joked, sticking her tongue out at him before turning over her shoulder and making her way seamlessly back into the midst of the crowd.
As he watched her go, her tail swishing ever so slightly, he noticed that there were far more eyes on him than before.  Apparently, his conversation with the young ambassador had gained the subtle attraction of many other astute members of the party.  They peered curiously at him over the shoulders of their constituents or from behind their little wine glasses.  Some bothered to hide it, others didn’t.  From what he could read in the eyes of those who watched him observantly, they were measuring him up.  They had heard the legends of him, what Twilight had told them of his feats with the Fallen, and now they wished to see for themselves how the human truly was without the mythos.  He was a veiled truth to them, something that blatantly existed, but the nature of which was unnatural and unknown.  However, even as his head churned with ideas of how to construe this event to his and the Fallen’s favor, what he had told Gabby rang true in the back of his mind.
This event was not about him, but about Twilight and her successes.  The creatures of Equestria could adore and support him later, but first they needed to be confident in who their Princess was and what her leadership gave them.  Ray’s vocal support tonight was the only thing that mattered.  The war was going fine, and whatever questions they asked about it could be answered in a way to continue to paint Twilight in a positive light.  After all, if anybody disagreed with her currently, the support of a towering warlord who had killed dozens of minotaurs across the ocean would most certainly be enough to sway even the most hesitant ponies to her.
He continued to think about what he might say in response to questions or comments concerning him, the war, or Twilight for longer than he realized as the party continued to slowly grow, the music becoming more festive and food more flamboyant.  Even though dinner was soon to be only two hours away, wines, breads, cheeses, and other appetizers were carried in and out by servants.  He didn’t try to get any for himself, and the waiters nervously avoided him if they could.  After a long while of observing the party, he slowly made his way along the wall to the other side, almost making it to his new position before being caught by Twilight herself.
Appearing from out of the midst of the crowd, she hailed him down with a wave of her wing and a smile.  As she approached, he gave her a swooping bow, going to one knee for emphasis.  Seeing this, she subtly rolled her eyes at him and sneakily swatted him with her wing, hissing, “Don’t do that Ray, you aren’t my subject!”
“It’s out of respect, Twi,” he assured her disarmingly, standing up again.  “Whadya wanna talk about?”
“I’m about to leave in preparation for my speech to Canterlot,” she explained, dragging him aside a little further to get space from the party.  “In about an hour, I’d recommend you go take your seat at the dinner table.  Your spot is reserved at the head of the table, since I won’t be eating there and-”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea,” Ray interrupted, giving her a narrowed stare.
“I was getting to that,” she impatiently explained.  “It’s to show everycreature here that there is nopony in Equestria I trust and respect more than you, and that your authority and presence should be respected on a level such as mine or Celestia and Luna’s.”
“Tonight isn’t about me, Twi, and it’d be detrimental to make it be,” Ray insisted with a frown.  
“I appreciate the humility, but tonight isn’t the night,” she stated with a shrug.  Then, some of her tension easing a little, she smiled and told him, “You’ve made quite the positive reputation with your little conversation with Gabby.  She’s perhaps the third or fourth most looked-at creature tonight after you and I ever since she became the youngest foreign ambassador for any nation, let alone the griffons.  She’s been spreading your name and good words to anyone she talks to.  There was a photographer here that captured a few impressive photos as well.  Great job.”
“I was just talking with her,” Ray replied bluntly.
“Perfect, that’s exactly what they needed to see from you tonight,” Twilight softly exclaimed.  “A relatable- though scary- creature who can carry on a conversation with the young ambassador without care or concern of how it looks.”
“How it looks,” Ray questioned with a raised brow.  
Waving his concerns away, Twilight stated, “I need to go now, but please just take the seat and deal with it.  The girls will be at the second table with familiar faces while you’ll be with… more challenging guests.  They aren’t problematic or anything, at least not explicitly, but they are the more loud and dissenting voices in debates.  Be patient and don’t scare them.”
“Alright, mom,” the young man replied with a wry grin, earning a slightly less hidden wing smack.  Chuckling, he reached down and hugged Twilight, which she returned with the slightest giggle.  Softly, he told her, “You’ve done great.  Congratulations.”
“Thanks,” came the choked reply as Twilight pulled away and Ray stood up.  The alicorn smiled gratefully at him, nodding her head slightly before making her way out of the room.  
No sooner had she left than a voice to his left asked, “You hugged the Princess?”
Looking over to find an older gray and white stallion, he nodded his head and answered, “Yes, we’re close friends.”
“Hm, I never would have thought,” he replied with a warm smile.  “Then again, she is the Princess of Friendship.”
Having said his part, the stallion walked back into the crowd, leaving Ray ever so slightly confused.  Shaking his head, he went back to crowd-watching, observing how Twilight’s exit had done little to dampen the conversation and joy of the party.  He watched Princess Cadence and her family make their rounds, talking with familiar and unfamiliar faces.  From his new position, he could see Celestia and Luna also crowd-watching, near the large outward facing window.  He met each of their eyes briefly and gave them a respectful nod before averting his gaze.  There was still the slightest bad blood he held in their regards, but now was not the time.  The Elements also made their rounds, mostly sticking together, and before he knew it, the time had come for him to make his way into the dining hall.
He found his seat easily, as calling it a throne would have been more accurate.  It sat at the head of the first and largest table, though in spite of its grandeur, as more guests arrived and were seated, he saw it was mostly filled with ponies who seemed only politically important to Twilight.  The second table hosted Twilight’s friends, family, and other important foreign dignitaries he had met from his last meeting here.  Though somewhat similar to then, there was much more confidence in this meeting having faced the uncertain future and now being much more secure with Fallen in the Tauran plains.  It was far more… peaceful than before.
Dinner was served exactly as scheduled, and Ray’s dish even had two small, smoked fishes on it, served by a griffon with more than a few grey hairs.  He ate silently, watching as those around him also dug into their meals, though they eyed him in turn as well.  He didn’t recognize anyone who was sitting near him, but he could tell they were incredibly important thanks to their fine attire, intelligent politeness, and embroidered pins.  After finishing his second fish, he moved on to the bread and salad, patiently waiting for one of the ponies around him to finally address his presence.  
“Well, friends, I believe Twilight’s seated us here for a reason,” a teal-coated stallion three chairs down from Ray to the left stated, his voice reserved but endearing.  All eyes went to him in an instant, though the yellow mare who sat next to him was the next to speak.
“I think my brother is right,” she said in a tone matching the stallion.  Looking toward Ray, she told him, “My name is Sunlight Archive, at your service.  I’m the mayor Vanhoover.  This here is my brother.”
“Mildew Morning, if you will,” the stallion introduced lightly with a nod.  “I’m the mayor of Seasadle, just south of Vanhoover.  It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ray.  We’ve heard legends about the human lordling and his armies.”
“Yes, everypony has,” a far more skeptical white mare with a deep blue mane sitting across from them intruded.  She gave him the courtesy of an introduction in spite of her shrewdness.  “Gem Pool, Baltimare.”
“Golden Opportunity, Las Pegasus,” another, aptly gold-maned white unicorn mare introduced to his right.  Rolling her eyes as the siblings chuckled, she grumbled, “I get it, my name is ironic.”
“Candy Carol, Manehattan,” came the call from the mare directly to his left.  She looked sort of like Pinkie Pie with a purple mane and no curls, though her eyes were far more focused and serious than the Element of Laughter’s.  
“Rainbolt Hurricane, Cloudsdale,” the stallion sitting next to Golden introduced, tipping a glass to the human.  Ray nodded slightly in acknowledgement to the blue stallion, taking another bite as he stared expectantly at the final stallion near him sitting across from Mildew.
The black stallion looked the human up and down for a long moment before finally saying, “Esper Cloak, though I prefer Esper.  Canterlot.”
“Hm, I see,” Ray hummed, taking another bite of food as he analyzed the ponies sitting around him.  All mayors of major Equestrian cities, all prominent, and each either comfortable with him or not. He was almost done with his meal and was tempted to simply sit in silence and finish eating while staring at them, but decided on a different approach.  Looking back at Mildew, he asked, “Well, what were you saying before your sister interrupted you?”
This earned a few chuckles from the more relaxed mayors, including Sunlight.  Smiling hopefully, the named stallion explained, “Well, I was under the impression you might know considering it seems you and the Princess are close.”
“Is she trying to intimidate us,” Gem Pool skipped to the point, her scowl poignantly demonstrating her disgust at the thought.
“Are you intimidated,” he questioned, looking over his glass as he took a drink of the cool water within.  The mare shifted uncomfortably in her seat, clearly caught in her own words.  Rescuing her from the embarrassing silence, he declared, “I’m here at Twilight’s invitation to celebrate her success.  She’d much prefer this to be a party than a… meeting of politicians.”
“So she would like us to think, yet even your mere presence suggests something to do with the war,” Candy Carol pointed out.  
“Yes, with your role as the general of our armies, it suggests that you are a piece of her political shuffleboard,” Golden interjected in agreement, leaning forward in her chair.
“‘Your armies’,” Ray challenged, sitting upright to allow himself to loom over the table.  “I think I must remind you that the Fallen are independent entirely of Twilight’s rule and influence, and that includes me.  She explicitly agreed that I and my soldiers, until their restoration as ponies, were not Equestrian citizens and thus subject to her.”
The trio of outspoken mares fell silent for a moment, looking at each other to try and find what to say next.  Finally, Gem spoke up once again and stated, “Your purpose, in its entirety, is that of war, fighting, and commanding.  How can we not feel that your presence at the head of the table instead of Twilight would mean anything but that you are her second?”
“Oh, I am her second, but pray tell, why would she make such a statement,” Ray said outright, earning a few raised eyebrows for how blatantly he put it.
“Then it is intimidation she’s going for,” Golden exclaimed, putting a hoof to her neck in disdain.  Instead of verbally replying, Ray let out a long sigh and rolled his eyes, shaking his head in disappointment for emphasis.  Hesitantly, the mare softly questioned, “It is, isn’t it?”
“Golden Opportunity, was it,” Ray asked, allowing the impatience to seep through his voice.  Receiving a nod of confirmation, he continued, “Tell me, Golden, do you care much for your constituents in Las Pegasus?  Do they mean anything to you?”
“Of course they do,” the mare declared firmly, the slightest disdain in her tone.  “Las Pegasus is my home and the ponies there are my friends and family.  Why, I’m their mare because I put my entire effort into ensuring the city runs right and is represented well!”
“Then you must understand somewhat the regard with which I hold my Fallen,” Ray connected, allowing himself to relax into his seat slightly.  Taking another sip of water, he explained, “While I am a general now, yes, being a good general didn’t qualify me to be the one chosen to save Equestria in its hour of need.  Like myself, the Fallen will live on after the war, but no longer as Fallen.  No matter their virtues and heroism, there will be challenges integrating them back into Equestria after fifteen hundred years.  That will be my purpose for being here afterwards, and while I do hope my Fallen can take to representing themselves, it won’t be immediately.  That’s why I think Twilight has me seated here: to show that I will be a familiar face to many of you, and that the Princess trusts me with that role.  At least, that’s what she hinted at, given she never outright told you.”
“Really,” Candy questioned, looking conflicted at the revelation.  
“Yes, as I said before, she would much prefer if this were a party, and not a political meeting,” Ray concluded, resting his arms as he leaned forward on the table.  “Please, enjoy your meals and celebrate with the rest of Equestria the successes of Princess Twilight.”
“And what of her failures,” the black unicorn at the edge of the group finally spoke up, his voice venomous.  “What say you to those, human?”
“Excuse you,” Ray questioned, sitting upright once again as his brows furrowed angrily.
“There’s been a movement among the ponies of Equestria to allow for them to vote in a qualified ruler that represents them, not a tyrannical system of monarchy,” Esper stated, undeterred, meeting Ray’s eyes fiercely.  “For three years now, Twilight has shut down every attempt to push forward with a free election of those who the ponies deem qualified to lead them.  What is your response to that, human?”
“Who is most qualified,” Ray uttered in complete disbelief.  Then, with a bitter laugh, he pointed a finger at the black unicorn and proclaimed, “I thought you were sitting in the back silent because you had something intelligent you add to the conversation, and you bring this?  Seriously, I’m uncertain how the grand city of Canterlot elected an idiot to be their mayor.”
Everyone at the table, even those that hadn’t been participating beyond Esper, gasped in shock, their jaws dropping.  Giving them all a quick, scornful glance, he grumbled, “Well it’s the truth.  Who would you deem more qualified that Twilight, huh?  Some pony who grew up in Canterlot and studied at some stuffy institution on how to talk smart?  No, that is no qualification at all.  You seem to have all forgotten who Princess Twilight Sparkle is, so let me remind you in words so plain your dumbasses could understand them.  Twilight Sparkle is the Princess of Friendship, Element of Magic, and ruler of Equestria not through luck or election, but through her own skill.  While you wish to ‘deem’ someone qualified to rule you, she has spent the last eight years of her life proving her qualifications and earning the respect you ought to show her.”
Ray was standing up now, keenly aware that the entire room had fallen still at his outburst, but he kept his eyes trained on Esper.  “Who was it that brought the Elements together when Nightmare Moon returned?  Who was it that rallied her friends to face any challenge that faced Equestria, saving it countless times?  Who was it, when the future seemed full of death and destruction, altered the course of time itself to protect Equestria from its fate?  Without Twilight, Equestria would have been torn apart a dozen times over without a fight.  Without Twilight, you would all be nothing more than hide wrapped around the bodies of minotaur.  That’s what I say to that, pony!”
The young man bit back his anger enough to let his words ring in the silent ballroom.  All eyes were on him, bolstering his every word, letting him know that what he said now was what the rest of Equestria would hear.  Taking a breath, standing upright, he finally looked around at the other creatures sitting at their tables.  They held their own breath, waiting with fear and anticipation for what the human would say next.  Letting out his breath, he spoke.
“We are here tonight to celebrate a wonderful mare and spectacular leader who has seen Equestria, both nation and continent, through the greatest crisis it has ever faced, and with that, bring it to a growing golden era.  Her foresight, her knowledge, and her enduring kindness in all aspects of her rule have made her the leader Equestria never deserved, but so desperately needed.  Through her and her alone we can stand together now and have joy.  That is why I am here, tonight, not as a harbinger of destruction or warmonger, but as a living testament to Princess Twilight Sparkle’s immaculate character and nigh-on perfect leadership.  That is why we live now.”
Having said all he could, he sat back down in his seat, grabbing his glass of water and staring coldly at Esper as he took a small sip.  The black stallion was flustered, and having been verbally thrashed so thoroughly, there was no way out but to leave.  Refusing to meet the human’s eyes through his shame, he stood up and was watched by all as he swiftly retreated through the main doors into the ballroom.  He didn’t even wait until he was completely out of sight before teleporting away, the flash of his magic a final note to his humiliation.
Several long moments passed in silence as the party stared between the human and where the opposing stallion had been.  Ray disregarded the stares, finishing his meal in two bites and downing the rest of the water in his glass.  As he did so, he heard a soft sound like a snap, drawing his attention to the second table where Gabby sat, looking almost proud as she watched him.  She brought her claws together again, slowly picking up pace as others around her began clapping as well.  Soon, the entire room was in applause, the occasional whistle and holler thrown in.  Leaning back in his seat he gave them a slow nod, while patting himself on the back.  He had stuck the landing tonight for Twilight.
“Um, excuse me, Ray,” a voice suddenly whispered in his ear, almost startling him.  Through the clapping and cheering, he hadn’t heard the approach of a maid, who now told him, “Princess Twilight would like to have a word with you, if you would step outside the ballroom with me.”
In spite of himself, Ray felt his eyes widen at the request, not having expected the alicorn to be back for much longer.  A quick glance at the large window revealed that it was actually sunset, meaning all of this political jargon had taken far more time than he had realized.  Smiling through his surprise, he stood up as the applause began dying down, giving a short wave at his friends at the second table before following the maid out of the ballroom.  
He once again was given a mini heart attack as Twilight was standing literally right outside of the doors, glaring at him.  She gave the maid a short nod, dismissing her, and waited until she was around the corner before stating shortly, “We’re going to my library.”
Ray didn’t even have time to process the statement before the world was suddenly sparkly and purple, and then an entirely different room.  
“What the hay was that, Ray,” Twilight cried before he could get ahold of his surroundings, her voice shrill with panic.  
“You shouldn’t ever do that while I have a full stomach,” he warned, feeling his belly roll with nausea as he came to terms with where he was and what was going on.  Forcing himself to stand upright and take deep breath, he met Twilight’s wide-eyed stare with a coy smile.
“No no no, you don’t get to avoid questions,” she informed him with a curt gesture of her wing and annoyed flick of her ear.
“That was me defending you,” Ray relented, crossing his arms over his chest.  He almost choked himself doing so thanks to the shirt he was wearing, forcing him to shift slightly.  
“Ray, I told you expressly to be patient and not scare them,” she shouted.  “What the hay happened to that?”
“Um, idiots, Twi, idiots and their stupid ideas,” he answered simply.  “Esper and his little entourage were questioning your capabilities as a ruler, so I did what I do best and reminded them what you’ve done for them.”
“Thank you, but you weren’t here to do that,” she reminded him with a grimace.  “You were there to show that I trusted you, not to confront their complaints about me!”
“But if they don’t trust your judgement, why would they ever trust me,” he countered with a smirk.  Twilight opened her mouth to protest, but he watched her mind visibly blank.  
Taking a moment to ponder, she finally stamped her hoof in defeat, grumbling, “Shoot, that’s a good point.”
Laughing at the alicorn’s frustrated admission, Ray relaxed and knelt down in front of her, reaching out pat her head lovingly.  “Twi, you’re smart enough to know this was a good thing for the both of us.  I just defended your legacy and reputation from what I’m assuming are some of your greatest opponents, even though most of them have never seen or talked to me before.  Esper ran away crying, for heaven’s sake!”
“Yeah, it was kinda cathartic,” she allowed with a small smile.  Then, with a sigh, she told him, “Oh, just hug me already.”
Chuckling, the human did so, wrapping her in a soft hug, working around the restraints of the clothes to give her the best possible embrace he could.  They remained like that for several minutes, a warm, lasting smile on Ray’s face as he happily reminisced on tonight’s successes.  It wasn’t altogether challenging to overcome the adversity of ponies, given who he was and how he looked to them, but it was a bit of an exercise to not slip up himself.  Still, for Twilight, tonight would be- hopefully- the last time she was faced with a dissenting voice.  
“Hey, fireworks are gonna start soon, and I’m sure you wouldn’t want to miss those,” she told him, still hugging him with her hooves and wings.  “It’d be great to have you on the balcony with me.”
“That was the plan wasn’t it,” Ray asked, his smile growing into a grin.  Letting go, he stood back and told her, “Okay, I’m ready for teleportation now.”
“Are you sure about that,” Twilight challenged with a wry grin.  “I could always catch you off-guard.  Maybe wait for-”
In a flash, she teleported them both, sending Ray off-balance when the world returned to normal.  He stumbled into the wall, laughing in spite of a rush of nausea as he exclaimed, “You actually did it, you crazy pony!”
“I try,” she replied with a cheeky grin.  Then, with an excited nod of her head to the double glass doors leading out to a crowded balcony, she insistently urged, “C’mon, we’re almost late.”
Following behind her as she magically opened the doors, he stepped outside into the warm summer night air, smiling and nodding at the friends and family standing there.  Rarity, Fluttershy, Discord, Pinkie Pie and her family, the Apples, CMC, the Princesses, Princess Cadence and her family, and the other leaders like Ember, Redar, Queen Novo, Thorax, and Pharynx all stood on the balcony.  The sun had set leaving a soft darkness, and before anyone could greet the two of them, a sudden explosion of purple flashed in the air over the castle.
Ray watched with a wide grin as firework after firework exploded in the sky, admiring the many different colors, shaps, and sparks they had.  He hadn’t seen a fireworks show since the 4th of July almost three years ago, and had completely forgotten how marvelous the little rockets were.  
Wait… rockets?
“Twilight,” Ray suddenly exclaimed, turning to the alicorn.  “Those fireworks, what do they use to explode like that?”
“You mean, like the colors or-” she tried to understand, confused.
“No, the actual explosions, is that gunpowder,” he interrogated, his heart pounding.  “How are they exploding?”
“Flashpowder,” Twilight answered, clearly still not sure what he was on about.  
“What would happen if you filled a firework with nothing but primer and flashpowder,” he asked.  
“Well, it would cause a large, dangerous explosion, but why would you…” Twilight trailed off as her eyes widened in realization.  Then, after a moment, they narrowed in thought, flitting to the next batch of colorful explosions about them, before finally returning to him.  That was all the confirmation he needed.
“How many of those could you have made before I return,” he questioned intensely, excitement growing.
“I-I-I-I’m not sure, Ray, I mean, explosive devices aren’t my forte, not by a longshot,” Twilight replied in shock, her mind catching up with his.  “I’d have to find somepony else with more experience, and I’m not sure if-”
Whipping around and making eye contact with Pinkie, he asked her, “Do you know how to make fireworks?”
“I don’t talk to cops,” the mare exclaimed, zipping her mouth closed with a hoof and turning away from Ray.  Muttering a curse, he turned back to Twilight and explained, “Twilight, if we could get explosives out to the Tauran plains, that would completely alter the way we fight this war.  If we can figure out a way to use rockets against the minotaurs by pointing flashpowder fireworks at them, why, we might be able to double their losses and halve our own!”
The final firework went off in a blaze of purples, whites, and pinks, as Twilight stared up at Ray, words lost on her.  Finally, she managed to choke, “I’ll do the best I can, but are you sure this is… possible, if right at all?”
“We need these if we can get them, Twi,” Ray insisted, gesturing to the last dying sparks.  “Think of the damage they could do!”
> The Burning City
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The billowing smoke from the fire’s below stung Nova’s eyes, but that wasn’t the reason he was crying.  He stood at the same precipice he had been crowned on all those millenia ago, wearing the same crown, but looking over a much different city in a time he could never have predicted.  The city that had stood since before his birth, the first settlement of the strangest land, now burned. 
Three months ago, the first wall had finally fallen, practically shattered by the endless barrage of the minotaurs’ trebuchets.  Then, last month, the second wall had been overrun by the minotaurs, tens of thousands of them flooding into the interior and slaughtering everypony they had come across.  Diadem had been slain that day, standing with the last of the soldiers fighting on the wall.  Nova had tried to save them, but even with his almighty power, nothing could be done to save them from the endless horde.  Then, at last, three days ago they breached the third wall, breaking the last line of defense between the minotaurs and Old Unitaria.  
Fighting was ongoing all across the wall and in the neighborhoods directly around it, whatever soldiers remaining putting up a valiant effort to buy as much time for their friends and family as possible.  The fighting was finally dying down, though, as the last several hundred of his soldiers not at the harbor were overwhelmed in the vicious melee.  Ponies were hardy creatures, but against the bovine beasts, they stood no chance.
Nova should have been able to do more, should have been able to save his ponies as the Pathfinder had done four thousand years ago.  He had killed hundreds upon hundreds of minotaurs in the last few days alone, but there were always more to replace them.  He was forced to abandon the effort to lead the evacuation of Unitaria, ensuring that every foal, mare, and stallion was aboard a ship ready to leave or equipped for the long flight over the tundras.  Tendril would lead the ships the long way around the northern tips of the continent, through the melting ice and to the far eastern coast, while he would guide the flock of pegasi across the continent, over the mountains, and to the far deserts.  
“My Prince, you must come away from there immediately,” Ember Wing instructed, rushing to Nova’s side.  “The minotaurs’ crossbows could undoubtedly reach us by now.”
“I would strike them down first,” the Prince spat bitterly, his eyes scanning the streets near the large palace for signs of life.  They hadn’t breached that far into the city yet, the brave souls on the wall still attracting the most attention.
“You’ve no time for that,” Ember insisted, pulling him away from the ledge.  “The final ships have been loaded.  Bless those stallions on the wall, they bought us enough time.  We’ve everypony ready to embark or take flight.  We just need to load whatever soldiers we can on the final ship.”
“I’ll gather whoever I can,” Nova grimly told the stallion, looking him over long and hard.  “Get to the ship.  You’ll need the head start.”
“Yes, my Prince,” Ember agreed, his voice shaky.  With the slightest hesitation, stealing one last glance at the burning city, the earth pony turned and began running.  
Sighing deeply, Nova turned once again to the precipice, this time spreading his wings wide and lighting his horn.  Eyes set on the wall nearest to him, he thrust his wings down with a powerful burst of energy, sending him soaring into the air.  He narrowed his eyes against the wind, looking down in the empty, cluttered streets for any wandering soldiers.  It didn’t take long before he saw a group of maybe thirty soldiers standing behind a makeshift barricade at the end of a street, prepared to fight to the death to defend it.
“Flee to the harbor,” he called down, enhancing his voice so it echoed over the city.  “The way is clear, get to the boats!”  
He watched with the slightest satisfaction as many of the soldiers took off running while several others took flight to meet up with where the pegasi were.  He repeated the call as he flew over another group of soldiers, and soon he watched as dozens of soldiers were taking to the skies above the city, their comrades on the ground not far behind them.  However, even as the survivors began making their way towards the ships, the minotaurs on and around the wall sensed the change in battle and began attempting to push towards the harbor.  
From his vantage point swooping through the sky, he was able to spot a group of charging minotaurs barreling down one of the streets closest to the palace, chasing several dozen of his soldiers.  With a growl, he dove toward the street, the wind screaming in his ear.  He approached at neck-break speed, spreading his wings wide and cupping his wings to slow himself enough that when he slammed into the ground, he was able to channel that power through himself and into the street.  Flowing magic through the action, he turned the street into a wave of shattered cobblestone that flew into the face of the minotaurs, crushing them or rending apart.  
There were only a few remaining minotaurs who stumble to a stop at the sight of the black alicorn.  He glared at them with his horn glowing, challenging them to approach.  The beasts hesitantly raised their weapons, Nova’s cue to charge them.  Speed enhanced by magic, he lithely leapt over the dead bodies and broken street, slashing his glowing hot horn through the abdomen of the nearest minotaur.  The others moved to swing at him, but he pulsed shield out from himself, pushing away them all and sending a few into the air.  Levitating several swords and axes that lay scattered across the street, he flung them into the remaining minotaurs, sending each down.  The street cleared, he shot into the sky again, hungry to fight more minotaurs.  
His eyes turned to the wall, where the sounds of fighting had crescendoed into a cacophony of screams and metal clanging.  The minotaurs had pushed onto the wall once again, and this time they seemed determined to kill everypony there.  With a growl, he soared through the air, swooping over the city, igniting his horn once again.  As he neared a segment of the white brick wall covered in minotaurs forcibly advancing on his soldiers, he released a massive beam of fire from his horn, lining it up perfectly with the wall so it burned all the way down to the next parapet.  Dozens of minotaurs were incinerated by the blaze while several others were sent over the wall by the shock of the blast, their screams cutting off abruptly.  Circling, he dove towards where the few minotaurs he hadn’t blasted were fighting his soldiers.  Staying in the air, he wrapped his hooves around one of the horns of the minotaurs near back as he passed by, dragging it over the side of the wall and letting it drop.  He went to replicate the move, only finding that his soldiers had already cleared the few minotaurs.
“Get to the ships as fast as you can,” he instructed.  “Don’t try fighting the minotaurs.  Just run.”
He didn’t stick around long enough for the soldiers to respond, swooping over the next parapet.  A couple crossbow bolts flew at him, but they were each too inaccurate to threaten him.  This portion of the wall was bloodied so severely that it could have passed as always being red, minotaurs still crowding it.  He ignored them, reminding himself that saving the lives of his soldiers was more valuable than killing a couple more minotaurs.  The next several parapets were either destroyed or overran as well, until he neared the final western parapet, where the wall would then link with the sheer walls of the Western Pillar, the cliff that overlooked the city’s west.
Here, he found several hundred of his soldiers trapped.  The parapet was blockaded so that no minotaurs could breach their lines from there, but the minotaurs were already using ladders and crossbows to try exterminating the remainder of his soldiers here.  They fired from buildings that rose near the wall from the other side of it, the commercial interior between the third and second walls, giving them a lethal vantage point.  Once again lighting his horn, this time he had to strain as he tore one of the larger, stone-brick buildings from its foundation, minotaurs and all.  With a grunt, he threw the levitated structure at the other buildings, watching with satisfaction as it crumbled several of the threatening structures with a burst of dust and debris.  By fortune alone, several of the ladders, all with minotaurs still climbing them, were collapsed by stray chunks of stone and wood.  
With the pressure alleviated momentarily, the soldiers were capable of pushing the last couple of ladders down without Nova’s assistance.  He came in for a landing, but even with their successes, there were no cheers from the trapped soldiers.  Pausing to take his breath as the crowd of soldiers shuffled, hooves clacking nervously on the stone, the alicorn stared out over the city that burned.  The situation was beyond hopeless for them.  Even if they managed to push the minotaurs off the wall and retreat to the boats, there was no returning to Unitaria.  There wouldn’t be anything to return to once they abandoned the city, as the minotaurs had demonstrated with Green Pasture and Equity.  
“My Prince, Ganderbuck, at your service,” an exhausted soldier near him reported once he pushed through the crowd.  “We’re thankful to have you, my Prince, but there is nothing you can do to help us.  The minotaurs occupy that parapet and our last escape off the wall.  If we tried pushing through, we’d be slaughtered like everypony else.  Just leave us to stall them as long as possible and we’ll be proud to-”
Nova turned away from the noble stallion, lighting his horn and wrapping his magic around the entire parapet.  He felt his strength rapidly begin to drain as he strained to tear the parapet’s stone apart, crushing it and pulling at it as hard as he could.  With a sudden, thunderous crack, the parapet shattered where it met the wall.  Without missing a beat, he thrust the structure forward, sending it crashing down on the minotaurs on the other side of the wall.  The force of the stones crashing against each other caused the entire segment of the wall to collapse, a cloud of white-gray dust to shoot into the air.  Over the sound of crashing stones and crumbling brick, Nova was able to hear the soldiers begin to shout orders to each other.  
Exhausted though he had grown, the Prince still retained the strength to stand upright and turn to the soldiers once again.  Locking eyes with Ganderbuck, he instructed, “Have your unicorns carve out stairs in the side of the cliff with their magic.  We’re evacuating soldiers now, and you can only hope now that you outpace the minotaurs.”
“Yes, my Prince,” the shocked stallion replied.  Having the soldier’s confirmation, Nova took flight once again, his wings feeling much harder to push against gravity.  Nonetheless, he flew, soaring back over the city and towards the eastern segments of the wall, where it would meet with the North Pillar.  Much like the Western Pillar, the sheer cliff cradled the city and its harbor, serving as the natural ending to the wall and a barrier to the blasting coastal winds.  There were far more minotaurs here, and only scattered, surrounded pockets of soldiers desperately holding their own in the final hours of battle.  
His stomach churned with nausea as he recognized that there was no way to save all of them, or even most of them.  The minotaurs were overwhelming the soldiers rapidly, so shoving aside his dread and anger, he scanned for the largest pocket of soldiers and flew down towards them.  He charged his horn, feeling the strain begin a migraine as he released the spell on the minotaurs not quite on top of his soldiers yet to their right.  The burst, not quite focused, exploded with a blossom of flame enveloping the entire segment and breaking apart with a spray of stony shrapnel.  He landed right behind the remaining minotaurs, releasing another short slash of magic that cut through the air and halved the minotaurs, extinguishing it before it reached his own ponies.  
With this side cleared he burst into the air, charging a final charge of magic as a flash of black obscured his vision, pain from using so much magic too quickly threatening to overtake him.  Fighting for his consciousness, he focused on the power in his horn and remembered Concordia’s Edict for the briefest moment, managing to time it with the release of his spell.  In an instant, a wave of white, sparking magic surged from the tip of his horn, passing over and around the ponies and then striking the minotaurs.  Nova was incapable of watching the rest, his eyes rolling into the back of his head as he felt consciousness finally escape him.  He began to fall as he drifted off to-
With a crack he landed on the wall, his left wing breaking on impact and snapping him back awake with a shout of pain.  Instantly soldiers moved to help him up, when a sudden explosion lit the entire sky with a blinding flash of white and red, shaking the wall and sending those still standing to the ground.  Nova’s eyes widened as he watched with wonder as sparks filled the air, followed by a plume of dust as the Edict worked.  Even in spite of his success, he was incapable of getting up himself, requiring the aid of those soldiers knocked to the ground to assist him.  When they did so, he recognized the awe in their eyes, which flitted between him and the lingering veins of magic surges in the sky.  
“No time, friends,” Nova reminded them with a grunt of pain as he was forced to use the smallest surge of magic to heal the broken bones in his body.  “We must evacuate immediately, if you want to live.  The boats are loading soldiers now.  You must hurry to the harbor.  Ignore the enemy; the city is theirs.”
The grim news was not at all unexpected, but even still Nova saw the sorrow in their eyes and defeated glances beyond the wall at the destroyed sections of Unitaria.  Taking a breath, stabilizing himself, he consoled, “We must do now as our forefathers did when the winds and snow threatened their homes.  We must run and find a new shelter, away from conflict and safe from the hazards that draw us to such ends.  Then, we will rebuild a new haven for ponykind to thrive from.  Go now, survive that we may rebuild and thrive once again.”
His words seemed to have enough of an effect on the soldiers to get them moving, but even he knew they were simply words right now, especially hard to believe as the soldiers were forced to scramble over dozens of their dead comrades in order to get off the wall.  However, with this large group saved and his wing healed enough to fly again, Nova took to the skies on another rescue mission.  Before he could get over the next parapet, though, dozens of ponies suddenly were taking flight all across the wall, abandoning those earthbound to their doom.  Brow furrowing, he darted through the air to catch one, who upon spotting the alicorn, paused.
“What are you doing soldier, abandoning your comrades,” Nova demanded, looking the pegasus over angrily.  
“Sir, General Hayburn gave the order for those who could fly to leave,” the young stallion replied, glancing back down at the wall briefly before cringing and looking away.  “He… insisted we lived.”
“Then live,” Nova ordered with a nod.  “I will do what I can.”
There was no time for a response, Nova nose-diving straight down into the fray.  The scene on the furthest east parapet was similar to that of the western one, save a crucial difference: the minotaurs had breached the parapet.  The fighting here was crowded and brutal, minotaurs and ponies alike fighting bitterly for their lives.  As he rapidly approached, he ignited his horn to levitate a minotaur, only to find that his previous excursions had left him too exhausted and with too few reserves to use magic.  He had to veer sharply off course to prevent himself from crashing headfirst into the minotaurs.  The pain in his head almost made him drop from the sky, forcing him to land near the back of the line of ponies.  
“My Prince, what are you doing here,” he heard a voice call between the crowded bodies.  Nova looked around for the familiar general, picking out Hayburn’s bright golden mane through the crowd.  Pushing his way through some of the soldiers, he met the general halfway, to which the stallion immediately told him, “Get out of here, my Prince.  We can delay the minotaurs even longer yet.”
“But I can rescue you,” Nova attempted to charge.  “I’ve already helped everypony on the western wing.  It’s time to evacuate here.”
“There’s nothing you can offer us that is worth more than your life, Nova,” Hayburn replied with a frown.  Nova’s eyes followed the stallion’s hoof as it pointed up, revealing the smallest swirl of smoke leaking from his black horn.  
Pressing his lips into a thin line, the alicorn declared, “I can still fight, still help you get off this wall.”
A sudden crescendo in screams reminded the both of them that the minotaurs were only a few dozen spans away, the sharp clang of metal on metal piercing the air decisively.  Hayburn looked back to Nova, giving him the briefest of smiles, before softly telling him, “Go, my Prince.  They will need you in the coming days.”
Nova had to bite back his pride, instead telling the general, “We will always remember you.  All of you.”
“Go,” was all Hayburn could say, tears brimming his eyes.  “Go…”
Nova went, soaring into the air in the direction of the harbor.  He couldn’t bring himself to look back at the wall, to watch those he abandoned fight and die.  Instead, he allowed the sweeping winds to carry him down to the harbor, forcing aside emotions momentarily to focus on those he could yet save.  In the streets, dozens of soldiers were making their way swiftly to the ships, and in a rare stroke of luck, they weren’t being followed.  His eyes turning to the oceans, his heart lifted ever so slightly at the sight of eighteen ships, loaded with as many ponies as would fit, floating in the water.  There was one final, nineteenth, ship, still docked on the moor and slowly loading with the trickle of soldiers that were making their way to it.  
He flew past it, landing on the foremost, colorful caravel.  The deck was crowded with mares, foals, and stallions, all pressed tightly together and watching the smoke rising from their burning homes.  His heart groaned at the sight of so many of his ponies suffering, but all he could do now was ensure that they would make it out of this, that their suffering would be alleviated one day.  He touched down on the stern, right beside Admiral Junction, startling the young stallion slightly.  
“Hoist your anchor, admiral,” Nova commanded before the unicorn could bow.  “We must begin leaving immediately.  The minotaurs are breaching the Old City and we can’t risk these ships being in crossbow range.”
“Right away, my Prince,” Junction replied with another quick bow before bellowing the orders to those around him.  A pegasus standing nearby took off to carry the news to the other boats, as the ponies on the deck began to stir at the news.  Shouts, wails, and crying soon followed as the reality that they were leaving their homeland for good.  Some simply stared at the smoke rising over the city while others glanced warily at the cliffs that flanked either side of the harbor, shrouding it in shadow.  As the ship jerked, beginning to raise anchor, Nova gently lifted off the wooden deck and taking off toward the wall once again.  
In spite of himself, he had to check to see if there was anypony he could save left, if there was even one soldier alive that he could help survive.  However, with his rapid approach to the wall, he could see for himself that there was nopony to save, and nothing he could do.  Where Hayburn and his soldiers had been struggling just a few minutes ago now lay hundreds of dead ponies and minotaurs, painting the white wall red.  Swallowing hard, he veered away from the terrible scene, towards the leeward side of the Eastern Pillar.  Topping the slim mountain and coming back down, he was greeted by the sight of some hundred thousand pegasi, crammed onto the side of the sheer face.
“It’s time to take flight, my ponies,” he called, his voice booming over the shrill wind.  Their eyes turned to them as they tore their gaze from the ocean and columns of smoke rising over the mountaintop.  “The city is evacuated, and the soldiers are making their way to the last ship.  We must leave now to be ahead of the boats!”
Here and there came half-hearted cheers or calls of affirmation, but the vast majority of those gathered simply began standing up, the dire situation far too grim for any amount of celebration.  Nova himself felt one last, terrible tug at his heartstrings as he too glanced at the burning city from his spot in the sky, the culmination of three years of relentless and brutal war.  The ponies couldn’t see his pain, though, not right now.  He needed to be strong for them, to lead them one last time with courage that he was struggling to muster in the face of such a massacre.  He could be thankful at the very least for these couple hundred thousand ponies that remained, though it was a depressing drop from the over two million ponies who had once lived all across his great Unitaria.  
The pegasi began taking to the sky, a massive, moving flock of young and old, stallion and mare, civilian and soldier.  They moved as fast as they could, following the lead of Hollow Sea, the chief navigator Nova had appointed to guide the flock.  Like far too many of those in charge, he was much too young for such a prominent position, but he was also practically the only one Nova could personally trust for such an important task.  Satisfied with the pegasi’s departure, the Prince turned for a final time to check on the status of the boats, waiting until the last of the pegasi had left the cliff’s face before leaving.  
He found the boats all moving, four of them having already escaped the confines of the cliffs and harbor and out of the narrow opening into the open ocean.  The rest were moving to exit, with the ship bearing surviving soldiers the last in line.  Before Nova could begin his descent towards them, however, a sudden ball of flame smashed into the side of the frontmost caravel, shattering the wood and sending ponies flying overboard.
Screams and shouts filled the air as Nova froze in his path, ice cold dread overwhelming him as he realized exactly what was happening.  Somehow, the minotaurs had managed to get their flotilla to harbor, and now his ponies were left defenseless in the water.
Another flaming projectile struck the same boat, followed by several others flying through the air.  Two of the other ships were struck as well, one splitting in half at the force of the blow and beginning to sink immediately.  From just out of sight, two minotaur galleasses emerged, smoothly moving past the crippled ships and taking aim into the harbor itself.
“No,” Nova shouted desperately, diving towards the waters and charging his horn, pushing through the pain.  Blackness enveloped his vision, but he managed to unleash an unrestrained beam of magic at the nearest ship.  The effort and pain took the last of his consciousness, and he once again was enveloped in black.  
He wasn’t even aware that he was falling until, with a sudden slap, he crashed into the ocean.  Searing pain shot through his body at the harsh impact and his head burned like it was on fire, but his greatest concern now was that he was plunging deeper into the harbor’s waters.  Forcing his eyes open, he began sluggishly kicking his legs and flapping his dredged wings, managing to begin rising out of the warm, salty water.  Emerging with a painful gasp, he looked around, eyes stinging and head pounding.
His blast had leveled the two minotaur boats to nothing but floating, flaming debris and dead minotaurs.  However, another trio of minotaur galleasses had breached the harbor, with even more attempting to enter still.  Nova desperately tried to fly out of the water, but his wings were too weighed down by the water, his plumage drenched, and muscles exhausted.  He was helpless, floating there with burning wreckage around him, his city in flames and his fleeing ponies under attack.  Tears began to fall as, just a couple dozen spans behind him, a flaming projectile slammed into a nearby caravel, a fresh chorus of screams echoing from the boat.  
“My Prince,” a voice cried from above, drawing Nova’s teary eyes.  Three pegasi descended to him, reaching out to pull him from the crashing waves.  They struggled for several moments before finally being capable of pulling him from the water, lifting him into the air.  Just as they were beginning to go, however, a flurry of crossbow bolts flew past them, one striking the pegasus carrying his right wing straight in the head.  He fell without a sound, almost bringing the rest of them with him.  The other two were able to grab Nova before he slipped away, flapping their wings hard to get out of the range of the crossbows.  
“That was Saunder,” the pegasus who took the fallen stallion’s place to his right growled in exertion.  “He always wanted to be a soldier.”
“He woulda been a good one,” the second pegasus- whose voice Nova vaguely recognized- mournfully replied.  Soon, they had managed to lift him enough away that they were no longer threatened by the minotaur’s weapons.  Others swiftly joined them two, helping tow their Prince out of harm’s way, as all he could do was helplessly watch his ponies be slaughtered.  Some unicorns on the ships were blasting back at the attacking galleasses, and even though they were doing damage, it soon became evident it was not enough.  
As he rose higher into the sky, slowly being pulled north and up, he caught sight of the minotaur’s fleet beyond the Eastern Pillar.  There were at least fifty more ships, each equipped with a pair of trebuchets, loaded and ready to fire.  Even then, Nova bitterly realized that they wouldn’t need them.  By the time the pegasi had pulled him to the rest of the flock, there were only three caravels still floating and five minotaur vessels that filled the harbor.  Tears streamed down his face as he watched yet another of the pony’s ships get hammered by a volley from the minotaurs, sending it and the ponies aboard into the sea.  
“There’s nothing we can do, my Prince,” the pegasus to his right softly told him.  “You have to lead us.  We need you if any of us are going to survive.”
Nova remained silent for a long, sullen moment as he pondered his friend’s words.  Finally, after collecting his strength and silencing his pain momentarily, he commanded, “Let me go.”
“What,” the pegasus to his left questioned.  Nova gave him a firm look out of the corner of his eye, confirming to the hesitant stallion what he wished.  Hesitantly, he nodded and let go of him in conjunction with the others holding him, allowing him to drop.  
The wind whipped his face as he fell, but setting his brow, he unfurled his wings, catching the air and lifting into the sky once again.  He felt the pain in his taxed muscles and used it to drive him, pushing himself to rejoin the flock of pegasus in a matter of seconds.  His larger wings allowed him to swoop around them and take the lead in the front.  Many of the pegasi were looking behind them as they flew, watching in horror as clouds of smoke rose from the flaming ships in the harbor.  
His heart, battered already by these last three years of tragedy, broke at the sight.  Many of the pegasi in the crowd had family members that were earth ponies or unicorns, and now there was no chance that any of them would make it to a safe haven.  Somehow, he needed to draw their attention away from their losses and survive until they could land safely… somewhere.  He knew better than to try to use an inkling of his dwindling magic reserves, so instead he relied solely on the power of his voice.
“My ponies, brothers and sisters,” he called to those that could hear him.  “We must move, we need to fly as far and fast as we can.  It is the only way that we can help our lost family now!  In life we will remember and redeem their deaths, avenge the hatred of the Seven Tribes through our continued existence, refusing to be subjugated and exterminated by their armies!  They have bought us time we would not otherwise have, and now we must use it to live!”
The pegasus, the remainder of his ponies, watched him with teary, scared eyes, but beyond that, they listened.  In a matter of mere moments, they began flying forward once again, turning from Unitaria one last time and heading the course northward.  Nova watched them fly past, assuming the role of guardian now that those who hesitated were once again safely on the move.  His eyes strayed to the city behind them all, to where smoke continued to rise in the air from the burning buildings and sinking vessels.   
He swallowed down the pain of a hundred thousand lost lives and a city he had provided peace for over two thousand years.  Just this one more time, he needed to remain stronger than the forces of aversion as he had millenia ago and lead his ponies to peace.  Then… then he could hurt.  But right now, Aspects prevailing, his ponies needed their Prince.  
Turning in the air, gathering his strength in mind and body, he flapped his wings fiercely, ascending into the clouds to guide the ponies of Unitaria to peace.