The Centurion Project

by TheEighthDayofNight


Chapter 32: Blood

Centurion Smith pounded on the heavy wooden gate with his fist, cursing the people inside loudly and violently as he threatened and called for them to come out. Elias ignored the pointless noise as he paced back and forth before the gate, rubbing his bare face with a hand as he tried to think. Bevin and his far too-new wife; Sarah, watched him silently. She sat in her man’s lap, resting her head on his shoulder as they waited for the much younger Elias to make a decision. Though he could feel their support for whatever he decided to do, Elias noted that they didn’t voice that support, no doubt mentally preparing for what came next. Why two grown adults, years older than he was, were waiting on his decision making abilities, Elias didn’t know, but he couldn’t let them down, any of them. So many people were waiting for his orders, so many friends…

Elias turned around and walked the other direction, trying to come up with a strategy that could win them the day. Smith kicked the door hard.

“Fucking cowards!” he bellowed at the sealed wood.

With a huff he turned away from the door and glared at Elias, crossing his arms.

“Elias, we need you to say something. We can’t just fucking sit here all night. These fucking traitors aren’t opening up, and the raiders are getting closer. I for one refuse to just sit here and wait to die.”

Bevin sighed.

“Darius, relax. We’re all going to be just fine, just let Elias think for a minute. He’ll get us out of this.”

Smith rolled his eyes and threw his hands into the air.

“Yeah, right. Sure. A fucking army is coming down on our heads, and we’re… what? Sitting around? At the very least tell us to get in a line so that we can FUCKING DIE WITH A BIT OF PRIDE!”

Elias whirled on the man and grabbed him by the collar of his armor, pulling them so that they were nose to nose.

“Darius, kindly shut the fuck up. Everyone is exhausted from running ten miles with full gear, and I’m trying to let them relax for a minute so that when the fight comes, or we start running again, we don’t have to leave anyone. Stop welching like a little bitch, sit the fuck down, and shut your fucking hole so that I can think. You won’t be able to fight off anything if you keep running around like a chicken with its head cut off.”

Elias shoved the man away, then resumed his pacing. Darius looked at him with a bit of shock, then did as he was told and took a seat, grumbling softly as he stared at his hands. Elias made three more turns before he spoke up again.

“Do we have anything to break down the gate? We could easily refortify the position if we could get inside.”

Bevin sighed and shook his head.

“All of my tools are in my smithy Elias. Even then, I’d need a couple hours to crack it open. We did a good job when we built it.”

Elias nodded.

“Which makes me even more curious as to why Tristan decided to throw us to the wolves. The gate is strong and secure, what did the raiders have to make him slam the doors closed in our face?”

Darius scoffed.

“Or Tristan is just the pussy we always knew him as, and leaving him in charge was the biggest mistake we ever made.”

Elias shrugged.

“Maybe, but that thinking doesn’t help us now. What about places to hide? We could abandon our armor and bolt for some place to our east. We’d have to start again, but we’re all trained up in survival skills. We’ll make it.”

Sarah shook her head.

“We’re too tired for that Elias. Our little group could probably get away with that, but everyone else? We’d lose half the legion easily. We also have no idea what the raiders are going to do if they find a pile of abandoned armor outside the settlement. They could burn it to the ground.”

We should burn it to the ground…” Darius grumbled.

Elias jabbed a finger at the man.

“Darius, shut the fuck up. You aren’t helping. Either come up with a solution, or say nothing. You may have given up like a dickless coward, but I intend to get as many people through this as possible, and I don’t need your stupid pessimism fucking with me. Shut up.”

Darius leaped to his feet, and he quickly got into Elias’ face.

“Oh yeah? And what are you going to do if I don’t shut up? What can you possibly do to me that matters more than the literal hundreds of assholes coming for our heads?”

Elias butted heads with him and growled.

“Did you forget who the fuck I am Darius? I will-..”

“Enough!” Bevin said as he jumped up and shoved them apart. “This isn’t helping anyone!”

He shoved Darius toward the trees where the legionaries were waiting.

“Go check on everyone, make sure they’re getting water. We aren’t done today, and you’d better believe we need to be as hydrated as possible.”

Darius gave one last hateful glare at Elias, then huffed and stalked away. Bevin looked back to Elias, grabbing his shoulder to make their eyes meet. Elias tried to pull away, but Bevin didn’t let him, and the man used his strong hands to hold Elias in place.

“Calm back down Elias, and think. You have a wonderful brain in that head, and I know you can figure something out. Darius is right in the fact that we can’t stay here for much longer.”

Elias nodded and pulled away, looking toward the wooden gates that seemed to tower before him. What should have been a comforting sight looked more like a dark specter, black and powerful, threatening to take away everything he loved.

“I know. I need to make a decision, a plan, something.”

He sighed deeply, shaking his head.

“But I don’t have anything. This was the plan. This was supposed to be the fix to my fuck up. We made it back here and then…”

Elias walked up to the gate, laying a hand on it. As if it would change by the amount of force used to open it, he pressed lightly, silently begging for the lock to slip open so they could get inside. When it did not give, he punched the door as hard as he could.

“It wasn’t supposed to be fucking closed!”

He rested his forehead on the door, closing his eyes as desperation creeped in.

“I don’t know what to do,” he whispered as tears flowed down his face.

He felt a pressure on his back, then felt a pair of arms wrap around his chest.

“It’s alright Elias,” Sarah said softly. “It’s alright. It’s not your fault.”

He knew better than that. It was his fault; it was only his fault. He had made the plans, he had led them into battle, and he had told them to turn and run to the village. It was all his fault, and everyone he loved was going to die because of him.

Bevin turned Elias around and pulled him close as that first sob creeped up his throat. Elias cried helplessly as the man rubbed his hair.

“Shh,” he said softly. “It’s alright Elias, we’re here. We won’t leave you behind.”

Elias pushed away, using his anger as a hammer to fire up his mind. He shook his head, and shoved them both back.

“No, that’s exactly what you’re going to do. Sarah, go get Darius. The three of you will leave your equipment nearby, and then you’re going to run. Go to the town near the library. Stay there for a few days, then sneak back to the village and see if Tristan will let you back in. Then at least you’ll be alive. I’ll take the legion to fight the raiders for as long as we can. That’ll buy you time, and once they see me dead, they won't care about anyone else. Just go, run.”

Sarah gave him a pained look.

“Elias… we won’t leave you, or anyone behind. That isn’t who we are; you know that. We’re family, and if we die… then we die together.”

Elias opened his mouth to shout her down, to insult them both and drive them away, but he couldn’t. Another soft sob wracked his chest, and Bevin grabbed him, pulling him close again as the tears began anew.

*****

Elias shuddered as he took a pause. Tears streamed freely down his face. Luna had convinced him to sit back down with her, and he was glad for her presence as he began to cry. She stroked his head.

“Like Book Binder and Night Flash,” she said softly.

“Painfully like them,” Elias said. “Parallels. It’s all happened before, and now it’s happening again. It’s why I keep driving them away. I have to, I can’t let them too close.”

He took a shaky breath and shook his head.

“But it doesn’t matter, because it’s already too late. I didn’t do my job and keep them at arm’s length. They love me too much, and if it happens again, they won’t leave. They won’t live for me.”

He buried his face in Luna’s fur.

“And it’ll kill me when they die.”

*****

Elias slipped under a swing aimed at his head, then caught a second bat on his shield. His gladius impaled the first raider, a short woman, in the eye, while it took the second, a massive hulk of a man, in the thigh. The second raider bellowed and tried to grab at the blade, but Elias ripped it free, roaring in the man’s face as the gladius tore through his ribs. His scutum cracked into the man’s chin, and he collapsed with a scream, clutching at the wounds. Elias had no time to finish killing the man as he threw himself into another breach in the shield wall.

He had maneuvered them into the forest near the village, setting up a defensive rectangle to protect them from all avenues. He had then set fires far to their flanks to bottleneck the raider advance. As he expected, the raiders came from all sides anyway, denting their armor with an assortment of shoddily made melee weapons, primarily hatchets and baseball bats. For a time, the legion cut through them like a scythe through wheat, but their numbers were endless, and his legionaries were tiring, dulling like any other blade. Elias felt a blow glance off his helmet, and he responded with a brutal slash to the man’s abdomen. The man screamed, but didn’t drop. Elias planted his left heel on the ground and planted the right on the man's sternum, kicking him in the chest and driving him back into a trio of charging raiders. They collapsed in a heap, and it gave Elias the breathing room to help the men to his right and left. His gladius sang as it whetted its appetite for blood, sending more people stumbling to the red mud.

A fresh group of raiders let out a battle-cry, and they rushed in without fear. The press tightened as metal met flesh, and more screams split the air. Elias felt the air leave his lungs as a bat made its way behind his scutum, cracking against his armored ribs. He punched the raider in the face, answering her blow with a broken nose. She staggered back, then growled at him and tried to swing again. Elias dipped under her and flipped her over on his shield. He turned his back to the press for a moment to stab her in the throat, then turned back, accepting a nasty punch on the chin. Though it rattled his teeth and made his vision blur slightly, Elias braced his legs and pushed, sending a pocket of raiders sprawling.

Elias suppressed a groan as even more barely armored raiders flooded into the clearing, their war cries loud. What surprised him was when the red wearing individuals slammed into the raiders to his front, rather than the legionaries to his side. Attacked from behind, and easily cut off from their reinforcements, the press lightened as his legionaries let out their own war cry, cutting down the raiders with renewed vigor at the sight of their unexpected allies. Elias pointed his gladius high into the air, and rushed forward with a shout, leading the charge to meet the red individuals in the middle. His gladius tore through one raider’s stomach, then plunged into another’s ribs. His scutum acted like a battering ram, cracking into a raider’s knees. The man to Elias’ left killed the injured raider, letting out a feral cry as the body collapsed with a gaping hole in its throat.

Elias felt his gladius catch on another blade, and Elias quickly found himself face to face with one of the red wearing raiders. The man was familiar, and in fact was another friend. Steven grinned and winked at him.

“Evening Elias, gotten yourself into a scrap, have you?”

Elias let his blade drop as he embraced the man. The raiders began to rout, and as they ran, they clogged up their fellows, driving their attack away as panic sowed into their ranks. It gave them a minute of breathing room as the legionaries mixed with the reserves, greeting them with hugs, cheers, and more than a few tears. Elias smiled widely as his eyes teared up.

“It’s good to see you Steven, are the gates open? Did Tristan change his mind?”

The man drooped and shook his head.

“No, and when we win, we can’t go back. We came out here to help with the knowledge that we wouldn’t be allowed back in, and if we stagger back wounded, he’s promised to kill us. A raider representative came to check on the village as we left. He’s real scared Elias, it’s a damn shame. But we got what weapons we got scavenge, and we came out swinging. The whole reserve force volunteered.”

Elias let out a long sigh, but his smile didn’t disappear.

“Alright, that’s a bit disheartening, but we can do this. Can you take up the rear defense? It will fortify our front and flanks much better if we can tighten up our armor.”

Steven nodded.

“Can do buddy, let’s give them a nasty nosebleed to remember us by.”

Elias grinned and clapped his shoulder in agreement. He turned around.

“First cohort spread out to the flanks and front! The reserves will hold our rear!”

A cheer went up as the red clad men and women filtered through the ranks of silver. Elias nodded silently as he watched, his mind racing. There was a carpet of bodies at their feet. Maybe, just maybe there was a chance to make it through. The raiders couldn’t keep sending waves of people forward. Eventually the stacks of bodies would cause more fear than whatever the raider bosses threatened. If they could survive a bit longer and inflict more casualties, then maybe they could call a meeting. A deal with the devil would be worth it if his friends survived. He had made worse deals before.

Steven gave Elias a slight squeeze on the shoulder, then made to move away. Then the first gunshot split the air. The man collapsed with a hole in his head, hitting the ground with a dull thud. Elias watched with horror as a dozen more people followed, collapsing as machine gun fire mowed through reserves and legionaries alike. He didn’t know what to do. Their armor couldn’t stand against concentrated gun fire. The raiders weren’t supposed to have guns! His intel said everything was empty. Only he and Tristan knew of a pair of SAW’s that still held a few belts of ammunition.

As another dozen dropped, the full realization of Tristan’s betrayal flashed through his mind. Raw hate consumed any good memories of the man, and Elias swore to every god in existence that he would see the man suffer for his sins. That anger let his mind snap into focus, and he gave orders as bullets flew by his head.

“Spread out! Break formation, and get on the ground! They’re firing blind and will run dry!”

His legionaries dropped instantly, with the reserves following suit a few dangerous seconds behind. Almost as soon as they spread out, the guns fell silent, and a loud cry echoed through the air as a fresh group of raiders rushed forward. Elias screamed bloody rage at them as he yelled for his troops to rise. Their heavy armor, so crucial to keeping them safe and alive became their Achilles-heel as his legionaries struggled to rise in the heavy equipment. Far too many were set upon quickly by the swarms of raiders, and Elias couldn’t do anything but watch and kill, praying that his blade made a difference. His gladius split the air as he swung it with deadly efficiency. There was no more formation, no more army. This was a brawl to the death, and he would be damned if he didn’t take a thousand of the bastards with him to hell.

A raider with a pair of kitchen knives lunged at Elias. He caught the charge on his scutum, then headbutted the raider, finishing the scrawny woman off with a quick cut to her throat. Another quickly followed with a sharpened stick. That man quickly lost his right hand, and Elias left him to scream and bleed out, jumping over him to slam into a pair of raiders trying to attack one of his legionaries from behind. While one was driven back by his shield, the other managed to block Elias’ first gladius swing. The second caught the man in the thigh, and the third took out his eyes. As the raider collapsed with a shriek, his friend got to her feet, and Elias grabbed her by the throat, slamming his scutum into her face until she became limp in his hands. Taking a dangerous second to breathe, Elias looked around the battlefield.

Without the strength of their formation, legionaries started to fall. The sheer number of raiders, coupled with the sudden fire support, shattered any semblance of organized morale. Nobody ran, however. They knew the stakes if they turned their backs, so they fought like rabid animals, fighting with steel and bone as they created an ungodly racket of death. The already bloody ground became slick as the red liquid flowed freely, frequently joined by corpses as lifeless bodies fell. Elias dove back into the fighting, his throat going hoarse as he did his best to kill and demoralize the raiders. At some point his scutum was torn from his grip, so Elias ripped his helmet free and fought with that. It too disappeared, so his dagger appeared in his hand next, quickly becoming slick with blood as he carved great holes in the raiders.

Elias ducked under a bat aimed for his skull, then spun around, driving the point of his gladius through the raider's neck. His dagger plunged into the gurgling man's ribs, then both blades ripped free. A legionnaire to Elias' right was dragged to the ground with a shout, and both raiders on top of of the silver-clad man raised filthy machete's into the air. Elias' dagger sprouted from one of their chests, and his gladius stole the life from the second. Elias pushed their bodies off his legionnaire, dragging the man to his feet. He gave Elias a tired nod, then scooped up his gladius and dove back in, stabbing a raider in the gut. Elias didn't pay him anymore attention as he spun on his heel, catching a hatchet on his gladius. His blade locked, so Elias reached forward with his free hand, grabbing the raider by the shirt and yanking her forward. He headbutted her once, and that was enough to get his gladius free. The blade bit into her right arm, then into her throat. She collapsed with a shocked expression and a whimper. Elias didn't care as he looked for someone else to kill. He was not left wanting, and with ease he dove back in.

Only a familiar scream dragged his attention away from the fighting, and Elias looked up as his gladius tore the throat from a man. Even across the battlefield, he could clearly see four raiders latched onto a screaming Sarah, dragging her away from Bevin’s dead body with an evil grin present on their faces. They were moving toward the forest, which had an odd orange glint amongst its leaves. Death wasn’t enough for the bastards, and as Elias let out another feral shout, he knew that it wouldn’t be enough for him either.

He cut his way through the battlefield, leaving a string of bodies in his wake. It took him far too long, and as he broke free, another loud scream split the air, far to his front. He needed to move quickly, so he didn’t even spare a glance toward his best friend’s corpse. Grief would come later, he had to save at least one. Elias rushed into the leaves, knowing he couldn’t do anything to help his legionaries if his mind was on his friend’s fate. He ignored the leaves slapping against his face, then ignored the smoke as it began clogging his nose.

A third scream split through the air as Elias crashed through a clearing. The fire had closed the way behind him, and as a fourth scream split the air, Elias took off, following the sound as best he could through the growing clouds of smoke that burned his eyes and nose. As he sprinted by a tree, two raiders leaped out, with one of them swinging at his arm. Elias caught the bat with his hand, and wrenched it away, plunging his gladius deep into the man’s guts. Directing the body, he caught the attack of the second raider on the body’s shoulder. He then ripped his gladius free and flung himself at the second raider, tackling him to the ground. The blade descended quickly, and though he wanted to make the raider suffer, Elias made the kill quick. He needed to find Sarah.

No more screams split the air, but voices did as they loudly shouted at on another. Elias crept through the brush silently. It took him under a minute to find the four raiders, with two helping a third bandage a wound on his arm. The fourth raider stood over Sarah’s lifeless body, shaking his head.

“Damnit Brian, why’d you have to go and do that? If we brought her back alive we would have an excuse for not having to fight no more, but now we gotta go back, or the boss will kill us!”

The wounded man snarled at his friend.

“The bitch stabbed me! She got what she deserved, and so will the rest of them. Besides, just drag me back to camp, and you can say that I got hurt pursuing her, so you took care of me. We’re gonna win, so it’s not like the boss can blame us for being safe.”

Elias quickly grew tired of listening to the quartet of murderers, and he moved fast to end them. The first man standing over Sarah was dead before he hit the ground. The other three stared at him with horror in their eyes, and the uninjured pair fumbled at their weapons to defend themselves. They never had a chance. Elias killed the first one with a dagger in his neck. The second collapsed with a scream as Elias slashed out his eyes. The third let out a wet gasp as the gladius pinned him to the tree, lancing through the man’s left lung. Elias grabbed the raider's head and stared into his eyes as the man slowly choked on his own blood. Only when the light died did he rip the gladius free, moving to silence the blinded man. A glance back at Sarah brought out a dark part of his mind, and Elias flipped the man over, pressing on his throat with a sandaled foot. The man’s fists tried to batter away his leg, but Elias didn’t notice the efforts, he merely waited.

Once the man was quiet, Elias slit his throat to be ensure his fate, then he let his gladius fall to the grass. His anger vanished in an instant, and his mind seemed to stick in one place. He couldn't think properly, so Elias relied on instinct. He staggered over to Sarah, dropping behind her. As softly as he could, Elais grabbed her head and lowered it into his lap. He brushed her shoulder length hair with his fingers softly and smoothly, going through the motions with practiced ease. She had always forced him to do it as a calming exercise, and as he began to cry, his hand moved without thought.

*****

Elias fell silent, staring with numb eyes at the fire. His hand ran down his sword belt, miming the motion of brushing as his fingertips remembered the sensation. Top to bottom. Top to bottom. Luna reached out gently with her hooves, forcing his hands to stop as she pulled him close.

“Elias I… I don’t know what to say other than I’m sorry. I am so very sorry.”

Elias glanced up long enough to notice the tears on her face, matting the fur around her eyes as she stared down at him. The tears were gone from his eyes, however. He felt numb, dead. Nothing mattered, and all he could feel was a sense of loss as he rested his head against her furry chest.

“Thanks,” Elias said without emotion. “After that I fell asleep with her in my arms. It rained that night, and when I woke up everything hurt, inside and out. I lucked out that one of the raiders was using a shovel as a weapon, and I did my best to dig her a grave, leaving her helmet as a marker before I staggered off. She deserved better. A better death, better life. She definitely deserved a better friend than me.”

Luna sighed and nuzzled the top of his head.

“That isn’t for you to say Elias. She loved you, and that means that she couldn’t have had a better friend. You cannot choose the people that love you, and even if you distance yourself, that love will remain if it is true. I can assure you that she watched you from your afterlife and smiled when she saw that you survived because of her.”

Elias flinched at the statement, and he pulled away from Luna, getting to his feet once more. He left the blanket behind this time, he needed to feel the chill of the air. He moved to the edge of the cliff and stared at the lights of Canterlot. So many vibrant, living ponies. So peaceful, untouched. Innocent. Elias desperately prayed that they would remain that way for all time. Without look back to the fire, Elias continued.

“I hope you’re wrong Luna, because if she was watching me, then she knows the atrocities I committed in revenge for her death.” He paused, then shook his head. “That is not a story I will share tonight however, and I am fairly certain I will never share it. I did things Luna, horrible things. Tristan deserved it, but everyone else? No. No, and I won’t speak of it further, so don’t you dare ask.”

Luna, perhaps sensing the immense tension in the statement, sighed and nodded her agreement.

“What happened next? Did you find any survivors?”

Elias shrugged and turned back to the fire.

“No. The raiders were very thorough. The rain had put out the forest fire, and had put down the smell, but it was still immense as I stumbled back to my legion. They… died. All of them. The legionaries, the reserves… gone. The raiders took the eagle we made, probably as a trophy, but they left the standard, and it still fluttered as the first wind of winter put a chill in the air. By no rights should I have survived that night, and the flag shouldn't have survived either, but...”

Elias reached out his fingers as he imagined the proud banner on its pole, then his eyes flicked to his sword belt. He approached it nervously, bending down slowly as he rifled through the pouches. His fingers alighted on the soft fabric as he pulled it out, and he stared at that golden eagle for a moment before he passed the standard to Luna, who took it with equal caution.

“The marker of my legion’s death. The raiders at least had enough respect to not defile the bodies, they just left them where they died. It’s the only reason I went as softly on them as I did. If they had polluted my legionaries, if they had defiled the standard, I would have demanded you send me back so that I could kill them all. That revenge died when I came here though, and that slight gesture, so insignificant to most people, meant a lot to me.”

He plopped on his rump, snatching up the blanket once more. Luna carefully folded up his old legion standard as he got comfortable, and she set it on his sword belt.

“But they were gone, and there were far too many for me to bury, so I had to leave most of them there. I buried Darius, Bevin, Steven, but nobody else. I just didn’t have the strength to keep going.”

He sniffled and stared at his feet.

“My last great failure. I couldn’t even respect their memory. I took the standard, found my equipment, then left to get revenge.”

A tear crawled down his cheek.

“But it didn’t matter. None of it did. I got everyone killed by being too big, too ambitious. All of my friends, my family. Gone. Dead. My fault. I-it was m-my….”

Luna grabbed him in an instant and pulled him close, letting him weep into her fur. The pain, the suffering was clear across every part of his body, and Luna could only keep him close, praying desperately that she hadn’t just broken him by getting him to share his story. Such losses, and then with everything that had happened since they had found him? He was right to fear a repeat of such losses, was right to be terrified of the proposition they had offered him. In his place, Luna imagined she would react exactly the same way.

She could also tell that there was more to the story. His revenge was something even darker, but Luna found that she couldn’t care less about what he might be hiding. Whatever man had staggered away from that battlefield clearly wasn’t the man that had just emptied a piece of his soul to her. It certainly wasn’t the man that was weeping unapologetically into her fur as years of suppressed grief made itself known. This man had things he wanted to protect again, even from himself. He was aware of all of his faults and failings, and he was simply scared of messing up again, of losing it all once more. Luna had little idea what humans were like, but she imagined that one with lesser strength than Elias would have simply collapsed by now, consumed by guilt and grief.

Elias’ tears tapered off, and he tried to silently shy away from Luna’s grasp. She didn’t let him, and despite the seriousness of the situation, she found that she simply enjoyed having him close. A flash of butterflies touched her stomach, but this time Luna couldn’t tell why. She just knew he couldn’t escape her. She needed him close as much as he needed her to talk to, even if he wouldn’t admit it. Luna gently stroked his long hair with a hoof.

“Listen closely Elias, I only wish to say this once. You did not fail them; not like you think. Perhaps you failed as a leader, though I do not think so, but I know as a fact that you did not fail as a friend. Never as a friend. You fought, and suffered, and you gave your all to make sure they succeeded.”

She looked to the sky as her horn pinged briefly. It was nearly time to raise the moon.

“Sometimes the world is cruel for no reason at all. No matter how good a person, no matter how righteous the cause, or how tight the bonds between them, the world hurts them anyway. It is what makes life alive. We cannot change what happens in the past, so we cannot look back, just like you told me in my castle.”

She nuzzled the top of his head, causing the man to squirm.

“I know this will sound cruel given what you have told me, but I just ask you to think on my words, even if your answer is still no. What happened on your world will never happen here. Should you take the position, you will have seven months to prepare, not one. Your legion is as big or small as you desire, and you can recruit from the whole of Equestria. Conscript thousands if you must. You will not need to learn new skills, for your armor and supplies will be provided by my sister and I.”

She could tell that he wanted to pull away, to run from her words, but Luna tightened her grip, resting her head against his back. His heart raced in her ears, and Luna sighed as she listened to its furious pumping and continued.

“Most of all however, you will always have us. Your friends, my sister and I, even Princess Cadence. All of Equestria will be behind you, and the weight of the world will not be on your shoulders, but will be shared with the other generals. There will be no gates closed when you need them open. I beseech you Elias, this one, final time. Please, form a new legion. Learn from your mistakes and use your vast knowledge to protect the ones you love. Only you have that raw battlefield knowledge, and only you can see the job done right so that nopony dies unnecessarily. I put faith in my other generals, but you Elias, you I trust the most. Your hardships will ensure that no mistakes are made. We need your expertise desperately, and only by making you equal in station will you have an equal voice when making decisions. Please Elias, I beg you; not as your princess, but as your friend, please accept.”

Then she let go. Her hooves remained around his body, but they held no force to hold him back. If he wanted to leave, he could do so, and Luna would accept whatever consequences her words brought. No anger rose in the human before her however, and instead he seemed to shrink, hiding behind the wings and blanket that were keeping him warm. He shook his head silently though, and Luna’s heart sank.

His voice barely above a whisper, Elias said;

“I’ll think about it.”

Luna let out a small sigh of relief, and nuzzled his back.

“Thank you, Elias, that is all I ask. If we can do this right, we may never have to worry about war to our west again. Take as much time as you need to decide. I will ensure that nobody pressures you into making a decision you do not want.”

Elias nodded silently, then looked around.

“So how do we get down from here?” he asked quietly.

“I have a letter prepared,” Luna replied. “A pair of my guards are on standby to carry us to the castle.”

Elias nodded again, then leaned back into her fur. Luna smiled as the butterflies returned. The sight was simply perfect, and she couldn’t find a single thing wrong with the man before her. A flash of fear lanced through her mind as she made the realization that had been building since Hearth’s Warming Eve. She loved him.

Everything, even in his weakened, almost beaten state, she loved it all. His scent was overpowering in her nose, and she couldn’t help but find it sweeter than even the most expensive perfumes. His beautiful blue eyes stared into the dark, the usual focus there, but now accompanied by a bit of grief, as well as… gratitude? The scar on his face did nothing to mar his handsomeness, though Luna faintly wished he would shave. He had always had a scraggly beard, but even fully grown, she wished to see his perfect face clean. Luna closed her eyes and sighed softly as he adjusted, leaning heavily into her fur. The sensation was heavenly, and she wished it would never end. Having him close… she would have to give it up. If he accepted, this would be the last time she could snuggle him. For a while at least.

She had no idea how to approach such a subject anyway, or if she should approach it at all. What would her subjects think? What would her sister think? After his panic attack in the throne room, Elias and Celestia were already going to have trouble getting along, but if she started publicly courting him, her sister might take a note from her student and blow Luna’s feelings out of proportion. Even worse, what if he did not return her feelings? Would she drive him further away? Being friends was one thing, but she had made none of the traditional moves to ensure that she would woo him, or to test if she should even try. Luna felt herself tense up slightly as she thought about it further.

He was also a capable stallion, and while not conventionally attractive, there were plenty of mares with exotic tastes, and Elias was by no means an ugly mate. On top of that, he was still completely available to any attempts at love. A flash of panic raced through Luna's thoughts, and a mean streak of possessiveness quickly followed, creeping into her mind. She would need to act quickly, and smartly. She both needed to keep her feelings a secret until she was sure that he wouldn’t reject her outright, as well as mark him as hers to keep other enterprising mates away. That would require focus, and the utmost caution. She needed time alone, to plan, to make arrangements.

Luna sighed as her horn pinged again. She needed to raise the moon, she just silently hoped that Elias wouldn’t judge her sub-par performance too harshly.

Elias felt immensely tired. His chest felt heavy, and all of his limbs ached with untold tension and pain. None of it could hold a candle to the agony he felt inside. It felt… depleted though, as if just a little had been chipped away. Maybe all of the BS the ponies had told him about when it came to sharing was right, not like he’d ever verbally admit it. It didn’t matter, he felt tired, he needed sleep. He just hoped that his night terrors would take a night off and let him sleep in peace for once.

Elias blinked rapidly as he tried to rid himself of his tiredness. It felt like something was happening, something significant. He looked up with his mis-matched, bleary eyes to find Luna’s horn aglow. The blue light illuminated her beautiful face perfectly, and with her eyes closed, she focused her magic. Even without any concept of what it was supposed to feel like, Elias could almost reach out and touch the power that charged the air. He briefly looked around to find what she was acting her magic on, then realized what it was as the moon slipped into view.

From his seat on top of the mountain, the moon looked super massive. Each crater seemed clearly defined, and the brilliant white of it was nearly blinding. Elias could only watch in awe as it shifted higher and higher into the sky. As it carved through its orbit, Elias spotted an ocean of stars spread in its wake, twinkling brightly as they spread across the sky. Everywhere he looked he saw light, brilliant, shining light. His eyes glanced back to the master of such beauty, and he couldn’t help but lean into her fur as he watched the shower of stars unfold.

To say he had never seen anything like it would be a drastic understatement. He couldn’t keep the word from his mind, which surprised him as he rarely found the opportunity to use it, but maybe it was because he hadn’t learned the true meaning before he saw the display. It was beautiful, simply, stunningly beautiful. His eyes looked to Luna. She was beautiful. The way the light painted her face with its light, the way her muzzle seemed to hide the hint of a smile. Her green eyes seemed to sparkle in the moonlight, and her hair flowed lightly, matching perfectly with the stars that consumed the blackness of the night sky. She was simply beautiful.

An odd sensation touched Elias’ chest, and he did a quick mental check to make sure that it wasn’t some repressed demon taking opportunity of his momentary weakness. No… No, it was something different. Something new. He couldn’t place what the emotion might be though, so Elias ignored it. It wasn’t bad, so it didn’t matter much. Leaning against Luna though, that felt right. Elias felt his eyes begin to close as he rubbed his cheek in her fluff. Exhaustion swept over his mind, and the last thought he had as he blacked out was that it wouldn’t be so bad to snuggle with her at least one more time…

Luna sighed softly as she closed her eyes for a moment, letting a cloud of fog drift into the air. The moon hung dead center in the sky, its light providing illumination to the land below. Unlike her usual moon raising ceremony however, she didn’t look out on her ponies, nor did she look out over her kingdom, her domain of the night. Instead, she stared lovingly at the lone human snuggling tightly against her chest. A hand clutched at her fur, while the other was wrapped easily around her barrel. His cheek rested deep in her fluff, and an absolutely dazzling smile covered his face as the first of what she knew would be many snores crept forth. The sight nearly made her tear up with joy, and Luna felt her resolve to court the human harden. She needed to be the rock in his life, needed to make it so that he could have the peace and happiness that he needed. She needed to earn his love, so that she could love, and spoil him in return. She would make Elias her stallion, and then she would protect him for all time. She just needed to guide him through certain steps first.

Shifting slightly, his good eye cracked open for a second before closing again. His cheek rubbed deeper into her chest fluff, and a deep, calm breath escaped his lungs as he held her close.

“Thanks for letting me share Moony,” he grumbled softly. “And you did good. Best moonrise I’ve ever seen. You did…”

He slipped away again, unnoticing of Luna’s wide smile as his words brought her to tears of pure joy. She leaned close and gave him a chaste peck on the cheek before curling around his body.

“Thank you, Elias,” she whispered softly, so softly in fact that it was nearly unspoken. “I shall cherish your words forever, no matter what happens. Thank you so very much my love.”

Resting her chin on his shoulder, she flared her wings and let them fall completely over his body, shielding him from the cold of the night. She rifled through her saddle bags briefly, then sent away the letter calling her guards, making sure she added a note for them to take their time. She hummed a lullaby softly as she stared at the moon, her mind quiet and satisfied as she waited with her human.