//------------------------------//
// Vows 
// Story: Equestria's Ray of Hope 
// by The_Darker_Fonts 
//------------------------------//

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.”