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

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.