"Throw them!" he shouted to Rainbow Dash.
The cyan mare saluted and disappeared from his view. A moment later a boulder was falling towards him, and the next one, and the next one...
Matthias was standing at the bottom of the Ghastly Gorge. He found this place to be perfect for this kind of training. Since Rainbow had begun talking to him again, he managed to convince her to help, and he was making progress even faster.
Matt watched as the boulders came closer. They were a few meters away from the ground when he finally jumped at the closest one, summoning the Light-made Ashbringer. He slashed, cutting the rock in half, and used one half as a hoofhold and jumped at the next one in mid-air. He dispatched all ten boulders Rainbow Dash dropped from the top of the gorge in a similar manner.
He landed on the ground, panting slightly. He glanced as he noticed Rainbow flying down to him.
"Wow, you managed to get all of them before they hit the ground this time!" she exclaimed.
Matt smirked.
"Well, what can I say: practice makes perfect." he nodded toward the pile of rocks, most of which came from their training. "Try kicking them at me."
"On it!" saluted Rainbow and landed on the ground, about eight or ten meters away from Matthias. "Ready?"
"Ready." Matt responded, lifting the Holy Avenger, as he started to call it.
Dash turned around and kicked a rock after rock with her hindlegs. Her speed was really amazing, although Applejack would probably be even faster. Matt rose and cut all those rocks, standing on his hindlegs. It was almost like a dance: he would swing, retreat, cut, whirl around... All the familiar moves were coming back to him. Despite not being able to stand like this for a long period of time, he thought he was actually better with his sword's skills than before. While Frostmourne seemed like a part of him (which, in a sense, was the case) ever since he first grasped it, this Holy Avenger was made out of Light that was part of everything, and yet was also a part of him. Somehow, despite not having fingers, he could move the giant sword in his hoof as if he had held it in his hand.
He continued to hit the rocks that Rainbow kicked at him, until she ran out of ammunition. They both panted heavily, and decided to take a short break. Matt shook his hoof and caused the Holy Avenger to vanish.
"You know, you could use that Light of yours to heal us from being tired of something, right?" asked him Rainbow, laying on the ground.
"Yes." replied Matt, grinning. "But what kind of training would that be?"
She rolled her eyes at that.
"Whatever." she replied, getting up. "Okay, I helped you. Now it's time to get back to my training. I wanted to test on you that move you showed me a few days ago."
"Oh? So you've mastered it?"
"You bet I have! Now put 'em up!" Dash said, preparing for a sparring fight.
"You seem very eager to get into physical contact with me." Matt smirked.
At that comment, Rainbow immediately blushed, all her excitement gone.
"Oh, for Light's sake!" Matthias said, rolling his eyes.
It has been over a month since the wedding. Since then, all his friends were nearly constantly acting like that: ashamed and embarrassed. Out of the six mares, only Pinke was still her usual self around him, but that wasn't exactly making him comfortable. Twilight was ashamed of kissing him accidentally, Rarity and Fluttershy were embarrassed because of looking at his stallionhood, while Rainbow and Applejack were deeply ashamed of their behavior when he was carrying them. Strangely, they seemed to completely forget about how they kissed each other, although for two weeks they avoided seeing one another. Only recently had everything returned to normal, but still, at a slightest joke from Matt, everypony was blushing.
"Would you just let it go?" he asked Rainbow, tired of this. "I told you all already, you were all drunk - some more than others - and alcohol brings out the worst in ponies."
"Yeah..." said Rainbow, rubbing her head. "But..."
"Besides," Matt interrupted her, smirking, "I'm an attractive stallion, so it's really not a surprise that you all..."
He stopped and laughed when he saw Rainbow's face.
"That's not funny." she said.
Rainbow glanced angrily at the laughing stallion. Not only she was still embarrassed by what happened after the wedding, but now she was angry that he was implying that they all had a crush on him. Although, to be honest, Rainbow thought of him as handsome, but she would sooner turn in her daredevil license than admitting this... while sober.
"If you're done, can we get back to training?" she asked him, growing more annoyed with each passing moment.
Matthias ceased laughing and picked himself from the ground.
"Fine, sorry." he said, shaking his head. "I wanted to practice using the alicorn form, but I can wait until we're done."
"How long can you keep it up, by the way?" asked Rainbow, curious.
"For about two minutes." he replied, frowning. "After a month of training."
"Well, it's still an improvement, right?"
Matthias smiled at her briefly, then his expression turned back to a serious one.
"Okay, lets get this sta..."
He quickly spun around and kicked a rock. Rainbow watched, confused, as the rock flew towards a nearby boulder, and nearly hit a raven sitting on top of it.
"Matt, what the hay!?" she asked him, wondering how would Fluttershy react if she knew that he almost hit an innocent creature with a rock.
Matthias completely ignored her and stared at the raven, that flew up into the air when the rock passed him, cawing offended, and landed nearer Rainbow.
"Your concern is appreciated, young pegasus, but unnecessary." a strange voice said from somewhere.
"What?" asked Dash, looking around. "Who said that?"
She glanced at Matt, who was still eyeing the raven.
"Wait a second..." Rainbow thought, glancing behind her.
The raven tilted his head, as if amused by her confusion, and spoke:
"A pleasure meeting you, Miss Dash. I am Medivh."
Rainbow felt her jaw drop. She recalled hearing from Matt about this... Prophet, as he called him, that could take the form of a raven, but to actually see a bird talking was another thing.
"Eee... hi." she mumbled finally.
The raven shifted his gaze back to Matthias.
"Was that rock really necessary?" he asked, not really sounding offended.
"After that 'message' you asked Pinkie to give me? I would say that the rock wasn't enough." replied Matt, glaring at it, and stomped. "What in Light's name was that supposed to mean?"
"What?" asked Medivh, and Rainbow could tell that he took great amusement in Matt's anger. "Couldn't I congratulate my..."
"Don't you dare!" shouted Matt.
Dash glanced at him quickly, startled by his outburst.
"What was that about?"
Matthias glared at Medivh, terrified for that long second of what he could still say.
"... old friend that he managed to find his way back to the Light?" the raven finished.
Matt could swear that he was smirking at him.
The last thing Matthias needed right after his friends started acting normally around him was them knowing that he was a king. And this annoying Prophet knew this.
"Care to explain why you asked Pinkie to deliver that message?" he asked, changing subject.
"Oh, I just wanted to meet her. She's really interesting."
"Well, that's one way of putting it." Matt muttered, glancing at Rainbow.
She was staring wide eyed at both him and Medivh. Matthias figured that seeing a raven talk was just too weird for her.
"Welcome to my world." he thought, smirking.
"So..." he said, turning to Medivh. "Why are you here?"
"I wanted to kindly remind you that you need to heal yourself before you can accomplish what you need to do here."
"What?!" Matt shouted, staring at the raven in confusion. "I thought I already healed myself! Wasn't that the reason for your congratulations?"
"No, I just congratulated you for passing step one." replied Medivh.
"Step one?" Matthias asked, while at the same time thinking:
"Where have I heard that before?"
And then it hit him.
Tears are the first step in healing one's heart...
"Oh, for the..." he thought before he took a deep breath, calming himself.
"How many steps are there?" he asked Medivh.
"Five." the raven answered. "You already passed two: first, when you opened your heart to pain, and shed true tears, and the second, when you asked for help with every bit of your being a month ago."
"He means when I was trapped in that amber by Chrysalis." Matt thought, sighing.
"And what do I have to do to pass the other steps?" he asked.
"You will have to figure that one on your own, I'm afraid."
"Helpful as always." muttered Matthias.
He pondered on what he heard.
"Steps... if the first one was opening my heart to pain, and second was asking for help with every bit of my being, what could the other three be?"
"I also bring you a warning." Medivh voice pulled him from his thoughts. "If you fail in passing any of those steps when the time comes, your worst nightmare will repeat."
Matt gasped. He could feel the blood in his veins turn cold.
"You mean..." he stammered, noticing in the corner of his eye that Rainbow was glancing at him, surprised. "... you mean I could..."
"Yes." said raven, the short answer sufficient.
Matt looked down at the ground.
"No... this cannot repeat! No..."
"How..." he asked weakly.
"I do not know, and for that, I am sorry." replied Medivh. "I wish I could help you, or be more clear at least, but I can't. All I can tell you for now is to be strong."
"Helpful as always." Matt muttered again.
He heard the sound of hoofsteps as Rainbow trotted over to him.
"Hey, you're alright?" she asked him, concerned.
Matt smiled weakly.
"For the moment." he replied, meaning the state of his mind. He turned to Medivh as he suddenly remembered Ysera: "Medivh, do you know... dammit!"
He was gone.
"What the hay!?" asked Rainbow, looking around. "How did he do that?"
"It's kind of his thing." Matt replied, rubbing his head. "Listen, Rainbow, would you mind if we skipped our training today? I don't feel up to it."
"Sure." replied pegasus, although he could see disappointment on her face for a brief moment.
"Lets head back, then." Matt said, standing up. "I will make it up to you some other time."
For a few minutes they walked through the Ghastly Gorge in silence, but when they left it, the cyan mare asked him:
"So... you can still turn evil, I take?"
"No, my worst nightmare is for you to start acting like after the reception again." Matt chuckled weakly, but he soon grew serious again. "Do me a favor and don't mention that to anypony. I will do it as soon as we all get together."
"Okay." replied Rainbow, winking. "Just don't turn evil in the meantime."
They both laughed at that very weak joke for some time.
"I need to get back to Ponyville and take care of a few weather jobs. You can walk back by yourself, right?" asked Rainbow, flying up into the air.
"Of course I... wait, didn't you tell me you already took care of your job in the morning?"
"I lied." she said, poking her tongue at him, and flew away.
Matt rolled his eyes.
It took him about an hour to get back to Ponyville. All the way back, he wondered how would he break the news Medivh had told him to his friends.
How would he break it to Twilight.
He finally reached the library, and still he had nothing. Shaking his head, he entered.
"Hey Spike, is Twilight here?" he asked the dragon, who was clearing one of the shelves.
"Hi. Twilight is upstairs." replied Spike, not looking up. "Aaaand... done. If Twilight asks, I'm at Rarity's."
Matt watched amused as the baby dragon ran past him. Wishing for a few minutes his problems were as easy as Spike’s, he sighed and made his way to the bedroom.
Twilight was laying on her bed, reading a book and making some notes.
"Oh, hi Matt!" she said as she noticed him. "How did the training go?"
"Well, it was... eventful, to say the least." he chuckled.
"That's nice." the unicorn replied, turning back to her books.
Matt watched her for about ten seconds.
"Twilight..." he started, but was cut short by the noise of somepony knocking on the door. "I'd better go see who it is."
"Spike can do that."
"He's at Rarity's."
He could hear Twilight sigh as he made his way back.
"Who could this be?" he wondered, thinking that it was one of their friends, as he opened the door.
His eyes went wide.
"Long time no see." Princess Cadance and Shining Armor greeted him.