Reaper struck flint and steel sparks into a nest of tinder as Luna rounded up a collection of branches and twigs. She dropped them in front of the small fire Reaper was nursing, and turned to head back down the hill toward the treeline.
“Grab a few bigger pieces, if you can,” Reaper called out. “I’ll have a decent base going in a couple of minutes.”
Luna stooped to pick up a broken piece of trunk from a small tree that had apparently been shattered in a windstorm. As she turned her shoulders in order to pry the piece free, her eyes caught sight of the now-clear eastern horizon.
“Oh, my!”
She dropped the trunk and stood transfixed as Larg rose above distant white-capped mountains.
Reaper stepped up silently behind her and picked up the fallen fuel: “I’d forgotten how big he appears.”
“I can’t feel a presence, the way I do with our moon, but I can still tell so much just by looking!”
She followed Reaper back to the fire, all the time keeping her eye on the silvery orb: “Surely he is actually not all that big, but is simply rather close to Kur.”
Reaper nodded as he placed some larger branches on the growing blaze: “Right. Neither moon is likely very massive, and you’ll see how quickly they traverse the sky. Arro is actually somewhat larger, based on most astronomers’ calculations--it’s just further away.”
Luna furrowed her brow: “That being the case, won’t they both run through their phases rather quickly? How can that be of much use for placing this day against the day of the battle to come?”
“It’ll make more sense in a while when Arro comes up. If my guess is right, she’ll be at around half-full. Any later than that, and we’ll have a problem.”
“She?”
“Yes--most Kurlin identify Larg as as masculine and Arro as feminine. It’s an old tradition that goes back, again, to the days of long-gone legends and gods.”
“Does the sun have a name?”
Reaper stroked the short beard on his chin: “Hmm. Not that I recall. She’s just the sun. And yes, in most dialects, the sun is feminine.”
Luna leaned back and gazed straight up: “The stars truly are different here, aren’t they? I do not recognize any constellations. They seem somehow more distant, colder.”
Reaper frowned thoughtfully: “I never really thought about it, I guess. To be honest I’ve spent so much time on our world focused on ponies and their spirits, that I haven’t paid much attention to the surrounding environments.”
“Like the Royal Gardens.”
“Exactly.”
He stirred the fire and laid on more fuel: “Speaking of--I never got the chance to thank you for that morning in the Gardens and the subsequent trip to Ponyville. I genuinely appreciated the gesture, even if I can never really enjoy it.”
Luna looked away from the stars for a moment and leaned in to warm her hands: “I am only sorry that it was so unexpectedly traumatic for you! And I’m sure poor Aloe still thinks she did something wrong!”
Reaper shook his head: “No--it turned out for the best. It shook my death memory free, and started us down this path.”
Luna nodded and turned her face back toward the sky: “And it did unintentionally yield some valuable material as well.”
Reaper chuckled: “I guess you could put it that way!”
Luna narrowed her eyes and stared intently at Larg for a minute: “Hmm--he does run his course quickly, does he not?”
“Yes he does. He’s good for timing night marches or synchronizing actions, but is of little use as a calendar aid. Arro fills that need better.”
Reaper pulled out the blanket: “We’ve both had a rather hectic day. Have a bit of a nap. I’ll rouse you once Arro is up. Then we can walk again for a bit.”
Luna yawned and curled up gratefully in the blanket: “Please assure me you will awaken me shortly. You, too, need some rest.”
“I will. I’m just going to grab my notebook and jot down some notes regarding the lay of the land here. Hopefully we won’t have to backtrack, but if we do, I want to be able to get back to that ruined shrine for reference.”
Luna nodded absently and dozed off without a further word.
“Luna. Luna, wake up!”
Luna’s eyes fluttered open, and she focused on Reaper’s face, hovering some two feet away, highlighted by the flickering light of the nearby fire.
“How long did I sleep?”
“I let you go for about three hours--you seemed pretty beat.”
She sat up and rubbed her eyes as she turned toward the east.
“I see that Arro is indeed smaller,” Luna said, “and appears darker--almost scarred.”
“Yes. I wish this world had Equestria’s telescopes--it would be fascinating to get a closer look at her features.”
“Alternately, I could simply traverse the gap and get a closer look first-hoof!”
Reaper shook his head, “Yeah, but not here. Like I said, this is a world devoid of that kind of magic. In fact, I suspect the entire construct of our world is unlike this one.”
“How do you mean?”
Reaper looked back and forth between Larg and Arro: “In our world, you and your sister have mastery over heavenly bodies, pegasi control natural phenomena, there are countless sentient creatures.”
“Yes?”
“It’s not that way here. And based on my observation of many other worlds and realities as I skimmed across space and time from the battlefield of my death to Equestria, it isn’t that way anywhere else, either.”
Luna’s eyebrows jumped “No magic anywhere?”
“Certainly not the all-encompassing type we enjoy back on our world. Some places seemed to have sprinklings, but very few and far between.”
Luna placed a piece of wood on the fire: “How sad. I should weep to think of our world without its magic. How is everything accomplished here, then? Is this, in essence, a world of earth ponies?”
Reaper narrowed his eyes for a moment: “More or less, yes. Everything accomplished here is done by brute force or basic engineering or rudimentary science. There may have been some kind of magic back in the misty past, but if so, it faded out long ago.”
Luna looked back up at Arro: “So what has our dark friend told you about the date?”
“We came in about where I figured--we have roughly fifteen days before the battle, give or take. I’ll get a better sense once we get to a mid-size town or garrison.”
Reaper stood and stretched: “My only real concern is that we’re further north than I would have liked. We’re likely going to have to push extra hard to cover the distance.”
He walked away from the fire, heading down the slope toward the stream they had been following: “I’m going to refill the flask and water jug. I’ll be back in a minute, then we can get packed and move on.”
As Reaper moved out of the firelight, Luna stood and looked around with a puzzled, uncomfortable expression: “I suppose anywhere away from where we are sleeping should be fine…”
She walked a few paces back toward the top of a low hill, stopped, and pulled down her breeches. She looked down at the heavy cloth bunched around her ankles and furrowed her brow. She then stepped free of the fabric, spread her legs and leaned forward slightly with her hands on her knees.
Luna raised an eyebrow as she peered down between her legs, then over her shoulder toward her non-existent tail. She shook her head and shrugged, and relaxed her bladder…
...and pissed down the inside of her leg.
“Damn!”
She finished urinating, and turned back toward the fire, stepping away from the wet, steaming grass, shaking her leg. She locked eyes with Reaper, who was standing in front of the fire, chuckling.
“What is so funny?” Luna demanded.
Reaper set down the flask and water bottle, and stepped forward toward Luna: “Still don’t quite have this whole biped thing down, do you?”
She glared: “Well, I have only been doing it for a few hours, yes? And everything’s not quite in its proper place!”
Reaper nodded as he bent down to pick up Luna’s discarded breeches. He lowered himself on his haunches, and held the first two fingers of his left hand up in a 'V' shape: “Right. Next time, squat and hold yourself open with your fingers.”
Luna wrinkled her nose: “How undignified!”
“Better than pissing yourself!”
She nodded ruefully: “True.” She walked back to the fire and stood shivering.
Reaper knelt and pulled a small towel and metal pot from the saddlebag/pack: “Here--dry off and wrap up in the blanket. I’ll warm some water and you can at least wipe down your legs.”
Luna blotted the now-cold urine from her legs and swaddled herself in the blanket as Reaper poured water into the pan and set it at the edge of the fire.
“I assume you do not have this difficulty?” Luna asked.
“Correct. Everything’s kind of in the right place. I’ll only have to squat to shit.”
Luna sighed: “Oh, yes--that too!”
She fussed with her cloak: “These garments do not lend themselves to this, do they?”
“No, though there are other types of garb you may find both more comfortable and functional. Hopefully we can find you something suitable shortly.”
Luna glanced to the west: “Larg has nearly run his course, has he not?”
“Yes. Arro will remain in the sky for most of the rest of the night, though she’s not quite at half, so we won’t get much light from her.”
Luna chewed on an apple she had extracted from Reaper’s bag: “That is fine. I seem to have retained much of my ability to see in the dark.”
Reaper raised an eyebrow: “Really? That’s interesting. I’m glad a little of the old Luna made it through the portal--this might prove useful!”
He leaned forward and tested the water with a forefinger: “Well, it’s not exactly hot, but it’s at least warm enough for a quick sponge bath.”
He poured some warm water over the towel, wrung it out and handed it to Luna. She pulled open the blanket and began running the damp cloth between, then down her legs.
Reaper stood up and picked up the water bottle: “One more trip to the stream to refill this.”
As he returned back up the slope, he looked at Luna, and caught her silhouetted by Larg as he dipped below the treeline. Her hood was thrown back, and her hair fanned out behind her in the breeze like wings. Her smile flashed in her dark face as she spread her arms and pointed to the two moons.
“You say this world is bereft of magic,” she cried, “but I say that the Princess of the Night cannot help but be empowered by the light of two moons! Let us go forth to your doom!”
They packed quickly and headed down the slope into a cold, clinging mist.