Lucien and Twilight moved through the brush at a steady pace, trudging past green trees with full branches. Neither paid heed to the early summer sun's shafts of golden light filtering through the thick canopy. It was hot outside, but neither were willing to spare the energy and brainpower to worry about the temperature. They were getting close to Lucien's house, and the end of their journey.
A glance was shared between them, momentarily. Twilight's filled with uncertainty, Lucien's with some indescribable emotion. Either way, conflict was buried deep beyond his tense expression.
As they passed by a pile of leaves and branches at the base of a tree, he was taken back to the day he ventured to Equestria. He had fought a frost giant, if he remembered correctly. He had been out to find a reagent for his summoning spell and encountered it by chance, leading to a wild chase through the forest. It all culminated at the base of a tree, where he had tricked it into charging him before dodging, causing it to run into the tree.
He let out a barely-audible sigh. While he was relieved that the world would be able to move on and finally extinguish beasts like that, he knew he would miss the thrill of the fight and the chase. For so long he had seen it as his responsibility to watch out for mankind and do his part to eliminate what others could not, it seemed almost like waking up from a dream to realize that all that would be over soon. It would take some adjusting to, guaranteed.
Twilight's ears perked up at Lucien's soft exhale, noticing the change in his pace of breath, but turned her head the other way, electing not to comment on it. Her eyes roamed aimlessly across the forest landscape, trying to find solace in the breathtaking nature that surrounded them. However, her endeavors were constantly interrupted by memories of their recent encounter. She had, of course, heard from Lucien about the accident that led him to Equestria initially, but his initial explanation back then seemed to make light of the situation, almost. He had seemed so nonchalant and carefree then, casually discussing summoning a demon in his basement.
But then again, he had elected not to share with her his reasoning, nor the specifics of exactly what he had tried to summon. And finding out from people who had attempted to end their lives? It made her start to question when else he had lied to her about his past. It was disconcerting at best. A total betrayal at worst.
And then there was that man. She had sensed the discordant energy about him as soon as he had engaged with the others. As much as she hadn't expected to encounter Discord on Earth, she definitely never thought to encounter another who shared his power. Not to mention that his knowledge of Lucien and herself was uncanny. Looking back on their brief discussion, she was amazed that Lucien didn't kill him on the spot after he had done away with all the rest.
The thought made her wince. Had his nonchalance towards death and combat rubbed off on her during their time together? A year ago she could hardly stomach the idea of the death of another, regardless of the life-or-death situations that she and her friends had repeatedly gotten into. Back in Equestria things seemed so much brighter. As beautiful and remarkable Earth and its society is, things were much darker here.
Twilight's instincts and thoughts were in turmoil still. She thought she could never see Lucien more furious than when they had spoken with Discord, but she was proven wrong not even hours later. The display of power and violence he had wrought onto the other men... it was like some primal part of him had lashed out in pure rage, a moment of precision and brutality. It went a long way to convince her of the dangers of humanity that he had warned her about so long ago.
She had never witnessed the death of another by Lucien's hand before that encounter as well, she realized. Those weren't just mindless beasts like the ones that had appeared in Equestria and fought in Newport, they were living, thinking, humans. A part of her innocence had died in that moment, maybe the last of it, and it wasn't ever going to come back.
Twilight looked back to Lucien. He had separated from her by a few steps, working his way through a few branches, a vacant expression on his face. By the way his gaze wandered she reasoned he must be reminiscing. After all, he had spent several years in this forest. By now he must be able to recognize his surroundings.
Their eyes met briefly as he looked towards her. Their contact held for a few moments, then broke off as Lucien went back to navigating the brush.
Twilight didn't know how to feel anymore. Her instincts were telling her to be afraid of him, but his eyes... she could see an the pain and remorse in them. Seeing that in who she could easily call her closest companion nearly broke her heart. The conflict wore at her psyche, destabilizing her emotions and creating a gnawing pit inside her stomach, one that threatened to swallow her from the inside out.
A branch cracked underneath her hoof. Birds chirped overhead. A gentle wind shook the branches of the trees, falling leaves whispering their descent. Lucien stumbled on a root, catching himself loudly on a tree's trunk.
Twilight looked over, alarmed and concerned in equal parts. Her ears stood straight up, a single hoof paused mid-step, as if it were trying to decide whether to move towards him or away from him.
He looked over at her, taking note of her posture and expression. His eyes fell and he let out a soft sigh. "I understand, Twilight."
Those three words cut into her deep, stirring her swirling emotions into the hot burn of guilt. "Lucien, I--"
"No, no, it's fine. I understand," he repeated more forcefully. "I know how you feel, perhaps more than you might realize." He looked to the trunk he had caught himself on and leaned against it harder, slowly sliding on it to sit on the soft earth. "I can see how you feel about me, after everything that just happened. It's been... well, crazy. And I don't have an excuse for how I've acted. I let my emotions get the better of me not once, but twice. It's inexcusable."
Twilight opened her mouth to retort, but once again found herself cut off.
"I've taken poor courses of action many times in my life, and it's alienated some of the people that I held dear. One of the reasons I moved out here in the first place stems from the idea that I can't have people close to me without either getting them hurt or scaring them away. I'm not trying to play the loner or the victim here, it's just how I've lived. I was friends with people that didn't constantly solve their problems with violence like I do, and it drove them away. So I drove myself away." His eyes rose to meet hers. She had relaxed her position and moved closer without him noticing. She now sat before him attentively, her expression an emotionless mask. His eyes drifted to the side and lost focus. "I understand that I've broken not just your trust in me but I've also shattered the image of who you thought I was. I'm sorry I had to put you through that.
"Once we get back in Equestria, I'll go away, I promise. I know that it won't fix what's happened, but--"
He was suddenly stopped as a foreign pressure laid itself across his lips. His eyes focused again and widened in slight surprise. Twilight had placed her hoof over his mouth, halting his words. He looked up to see her eyes were brimming with tears.
"I don't-- I don't want you to go away." She took a deep breath, her voice hitching slightly. Lucien's own eyes began to well up with moisture. "I know that I just saw a side of you that you didn't want me to see-- that I never wanted to see... But it's part of you regardless." Her voice gained strength as she found her confidence. She was fighting against her own subconscious will to be this close to him, but she would not allow herself to be ruled by her instincts. "Lucien... you're too important to me. And I'd be an idiot to let you leave my life." She smiled through her internal struggle, blinking away the tears. She focused on the feeling of his soft skin against the frog of her hoof and found that it helped to calm her down. Sensing the opportunity afforded to her by his hesitation, she retracted her hoof, then quickly leaned in and draped her forelegs over his shoulders, pulling him close into a hug, maneuvering her head to rest on his shoulder.
Her instincts warred inside her, screaming to get away. But she found them hushed as she felt his hands slowly place themselves on her back. After a short moment they shifted further, and she felt the fabric of his coat rustle along her fur. Slowly, his arms enveloped her and pulled her further into their embrace. She felt droplets of water on her side and quickly came to the realization that Lucien was crying. It only took her another moment to realize that she was too.
They held their embrace for what felt like hours, the quick beat of her heart quieting and calming down. She cried until she felt she could shed no more tears. Her shoulder dried up quickly, Lucien had recovered faster than she. Her tumultuous emotions had stilled, and the war inside had closed in their moment of catharsis. However, something else remained, fluttering around inside her chest.
She felt Lucien's grip loosen, and he pulled back slightly. Taking the hint, she leaned back as well.
They were in a slightly awkward position. By deciding to embrace the sitting human, he had slid down the base of the tree he had been leaning against and now they were almost horizontal on the ground. Only Lucien's upper back still laid against the wood, the way her hooves rested on his shoulders did nothing to help him stay upright either. Somewhere along the way Twilight had scooted forward so she was more or less sitting in his lap.
Their teary eyes met, their faces flushed from the output of emotion. Then, ever so slowly, Lucien leaned forward. Twilight, the fluttering feelings in her chest intensifying, matched his motions. Time slowed around them; the sounds of nature faded away. Only the two of them remained, in a world all their own. With the gentleness and compassion of a butterfly landing on a flower, their lips met in an intimate embrace.
Lucien shifted, pulling her closer once again. He deepened the kiss, prompting a slight hitch in Twilight's breath. She allowed herself to be taken in by his motion and outpouring of emotion. His hands closed along the curves of her back, scratching into her coat pleasantly, intensifying the sensation of their connection.
After a few moments of intimacy, the two felt the need to separate, leaning back to gaze into the others' eyes. Twilight looked into Lucien's green eyes and saw the intense compassion and protectiveness that underlied the clear love he felt for her. Lucien looked back into Twilight's magenta eyes and saw his own love reflected back at him, along with the indescribable relief that she had accepted him, despite knowing what he is capable of.
In that moment, the two cemented an unbreakable connection. Despite all the two had been through together and the terrifying experiences that each had to deal with in their own way, they knew in that moment that they had found a companion that would always be willing to stay by their side, regardless of the consequences.
Their lips met again in another embrace, their passion only heightened by the rays of the rising sun that bathed their intertwined forms in golden light. Nature fell into harmony with their emotion, their inner turmoils silenced temporarily; for as long as the two were together, there was nothing that could bother them. They had finally found each other, and that was enough.
It took a few minutes for the two of them to extract themselves from their position on the ground by the tree, but eventually they found their way up again, and continued to walk. The exit of the Labyrinth wasn't as close to Lucien's house as he remembered, and the area that they were passing through led him to believe that they still had a good half hour's hike through the woods or so before they reached his place. Luckily, with most of the tension between them having dissipated after their highly cathartic shared moment, it was likely the hike would be quite pleasant. It wasn't long before they were talking once again about their favorite topic: magic.
"I've seen you use all sorts of magic both here and in Equestria. There's no way you'll have me believe that you just made all that up on the fly!"
Lucien could tell there was no way talking around Twilight now. Judging by those flattened ears and deadpan stare, she had donned her '0% BULLSHIT' look. "Okay, okay," he conceded finally, breaking under her glare. "I really prefer to use simple manipulation spells when I fight, just easy things like moving and reshaping the earth, usually. But I will admit that any spells that I use that aren't just levitation tricks or conjurations are all real, documented spells that I had to memorize, sort of," he explained.
Twilight nodded once, but he could tell that she still wasn't satisfied. "I know how difficult it is to commit a spell to memory, and I'm willing to bet it's the same here on Earth. So how is it that you have such a huge library of spells to choose from? There's no way you could have memorized so many without help."
Lucien held up his hands in mock surrender. "Alright, alright, I'm explaining. I have a set of runes that acts as a sort of storage entirely for spells. It's a little bit of work to access, but it was worth having done to me." That was bad phrasing. Very bad phrasing. He mentally kicked himself for ending his sentence in that way. All he could do was cross his fingers and hope she didn't notice.
"I knew it! There was no way you could... wait, 'having done to me?"
"Nothing gets by that pony." He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "Well, those memory runes had to go someplace I'd be able to access them quickly and efficiently." He stopped walking, suddenly, and Twilight stopped as well, her gaze not leaving Lucien's. "And the best place we've found is up here." He turned his head to the side and lifted up the hair behind his left ear. Hearing Twilight's gasp confirmed that she saw it.
"Oh my Celestia..."
Behind his left ear, going all the way from the top and circling down to the bottom of his lobe, were runes etched directly into his scalp. They were about half-an-inch long each, the color of soot, and had the appearance of being burned into his head. He shifted his hair back into place and stood up again.
"As I said, they were well worth the price of getting them. Before you ask, yes they heat up when I access stored spells; no it doesn't hurt, it just kinda tickles; no I can't estimate how many spells I have stored in them; I got them when I was in my twenties, and they were drawn in by an old friend of mine. The runes have been around for ages as a way of storing additional information in books that could only be accessed by mages, but some strapping young lad about a century or so ago had this crazy idea and theorized that they could be applied directly to the head of a magus to help with spell recollection," he summarized. "As I said though, it was worth it, and they're not nearly as bad as they look."
Twilight didn't say anything. Lucien kept his eyes ahead.
He heard the flapping of wings, then a gentle kiss met the side of his head. He turned to look at her, a bemused smile stuck on his face. "Ah, c'mere." He reached out an arm and tugged the alicorn to him, giving her a big hug. After a few moments, he gave her a peck on the top of her noggin, then set her down on the ground.
She folded her wings in, a blush present on her face. The two kept on walking in silence.
It wasn't too long after that when Lucien began to recognize some familiar landmarks in the forest around them. It was strange to see his forest so green, after all, the last time he had been here was in the dead of winter. Skipping directly over the first stirrings of spring, the melting of the snow, and the emergence of greenery was something that caught him off-guard, having spent nearly five years living out here. Although he easily concluded that getting to spend that time in Equestria and getting to participate in Winter Wrap-Up was well worth missing his own little "winter wrap-up".
"This is the place, I take it?" asked Twilight, breaking Lucien from his train of thought.
He looked up, breaking his gaze from the gorgeous green around them, to see that they had indeed arrived. His house was a small affair, a small, off-the-grid place made of wood and stone. One bedroom, one living room, one kitchen, one bathroom, and one finely dug-out basement laboratory/forge/magic practice area. A million different thoughts flashed through his head as the two looked on at the empty abode, some strange combination of nostalgia and regret. "Charlotte would've really liked it here," he thought, his eyes turning to look at Twilight.
"So are we going to go inside?" she asked quietly, smiling softly. Although, that smile faltered slightly as she caught the look on Lucien's face. "Is something wrong?"
Lucien rubbed at his eyes a bit, feeling tired all of a sudden. "You know," he began, opening his eyes again, "I think everything's alright." He offered her a genuine smile.
Twilight returned the sentiment readily. "Then let's go! I want to see where you worked!" With that, she bounded forward, crossing the remaining distance towards his past abode. They were approaching from the backside, where they could see nothing but the small rectangular windows placed high on the back wall looking in on his bathroom. Twilight ran around the side before Lucien caught up, prompting him to call out. "Hold on, Twilight! Let me catch up!"
Twilight's exasperated groan echoed from around the corner of the house. "Hurry up! I want to see your research!"
Lucien chuckled at the notes of impatience in her voice, taking him back to when he was young and eager to explore his mentor's books. He blinked. Wow, that made him sound really old.
It didn't take him much longer to catch up to her, but she had already gone inside. It seemed that the front door was left open, and scattered leaves trailed their way inside his old home. As he stepped to the front door and wiped off his shoes by habit at the "No Trolls Allowed" welcome mat, he noticed that the wood of the doorjamb was splintered, like the door had been knocked in. Well, the guys who shot at him earlier did say that they searched his house...
Walking inside, he noted that his meager furnishings were covered by a fine layer of dust. Further on in his house, he heard Twilight's hooves clopping along the tile flooring.
"Where's your lab?!" she called from probably in the kitchen.
"Come back to me and I'll show you where it is!" he responded, walking towards the sound of her voice.
Rounding the corner to his living room, he saw that his TV had been smashed, and fallen on the ground from where it once hung on the wall. Rude.
Twilight came around from his modest kitchen unit, looking excited. "So where do you keep your research?" she asked, a bright smile on her face.
"It's right down here," he said, gesturing to a door on the other side of the house, attached to the living room. The two of them walked over and Lucien grabbed the knob, pulling the heavy wooden construct open for her. "You should see most of my notes on the shelves on the right wall, by the desk. Just be careful, the people who came through here already probably stole most of it. Or just burned it. Ugh." He put a hand to his head and sighed.
"I'll be sure to take care of whatever's left!" Twilight said before blasting down the stairs faster than his cat running from water.
Oh. His cat. Bella.
Well, she probably ran away. Which is unfortunate, since he actually liked her. Despite the whole thing where she ruined his ritual and sent him spiraling away into another pastel-themed dimension where he met his unicorn partner (girlfriend?).
"Wow, you were right, everything's broken!" came Twilight's still-enthused voice from the basement.
"You don't have to sound so excited about it!" Lucien yelled down, holding back a smile.
A beat.
"Sorry!" Twilight responded.
Chuckling, Lucien walked around the corner of his living room and into his kitchen, surveying the damage. Dusty appliances, leftover plates, trash can not emptied. Jeez, they could've at least taken the trash out when they ransacked the place.
A blinking red light caught his attention. It was odd enough that he still had electricity running in the house, especially considering he wasn't around to feed magic to the generator, though he could believe that it was picking up on his presence now. The "Message Received" light on his phone's receiver was blinking. And judging by the LED display on said phone receiver he had indeed received several messages.
Very few individuals were given the number he used for this house's landline. It was for emergencies only.
Well, better take a listen.
"I was just listening to a few messages, Twilight, no need to yell at me from across the house for it," Lucien said, walking down the stairs into his basement.
"Sorry, sorry, I was just really excited to look over what's left down here."
As Lucien walked into the basement, he surveyed the somewhat depressing scene. The various experiments he had set up over the course of the months before his departure were in various states of disarray. Broken glass littered the ground, scattered among scorch marks and singed pages of notes he had compiled over the time he'd spent there.
"Well, what's going on?" he asked, a smile on his face despite the destruction around him.
"Not much," she replied, pushing some broken glass around with the edge of her hoof. "Things in here aren't in very good shape. I think I can guess at what you were doing based on what equipment was broken, but otherwise nothing made it through it seems. I guess potion-brewing was a hobby of yours before going to Equestria, huh?" she asked, a shy smile on her face.
"Yeah, I got really into it not long after moving here. There's a wealth of reagents out in the forest around here, including some stuff that I wasn't usually able to find elsewhere. Winters were especially nice, just much colder than I prefer, given that I grew up in a southern, warmer climate." A wistful smile crossed his face. "The weather right now is part of the reason why I like this area though. Spring is really nice around here, as I'm sure you saw."
"Yeah, it actually reminds me of Ponyville - of home." She looked up at him with hopeful eyes. "Are you ready to face whatever it is we're going back to? After being around so long, I'm sure Ponyville and Equestria is just as much home to you as it is to me."
Lucien took a deep breath and let his gaze roam around the room. His lab, his forge, his home. His mentor told him a long time ago that sentimentality was the easiest way to get himself killed. That attachment breeds complacence. It was one of the points that Lucien had always disagreed with, vehemently. His home on Earth meant a lot to him, but the Earth itself meant more than any place he would live while on its surface. Sentimentality and attachment was what gave him his strength, and after spending a few months on Equestria he felt almost as attached to Ponyville and his friends there as he did with The Company, back before everything went so wrong. It's almost enough to make him feel better about what comes next.
"Yeah, I guess it is home, in a sense," Lucien said, smiling. "All we have left to do is set the circle over there up again and head out. Well, and one more thing," he said, a tinge of sadness working its way into his voice.
Twilight picked up on it, her ears turning and head swiveling to face him. "What do you mean, 'one more thing'?"
Well, this isn't gonna make her happy. "Right. Uh, so Sandcroft, the guy that we're fighting?"
Twilight nodded.
"His biggest strength in fighting us is that he's able to, relatively effortlessly, banish anyone and anything that isn't native to Equestria. See, we're all 'Grounded' in a sense to the world and—though I hate using this word—dimension that we come from. If what Discord says is true, then Sandcroft and any other Gatekeeper out there can use that connection and force you back to the world you're Grounded to." He paused, watching the wheels turn in Twilight's head. It didn't take long to see her face turn from confusion to understanding, and then further.
"So that's what you meant when you were talking about watching humanity move on from this. All the way back in at the cafe." Twilight's face flushed with anger. "You knew this would happen the whole time, and you didn't tell me!" Twilight's accusatory tone was tinged with hurt.
"I couldn't worry you any more. We still don't even know if we have a deadline to get back. I made the decision early on that if it came down to it, I would sacrifice my connection to Earth in order to make sure we can save Equestria. To become Ungrounded."
"I can't ask you to do that. I know now just how much this world means to you! It's everything you have! You know I watched your face while we were having lunch in that city; I could see just how much you adored being there! I'm not going to just let you throw away your path back home on Equestria's behalf!" Twilight stood resolute, her tone offering no room to disagree.
Lucien opted to reason things out further. "There's no other way, Twilight. I can only send the both of us back with this circle, and then Sandcroft could just toss us back to Earth as easily as he did the last time. Regardless of how well we could try to defend against him or stop him, he's also still a powerful magician."
"I... W-well, what about Aiden? Could you use his connection to Earth to reestablish yours? And travel back home?" Twilight asked, still upset but sounding a bit more resigned to his plan.
Unfortunately, he'd already considered that approach. "Aiden is... troubling. Best I understand is that he ran into some issues with Hunters, and fled to Equestria. Given his circumstances, I'm certain that he's severed his connection upon leaving, otherwise they could track him. Extraplanar movement definitely doesn't stop them."
"What about me? Should I have some sort of connection to Earth now, or-or an object? I know objects can hold traces of magical signatures, maybe you could key something to Earth and—"
"Twilight."
"I don't want you to lose your home out of some sense of duty to Equestria!" Twilight's voice rose.
"Twilight, you said it yourself. Equestria is home to me now too. And I'm gonna fight for it just like I've been fighting for Earth. Besides, I don't have to worry about here anymore, if Discord is to be trusted." He seemed repentant enough. "He's not my first choice of potential saviors of Earth, but he's definitely not my last either."
"You can't do this," she tried again, but her face betrayed a weakness in her resolve. Lucien wasn't going to budge on this.
"I'm doing it. For the sake of both of our worlds. Even if Discord is the one that caused Earth to become... like this, I still hold him accountable for his own actions. Besides, if my hunch is correct, I think that he might have a hand in that as well."
Twilight thought about it for a moment, her face still flush with anger. "What do you mean?" she asked after taking a few breaths.
"I noticed a while back, when I was looking through my journal. I, along with most mages, occasionally get glimpses of the future within my dreams. Some pretty significant events in my life were predicted there, and I sketched them out whenever I could. Back in Equestria I was looking through it and noticed a common theme in most of them." He knelt and took off his backpack, taking a moment to fish out his notebook. Flipping to the right group of pages, he turned the book around to Twilight. "There's always a spade. Sometimes in the forefront, sometimes hidden in plain sight, but there's always a spade."
"So? What does that mean?" she asks, looking over his rough sketches.
"That's Sandcroft's cutie mark. And it's the symbol that he used to show me where to find him once or twice. I guess it's his calling card or something." Lucien put a hand to his forehead. "Honestly if the situation weren't so serious I'd laugh at how bad of an idea it is to give yourself such an identifier."
The two were quiet after that. Twilight refused to meet Lucien's eyes, instead tracing them over the summoning circle that had started this adventure in the first place, so long ago. Lucien held his eyes on her. He had made up his mind on this solution days before, and he was unwilling to allow himself to be swayed. Sacrificing his connection to Earth was the only way he could contend with Sandcroft back in Equestria.
Twilight let out a shaky sigh. She finally turned away from the summoning circle to meet Lucien's unflinching gaze. "Alright. I don't like it, but alright. I understand your plan, and what you're feeling. I... would probably do the same thing if I were in your place."
Lucien nodded firmly. "I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't think it was necessary. Earth is going to be fixed, and so is Equestria. We'll do it, together."
A soft smile graced Twilight's face. "I trust you. And we'll find a way to get you back to Earth, eventually. I'm not too familiar with extraplanar travel, but between the two of us I'm sure we can research a way."
"That's a promise." Lucien stuck out his fist for a bump.
Twilight stared at it for a moment, then looked up, smiling. In an instant she flung herself into his arms, giving him a peck on the cheek. "Pinkie promise."
"Are you sure you have everything you need?" Twilight asked Lucien.
He had some last-minute calls to make, some final arrangements with old friends that hadn't heard from him in a while. He figured they deserved closure as much as anybody else did. In addition to that, there was the problem of figuring out what in his home he wanted to bring to Equestria, operating under the assumption that this would be his last time on Earth. He packed up some of his old crafting projects, his athames, some of his magical odds and ends that he had collected over the years. Some held sentimental value, others didn't; he didn't expect any of them to see much use other than becoming either nice conversation pieces or some odd decorations. Although, to think of it, some of those were probably better off not seeing the light of day. In any case, at least he could situate everything in his backpack, given that he was pretty sure that it could hold all of his worldly possessions and then some.
Picking up his bag and making sure it was firmly strapped on his back, he stood up. "Yeah, I think that's everything. I'm still not entirely sure what my old mentor did to this bag when he gave it to me, but it's pretty impressive. Maybe we can pick the spells apart when we get back to Equestria?"
"Sounds like a fun project," Twilight said, brushing up against him. He offered a smile back, and softly set a hand on her withers.
The two turned to face the still-smudged summoning circle. He picked up all the components he needed for the spell and arranged them around specific points on the chalk on the ground, just as he had before.
He took a deep breath, one hand still on Twilight, and began to chant.