Caspian was dead, and with his death, the battle started to wane.
I looked up from his body. Around me, our forces were winning. Around me, the long war was coming to an end. Around me, sapient beings were slaughtering each other in a thousand nightmare-inducing vignettes of violence, while I was too exhausted and numb to do anything.
I ignored them, and they seemed to avoid me, as I made my way to Lucy and her Lion, my hooves drowning in the blood-soaked mud. And with every step of the way, I could feel his presence overwhelming me. Even through the detachment of the shock, I was scared of Him. Lions are inherently terrifying, even more so than dragons, for in every equine there still lives the primal fear the hunted has for the hunter.
This Lion was even more scary. The sharp teeth, the rending claws, the thick muscles rolling under His coat, the deep, primal magic that radiated off Him in waves. He may have been sapient and benevolent, yet no matter what anyone would say, He was not a tame lion.
But I had a piece of mind to say and stubbornness enough to say it, no matter how scared I was.
When I walked past the kneeling Pevensies, he noticed me. His giant nostrils sniffed in the air, “You’re not one of mine.” He said. His voice was deep and reverberating, and it shook me to my bones. “You’re of Celestia’s foals. How is my cousin these days, little pony?”.
“Where the hay have you been all that time?”, I had no time for His pleasantries, “You’re supposed to be the King of these people and you were not here for a thousand years! There was a Nightmare-damned genocide and you did feathering nothing! What, were you too busy licking Your fluffy balls to care? Or to notice? Those guys”, I pointed my hoof at the Pevensies, staring at me in silent shock, “Keep telling how amazing and awesome You are. Prince Caspian believed in You! And you what, we're waiting for someone to come begging for help and just ate some popcorn while our soldiers’ blood colored Beruna red?”
He growled. If His voice was heavy, even a growl of his displeasure was almost a physical thing. You could feel its pressure with the whole of your body, louder than even the Royal Canterlot Voice. I dropped to my haunches and really wished I had stayed silent.
“‘T was a Deep Magic, from the Dawn of Time that bound me, little pony. Would you have me acting against Emperor’s own magic?
“Yeah, right, whatever”. I may have been scared half to death, but my sarcasm was alive and kicking, “If that were true, you’d be begging for their forgiveness, not taking their homage. Celestia is a real Princess. She’d rather die a thousand deaths than let anyone hurt any of her subjects. Caspian was a Prince. You - you’re just a big old meanie with delusions of grandeur, that’s what you are.”
“Hey! You can’t talk to Aslan like that.”
Well, who would it be to find their tongue but the little miss “Aslan’s fan club”.
“Lucy…” Peter started helplessly, but she looked daggers at him.
“Don’t tell me you’re on her side, Peter!”
“Come on, Lu...”
“Perhaps”, Lion’s deep voice stopped the argument in its tracks, “some apology is in order. I wish you all to know, that were it possible, I’d have come sooner to your aid.”
Lucy looked as if she was slapped in the face with a wet trout. Her expression was so full of the childish feeling of betrayal and confusion, that I thought she was about to cry.
“Yet now the balance of the world is upset,” Aslan said, looking at Peter. “The White Witch is gaining strength. Now it’s but a matter of time, til her sceptre, summons the next wielder and Jadis will walk the land again.”
“I’ll protect it” Peter stood up, putting his hand on his blade. “For the rest of my life if I have to”.
“My Son,” Aslan spoke softly “It is not your world, nor is it your burden to bear.”
“Is it not, Aslan?” Susan stood up next to her brother, looking at the lion in the eyes. “Did we not come when it called? Have we not fought for it enough? Did we not water it with our blood, and sweat and tears?”
“Peter will have it sorted, Sire.” Ed stood up, “if anyone can be doggedly stubborn to protect it till Narnia itself is unmade, it would be him.”
“Please Aslan?” even Lucy chimed in with her family “We’re your children, but we’re not kids! We can make our own decisions.”
“So be it, then,” Aslan said, nodding, and something changed as He so spake, a shade falling upon Peter’s face. He was as young and bold as he’s ever been, but a white line now adorned his before brown hair, and a sombre silence seemed to hang around him like a cloak.
“But you will need help.”
“TRAITORS!” his voice boomed, reaching to the farthest ends of the battlefield. “Sons of Telmar, traitors to the crown. By the law from the dawn of time, those who betray their word belong to the White Witch. Your lives are no longer your own.”
Fear rippled across the ranks of the Telmarines, the memory of petrification, the dead eyes of the White Prince still fresh in their minds.
“Yet by the will of the Emperor From Beyond The Sea, by the Sacrifice on the Stone, by the Laws of Magic that come from before the Time began, I can give you another duty. Step forth, sons of Telmar, traitors of the crown, and you shall be bound to sleep while Narnia still stands, only to be roused for its protection. Death shall give you pass, and the world of the living will be forbidden to you while Narnia stands, and only after the end of the Time shall you be released from your post to enter the world that comes after.”
Anger, fear and protests were the reactions of the Telmarines, yet the truth of Aslan's words could not be denied. One way or the other they were cursed, and Aslan's deal was only half as bad as being in White Witch's thrall.
One by one they came towards Peter, and the same deathly shroud spread along the ground, turning the beach into a shadowland, veiled from the land of the living.
Peter stepped on the border, and wordlessly he passed Rhindon to his sister, taking care not to touch Susan’s hand. Choking with tears she could only nod as she accepted.
“You are the High Queen now,” Aslan said. “A great honour. And a greater duty still.”
“She won’t be alone.” Edmund and Lucy stood by Susan's side, King and Queen of Narnia, brother and sister to High Queen.
“I’ll go with Peter.” somebody said, and it’s only by the looks others gave me I recognised that it was me. “It’s my fault. The whole thing…. It’s on me. I should stay”.
“No, little ones” The lion shook his mane, and this time there was no argument to be had. “Your destinies are tied to the other worlds, and those ties are not mine to break. You shall leave, and when the time comes, some of you may yet come back to this land. But now it is time for you to go home.”
He pushed Lucy gently with His giant head. “Go. Say your goodbyes now”.
So we did. To Reepicheep and his boys, to Glenstorm the centaur, Trufflehunter the badger and to Doctor now grieving over Caspian’s body, to my soldiers and to other comrades-in-arms who made it through the fight… as every goodbye is, it was bitter, despite the sweet promise of going home.
I wanted to stay, if for a little while. To bury my friend and to share the grief with the comrades, to taste the fruit of our bitter and unexpected victory, to see Narnia rise again in a new Golden age with its High Queen in charge… but I knew better than that. Every sun must eventually set, and even if it were morning, the sun of Narnia was setting for me, the dawn as red as the dusk in the desert.
“Take the horn”, Susan offered, as Edmund and Lucy said their final goodbyes to their Narnian friends “You’ve helped Narnia in its hour of need, and as its Queen, I swear if you need help, we shall come to repay our debt. No matter the world, no matter how far, as long as Narnia itself stands, we shall come to your aid.”
“I too so swear”, Peter echoed, his usually booming voice now more like a hollow echo of itself. “You are a friend of this land now, Sunset”.
I gave them the best grateful smile I could muster. No matter how much some bitter part of me wanted to think that this was just wergild, blood money for Caspian’s death, I knew better than that. It was an honest gift coming from their hearts - Pevensies knew no other way.
“It is time for you to go, little ones.” Under Aslan’s heavy gaze a tree untwisted itself into an arch, through which I could almost see the lush green of Equestria and the purple mountain of Canterlot. “You shall yet see each other again, in this world or the other.”
With a heavy heart and the last wave of my hoof, I stepped through the portal home.