Improbable Truth

by Charon the Chronicler

Chapter 28: Into the Maw

Windell paced around the room, murmuring to himself. Steel Fang and Adam looked at each other for a moment. Ever since he’d returned from the swamp over a week ago, he’d been quiet. Simmering like a pot about to boil over. Adam saw what it was that got him so worked up, but he wasn’t sure what to make of it. It was a driver’s license that expired in the nineties, but apparently, Windell’s crippling aversion to bureaucracy wasn’t why it upset him. It was because Windell went to high school with the guy.

Adam could understand it, in a weird way. High school is weird for everyone, and remembering it is…awkward. He shrugged and collapsed on the massive pile of Bui-Bui leaves he’d begun sharing with Steel Fang. He’d tried to get Windell out of his funk however he could, but the man-turned-pony was fixated on the little piece of plastic. Some days he’d sit there and stare at for hours, occasionally closing his eyes and thinking. Other times he’d stomp to and away from the license grinding his teeth as he practically nickered.

‘Enough tip-toeing.’

“Why does it matter that the license is older than you think it should be?”

Windell stopped and finally tore his eyes from the plastic.

“Because it raises a bunch of questions. The worst kinds of questions. ‘If I remember Reese Tuffin in high school, why do I remember high school in the 2010’s?’ And that leads to a hypothesis: Reese Tuffin was never real. So I compare memories I have of Reese to memories I have of other people. And I remember him interacting with people who’ve had a profound, if negative, impact on my life. I also remember interacting with him. Which is odd because we barely spoke. Why would I remember something that had little impact on my life?” The more he spoke, the more he paced, until Windell was angrily stomping about again.

“You’re going down a weird rabbit hole. Why can’t you take things as they are?”

“I can’t.” Windell shook his head somberly. “I can’t help it either. I see a thread, a story, information, I must pull at it.” He kicked at a small pile of Bui-Bui leaves until it’d rejoined the larger heap. “And when things don’t add up, I ask why. I go through scenarios and possibilities until I come to an acceptable answer, the closest approximation of the truth. Only then am I satisfied. The truth in the outside world is complicated, but logical.”

“I don’t think so.” Adam chuckled. “People being logical? We’re emotional beings, Windell.”

“I try not to be.” Windell grimaced. “But even then, on a massive scale, individuals are meaningless. Precious, yes. Unique, definitely. But capable of changing anything? No. We are each grains of sand in a vast desert, subject to the winds that carry us. Our own flaws and perfections lost in the sea of shifting sands. A scared people will follow the loudest voice, a desperate people will follow the beat of any drum, and a hungry people will shed blood.”

“You just said that individuals can’t make meaningful change.” Adam sat up, smirking.

“Yes, and?” Windell turned around and paced more.

“Then what about the one with the loudest voice? The one beating the drum? The one to feed the people?” Adam chuckled as Windell paused, cocking his head. “You just have to be the one willing to step up to the plate.”

“Maybe if I could trust myself.” Windell sighed. “Reese presents an enigma because simply thinking about him makes me realize how untrustworthy my memories are. When I think about him and compartmentalize any memories associated with him, things are strange. I only remember him certain groups of people. I don’t remember any of them having cell phones. In fact, I don’t remember them with anything made after 2000.”

“So there was a clique at your school and your memory’s fuzzy. That’s normal in high schools.” Adam tossed a ball in the air as Steel Fang snapped it up.

“Therein lies another problem. My memories are not fuzzy. In fact, they’re perfectly clear. And it’s only highlighting the things I don’t remember. I remember remembering fuzzy impressions and half-accurate information. I remember having to struggle on exams and tests to get enough answers to pass. I remember emotions and situations as if I’m reliving them in a moment rather than the echo of an event thrumming in my mind.” Windell rubbed a hoof against his head. “I remember the people I’ve worked with, the people I’ve grown by. I remember every time I met them, and every situation I’ve found myself in. I remember people I’ve met that never seemed to interact, never seemed to cross paths. But I don’t remember certain things. I don’t remember the bed I slept in as I grew up. I don’t remember the name of my high school, despite suffering four years there. I don’t remember my mother’s face, a woman my father loved so much that he kept pictures of her in his wallet, in his car, in every frame of the house.” The teal pegasus turned around to glare at the license. “Looking at it makes me realize that everything before I landed in Ponyville is a patchwork quilt, torn and sewn again and again. And on some level, I find it hilarious. I found out Reese’s identity, but it just brought into question my own.” Windell’s eyes, which had been hard set and focused the past week, met Adam’s and began to quiver, almost watering. “Who am I, Adam?”

“I…don’t know what to say to that.” Windell’s withers slumped, and Adam rushed to continue. “All I know is that you helped me out and that makes you pretty great in my book.” Windell stopped slumping.

“Hm.”

“Have you been channeling some magic to your brain? You said that’s how you use the magic, right?”

“Channeling is probably the best word. And I see your point. Perhaps I should stop.”

Adam struggled to not say anything along the lines of ‘no duh!’, and just decided to change the subject.

“Anyways, check out this thing I made!” Adam dug into the pile of Bui-Bui leaves to pull out a misshapen ball. “I tried to make a bigger ball for Steel fang to play with, using the leather I found.”

“Wait, you found my lea—”

“But it turned out kind wrong. Not bouncy at all, or round. So I put a rope in it so we can hang it somewhere to use as a punching bag. Better than stomping around and breaking another floorboard, right?”

Adam held it up proudly. Several layers of leather were no doubt used to create the misshapen ball. Indeed, there was a rope that it hung from, pulling the rest of it in a somewhat conical shape. Some of the hair was improperly removed from the leather, and the fact that there seemed to be two lumps made it look like—

“Give it a try!” Adam exclaimed as he hung it on a beam.

Windell uneasily flew towards it and gave it a light bop. His mopey expression began to fade slowly as he gave it another hit, slightly harder this time.

“Okay, I admit this to be somewhat…cathartic.”

As he hit it a few more times, Adam’s mind raced to find other distractions to get Windell out of his funk. Looking at the piles of books around the single-room hut, Adam was struck with an idea. Why not just tell Windell about the greatest things from his childhood.

“Hey Windell, do you know what a VTuber is?”

Windell furrowed his brows in thought. “Is it some sort of special potato people from your time had engineered to address the consequences of the 21^st century population boom?”

“Oh, no. But I guess it did do something about overpopulation.”

“Tell me more.”

<><><>

Hawk Eye was restless. He’d considered resigning when Luna came back with news of the changeling invasion, but the Princess of the night scoffed at the notion. She pointed out that had Canterlot fallen, Hawk Eye and the rest of the Bar Crawl team would have been in the best position to build a resistance. Which begged the question: why would an invading force choose now of all times?

Hawk Eye was forced to admit that while Chrysalis had motive and opportunity, he was still suspicious. He was trying to see patterns where there likely were none. But it was that tiny doubt screaming in the back of his mind, gnashing and roiling at the single question. ‘What if?’

Hawk Eye’s treetop brooding was interrupted by the sounds of someone moving beneath the canopy. The gryphon poked his head through the branches to watch as a teal pegasus and a massive wolf walked along a small stream. Hawk Eye had seen Windell’s pet direwolf before, but always from far away. The beast was massive, and it always shocked him how Windell would roughhouse with the wolf, pushing him around and chasing him with the same strength and energy as any earth pony.

In a way, Windell reminded Hawk Eye of Gull. But where Gull was alone and festered in being uncomfortable in her own body, Windell had made a friend and strengthened himself despite the inherent frailty of pegasi. It made Hawk Eye wonder how things could have gone differently for Gull.

Keeping himself downwind, he followed the pair as they talked. Midnight had been teaching him how to be stealthier, and this was the perfect opportunity to practice. Gliding from branch to branch, careful to aim for the sparsest, thickest branches, Hawk Eye eavesdropped on the strange pegasus.

“My point is, the way culture evolves and propagates is interesting. It’s so easy to ignore the newest trend or disparage something you haven’t seen before as silly or inane. But the fact that people can get invested enough in communities to develop in jokes and make fanart is proof enough that culture is not restrained to race or country, but to common ideas.” Windell spoke as Steel Fang paid attention.

Steel Fang cocked his head and padded the ground, miming to himself.

“You can think, yes. And the fact we’re communicating means there is an exchange of ideas and the development of culture. It’s a pity you’re so limited in how to ‘speak’. But language is the main transmission of culture, not the only one. There is poetry, prose, and of course, books. But there’s other methods: movies, images, food. Anything one makes an art out of can be attributed to culture.”

Steel Fang panted and held his head high as if to howl.

“Yes, exactly! Music like singing, even if we can’t understand it, is one of the most basic forms of culture. Ideas and concepts don’t have to be as concrete as the words that carry them. Sometimes, they are ethereal, like how a song makes you feel, or the memories one shares by enjoying a particular food. I know I think of you every time we eat fish.”

Hawk Eye stumbled. He didn’t know that Windell was one of the more omnivorous pegasi. Though it made sense, considering where he lived. Unfortunately, the stumble cost Hawk Eye, slipping off a branch as he glided, causing him to slam his midsection into a particularly sturdy branch. The gryphon stifled a groan, but the shaking branch sent leaves and a few twigs raining down on the pegasus and his dire wolf.

“Who’s there?!” Windell tensed as his wolf got into high alert. Hawk Eye flapped down sheepishly, still rubbing his sore gut.

“Sorry about that Windell. I was practicing my stealthy flight by following you.” Windell stared at Hawk Eye. His gray eyes danced between the gryphon and his wolf companion a few times. “I messed up when I heard you share fish with Steel Fang there. Where do you get your fish? I haven’t had some good food for a while now.” The tension left Windell’s body and he smiled.

“No problem. Just don’t do that again. I can be very jittery. Especially now, I’ve got a lot on my mind.” Windell motioned Hawk Eye to follow him. “Allow me to show you where we do our fishing.”

Windell trotted casually through the forest, Steel Fang occasionally looking back to make sure Hawk Eye was following.

“What do you usually eat, if not fish?” Windell asked as the came upon the bank of the river.

“You may find it weird…” Hawk Eye grimaced, thinking about the first time he’d shown his guinea pig colony to Shining Armor.

“Do I seem squeamish to you?” Windell’s unflinching gaze met Hawk’s, the latter remembering how in the short time he’d known him, Windell had prodded feces, carried bones, and admitted to eating meat.

“I raise guinea pigs.” Hawk Eye finally said, twirling a claw around. “They’re fast breeders.”

“And don’t take up much space.” Windell nodded. “Rodents are probably one of the more efficient animals to raise for food, second only to certain insects.”

“Thank you!” Hawk Eye waved an arm in emphasis. “It’s rare to find somepony who agrees with me. I’ve tried some of the fake meats some unicorns have magicked up, but it didn’t seem to fill the craving.”

“I tried tofu, and you’re right. It’s not the same.” Windell licked his lips. “Too soft, not the right taste…but it’s good for the environment…” Windell paused for a second, eyes darting about for less than a second before he continued in the same tone. “The animals, that is.” There was an awkward pause as Windell set a basket in the water and Hawk Eye ruminated on the comment.

“I—”

Splosh.

Hawk Eye was interrupted by a fish landing neatly into the basket. He stared, dumbfounded. Blinking a few times, he started again.

“Do you—”

Splooosh.

A catfish hurled itself out of the water and into the basket. Hawk Eye closed his eyes and sighed.

“Are they—”

SPLASH!

A massive carp jumped into the basket, almost ripping it from Windell’s grasp.

“I don’t even have to prompt them anymore, they just come right in!” Windell chuckled, pulling the heavy basket out of the water. “You were saying?”

“Do you believe that eating meat is immoral?” Hawk Eye finally managed to ask, deciding to chalk Windell’s method up as typical pony fishing.

The pegasus sat down, tapping his hoof to his lips. “A simple question that dives into the morality of nature and how we differ from nature.” Windell struck the three fish on their heads, killing them instantly. He passed the basket of fish to Hawk Eye and smiled. “How about we discuss it as I prepare a fire and you descale our meal. I’ve yet to try fish without the skin.”

Hawk Eye began his work as Windell picked up some branches and stones from near the riverbank. Hawk Eye held the first fish in his claws. The slippery fish stared up at the gryphon with dead eyes. The gryphon struggled not to stare back as he drove his claws into its soft underbelly.

“Is it immoral to eat?” Windell mused. “That’s your question, one Steel Fang here seems to share. Guinea pigs, fish, and insects are all alive with the higher functions necessary to see and react to a world of choices and decisions. That makes them sentient. Even flora is on some level, sentient. Some can react to changing conditions more quickly than others, or even express pain in manners that we can’t quite translate. To us, fresh cut grass is just a smell, but to the grass, it is a cry of pain. Sapience is more difficult to define.” Windell placed the stones in a circle, carefully constructing a teepee of dry branches.

“There was a time when gryphons and ponies did not consider the other sapient.” Hawk Eye grimaced as he pulled out the fish’s innards. “A bloody time in ancient history.”

“That’s a bit more complicated.” Windell gathered some thatches of dry grass. “If you can’t understand the other group, it is easy to de-personify them. Easier yet when they have resources you need, be it their land or their bodies. It fosters an ‘us versus them’ mentality that is very hard to shake off. Mostly because bad actors and those who argue in bad faith want to perpetuate that belief, so they continue to benefit with a clear conscience.” The pony pulled a bright red thorn from his knapsack. With one swift movement, he threw it into the thatch, causing it to erupt into flames. “I’m so glad I got to keep the thorns from our excursion, it makes lighting fires so much easier.”

“Are you saying that eating meat is like waging a war on another for their resources?” Hawk Eye frowned as he struggled to cut through the carp’s thick scales.

“Meat-eating as a type of colonialism.” Windell chuckled. “Fascinating, but no. The difference lies in choice and execution. If your biological needs cannot be provided for, it is only natural to persevere. Survival is more deeply rooted in our nature than anything else. Even omnivores cannot expect to eat only flora if the systems they use cannot provide a reliable source. I believe the optimal ethical decision is ‘if you can, in a respectful manner.’”

“Simple enough,” Hawk Eye admitted, sticking the fish on spits by the fire. “But what do you mean by ‘respectful manner?’”

“Waste efficiency. Every part should be reused for something. Maybe as fertilizers, or even as a tool or product.” As the pegasus spoke, he picked up the gooey viscera Hawk Eye in the basket and brought it to nearby set of bushes, burying the fishy offal by the vibrant plants. He came back with a wing full of assorted berries. “These bushes have been growing on fish guts for months now!”

As the trio ate their meal of berries and fish, Hawk Eye began to wonder. After swallowing a juicy morsel, the lieutenant asked. “Why do you eat meat then, since you are herbivorous?”

Windell chewed his fish slowly, staring blankly between Steel Fang and Hawk Eye.

“I could say it’s a better effort to understand others.” Windell said slowly after he’d swallowed the food. “Or an attempt to get closer to Steel Fang. But the truth is, I’m just not a good person. I eat meat because it reminds me of better times. It’s not a need, but a minor comfort, a selfish desire. Let’s turn the question around. Do you two, who feel guilty about needing to eat meat, think me a bad person because I do so without the need? Even if I kill to satisfy that need?”

Hawk Eye stared into the dwindling flames, he thought back on all the people he’s met on various journeys across Equestria. He could forgive the small things, the little mistakes and sins that everybody made every now and then. Killing animals to eat…was admittedly a small crime compared to the depths of depravity he’d witnessed.

“I believe…” Hawk Eye’s golden eyes met the deep gray of Windell’s. “That what makes someone good is what they do when the going gets tough. Not what they do when the choices are easy.”

“Would you forgive a thousand little evils for a great deed?” Windell pressed. “What do you define as a small sin? Is there a quantifiable metric, a balance to determine the goodness of one’s life? Is morality about the results, or the process. If every life has intrinsic value, does that make them priceless or worthless?”

“I don’t know.” Hawk Eye smirked as Windell sputtered. “I’m trying to put into words something I feel. Something that I know when I see. And what I see before me is a good person.”

Windell froze.

“Being a good person is more than just being a good pony, a good gryphon, or good wolf.” Hawk Eye continued, Windell’s withers relaxing. “It’s about seeing beyond what we are, into who we are.”

Windell looked away and chuckled. “Agree to disagree.”

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAARRR!

“Whelp!” Windell clopped his hooves and sat up as Hawk Eye and Steel Fang swung their heads to the south. “That’s a sign to duck and cover if I’ve ever heard one.”

“That came from Ponyville.” With a mighty flap, the gryphon had cleared the tree line and focused. On the horizon, flying on wings of pure darkness, was a dragon. “I was wrong. Not from Ponyville but heading directly towards it.”

“Reason enough for me to hide.” Windell called.

“Smart move.” Hawk Eye was still focused on the dragon as it came closer. Its wingbeats were irregular, but the speed at which it approached was terrifying. Black and red smoke trailed behind it, as if it was burning up its own body to move.

“Commander, I wish you the best.” Windell gave a salute that would make most of the guard proud and ran. Steel Fang followed at his heels, no doubt back to their cabin.

Hawk Eye wasted no time, taking to their air towards Sweet Apple Acres. From the sky, he saw ponies in the village scrambling around in a panic. A few ponies took charge, organizing groups into making barricades and readying buckets in case the dragon chose to unleash his flames on the town. Hawk Eye focused on one of the larger, more organized groups and found his own team there. They were in the middle of Ponyville, tracing runes in the soil. Veering away from Sweet Apple Acres, Hawk Eye swooped into the chaos. The red earth pony pulled a plow to trace a massive circle as ponies followed him, sprinkling something into the deep furrows. Thunder Strike and a few other pegasi had pushed together some clouds in the form of a donut directly above the magic circle. There was a cacophony of voices with orders firing in every direction.

“Titanium, help Big Mac with the plow! We need a lot thicker lines!”

“Apple Bloom! Zecora, Bon-Bon, and I need some powdersnap leaves!”

“We need to make sure there’s plenty of gauze and bandages out here, where we’ll need them!”

“What are you doing with the fortification gel?! You could, you could just pour it right in the cracks, you could do just that. But why, why would you do that, why would you do any of that?!”

“Lieutenant!” Lake Lily saluted as Hawk Eye landed. “A pegasus spotted the dragon coming about five minutes ago and let us know. I took the liberty of setting up a provisional defense force and organizing a shield array.”

“Great job, Lily.” Hawk Eye swiveled his head around and grunted. “I only wish we had Crystal’s support today.”

“We couldn’t expect her to stay with us for long. And she did leave us with some parting gifts.” Lake Lily held up her foreleg, adorned with an intricate platinum bracelet much like the ones on each of the team’s legs. “Remarkable that the crown would fund such protections for all of us.”

“The princesses are blessed with incredible foresight.” Hawk Eye agreed. “What about sending communications?”

“That’s why I’m a bit worried.” Lake Lily’s ears dropped. “When we tried using the relic, it wouldn’t work.” The feathers on the back of Hawk Eye’s neck stuck up.

“Is it possible that it malfunctioned?” The gryphon kept his voice low as the hubbub around them increased.

“No chance. Starswirl’s mirror devices often relied on the fabric of space-time. And considering we still have magic…” Hawk Eye sucked in a cold breath.

“Something or someone is interfering with the local space-time field.”

“Which means reinforcements don’t arrive when we need them. Considering recent security breaches, at least one princess will have to stay in Canterlot.” Lake Lily continued. “In fact, chances are neither princess will come to reduce risk on another assault on Canterlot.”

Hawk Eye spared another glance at the quickly growing dragon. He could see it more clearly now. It was definitely burning up its body, healing the damage even as it occurred. It was combusting its own flesh to make it move faster, a suicidal move for any sane creature. Its slavering jaws were like a mix between a fish’s and a crocodile’s, and its body disjointed and cracked. Like a porcelain doll shaped by a half-blind madpony, it fumbled closer to them at speeds no living being should reach.

“It’s like a dark rainboom.” Lake Lily shuddered.

“It’ll be here in less than three minutes.” Hawk Eye paced the ground, instinctively sharpening his claws on any loose cobblestone. “How long do you figure reinforcements will get here?”

“If they left five minutes ago? Celestia could fly here in a little under twenty-five minutes, and Luna under twenty. A garrison could be here in about an hour.”

“Luna will come for us.” Hawk Eye asserted. “Bring up the shield.”

“With all due respect sir, we want to preserve as much energy as possible. Raising the shield prematurely is risky.”

There was another massive roar. Lake Lily watched as a dozen golden glints flew up to the dragon. The creature swirled in the air, parts of its body rupturing into spears to pierce the sparks of light. The dragon quickly healed from the damage, but the specks did not. Hawk Eye could see more clearly that the dragon had dispatched a band of the solar guard in one swift move, sending massive scales flying like javelins from its own body. Hawk Eye grimaced. Three dead, four grievously wounded, and six injured. All because of a casual swirl.

“Those were troops.” Lily blanched. She stood straighter and saluted. “I will make it so. Activate the array!”

Red nodded, his horn glowing a bright vermillion. Slowly, a red wall began swirling around Ponyville, spiraling over itself again and again, reaching higher and higher. The dragon roared again, spitting out a ball of black flames that tore through the sky in a high-pitched whine. The ponies flinched, but Red continued. The magic wall caught the fire on the lip, cracks disappearing as another layer of the spiral closed overhead until all of Ponyville was sealed in a red bubble.

Everybody gave out a sigh of relief. Until the dragon slammed into the bubble. A few ponies screeched, a trio of earth ponies collapsing into a pile of flowers they had barricaded their entrance with.

The dragon gripped tightly onto the magical shield, scrabbling to find purchase every time it slammed its head onto the shield. In its black eyes was nothing more than madness, slavering jaws drooling caustic liquids onto the shield. Everywhere in Ponyville, ponies shivered and whined. Children were brought inside homes, herded by their parents and loved ones, flinching every time the dragon’s head thumped into the shield. Azalea and Tron began handing out spears to any who would ask, motioning the resolute recruits where to stand. Hawk
Eye sidled by Red as the rest of the Barcrawl team surrounded them in a group meeting.

“Red, report.” Hawk demanded in hushed tones.

“Twenty-five—”

THUMP!

The dragon slammed its head even harder against the shield, muscles in its sinewy neck bulging. One of its horns cracked, tumbling down the ridges on its back before being reabsorbed by its body. A long, purple tongue reached out from its jaw, sliding against the surface of the bubble and leaving a trail of hissing green mucus.

“Twenty minutes.” Red corrected in a chilled whisper.

“Why must everything nowadays be resolved within twenty minutes?” Titanium said.

Hawk Eye didn’t comment. Titanium must have been very nervous to try and joke. His mind was currently racing through possibilities and thinking about worst-case scenarios. He needed more information.

“Strong Recovery. Observations on the target?”

The medic squinted at the strange dragon, watching as it struggled to keep a grip on the bubble. Its claws struggled to find purchase, slipping off a few times before it actually lost its grip with another slam of its head, falling backwards into a field of flowers. It got up immediately, not even shaking its head, its mad eyes still focused on Ponyville. It leaped up like a cat, landing on top of the sphere. It opened its jaws wide, trying to force the much larger orb into its mouth. It kept pushing until its jaw snapped completely open with a sickening crack. It stood up, literally slack-jawed, until the muscles in its neck and mouth swiveled and contorted about, growing back bigger. It still couldn’t open its jaw all the way, though it tried. Much to the same results.

“It’s not smart, sir.” Strong Recovery.

“Obviously.” Thunder Strike rolled his eyes.

“Not now, Thunder.” Lake’s eyes zoned in on the smart-mouthed soldier with weight and chill of a glacier.

“It doesn’t need to be. It doesn’t care about its body because any injuries it accumulates only heal back stronger. You’ll note that since it has been here, its horns have grown back thicker and its neck seems to have developed more muscle mass.”

“I have already accounted for that, sir.” Red put in, still focusing on his spell. “Even considering its developing strength, it is still a linear increase.”

“For now.” Hawk Eye huffed. “We can’t assume its growth from what little we know. All we do know is that this dragon is unlike any we have records of.” Hawk Eye stared at each of his team members in the eyes. In them, behind the discipline and determination, there was worry. “Red. How can we guarantee more time? As for the rest of you, I want ideas. I don’t want us to be sitting ducks in case the worst comes to pass, so I want plans of attack.”

“What if those plans don’t go well?” Azalea asked. Hawk Eye tapped his claws on the ground nervously as his troops stared at him.

“Red, can we reduce the size of the shield to make it last longer?”

“We’d be putting civilians at—”

“Can you?” Hawk Eye pulled him close enough to smell the hay fries on his breath.

“Yes.”

“Gather some ponies to evacuate those closest to the shield. We’ll start shrinking it in ten minutes. It should buy us more time. Make sure the ponies you send are familiar with those we’re evacuating; we don’t need any latent paranoia from the Changeling invasion biting us in the flanks.”

The team members saluted and began to organize the nearby civilians.

<><><>

When I opened the door to my cottage, I almost stumbled into a massive hole. Adam was standing at the bottom of the hole, the floorboards stacked in the corner of the room. I flapped my wings a few times, letting Steel leap past me and closing the door firmly with a back hoof.

“Looks like we finally got this done, huh?” Adam slapped the stone foundation of the house with a wide grin. “What was all that racket about outside? Ah never mind, I came up with this other thing you missed back home, it was called Fortnite. It was sort of like a shooter MMO with popular action figures, if that makes sense and—”

I clapped my hooves over my ears.

“Listen, I’m still trying to wrap my head around the weird VTuber culture you’ve described to me and I’m not sure if I want to hear about more manmade horrors beyond our comprehension.” I glided down to the ground we’d dug out and inspected it. “Can’t we talk about movies or books I missed or something?”

“Well, they did make a TV series on the Silmarillion.” He hoisted the new floorboards down and began to arrange them atop the logs we’d managed to shove inside the previous evening. “I’m not a fantasy fan, so I never saw it. And the 2020’s were my childhood, man. I’m not sure you’ll get an accurate picture of what you missed when its blinded by nostalgia.” He snapped his fingers and pointed at me. “Like the Sonic movies! Those were great!”

“That’s an oddly realistic perspective of you to take, Adam.” I rose an eyebrow as the man laughed sheepishly. “Just last week I had to explain to you that building bookshelves then the rest of the basement would mean even more work.”

“Maybe you’re rubbing off on me.” We smiled at one another, pony and man, and for the first time in a long time, I felt happy. My eyes darted away from Adam, finding Steel Fang at the very back of the hut, curled tight into a ball. Adam followed my line of sight, his broad shoulders tensing.

“I’ve never seen Steel like this.” Adam cocked his head like he always did when he was thinking. “Does this have something to do with the noise I heard?”

Almost as if the universe was mocking me, a dissonant roar echoed in the distance. Adam swung his head around, focusing on the heavy door.

“Yes.” I turned Adam away from the door. “It’s not our problem, and there are already professionals on the job.”

Adam sidestepped to avoid my hooves. He twirled to face me with a pained expression, shuffling awkwardly.

“What?”

“There’s a problem. And you’re not helping.”

“Oh, come on!” I threw my hooves in the air. “That was obviously a very large monster! It doesn’t matter if what I heard was real or not, that was a very clear sign to run and hide.”

Adam crossed his arms.

“They’ve probably experienced worse. You can’t expect us to go and fight whatever is out there!” I struggled not to raise my voice, but the desperation creaked in.

“We don’t need to fight, just help.” Adam tapped his foot. “Didn’t you say that human strength comes from unity?”

“It’s metaphorical strength, the strength of progress and adaptability from a unified community.” I argued, stamping my hooves.

“To overcome obstacles that threaten the community!” Adam responded with a shake of his head.

“By sacrificing ourselves to some beast?! Some thing that may be a manifestation of my imagination?” I was hovering now, meeting Adam’s gaze from the same height. He grumbled and scowled, cocking his head as he struggled to come up with a response. “Safety first.” I asserted. We faced each other in silence for a few seconds, neither of us wavering.

“Bystander effect.” Adam finally said. “You’re acting like a bystander.” Adam’s finger poked hard into my barrel, the words sending ice coursing through my veins. “You see something bad going down and trust others to take care of the issue. What if they all feel like you do? You can’t be a passive objector forever, Windell. You can’t drown in misery and hope to just…survive. When you turn a blind eye, the world reflects that blindness. And when you offer a hand in help, you’ll find others reaching for you. It’s time to step up to the plate.”

I floated down like a leaf from a tree, my mind swirling. Was any of this real? Could I just sit by and do nothing? I wasn’t sure of myself, but the memories I did have were mired in betrayal and solitude. I always felt as if I deserved that. Would things have been different if someone reached out to me when I needed them?

I couldn’t trust myself, but the things I’d learned from Adam were things I could not have conceived on my own. Ideas and stories that came from nowhere did not exist. It was easy to convince myself that I lived in a fantasy with no real power to change the world around me, or worse, I lived in a reality with no control over my own life, pushed and pulled by the whims of fate. A leaf swirling and twisting on the surface of a river, lost and powerless in the current.

I was not powerless. I had a will. In the torrential river of life, it may as well be a small paddle. But it was not nothing. I was alive. It was my right to want, to be, to do.

‘What do I want?’

I wanted to read, to learn, to know everything I could. But a life lived in consumption of information was like stocking a private collection of books. Only one person would ever use them, where they’d grow dusty and worn. And when that person died, the books would not remember them. Worse yet, the books would disappear. It was a life of preparation without action.

‘What do I want to do?’

I never really knew the answer to that question. I always wanted to live, but it was always living for the next story, the next book. The next distraction from a world that seemed to eat itself in a chaotic maelstrom of greed, power, and violence. Maybe I wanted a better world, one whose existence did not seem to teeter on the edge of nothingness.

‘What can I do?’

And the answer came to me.

‘I can help.’

“Fine.” I said. Adam’s smile made me feel like I could do anything. “Let me go grab something real quick.”

Hidden in the old outhouse, among all the dirt and ores that were so generously ‘donated’ to me by the diamond dogs, was a spear that I’d made from a morbid sense of irony. When I found some lead I couldn’t help but think of the story of Bellerophon. Riding a pegasus, he drove a lump of lead into the fire-breathing chimera’s mouth. A pegasus with a lead spear just seemed funny to me. Technically, I didn’t make the spear. I had some spare money, and I didn’t know what to do with some of the minerals. A local blacksmith made a staff of lead for me, and, in keeping with the original myth, I attached a sharp crystal of pitchblende at the end to make a spear. Someone would have to be nuts to use it. Thankfully, I considered myself certifiably insane.

When I came back with the spear, Steel Fang and Adam were waiting for me. Adam looked over my spear and arche dan eyebrow as he crossed his arms.

“What, no weapon for me?”

“I thought with your experience with bombs you’d be hesitant to handle radioactive material but…”

“Woah!” He held his hands up and backed away. “Never mind then.”

The three of us stood there for a few seconds, staring at one another.

“So do we come up with a plan, or…?” I asked.

“I’ve got a plan!” Adam snapped his fingers. “I call it the L.J.!”

“What does the L.J. stand for?”

“Leeroy Jenkins!” I stared at him, dumbfounded, the words for the magnitude of his recklessness and stupidity getting jumbled up in my mouth like a fifteen-car pileup. “Charge!”

With a bound, Adam ran towards Ponyville. I was rooted there for a second, until I managed to shake off my stupor and gallop after him, screaming in frustration.

“You were born in the 2010’s! You’re too young for that meme!” I chased after him, Steel Fang barking at my side.

I chased the bipedal idiot for a mile until we cleared the trees and witnessed what was attacking the little hamlet. Slamming its head atop a shrinking red bubble was a dragon with lifeless eyes and black scales. It slipped for purchase with every slam, pausing only to try and tear at the shield with its rows of sharp teeth. We watched as a gray figure was launched with a flash of red and blue light, easily going through the bubble to slam into the dragon, tearing obsidian scales off its body as the projectile glanced off its side. It was like watching someone pelt a kid with a tennis ball. The dragon roared in pain, but just as quickly, whipped its thick tail into the object, which was floating in the air by it after having lost most of its momentum. It flashed blue, careening directly towards us.

“DODGE!”

Adam and I screamed at the same time as we jumped to the side. There was slam, and a chubby gray unicorn dropped into the furrow his shield had left into the ground. For some reason, he was wearing full clown makeup.

"Yeah, I don’t remember what the joke was,” he rasped, “that hurt for bucking real."

That’s when he passed out. I wanted to say I was now fully convinced this was a stupid idea. I wanted to turn away and leave. But I saw the look on Adam’s face. To him, this was more proof that our help was needed. And try as I might, I couldn’t come up with an alternative. I was terrified, but I bit my lip and observed the dragon as it kept trying to attack the shield. ‘Why did it not chase after the easy target? If it was hungry, it should have gone after this guy.’ For some reason it was obsessed with Ponyville. Which meant that it was distracted.

As I thought, the first buildings on the perimeter of Ponyville were exposed to the outside. As the dragon struggled to get a grip, it slid down into one of the houses, its claws tearing apart what little was exposed. I could hear screams as the building started to fall apart. The dragon squirmed in glee, circling around the shield and tearing at any exposed structure, shivering in ecstasy with every scream. My heart dropped. This was a creature smart enough to feel, yet it only felt a desire to destroy.

I watched as the scales that were knocked off started to reform on its chest. I had a chance, and it was closing fast. I took a few breaths. The next few moments would determine death or life, fantasy or fact.

“Adam. Try and see if anybody needs help from the buildings. Steel Fang and I will do something really stupid.”

“What?”

I didn’t listen to all the warnings in my mind. On every level but my most basic, survival-oriented self, I needed to kill this thing. I could feel it again. The desire that welled up within me to destroy the bones, to hurt Val. And my conscious mind followed, because from everything I could see, this was not a living thing, capable of growth, change, and culture. It was a destroyer.

I flapped my wings twice into the air, fighting against my aggressive instincts to pour everything I had into flying faster. My wings trembled as the magic coursed through them, the landscape shift as I flapped a third time, the air buffeting me like a wall. I flew like an arrow, then a bullet, then a rocket, towards the dreaded beast. If I could not finish this in one strike, I would distract it.

Though I doubted I could distract it long.

Author's Note:

Howdy folks! I'm back. I'm writing other stuff too, now, because I am manic like that. Summer is actually crazier for me (teaching summer school yayyyy), but at least I managed to get this done. If you want to see some of the other stuff I write, I've begun writing a story on Royal Road as I get my groove back. I call it Star Dragon's Legacy. And yes, I do love dragons why do you ask?

In other news, nothing! Which is good, and bad because I'm used to life kicking my butt and I feel restless when I'm the same place doing the same thing. At least in college there was a noticeable metric by which I could measure how I was improving. I've adpated my brain to living as a student, and now I feel awful when I'm not learning. Yaaaaaay!

Anyways folks, have a good one!

Comments

[TartarusFire]

I'm not sure how to feel about this. it's a poor choice on Windell's part; I blame Adam being shameless peer pressure.

A shaft made of literally some of the softest metal, and a head literally as hard as quartz but much more brittle? This is indeed a dead on impact sort of deal. It'll deform and shatter, and he'll just be splattered against a wall of sorts

Thankfully, I considered myself certifiably insane

The real Magic even greater than placebo: delusion

[Teraunce]

Glad this story still lives. Nice chapter.

[Vul]

So excited to see this story rise from the grave, looking forward to future chapters