Oh, boy. X2
Out of these two stories, I think Raegdan is shown to be the worse one.

I'm really not sure what to make of these. The first is easy enough to put into context, but the second really just confuses me more about Raegdan's background. That's certainly no place in this world.

O.O uh....wow..that was brutal.

So John is Raegdan, he protected Twilight because she reminded him of his little sister, and the Outsider is like Luna. Am I missing anything here?

Damn.

I like this world. It's fantasy, but have no magic, so you can do anything in the character's past. Also, I would also guess John is Raegdan? Did the wyrm dragged him to safety? It was never stated he was eaten. Oh hey, maybe he arrived in Equestria by looking for her sister?
Sooooo this world have ways to travel to others? And judging by the outsider's lines each city have different places to lead to. Or only one of them have the means and the guy was looking for it. And said guy sounds like the nightmare, lashing out at everything, getting things done no matter the cost.

7024488
Nah, I reckon Raegdan killed John and the city from this chapter. He picked up calling kids "Little One" from taking care of John's sister.
Luna isn't the Outsider, she just killed a bunch of innocents in a misguided attempt to help the world.
They were both obviously at their wits end, but I still can't sympathize with them. The fact that this isn't the first city that Raegdan destroyed shows how remorseless he is, and I think that this chapter captures that perfectly. At the core of his character, Raegdan is the monster that everyone thinks he is.

7024488 This city is the one that Raegdan was talking about earlier in the story. Given his track record for "keeping children safe", the outsider is Raegdan and the rest are just people who got caught in his path of hellfire.

7024608 Well I didn't say The Outsider was Luna, I said she was like him. As for Raegdan being the Outsider, makes sense to me now. Can't believe I missed that.

Well...I think something happened...I'm not sure

The journey continues.

I wonder how many worlds Reagdans bean to? After all, he has read the lord of the ring.

You sir, are a very skilled writer.

Luna and Raegdan are both monsters in everyones eyes but not in there own.I kinda now understand them that they are willing to do anything it takes for there own or better good.I am kinda curius for Raegdan origins cause he did not just pop out of nowhere and destroyed citys that gave him a reception

My theory is that a) the outsider is Raegdan and b) Raegdan is from Earth. This would explain Raegdan's torture flashbacks and how he know about LOTR. If Raegdan is from a different planet, he might smell differently so the wyrms wouldn't detect him.
And like 7024608 mentioned, Raegdan probably picked up calling the kids "little one" from John's sister.

Damn.... heavy shit.
Though there still seem to be many possibilities here.

The Wyrms in Johns world are obviously the same as those found in equestria. The disease also came from johns world, most likely silicosis?

But the outsiders character really does not match that of raegdan. Not the one we know at any rate. He really does not seem that dilusional to think that multiple accounts of genocide could at all be redeemable. And hes not that insane....

Alright you bastard who are / is "They." ?

7024651
I'd argue that they seem pretty different. Both destructive and remorseless? Yeah. But at the same time, the two have incredibly different causes. Luna has to be remorseless, and is all about the bigger picture. I don't think I'd agree with her morally, but logically I would. Meanwhile, Raegdan has sentenced millions of innocents to death in a single city, all to return home.
But, I do admit I was under the impression you thought Luna was the outsider, and thus I apologise.

John is not Raegdan. A. Danger. Anonymous Danger. A quantum leap gone wrong? To be sure he's a traveler and a dangerous one at that. But his underlying motive is still unknown.

I see no one recalled the bundle of hair from previous chapters. The one that Applejack and the others found in the guys old room, the one kept safe, hidden. The one tied with a lavender ribbon?

I believe Raegdan has been to two different worlds, this one and equestria, in this one he is trying to go back to Earth (home). During his travel with 'Little one' gets attached to her but he losses her somehow or dies and them gets transported to equestria. Twilight being lavender reminds him of the only thing that made him happy and tries to do with twilight what he couldn't do in the past world which is taking care of Her.

7024829 it could be that johns sister had a positive effect on him. remember the piece of hair that was found in Raegdan's room with the lavender ribbon.

7024488 Nope. John is dead. Try again.

This chapter reminded me of the hunger games. Just without the crazy rich people hoping to see people kill oneanother, in a survival of the fitest contest.

7024464 actually it just shows two value systems. Luna gives everything she is to protect others. Raegdan would burn the world to protect the few he cares about. Both are destructive in their protection, both ending up hurting themselves and the people they protect, both in nightmare moon, and the route Raegdan is naturally veering towards. It's a kind of inverse mirror, as it were.

And the fleshing out continues.

First of all John is dead and Raegdan is the outsider, that's fact.
Second whatever world Raegdan met the little one in, it cleary have Lotr, just read one of John's stories about the song from which everything came.
Third Raegdan is traveling between dimensions with purpose to find his own that was stolen from him through the portals that show themself from time to time and sometimes things cross them like the wyrms from both Luna's and Raegdan's stories.

Y'know I just suddenly got the feeling we forgot about somepony for three straight chapters.

Did none of them think that maybe he just left his flamed when he ran out of fuel and just got lucky for the 10 minute run?

7039535
I know he didn't use one, but they didn't know that

7029624
Could he have gone too the future?

7039553 May be even that, or even better with each portal he could go further and further without any way to go back. Yes that could be possible. (Mind you that I like the diferent dimensions better.)

7042993 Couldn't agree more.

Well, time to speculate.

Raegdan doesn't give a hot shit about the beings of this apocalypse "world" (most likely because he is from a different "world" himself) and would sacrifice them for a chance to survive long enough to return to his own "world". These people clearly have been living like this for quite a while for there to only be two cities left (assuming that this parallel "world" grew as ours did up to a point). This points further to Raegdan being a dimensional interloper or marooned astronaut with knowledge of things long past. We are not meant to sympathize with Luna or Raegdan, only to witness their slow descents into madness and depression as they continue to act with no support or moral compass. Notice how there is nobody in either of their lives that understands their pain and reaches out to aid them. They are effectively alone, continuing to commit horrible deeds for their own reasons and struggling to justify them by stating "I am not a monster" as many times as it takes.

However, actions speak louder than words.

In their view, should they become monsters, than they are no better than what they are fighting against. Something in their psyches determines that they haven't crossed that threshold yet, even though they clearly have. Denial issues are definitely prominent here, and them having one another now is a healthy thing for one another but not for anyone around them (and even eventually it will come to harm them both). They need to expand their little circle of trust a little farther, or this could all end in heartbreaking disaster.

7067300 That's a damn fine hypothesis. I applaud you.

Graboids... Why did it have to be Graboids?
vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/tremors/images/f/ff/2641548940_e0d768af2b_z.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20131017183809

Raegdan killed a city in his attempt to get home. This was for himself, he is a monster.
Luna killed a village in attempt to keep the nation safe. This was not for herself, she is not a monster.

Always choose life.

7226210
In my opinion both of them are monsters, despite what they did it's also very important how they did.
In Luna case she claims that she does it to protect everyone, but then she discards other lives like if the meant nothing, like in the attack on the worms, she just send them to die to make her job easier.
Both of them also fail to show any compassion, kindness making them sociopaths.

Until now i was rooting for them, even thou it was hinted that they're evil but after this i hope they die screaming.

I understand the philosophy of do what must be done but you always have the choice of how you do it.
Despite what Luna claims she is not fit for her duty, all she will do is create more sociopaths.

Geez author, you've got some dark thoughts hidden in that brain of yours. It's sparked so many philosophical arguments in the comments.

Which makes me want to put my two cents in:
A) raegdan is and is not a monster. He most definitely was at some point, but he also recognized that he had become so and has attempted to change, even a little bit, barring some major setbacks
B) the ponies are a little too focused on punishing raegdan for the past and not so much on helping fix the problem, twilight especially.
C) Luna is and isn't a monster because f some of the same reasons. She made the "hard choices" too many times and it became easy to write off multitudes of ponies as expendable Merely because there are so many faceless ponies she's seen in her long lifespan. But she has a new perspective now and while she still is fine with the ultraviolet cd approach (which has its applications) she is not so fine with letting innocents get in the way.

More questions... no answers... where in the fuck is this world?
Or perhaps... is his world... Equestria in the past after some event changed earth! :O

Nice job.

I honestly can't say how I feel about this. What he did was dispecable! They weren't losing when it was said he did bad things. Killed MILLIONS just to be able to escape? I have no words. But it does explain a lot about why he acts the way he does. Both him and Luna.
But for some reason luna's upset me way more. I can't explain it, yes he killed millions just like that but luna's.....i don't know! She killed those ponies with her own hooves, while he just blew holes in the wall, yes his actions killed millions, but he didint use his own hands to say do it, unlike Luna who killed them without thought when her whole goal was to protect them and equestria. I know why she was like that, but that's probably why she pissed me off more. She did it for good intentions, but ended up heartless, basically a cold heart monster, it's sad but true. I mean for God sake she left those ponies all alone to die a horrible date of being digested alive! that's a terrible way to go...and she siding even bother to look for them, hell, she told that stallion that lived she siding care, told them they were a distraction (cannon fodder!) For the worms. Bitch never even said thank you...was that too much to ask for? A thank you would have been better than nothing.
Honestly this ALL was FUCKED up. I feel for them, I do, but they basically lost sight in what it is they were fighting for. It is a bit of luna's fault Thu, she should of asked for help from the beginning, at least from her sister. Sure it was a noble thing to save her sister from having to go thru such grief and horror, but look what it did to Luna. If the two had talked and worked together from the beginning they might have been able to keep each other strong and reminded to to keep their morals up. But as they say, shoulda coulda woulda. I can only hope this story...both their stories, have a happy ending, for themselves, and their loved ones.

8098672
Luna had good reasoning. If she took time to train soldiers to aid her the entire town would've been slaughtered to begin with. Training the town would lessen her fighting force as the creatures picked them off one by one or came in waves. The most efficient method was use some as a distraction. If she used all her power to protect them or to do the job solo she'd have been weakened and would be going into a den of unknown size with unknown numbers of the beasts within. To optimize her chances of success she had to get in and deal with the source with all the power she could save so that in case things went badly she could at least take the hive with her. As for the plague, again she did the right thing. Compared with our own history the closest approximation is the black death which absolutely decimated Europe. Poland was mostly unaffected due to Jews bringing regular bathing with them due to their religion. However the only other place that was mostly unaffected was Milan, which barred its walls and burned not only those who showed any inclination of being sick, but their homes and belongings as well. As the plague was a huge problem we can assume that at the least they didn't have standard hygeine or, as Pegasi live in clouds and Unicorns seem to like being prissy about their looks, that it didn't help too much due to any number of variables in how the disease spread and took root. For Luna to allow the plaguebearers to head en masse to a major city with prayers and good wishes on the basis that they had heard a 'rumor' that the plague could be cured, which Celestia did actually say couldn't be done yet though treatment was possible, would be heavily irresponsible. For her to ask around for confirmation of the rumor would take time where the plagued could spread the sickness to a much larger amount of the population, and even humans would blatantly ignore being told not to go to a city to find treatment and we aren't a herd species that runs and hides in most cases. Ponies would at best wait until she left before hurrying back on their way. All things considered, she did the right thing with all the information she had avaliable to her.

I have a theory, Reagan is from a earth, but something has happened where he will jump to different words staying for a unknown amount of time and after each jump he is de-aged to how he was on his first jump, all while trying to survive by any means necessary in hopes of seeing his family again one day

10203520
Pretty close. Not a bullseye, but pretty close, indeed.

The setting of this chapter has got to be one of my favorites in this story. A massive overgrown frostpunk esque nightmare within a nightmare.

SHELTER FROM THE STORM | Frostpunk Rap! - YouTube

grimdark not grimderp at least not yet so lets keep it that way.

This is how humanity will end one day on earth.
A Tundra cold or hot.