Falling in love... falling apart

Like a single star peeking through the curtain of clouds in the midst of the night, Luna appeared in a fading flash of light in a sea of darkness, illuminated by nothing but her own aura.

Luna's gaze wandered through eternity, but she hadn't to look far since there wasn't much to see, expect one more aura stood out against the dark background. Sitting nearby was an all too familiar shape with head and shoulders hanging low, hooves holding a small wooden wind-up frog, the likes his parents had given him for his birthday. The one memory he wanted to hold onto when all came to an end.

Once landed, soft clattering announced the mares approach to the bulky earth pony, stopping a few steps later. It was impossible Tenet hadn't noticed the alicorn by now, instead he simply choose to ignore her, slowly turning the frog back and forth.

The toy was engulfed in a soft blue glow, the key in it's back turned clockwise, before being put back to the ground. Hop... rtlrltrlt~ hop! Rltrlt hop! It clacked and clicked, jumping purposefully forward in a straight line. Hoping and hoping... until it was gone.

Brown eyes looked up to the mare and where there had been confusion and hatred before, all Luna could find was a broken pony, unwilling to fight it's foe any longer. He simply had given up. The head then lowered back down to stare at the pitch-black ground and into nothingness.

“I've met your friends...” Luna opened calmly “and I got to understand what you were fighting for. The mare named Muse...” simply saying this name caused Tenet to twitch like static just crawling under his fur. Their eyes met once again, this time she could see the deeply rooted sadness he carried around for so long, since there was no more hatred to hide behind “-you are still trying to protect her, isn't that so? Because she's a friend of yours. Because she is more than that...”

“I... i've” he couldn't bring out more than two words before tearing up. He just couldn't take it anymore! All the abuse he had taken, all the things he had been trough... and it all was for nothing! Not just that, but he blamed himself for most of it “It's~ it's all my f-f-ault! Ieeee ammm ~hoorribblllwee” he sulked into hooves- unable to hold back any longer. How could he not? Brown eyes teared up and he couldn't hold it back any longer. A flood of tears ran down the snout~ soaking his fur, with hooves unable to stop them from flowing. He just wanted it to end! All the pain! He just wanted it to go away! He couldn't live like this any longer.

He had caused so much trouble and put up a good fight... but in the end, he was just a pony. One that was hurt. One which couldn't else to miss his friends deeply, the one's he worked with... the one he grew up with... and the ones he had fallen in love with. He just missed all of it... and if there was as much as a chance~ the smallest chance to turn back time! To make things right! He would hold onto it... ~but as things stood, he couldn't even hold onto his tears with drop after drop falling onto the ground to eventually vanish... just like them.

Luna could see that. He wasn't a villain. Not even particular evil. He simply had made a mistake. They all had. Luna had given into her rage, which was nothing more than a byproduct of the pain they felt. Hurting for many years and acting like it didn't happen. It wasn't a healthy way to deal with it. This much Luna knew. A lesson learned only recently.

“-are you the leader of your country? The North?” Luna asked, repeating herself once more to make herself heard “I asked you something. Are you the unicorn King?”
“Hm~pf~ w-hat?” he was so confused “I~ n~gno?”

“And the machine? Have you built it by yourself?”

“Ah~i I built ~i was the mech~anic...”
“Yes, but you didn't do it on your own. I've met the mage. The blacksmith. Your friend the chemist... ~and her”

“~b~ut I' I d~”“~ will you shut your snout!?” Luna barked, startling the stallion into silence “Who do you think you are!? -if there is one thing I have learned from all of this, it's that we have taken our selves for far too important! We haven't brought all of this upon our selves. All of us did! You~ me~ all of us! The ones that wouldn't fight back, just as much the ones which wouldn't stop by any means necessary! We all are to blame! -you and your friends ain't anything special. He would have invaded the land with or without these walking tin cans. It wasn't you which made him evil... and it was us which did you wrong!”

It was like a verbal slap to face. It came out of nowhere and hit Tenet right across the face! A call back to reality. Direct, honest and more painful than anything he had felt in quite a while. In fact, he hadn't felt anything for a while. Ever since the empire vanished, he was stuck in a lifeless body~ trapped in a realm so far from reality... it felt like standing in the room next door at any given moment. Talking to ponies through a keyhole. Unable to smell the world or taste something simple as soup and while the transition was awfully painful, he soon felt simply numb from within.

“All i~ wanted is... to help my friend” he whispered ruefully.

“All you wanted was redemption for yourself. You wanted to feel better about yourself and die before you had to deal with the consequences. You think your friend would have been helped with that!? Being left alone in a land that isn't hers!?”

Smack!

“N-no” he muttered for the princess to agree with a nod.

They finally hit bedrock by the looks of it. Just in time too.

“-I have been there myself” something Luna certainly wasn't proud off “I couldn't let go of my past mistakes for the longest time. The haunted me in my dreams. I pushed away my friends. I yelled at my sister. I was afraid... and angry... i was willing to burn it all to the ground” something Luna meant figurative and literally “... but this too I will leave behind because that's how we grew as ponies. We have to accept things we can't change and find a way to better our self's instead. My friends helped me to see into the future with confidence, instead of into the past with uncertainty... and I want to help you to do the same”

There was a blue thing in the corner of Tenet's eye, so he rose his snout to see... a hoof?

A blue hoof offered by the princess. A gesture of peace. She wanted to get him back onto his hooves. Stand tall. And for her sister's sake stop with the self-pity!

“... I think you too can try to forgive yourself, but first we have to help your friend...”
“It's t-oo late for that” he sighted, but the princess wouldn't let him of the hook that easily, “~and you think we would give up this easily?” smiling confident enough to cause a short chuckle from the stallion. She could say that again! By the lights she had blown a hole right through his chest- using magic! With nothing but sheer strength of will and a skull thicker than the puppets! Quite frankly 'stubborn' should be ashamed it wasn't called Princess Luna instead!

“W-hen you took the stone, you took the only way I could... bring her back. I had to wake her up... butshe won't e-ver be h-h-erself again~” he sobbed “Sh~s~she's...”

Slap!

The third time wasn't figurative, but a helpful wing, giving just enough of a slap for the stallion to pull it together “O~uch...”

Luna's offered hoof turned around to point at his brown hind-legs, which quickly became transparent, dissolving just like the rest of the realm “It is up to you... but we are running out of time” the mare said sternly, offering the hoof one last time.

“I...” Tenet bit his lip to not spout any more nonsense and simply nodded wildly in agreement! Taking the alicorn's hoof to shake it like an overly excited fanboy “I'm so sorry~i just wan~t her to be save! Please!”

“We will do whatever we can” Luna assured, putting another hoof on top of the one given to pat it a bit “... but there is one last thing” his ears perked up~ by now he was two-thirds see trough so what possibly could be this important? “I cannot simply speak you free of your crimes -and therefor I sentence you” the patting hoof laid down on top of his, for Luna's grasp to quickly tighten around it “~to life!”

A flash of blue light shot from the mare's horn upwards, like digging herself out of a grave, piercing through several layers of the realm that already had collapsed on top of them. Simultaneously the mystical glow began to engulf the rest of the mare's body- starting at the tip of the horn to extend downwards to hooves and all the way to the end of the eternal tail, before extending along with the offered hoof and crawl along the brown horse's leg “Grnnnnff! GAHHHR!”

Author's Note:

To say this one took forever to finish would be an underestimation!
The past 5 months i was on and off again, trying draft after draft how to connect the last chapters...
-which part hadn't been told? Which should be told? Or should it at all?

I pondered about showing more of Muse and the hospital she had spent some time in (after the return of the empire) but it didn't felt quite right for a bunch of reasons... and i realized, that for all the trouble caused... Tenet hadn't learned anything yet. It felt like he should be allowed to speak his mind and... face the consequences. Turning him into a foot/hoof note... wouldn't have done it justice, after all... most of the story revolves around how ponies deal with their past... and he certainly didn't do it in a healthy way! (Luna neither).

~ ufff~

The rest should be easier to 'wrap things up' but... i can't say how long it will take.
In between the current chaos in the world, a few personal 'things' i got to deal with... and a 'T' Rated Long-Roleplay with a friend of mine, it may take a few weeks to type it all up /or out *hooves crossed*

BUT! It will be done! >.< and if it's the last thing i do! (doh i hope it won't be...)

ps. about the title:
How he feels about Muse
How he feels every day...
Story of my life -Tenet.

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