> The Fluff Before the Storm
>  by Golden Scrolls
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: The Nameless Entity
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A black coated stallion garbed with a soft blanket sits at a wooden desk, looking at a blank page of an empty journal. He turns to the black front cover, staring absently at it, noting how empty and dull it is. With a smile, he dips the tip of a quill into an inkwell, then begins to write on the blank page. He replenishes the ink as needed, and is not bothered by the weak torchlight on the wall in front of the desk. His hoofwriting is kind of messy, but still legible to anyone who cares enough to read it.

8/8/0002

Cyrus distributed a metric shitton of notebooks to all of us in this base. Most of us questioned why, and his response was that ‘it would serve as a far better emotional outlet. While talking one-on-one with the other Shadowbornes is effective, sometimes they are just too busy. Besides, it is sometimes good to look back and reflect on good times and mistakes.’

So uh, here I am! I don’t really know where to begin. The past six months have been a rollercoaster of emotions. It started out just plain weird. One moment, I felt absolutely nothing. The next instant, everything around me was loud and bright. I went from smelling nothing to smelling all sorts of things. I smelt the fresh grass, the flowers whose scent was carried by the wind, and I smelt the rain in the air. I felt a broken shell under my ass, and I felt the tickle of grass by my hooves. The first thing I did was giggle at the feeling. A shadow loomed over me and I looked up. The amalgamation of creatures that made up of the guy that created me held me close. His name is Discord, and he absolutely loves chaos. The one thing that he neglected to tell us was about our purpose.

Discord did not name me, nor did he say anything about why I was here. Hell, the pony that I came with named himself. He says he was the first, and I don’t have the knowledge to dispute that claim. I wanted to name myself, but I suck at names. Cyrus’ name was very hard for me to remember.

Heh… for the first time, an outsider came into our base. The pegasus claimed to represent justice, fire, and even chaos. I like fire and justice. Yet, the strange juxtaposition of order and chaos struck me as very odd and even somewhat endearing. He came with a large black book. The guy titled it ‘The Black Book ‘O Rules’ which made everyone very amused. I’d wager that he has a sense of humor. A sense of humor and charisma can get someone so far in life. His words, not mine. Anyway, we changed from a lawless group to something more… a society. We’re a society now, guys. We made it. The sexless, chaotic, short, and red-eyed horses with no identity made it. Haha, we were born from a CHAOS god of all beings. If my writing sounds elated, that means I am. I get all giddy thinking about all the possibilities. Months and months of not knowing what to do finally ends today.

How will daddy Discord take this though? That draconequus always wanted control. I like the guy, and I can’t blame him for wanting control over his own spawn. I don’t have a name or an identity. I… I need one. He didn’t give me one.

Peace.





The pony stops writing, wiping his forehead with a hoof and standing up. He’s small for a Shadowborne. His friend and leader, Cyrus, stands a head taller than him. The pony takes a look around the room. A portrait of Discord holding him with a smile hangs above his bed. He trots over to it, the ring on his back left leg glowing. He levitates up to it. Cyrus created this picture not too long after he saw Discord holding him. Cameras were not invented yet, and the technology was centuries away. He runs a hoof down it, his gaze softening.

“How well are you going to take this, Discord?” His voice is soft with a gentle quiver to it. “How… how well?” With a soft sigh, he looks at his other possessions. He does not have much at all. In his room is a table, a chair, and a bed. The bed is just big enough to fit him and one other Shadowborne comfortably. He never imagined anyone else sleeping in it, though. Sighing, he trots to the wooden door and opens it, peering down the hall.

“Where to? Cy?” The pony mutters. He shrugs, starting to trot down the hall. Most of the rooms he passes by are empty. Slowly, he makes his way to the center of the base. Cyrus and other high-ranking officials do their business and live in the rooms there. The centermost room is where the leader lives. Once he reaches the center of the base, he is greeted by a group of other Shadowbornes. They are all larger than he is, so he feels quite intimidated by them. He pushes past them and apologises if the others get in his way.

Once through the group, he looks up to see Cyrus and the pegasus that dropped off the rulebook. He catches the tail end of their conversation.

“Sorry, but no thanks Cy. Not really my kinda thing,” the blue-eyed, brown-coated; and black-and-red-maned pegasus says with a frown. “Thanks for the offer, though.”  He then growls, motioning towards a scratch on his cheek.

“What happened there?” The Shadowborne says. Cyrus has a grey ring, as opposed to the other pony’s gold one.

“Discord clawed me. Dumb fuck. It stings, y’know? Permanently disfigured now, all over a fucking book...Ugh. Next time, he’ll meet my good friend, Six.” He motions toward a holstered revolver on his right hind leg. The pegasus is not too sure how he got it far earlier than he should have.

Cyrus looks past the stallion and sees the smaller Shadowborne. He smiles as that catches the pegasus’ attention. The Shadowborne nervously takes a step back. Wait, why am I so nervous? After looking at the pegasus, the nervousness increases tenfold.

The pegasus trots up to the Shadowborne, looking at him from his face to his forehooves. “Heart,” He grunts. Reflecting back at Discord’s scratch put him in a sour mood. Yet, seeing the little Shadowborne lightened the mood just a little. “The name’s Storm. Desert Storm.,” He says. The Shadowborne didn’t say anything. His head was busy putting the pieces together.

He looked me up and down, then said something. Was that a name? The… the fuck? It took MONTHS for this? The Shadowborne, now named Heart is genuinely surprised by this. He is so surprised that Desert has to close Heart’s open mouth. The pegasus chuckles, then trots away and waves at them with a wing before folding it up. His gaze hardens at the thought of the scratch.

Cyrus waves back at Desert, gazing back towards Heart. “I see you’re surprised. Don’t be. Everyone has to get a name eventually. Yet, why was he the pony to name you?”

Heart shakes his head with a frown. “T-that’s what I’m trying to figure out. What did I do to earn this? Hell, why was he here in the first place? Already delivered the damn rulebook. I-I’m not mad at all… just curious as fuck.”

“Well, I can answer that second question,” Cyrus pauses. “He was here asking about his gun. Claimed that ah… that he shouldn’t have it by now. I was very very confused. Don’t often get this confused. Yeah, I also believe the nice stallion. Told the guy that something felt off about him, which he actually acknowledged. Same for the empathic brother he holds quite close. Felt the same thing from those two. However, there was nothing for Riloxia or Solacia. Anyway, about the gun… well… he said he knew where and when he got it. When he took me to where he got it, the specific things he was looking for wasn’t there. Everything wasn’t there. Not only that, but when I asked for any details that led up to and even after the acquisition, he just stared at me blankly. Poor bastard couldn’t remember anything before or after it. He couldn’t remember using it, and he was even more confused when he saw that the chamber was missing a round.”

“He didn’t fire off a round?” Heart asks, tilting his head. A shake of the head answers the question easily. With a sigh he says, “Did he load it?”

“Didn’t have the ammo, and I could not create it for the life of me,” Cyrus says. “He swears that he did not load it. It was getting on his nerves too since it came with all the rounds loaded.”

“What the… what the actual fuck? Sounds like we have a mystery on our hooves,” Heart says, rubbing his head. All these explanations have been giving him a headache.

“Don’t worry your pretty little head,” Cyrus says with a chuckle. “I’ll take care of this for you. I know how you get, so don’t even try to fight it.” He assumes Heart concedes by seeing his ears flatten. “Thank you. Now, I’m assuming Desert is getting his brother. He rejected the position I offered him and he offered up someone better. To be honest, I wouldn’t have expected much out of either option.”

“Why?” Heart asks with a tilt of his head.

“They aren’t really needed right now,” Cyrus says. “We’re at a time of relative peace and our population can easily fit in one base. In fact, since it is right now, I’m the de-facto ruler. Check the records!”

Heart frowns, looking around. “But Cy, I don’t have access. That’s above me, and I’m not really that-” He is cut off as Cyrus covers Heart’s mouth.

“Shut up, you are. In fact, I’m promoting you. Ponies have been singing your praises for months and you haven’t reaped the rewards,” One of Cyrus’ forehooves glows and he presses it on Heart’s chest.

Heart grunts, feeling heat radiate from the hoof. It spreads through his body and concentrates at the ring. It glows and an off-gold stripe appears in the center. It runs around the diameter of the ring. He feels the change and sighs shakily.

“Congrats,” Cyrus says with a smile. He offers his hoof and watches as Heart takes it. “You now forward suggestions from other Shadowbornes to me. You also keep track of the population.” Cyrus chuckles. “You’re well on the path of becoming a leader like me!”

Heart giggles, feeling pride in himself. I’ve gotten better. Ponies are trusting me more and more. It legitimately looks like I have a shot at doing something with my life. He hugs Cyrus tightly and beams at him. Then, the Shadowborne rests his head on Cyrus’ cheek.

“Okay friend, you can let go now,” Cyrus says with a chuckle. Heart blinks, apologizes, then releases Cyrus. He paws the ground and shakes his head. “And no, don’t be sorry,” He says.

“C-can’t help it,” Heart quips. “I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to intentionally hurt anyone.” He then looks away.

Cy’s gaze softens. “I realize that,” He says. “You gotta know when to protect those you love. What if you see them get hurt?”

“I-I don’t know what I would do, Cyrus.” Heart closes his eyes and rubs his head. He didn’t even want to entertain the thought that someone would go out of their way to hurt someone else close to him. To him, everything would be all right and nothing would go wrong. “Who would even… harm me? Who would harm you?”

Cyrus chuckles. He knew exactly who would have the power to harm them, but he knew Heart would not like the answer. I like the guy, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want to hear that Discord has the power to wipe us off the map. He could nuke this place and nopony here would survive. Nopony outside the base would even bat an eye either, save for Desert and his brother, Golden. At least they care. At least they care for each other, too. Besides, when are they coming back. Des said he’d bring him. He shakes his head. Ah well. Be patient.

When Cyrus does not respond, Heart tilts his head. “Is there something on your mind? You’re being awfully quiet. If you don’t want to tell me, then that’s cool too. I know there are some things that are confidential around here.”

Cy smiles gently and boops his nose. “And of course, you will get to the point where you can see it all. I know ya can. Everyone says it.”

Heart frowns and boops him back. “Bad Cyrus. Bad. Don’t boop me, or else there will be consequences,” He smirks at Cyrus and nuzzles his cheek. They are then interrupted by the arrival of both Golden and Desert. Desert’s wing is wrapped around Golden, and they look at  him.

Golden stares at Cyrus with his brown eyes. He ruffles his wings in nervousness and smooths back his gold and light blue mane. He then rubs his cheek somewhat nervously, then makes sure none of his dark blue hairs touch the ground. He does not want the floor to be dirtier because of him.

Desert lifts his wing, and gently pushes his brother forward. He nods to Cyrus, and Cyrus presses his hoof to Golden’s chest. Cyrus shuts his eyes and focuses as he sends two things into his body. He sends a small chunk of his own DNA into Golden’s body, but he strips all of the identifying information out of it such that it can’t be traced back to Cyrus. After that is finished, he presses his hoof harder onto Golden. Cyrus taps into the chunk of DNA that he sent in and uses it to grant Golden their powers. This naturally causes a lot of pain for the Pegasus. He yips and takes a few steps back.

“W-what the fuck?” He asks Cyrus, shaking his head. “What was that? I wasn’t aware this procedure involved pain. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You would shy away from it,” Cyrus says with a sigh. “Des told me that you definitely don’t like pain. Hell, he saw how you got worked up when Riloxia and Solacia bickered over every little fucking thing. To be fair, so did he. Give the powers a good hour or so to set in. Once they do, you’ll feel a little chill, and the ring will form around a hind leg. After that? Come to me and we’ll get you set up.”

Golden shakes his head, his head swimming. He growls, then tries to get his bearings. “Right. Right right right okay. Thank you. Time to nap this shit off on a cloud or something.” He smiles and trots away, poking Desert’s side with a wing as he passes by. Desert stares at him blankly, shrugs, then follows him.

Cyrus frowns, summoning a checklist from his personal pocket dimension. He reads through it with a hum, then checks off an item titled: Follow what Desert suggests and make his brother a leader. Once he sends the list back to where it came from, he opens a portal and steps through it.

As Cyrus is now gone doing his own things, and nothing else is to be done, Heart decides to retire to his room for the time being. He hops onto his bed and chuckles. He isn’t sure about how much further he would go in the Shadowborne ranks.
Cyrus emerges through the portal a few moments later, a similarly-sized Shadowborne trotting alongside him. Cyrus frowns, then shakes his head. “How much longer do we have until Discord wisens up and decides to rip us out of existence? All he has to do is just blast this damned base with his chaos magic. Boom. Out of existence. I’m giving him approximately ten minutes until he gets here.”

“Oh you absolutely wonderful piles of fluff. I was never going to give you ten whole minutes,” The draconequus appears in a puff of glitter and pink smoke. He raises a talon to his chin and rubs it. “Now what can I do to you guys? I can turn you into a sheep.” He snaps the talon and the Shadowborne beside Cyrus promptly shifts into a sheep. It then shifts into a bear and swipes at Cyrus in anger. Cyrus leaps to the side and glares at the bear.

“Fucking great,” He groans. The bear does not head towards Cyrus, instead electing to stay by Discord’s side. Discord chuckles and points to the bear. It shifts back into a Shadowborne. Said Shadowborne looks very dazed from the sudden transformations. The pony then collapses with a grunt.

“Now, are you going to listen to me and do as I say?” Discord smirks at Cyrus. “Or am I going to have to teach you guys a lesson in obedience? You’re my creation. If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t even be here!”

“I’ll be blunt, Discord,” Cyrus says. “If we are to function properly, we need-”

“You don’t need anything,” Discord takes a step further towards him. “Now obey me.”

With a sigh and a pause, Cyrus looks at Discord and smiles very softly. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, Discord.” He sees Discord’s face contort in rage and is strangely comforted by it. If he gets this angry if he doesn’t get control, then he never cared about us in the first place. Cyrus chuckles, forming a pistol and pointing it at the chaos god. He knew it wouldn’t do anything, but he doesn’t really care about that. He depresses the trigger and the bullet phases through Discord.

“You were going to attack us anyway, dear daddy,” Cyrus chuckles. “Bet you didn’t expect your own children to grow up this fast. Meh.” The gun crystallizes in his hoof and a vibration courses through it. The gun shatters and causes Cyrus to step back. “Now fuck off!” With a stomp of a hoof, Discord is forced out of the base and the base is sent into lockdown. Steel bars block every entrance and emergency exit.

Heart sits up and his ear flicks. He receives word of the lockdown, then heads out of his room. Confused ponies poke their head from their respective rooms, questioning why there is a lockdown. Heart makes his way towards Cyrus, who now has three guards surrounding him. Their rings menacingly glow red.

“Cy? What the hell is going on?” Heart asks.

“Discord happened,” Cyrus says. “That is all. You won’t need to protect me. The guards will watch over me and keep me safe. Go round up a group, and head to the command center. You’re working logistics. There isn’t anyone else I trust with that job. Besides, you’re already amazing at getting others to do what you want. Just go.” Cyrus opens a portal for him and watches Heart step through it.

“Take me to safety,” Cyrus says. The guards do exactly that by sending him into a pocket dimension, then sending themselves after Cyrus. Inside the pocket dimension is a white two story house. It floats above empty space. With a flash of bright light, Cyrus and the guards appear on a couch, and a guard turns on the television. On the screen is Heart. The Shadowborne is sitting in a circular room with a number of other ponies.

A wide variety of screens mostly display a map of Equestria with a number of different overlays. One sizable segment of the room is solely dedicated to weather in Equestria. The maps have temperatures, pressures, vectors representing wind, and the largest screen in that segment shows a radar loop over the whole of Equestria. Heart’s section details the locations of every Shadowborne in Equestria. He’s looking at the largest screen in the room and giving guards some orders through a headset. He summons some papers and begins to draft up a plan.

“Can’t believe this is actually happening,” Heart grumbles. “Ugh. I get a promotion and terrible shit happens next.” He quickly maps out an area around the base. They are the safest here. The base is good at keeping outsiders outside. Discord is Discord though. I don’t know what he has planned, or if he is colluding with anyone. Do we have intel on that? He taps the quill on the console he sits in front of. “Do we do we do we? Yo,” He unmutes the microphone and starts to speak through it. “Hey Crys, do you have any information regarding Discord’s connections? I want to be sure we are playing this as safe as possible. Not only that, but tell Golden and Desert to get the hell out. I don’t want casualties.”

Heart leans back, spawns a cup, and fills it with a spawned coffeepot. He takes a drink and shudders at the very faint generic taste it has. Instant coffee is better than this. “Fuck spawned coffee,” He yawns, then adds more details the map. He uses his magic to press a button on the headset to change who he will talk to.

“Yo Mil. Yes, I know you hate that nickname. Would you like me to call you ‘commander of the army’? No? Thought so. I have a map and I’m sending it to you now. Mark it with red ink, then send it back. Thank you. Love and kisses,” He sighs and presses the button again before writing numbers on the map and sending it to the army commander. He switched channels just in time.

Yeah, I do have information. Uh… I’m not sure exactly how this came under our radar, and I know I’m going to be chewed out by Cyrus for this.

“Do tell,” Heart says. He softens up a bit, the gravity of the current situation setting in. If he was to get ponies to listen, he would have to be less abrasive. Guilt courses through at the thought of the commander being frustrated at him. He sighs and shakes his head. “Please,” He adds.

The phrase ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ is applicable as fuck here. I know you don’t know this, but a group of unicorns seemingly hold a grudge against us. They don’t have the power to beat us down alone. However, uh… um… Crys trails off.

“What is it?” Heart leans forward, now becoming nervous. “Is it serious?” Silence on the line is not helping his nervousness. He shifts in the seat as his ears flatten.

They can now… uh… destroy us. Their magical capabilities have been augmented by Discord to the point of death if their beams hit us. Crys was never going to say how he knew that. The stallion gazes outside the Everfree forest.

Instead of Ponyville being a bustling village filled with all sorts of ponies that get along perfectly, Crys just stares out at an empty field. His eyes move toward the mountain that will hold Equestria’s capital city. Unlike Ponyville, there is a budding village of grounded pegasi there.

“Two years and this is all we have,” He says with a sigh. “Two years.” With a stomp of his hind leg, a blank piece of paper appears in front of him. He starts to write on it, using his spacebending magic to keep it afloat in the air.

Twenty, possibly thirty unicorns. No organization whatsoever, but they look strong enough to cause us issues. They have the capabilities to wipe us out even though they are grossly outnumbered.  Surprise attack absolutely has to succeed here or we are screwed. He then starts to write more information down, humming softly. He relays information to Heart as he writes. They will likely rally around Discord. I will be expecting them to start to organize further. Yet, why aren’t they getting the jump on us? He tilts his head, gazing at the movement across the field.

Discord glides across what would become the Ponyville town square. He licks at a talon, then spawns in a long-haired brush. Starting to hum, he gently brushes his paw. The draconequus looks around the field, then chuckles and snaps his talon. A white coated unicorn with blue eyes blasts an Everfree tree. It turns to dust, then catches on fire. Immediately, the fire spreads to other trees. A soft smile comes across Discord’s face as he sees the flames.

“Sweet sweet chaos,” He purrs. “If I can’t subdue them properly with my magic, then I will just have to tell others to do it for me.” The draconequus growls as he recalled feeling a very cold sensation, feeling the pain as he tried to fire a beam of literal death and failed. He did not get the memo to calm down. He was not calm since he learned that Desert gave them the lawbook. He scratches his head with his talon.

“Funny, I didn’t know he was doing it,” He says. “And I know everything. I was there when everything was being made? Why the secrecy?” He thought that the gods were meant to do everything out in the open. Little did he know that he was right in that assumption. A giant brown book appears right above his head. Gravity takes its hold on it and Discord then receives quite the bump on his head. With a low growl, he looks at the book. The numerous pages and the ink on them are very new. Circled in red is the following passage:

08/02/0020 - After listening to his case, Raikia, The Goddess of Life and Love gave Desert Storm permission to create the black rule book for the Shadowbornes.

The book disappears before Discord could properly tear it to shreds. The unicorn trots up to Discord and smiles up at him. He shakes the ash out of his mane. Nodding to the draconequus, his horn sparks and the group of unicorns he came with all get the signal to group up with him.

As soon as Crys spots the movement, he withdraws deeper into the Everfree. He speaks as he trots. “Heart, they’re grouping up. It’s your time to shine.” He cuts the channel to Heart, then teleports right next to the forest base. The Shadowborne looks at it fondly.

Various pieces of well cut stone fly around the air, carried by a combination of heavy breezes and their own form of magic. Crys did not know how it worked. Yet, he watched the base slowly be built from the ground up and the center out. He watched Cyrus and a Shadowborne he hadn’t met argue civilly over what should be in the centermost room. He figured they disagreed on what was too opulent for that room. After the unknown pony shakes his hooves with Cyrus, he trots over to Crys. He offers his hoof.

“Hiya! The name’s Heart!” The pony said. Crys is not exactly sure how to handle it. After a brief moment of internal struggle, he decides to shake the hoof. Heart did not let up with the offering. It was as if he knew ponies would shake the hoof. 

“You’re… very persistent, you know that?” Crys says. “The name is Crystal. Just call me Crys. It’s what everyone here calls me anyway.” Crys shrugs. “I saw how you handled Cyrus over there. You have far more patience than I. That is commendable.”

“I think you mean normal,” Heart chuckles. “I don’t think that what I do is worth talking about in any way. If I make someone’s day, then so what? There aren’t enough ponies here to both care or think it’s a big deal. Shadowbornes can be patient. They just let work take precedence, which is not a bad thing at all. Less time working and more time with family.” 

“If they even have families,” Crys rolls his eyes. “Unless you consider Cyrus as a family member.” He sticks out his tongue. The word ‘family’ is extremely foreign to him. Unbeknownst to him, Heart feels the same way. The smaller Shadowborne shrugs, glancing over at Cyrus. “Why use words foreign to you? Do you even know what family means?”

Heart tenses up just a little. He thinks about it for a while, then responds appropriately. “No, I don’t.” He motions over to Cyrus and the group that is constructing the base. He highly doubts the others here know about family.

“And friendship?”  Crys continues.

“I know about friendship,” Heart quips. “Closer than acquaintances, but not close enough to be coltfriends or marefriends. You have something in common with your friend. Cyrus is my friend. Hell, you can be mine too!” The smaller Shadowborne grins at Crys. Crys returns it with his own smile. He admitted in his head that it was a warm and inviting grin. He even further admitted that Heart seemed like an all-around nice guy, yet he was unsure as to how Heart became Cyrus’ friend.

Crys snaps out of it as five Shadowbornes with red rings appear in front of him. He steps back in surprise, then looks around. He stops looking as he sees the air shimmer a few feet ahead of them. This shimmer extends around the entirety of the base. Crys picks up a rock and tosses it at the visible distortion. The rock is reflected back at him so he makes sure to dodge quickly.

“Sir, we are with you,” One of the Shadowbornes says. Crys does not question Heart’s judgment. Heart’s friend cracks a small smile, nodding and indicating towards the newly erected barrier. He hears fifteen other Shadowbornes pop in next to the guard. Their rings are gold with a red stripe. “

“His orders take priority. Everything I say goes through him, okay?” Crys then reopens the connection to Heart. “We only have twenty?”

Our forces are underdeveloped. I know it’ll be a hard fight. I believe in you, the Guard, and the drafted Shadowbornes though.

“Isn’t this a little excessive from Discord though? Where’s Desert?” Crys frowns as he asks those questions.

Let’s just say that you now know what chaos does to a guy. As for Desert? The radar showed that they left. This conflict could adversely affect him and his brother. At least, that’s what they told me. We have radar contact. The unicorns are on the forest border and moving in. Two minutes out, okay?

Crys barks out some orders and the Shadowbornes disappear into the forest. Some decided to leap up onto trees, while others decided to take refuge in bushes. Crys himself decides to hop up into a tree. He spawns himself a set of armor. He knew it wouldn’t protect him against the raw magic. The Shadowborne figured that if he had to go, he wanted to go looking cool. He looked out deeper into the forest, then smelled the air.

Smells… smells like smoke. Wait a minute… they’re burning down the fucking forest. Fuck. He mumbles orders into the mic and the Shadowbornes closest to the unicorns begin their attack despite the flames raging in front of them. Suddenly, a sizable assortment of things began to rain from the sky. Some of the unicorns did not expect this and was hit or crushed by the deluge of stuff. One got a shield up and grunted as a couch crashed into the shield. With a flick of his tail, the couch is obliterated in a blue beam. The blow left the unicorn weakened but very annoyed. He points his horn towards one of the many trees and obliterates it. With a huff, he then starts to wipe out trees that have Shadowbornes in them. As soon as he sees movement, he blasts at it.

Crys scowls as he watches a few of the Shadowbornes get blasted out of existence. “This isn’t going well,” He grunts, leaping off the tree as a beam flies right past his face. He spawns a slingshot, fitting it with sizable rocks. He teleports onto another tree as he falls, steadies himself, then fires a rock at a unicorn’s horn just as a spell goes off. As he didn’t know the interaction between a magical discharge from a horn, and anything coming into contact with said horn during that period, he is very surprised at hearing a loud crack and a yell. The unicorn that fired the spell smacks into a tree directly behind him and collapses, unconscious. Crys blinks and shakes his head.

“Wait what? Yo, fire things at their horns!” Crys barks. He teleports off the tree as he sees a unicorn fire a spell toward it. The Shadowbornes’ attack changes to become more measured. As the unicorns kept up their forward march, they kept withdrawing and firing things at the attacker’s horns frequently. When Crys sees the unicorns adjust to the sudden change, he varies it yet again.

With a grunt, he spawns in a piano and breaks it into fifteen equally-sized chunks, swiftly firing them at one unicorn. It was quickly overwhelmed, collapsing with a grunt. Crys teleports to it and finishes it off with a measured kick to the pony’s neck. Before he registered what he did, a knife flies out of the chaos in front of him and hits him square in the side. His eyes widen as the pain causes him to tense up. No words come out of his mouth as he peers through the black smoke the new wound is spewing.

Crys watches as the Shadowbornes attempt to scatter after a final volley was completely wiped out by a wave of magic. Slowly, he sees each and every one in his sight get struck by beams of varying power and various small weapons. The screams of his fallen comrades ring in his ears, spurring him to try and get up.

“F-fall back,” Crys whispers. He himself attempts to teleport away, but failed the moment he tried to manipulate the space around him. He did not quite get what was going on, then came to the stark realization that they were trapped in battle. The unicorns seized the advantage when they spotted it. If Crys sounded the retreat a moment earlier, he would have been able to save them. Crys curls up, starting to shake. I failed, he thinks, ignoring the voice telling him to stay calm and help was on the way. I failed Heart. I failed my men. Crys shuts his eyes, waiting for the whole conflict to just be resolved. Crys latches onto the fact that he issued an order too late. He wanted perfection, and he definitely did not live up to it.

Eventually, the screams and the sounds of cracking wood around him fade away. His tormented mind and body do not register that the battle is over. He tries to move, but that causes him to twitch in pain. Crys grits his teeth, trying to call out for help. His cry did not fall on deaf ears.

“Where is he? W-where? O-oh god, Crys!” He dimly registers a pair of hooves wrapping around him. A faint gold glow envelops him as he is lifted off the ground. He stares straight into Heart’s eyes. What he sees pains him more than any knife wound ever can. What meets his gaze is sadness, pain, and anger. Crys has never seen Heart so angry. He has never even seen Heart remotely upset about anything. He coughs, then cries out sharply as pain courses through his body.

“S-shh Crys. Shh… I got you. You’re in good hooves. CYRUS, GET A MEDICAL TEAM OUT HERE! WE HAVE A SURVIVOR! The… the only one,” Heart trails off as he looks back towards the empty clearing that held the base. A few moments ago, Heart was trying hard to contain his joy at seeing Crys figure out a legitimate strategy. Reality set in as he watched the unicorns beat back the attack, and sorrow and distress set in as he watched his friends and partners get slaughtered. Eventually, he had to come to the hard decision of sending the base away. If the unicorns came in, the few that remained would have died. Heart knew that Cyrus would have approved of the action if he was around.

Three Shadowbornes appear around Heart. They then take Crys from him and teleport back to the base. Heart sighs shakily and sits down. He stares at the burnt grass at his hooves, then casts his gaze to the burnt trees. The only sound Heart hears is the sound of his breathing. His gaze shifts to where he saw friends of his fade away. He stands up, trotting over to where his gaze fell. He leans against a burnt tree trunk and stares at the scorch mark the magic left. He lays a hoof in a larger hoofprint and closes his eyes. A breeze blows through his coat and he growls at it. He then stomps the hoofprint, trying to calm himself.

“You couldn’t do shit, Heart,” Heart mutters. “You fucking tried. FUCK!” He tears up and lays on the scorch mark. He could not get the images out of his head, no matter how hard he tried. His sadness gives way to a pang of fear. Though he knew the thought was irrational, he doubted that Crys would survive the stab wound. Heart looks up at the sky and sighs softly. “Fuck.”

A small breeze and the pop of a teleportation alerts him to the presence of another pony. He glances towards the source and spots a pink coated and maned alicorn. The mare stares sadly at the destruction around her.

“It didn’t have to be like this,” She says, her voice soft. She trots over to Heart and hugs him tightly. “I did the most I could do, dear Heart.”

Heart returns the hug, always gladly accepting them. He nods and rests his head on her neck. “N-now who are you?” He asks her, trying to hold it together. He tries to relax as she strokes his back.

“My name is Raikia, and I’m the goddess of life and love,” She sighs softly before Desert appears next to her. “I-I know you met my brother.” She lets him go and takes a step back. “I-I can’t bring your friends back, man. I’m sorry.” Her ears flatten.

When Heart hears this, he nods. “It’s kind of what I expected. No souls or anything, and I highly doubt that is in your power. I-I’ll take this loss as well as I can.” Heart paws softly at the ground, staring back at the scorch mark. “W-we all will.”

“If you need anything, just let me know,” Raikia says. She kisses his cheek, strokes at it, then teleports away. Desert trots up to him and Heart didn’t even look at the stallion. The Shadowborne paws again at the scorch mark.

“Hey,” Desert grunts. Heart turns his gaze to Desert and tilts his head a bit. The stallion then pulls him into a hug. This surprised Heart greatly, as he didn’t think Desert was the type to just randomly hug ponies. He could tell that Desert felt bad though. Heart leans into the hug, taking solace in the unusual heat emanating from the stallion. He shuts his eyes and nuzzles at his neck. It felt like the right thing to do at the moment. “Relax, alright?” Desert says softly. Once Desert lets go of Heart, he turns and then flies away.

Heart takes a step forward, looking at him as he flies away. He blinks in confusion, wondering why he liked the hug so much more than any other hug he received. He looks down at his chest, trying to quell the feeling of nervousness.
Why am I so nervous? He thinks with a frown. W-why am I feeling these things? A-am I alright? I… I don’t know anymore. Even more confused, he glances at the direction Desert went. The Shadowborne felt a pang of soft longing, then another pang of nervousness. He shakes his head and rubs it. “G-get it together, Heart. C-c’mon man. Y-you’ll see him again, right? R-right?” He steps back as doubt seeps through him. He growls and shakes his head harder. “F-fucking hell. Why am I feeling like this?’ Before this train of thought could add irritation to the already long list of emotions he is experiencing, he teleports to a pocket dimension.

Surrounding Heart is the infinite darkness of the void. He pops into existence right next to their base, which is suspended very close to the theoretical center of the dimension. Cyrus stands on the center of the roof. As soon as he detects Heart, he teleports down to him. He has a look of concern on his face.

“We’re running out of options,” Cyrus explains. He licks his hoof and smooths back his mane, glancing at the base. “We can’t just send our base back there anymore. The unicorns seemingly placed down wards as we were fighting them. We got the base out in time though.”

“Well, we can’t just stay here!” Heart says, shifting a bit. He’s still fighting back his emotions, and that is easily picked up by Cyrus.

“I know. What’s up, Heart? We have all the time in the world here.” Cyrus spawns Heart and himself a chair, then promptly sits in his. Heart glances at the chair, shrugs, then sits on it. He looks into Cyrus’ eyes and sighs.

“I’m nervous, scared, and confused,” Heart admits. “And it came after well… after Desert gave me a hug.”

“Wait, he hugged you? As in all two forelegs?” Cyrus leans forward, shocked at this revelation. “Are you serious?”

“Dead serious, Cy,” Heart says. His gaze softens and he sinks a bit in his chair. “A-after the battle, I c-couldn’t help but be sad. M-my friends and partners died, man. C-Crys might go too. I-if he does, then I-I don’t know what I-I’ll do! A-anyway, a m-mare gave me a hug, and so did Desert. I-I liked his hug and the h-heat. O-oh god the heat. I-it was warmer than my blanket!” He giggles, getting somewhat flustered now. He shakes his head. “G-get a hold of yourself!”

“Heart? Heart…” Cyrus gets up and places a hoof on his shoulder. “Chill. You’re getting worked up over little things. Do you need to lay down?”

“I’m fine,” Heart huffs and shakes his head. “Just f-fine. A-anyway u-uh… I-I felt a strange sense of longing when he left.”

“Longing? The hell?” Cyrus asks. He tilts his head. “Why would you feel that? You and him only met one other time.”

“T-the hug. T-the heat, man. I felt w-warm and comfortable. My blanket was the only thing that provided me with heat and comfort. You aren’t very warm. Hell, nobody here is.” He places a hoof on Cyrus, not feeling a lot of heat coming out of him. It was the one thing he missed. “He provided warmth during times of need. I-I have to repay him.” Heart looks back and tries to stand, only to be stopped by Cyrus.

“And you will repay him. Sadly, that time will be later.” Cyrus’ gaze hardens. “I’m sorry to have to bring it back to this subject, but we have an executive decision to make. As we can’t bring back the base, and we definitely can’t construct a new one there, we have to think outside the box.”

“Since when couldn’t we?” Heart asks in surprise. “Since fucking when?”

“They know what to look for,” Cyrus’ tail flicks in agitation. “If we were to reconstruct a base, we’d be wiped out. The gods know this, I know this, and you know this. We have to decide whether or not to enact Article twenty-four.”

Heart’s mind draws a blank at the mention of the article. He wasn’t fond of memorizing them at all, so he skipped over them thinking that he did not need them. After a few moments of confusion, Cyrus sighs and facehoofs.

“During times of great need, I have the ability to consolidate the race. It will save us from extinction, but it can only be acted once. norder to do this, we need an easily enchanted object. What’s easily enchanted?” Cyrus stares at Heart, wondering if he knew the answer.

“Runes, natural things, and various trinkets? Things that the gods hold close?” Heart answers, thinking back to where he learned such things from Crys. Heart’s ears flatten as he recalls what Crys taught him. His mind drifts back to Crys’ health, and then he falls back into the post-battle slump.

“Exactly. Golden has one, so we will use that,” Cyrus quips. “I will explain our situation, and will return with it when he gives it to me.”

“You sound pretty confident there, Cy. I trust you though.I’ll be in the hospital room if you need me.” Heart teleports into the base, then makes his way towards the hospital. As soon as he reaches the north-western corner of the base, he knocks on the door clearly marked “Hospital”, then opens the door.

Crys lies on one of the three beds. His side is bandaged up and he appears to be sleeping. His chest slowly rises and falls. Heart trots over and sits next to the bed. A doctor trots up to Heart and frowns at him.

“He will recover,” The doctor says. “The stab wound did not pierce anything vital. Far from it. It looks like the pony did not want him dead, only incapacitated. Perhaps for the purposes of capture or fair trial. Who knows? Anyway, I will clear him as soon as possible. I heard Cyrus wants to enact the article. I would call it a foolish move it we were in any other situation. Let him rest,” The doctor trots away. Heart did not leave Crys though. He rests his hoof on Crys’ chest and sighs.

As he watches Crys’ chest rise and fall, he reflects back on what exactly he felt when he hugged Desert. He would have to ask ponies about the more intimate emotions that they feel. He isn’t quite sure what to think of these combinations of emotions. He would ask Golden if it wouldn’t put him at risk for capture or death by the unicorns that attacked their base. Heart shakes his head and grunts.

“Won’t get my answer for a while, it seems.” He mutters. “Damn.” He spawns a glass of orange juice and downs it in one gulp. Heart did not care one bit for alcohol. He tried it one day and did not like what he tasted. He closes his eyes and sighs, waiting for Cyrus to return. He gets his wish a few moments later when he feels a hoof press down on his head. A notebook with a gold colored cover hits the ground next to Heart.

“We’re ready,” Cyrus says. “I can’t transport many ponies through. Me, you, Crys, and like three others if they so wish.”

“What about you?” Heart asks.

“Fuck me. Don’t worry about me, okay? I’ll be fine.” Cyrus waves his hoof and spawns a piece of paper. He quickly scribbles on it and sends it throughout the base. He wishes to get a list of ponies that want to come. To his shock, it comes back empty. He looks at it in confusion. Surely some ponies would have wanted to come with. “Not sure if… depression or if they want to live out their lives alone.”

“May I remind you that we just fought a battle that ponies died in. I don’t blame them if they wanted to stay here. Maybe they can… I dunno… make history or something. Maybe they can hide away and disguise amongst the villagers outside of the forest. Let them go, Cy. Let them be free. You made your choice. I… just made mine. I’m coming with.” Heart hugs him.

“Are ya sure? You’re going to… well… forget everything you learned here. Go get your notebook and take it with you. This process is going to put you in stasis. You’ll be somewhere in the void between life and death. We all will be toeing this line. Where will you be going? Inside me, of course.” He winks at him and sends Heart to his room. “Literally.” Cyrus sits down, starting to focus.

The very first thing Cyrus does is kick everyone that wasn’t going out of the pocket dimension. He then starts to work on breaking down the base. Black smoke begins to rise up from the hospital floor and it sinks inside Cyrus. What remains is the same void that exists outside the base’s walls. This process seems to pain him more as he slowly increases the radius of the disintegration. As soon as it hits Crys, he fades, but his life is preserved. As the smoke flies into him, he gasps and tenses up. This clearly was not good for him, but he continues on. Once Heart returns with his notebook, he is promptly taken by the disintegration.

To Heart, the disintegration felt like nothing. One moment, he saw Cyrus. The next, his vision, hearing, breathing, and most of the other senses all cut out at the same time. He only felt his orientation in space, and he only heard his own thoughts. Heart did not feel like he was one being. Instead, he felt like he was spread out over far more space than he was meant to. As this process was painless, he did not cry out. He felt himself suddenly accelerate towards Cyrus, and as he enters, his last thoughts ring through his mind before the rest of the senses are cut:

Shit. What have I gotten myself into?

Cyrus tenses up further as he feels Heart enter him. He lets out a shaky breath as the feeling eventually subsides. He now focuses on the rest of the base. He ignores the growing pain inside his chest. As the radius gets bigger, so does the absorption rate. Once all of the smoke enters him, Cyrus reaches for the notebook and presses his hoof into it. His body glows and he seals off the process by sealing himself into the notebook. When he cried out in pain, nobody was able to hear it. As soon as he touches the pages, he seals himself in a pocket dimension. He places it between the back page and the back cover, then falls into a deep slumber.

Will I ever see the light of day? Will… will we? I don’t know anymore. Goodnight world. May I see you soon… sweet sweet Equus.
> Chapter 2: Enter Kazara
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2: Enter Kazara

12/31/1580 ~ The mountains of the Crystal Empire

A strong gust of wind blows some snow into a cave, where it promptly melts at the hooves of a cloaked pony. Poking out of the cloak is a black tail and a pair of bat wings.

“1580. A lot has changed in that period,” The pony says gruffly. “Some would argue that too much has changed.”

Over the 1560 year period, Equestria and the Crystal Empire has gone through several kings and a few princesses. Celestia has had the task of raising and lowering the sun for several centuries, and the stress behind that caused her to pass some undesired laws. Naturally, this caused a chunk of the population to leave the country. They were received well with the crystal ponies that lived in the Crystal Empire.

The pony recalls a rather distressing period of time where a rogue family of unicorns were steadily raising dead ponies back to life and used them to make attacks against Canterlot. The pony also seen whole civilizations rise and fall. One such civilization resonated well with him. A shadowy ball appears on his hoof, and he throws it outside where it fades away. Shadow magic wasn't as controversial as its darker counterpart. The common pony understood how illegal dark magic was, but they never understood the grey areas revolving around shadow magic. The pony also understood that other ponies feared chaos magic as well. Discord did not help the fear one bit. He wagers that the civilization he liked also didn't help with the general population’s understanding of shadow magic.

When the pony takes a look around the cave, his eyes fall onto a lone light blue egg just sitting on the cave floor. The egg is around a foot tall and 3 inches wide at its widest point. He sticks a hoof out towards it, feeling the heat of a developing dragon. He runs a hoof over the scaled shell.

A dragon's egg is valuable. They go for thousands of bits. I could get rich off of it, He tilts his head and chuckles at that thought. But what's the point? He opens up a pouch strapped to his side and sticks his hoof in. He only feels a few bits. The stallion did not need the money. His gaze turns to the outside of the cave.

Where did the parents go? He thinks, getting somewhat disturbed by the notion of an egg sitting there with no parents. What happened to them? He trots out of the cave and kneels in the snow. When he scans the ground for tracks, he realizes that he finds none. After a grunt of annoyance, he trots back in the cave.

Sitting back down at the egg, he looks around at his surroundings. Upon closer inspection, he sees that the walls have scratches that run deep. He also notices that the dust around the egg is thinner than the dust everywhere else.

So they were here. How long though? There is dust, but that does not bode well. If… if there wasn't, then I would have an annoyed dragon couple to deal with. Were… were they hunted down? He shakes his head, remembering that it was legal to hunt dragons. The scales were often used as an insulator. With them, drinks can stay warm for ages. Bastards. Don't they know that they're fucking endangered now? If they die out, then the ponies deserve whatever Manticore attacks that come. I hope all the hunters fucking die off. Nopony fucks with the natural order. The batpony shivers in rage.

“Nopony.” He says bluntly. He groans and spreads out his wings. He flaps them and bites his lip. His wings were stiff with the lack of use. He glares at the egg, half angry at the ponies, and half angry at the situation that caused the hunting. The dragons didn't know any better. He remembered ponies going into the Dragonlands and taking their resources for their own gain.

“If the egg hatches, then the baby dies if it isn't protected,” He grunts, laying down by the egg. “That shit doesn’t sit right with me. If I won’t do it, nobody will.” Feeling obligated to take care of the egg, he gently wraps his hooves around it and cuddles close to it.

“You're gonna grow up to be good and strong,” He strokes the egg. “You're gonna survive. I like survivors. I feel like I'm gonna like you. Now… how long have you been here?” He sniffs it. “The dust implies that you’ve been here at least a few weeks. It's a fucking miracle that you weren’t taken away.” The unnamed stallion wraps a wing around it. The heat seeps through the wing and circulates through his body.

A dragon needs a name that will be spoken for years after he dies. If… if he dies under my watch though, I won't forgive myself. His gaze softens as his hoof drifts to his pouch. He winces and looks at it. Even now, I still take the blame. Where did I go wrong? Ruby… where did I fail you? I should have died there. Yet… yet you did the right thing. I love you. The stallion finishes off his train of thought by circling his chest with his hoof. May you rest well.

He turns his attention to the entrance to the cave. “The Crystal Empire will be sympathetic to my cause.” His hoof shimmers and he touches the egg. The shimmer transfers to the egg and causes it to blend in with its surroundings, effectively turning it invisible.

“Be back in a bit… Kazara,” The pony looks back fondly at the egg. He never imagined that he would name someone, much less do it in his native tongue. You're the light in the shadows, my friend. The light… in the shadows. He departs the cave, confident that his concealment would work.

Once he sticks his hoof in the snow, it sinks down to the middle of his foreleg. Immediately, he shivers in the cold it brings him. He forms a set of snowshoes, then uses them to slowly make his way through the snow. The stallion navigates down the gentle slope that makes up the very base of the mountain the cave runs through.

The yaks are nice, he thinks casually. The yaks up north were generally kind to him. Even though there were a few exceptions, they did not detract from the good time he had there. Comparing the yaks to the ponies didn't make sense to him. One species had different traditions than the other, and both species were kind to him. At this point, he wasn't sure if they all liked him because of how he carried himself, how he treated them, or how they viewed him. He made a good effort to be kind to them. The crystal ponies treated him well too.

“The queen knows me,” He says. “The queen will be sympathetic to me. She has a kind heart.” The crystal ponies in general have kind hearts. They treated him kinder than the yaks and the Equestrian ponies.

Through the blowing snow, he sees shiny buildings in the distance. Eager to get to the Crystal Empire, he picks up the pace. He shakes the snow off his cloak grunting as a cold breeze hits him in the face.

The gates to the Crystal Empire are wide open. He trots through the open walkway and gazes at the street. Cobblestone lines the street, and warm street lamps cast white light on them. His gaze turns toward the castle in the center of the city. It looks warm and inviting to him, yet it doesn't really interest him too much. He finds his immediate surroundings much more interesting though.

Despite the cold air, ponies are happily outside conversing with one another and carrying a variety of goods. The smell of hot chocolate fills the air as he passes by a cafe. He looks into the window, seeing ten ponies enjoying coffee, hot chocolate, and different flavors of pastries. His stomach growls and he sighs heavily. He hasn't eaten in a few days and he is just now feeling the hunger.

Focus on the objective. I can feed later. As he heads closer to the castle, there is a noticeable increase in guard presence. He glances at the crystal armor seeing the reflection from the lights and wondering how impressive it would be when the sun shines on it. Though it looks heavy, the guards have no trouble moving around when it is on. The cloaked stallion wishes that he felt comfortable in it. His temporary job at Canterlot merely reminded him that a suit of light armor frustrated him quite a bit.

One of the guards looks at him and waves. “Hello there Mercury. Long time no see!” The cloaked pony scowls and ignores the guard even though the guard knew his name. He considers himself lucky that he was on a first name basis with at least a few guards. Mercury motions to a guard further down the path and asks him to open the door to the castle. He thanks the guard and trots into the grand hall.


The red carpet, though soft on his hooves, contrasted with the nice heat he felt in the air. He hated it when his hooves get cold. He steps into a sizable circular room. Wrapping around it is two sets of stairs. They stop at the second floor, which appears to be the throne room. At the back of the room is a set of stairs going down. He chooses to head up.

Facing him is a large set of double doors. The knobs were made out of diamond. The clear gems in the door catch the light and refracts it. He looks at the various reds, greens, and purples that result from the refraction. Mercury knocks on the door, and he opens it up when he is told to enter.

On the throne is the princess of the Crystal Empire. She peers at Mercury with her blue eyes and smiles softly at him. The pink coated mare trots away from her throne to greet Mercury.

“Greetings, Mercury,” she says with a nod. “I trust Celestia has treated you well?”

“Yes Princess,” Mercury bows, losing his formality when he hugs her. “How goes it?”

“Celestia’s policies have caused quite the economic boom here. It is true that what doesn't benefit one ultimately benefits the other. We have also sent envoys to the Dragonlands with messages of peace. They don't like ponies anymore. I am betting that the hate will fade eventually.” The princess smiles warmly at him. “Are you staying here for the celebration of a new year?”

Upon hearing the question, his face shifts into one of conflict. “Ah… about that. I have a little… uh… issue.”

“An issue? Do tell, Mercury.” The princess sits down.

“You have a dragon egg in your land,” Mercury says bluntly. The princess's eyes widen at that revelation. She tenses up and looks at the guards in the throne room.

“Guards! Leave the room. We have sensitive details to discuss!” She spreads a wing, wrapping it around Mercury and leading him to her throne. She sits on it and nods at him to sit down. As he does, she takes one last look around the room.

“I really hope you aren't lying. Take me there.” She says. Her gaze is surprisingly steely. A portal forms behind Merc.

“As you wish.” He stands, nods, then leads her through the portal. They arrive right next to the egg. With a whisper, the egg uncloaks. To keep it warmer than usual, Mercury curls up around it.

“That is very interesting,” The mare admits. “I admit that I was skeptical at first. A dragon egg in these troubled times is a genuine rarity. Catching them in the act can be even rarer.”

Mercury blinks and shakes his head. The imagery she gave him makes him uncomfortable. He coughs. “I would imagine so. Uh… what do I do? This is your jurisdiction and I will defer to your judgment.”

“Where are the parents?” Her gaze turns to the egg.

“Gone. I presume they are dead,” Merc says quickly.

“So we have an orphan,” She mutters. “Great… just great. Right… uh… that is a problem. Next question. How long has it been here?”

“At least a week or more,” He admits. “The parents were gone for that long. The dust and the lack of tracks. I doubt they fly in and out of the cave. The egg is four feet from the damn entrance. I assume they cared enough to land outside the cave. See claw marks on the walls? They are way deeper than usual. Normally, they’d scratch it lightly to sharpen their claws. This shows a sign of conflict.”

“Yet the hunters would have tranquilized them,” She softly quips. “Probably got magic to take them out of the cave too. Perhaps that was some conflict between the husband and wife. Perhaps their last. That might explain how deep the scratches go. Look… Merc,” She places a hoof on his back.

Mercury is shaking. He really did not need someone to tell him the methods of hunting them. That only pissed him off.

“Merc, what have you done thus far?” She asks him flatly. “I would like to go through official channels.”

“The moment I saw the egg, I attempted to search for the parents. That failed miserably and so I gave up with that. I then returned and thought about selling it. That thought kinda repulsed me. That shit was thrown right out. I searched for tracks and the front of the cave for signs of anything. After that? I… made a choice. I'm taking care of it.”

“Officially?” She asks.

“Officially. I am aware that I will be listed as the birth father. The dragon will imprint to me anyway,” He grunts.

“Indeed. Now… uh.” She licks her lips. “We might need to find parents for the dragon. Did you name it?”

“It's a male. Kazara,” Mercury says. “Finding parents who will take care of him will be impossible. Territoriality is a bitch, plus most the families have babies anyway. I don't know if there is a way I can help him get parents.”

“Create them,” She says coolly. “Even if he might not see them as parents, he will need hard scales to bite into.”

“Isn't that wrong?” Mercury asks.

“What will you do for the survival of a species we don't know about? Do you want to do this or not? Parenting is a series of hard decisions with nebulous outcomes. Foals can find parents. Ponies have empathy. Dragons? I fear that the empathy was stripped due to those fucks that crossed their borders.” The mare explains.  “Dragons are all about family. The baby will defend you to the ends of the earth.”

“Do I want to do this? Yeah but-”

“No buts! Yes, or no?”

“I…” Mercury then sighs. “I do. Ever since the… the incident, I want to protect those who can't protect themselves.”

“The… incident?” She asks, tilting her head.

“I lost my best friend. Wasn't just my best friend too. We were partners. Red dragon named Ruby. She leapt in the the way of a magical ray and was promptly destroyed.” Mercury explains, sighing heavily and looking at the floor. He continues with a lowered voice. “Mages are s-something else. I still wake up sweating and crying. Didn't think something could get so cold. Fuck. I needed her.”

“O-oh…” The princess says. “Oh god, I'm so sorry.” She pulls him into a tight hug. “It must be… hard to wake up.”

“It is. It is very hard to wake up some mornings.” Mercury admits. “This… this will help me. Seeing a baby dragon pop out of that egg will set things right with the world. One death and one birth. Perfect balance and harmony. I think we are done here. What are you going to do?”

“I am going to need to register you both in the logs. I have your names. I am going to need a place you all are going to stay. Also, I need the names of the dragons you will create,” The princess smiles before trotting through the portal. Mercury gives the egg another stroke before cloaking it and following her.

With a small burst of wind, Mercury closes the portal. He watches as the princess trots out of the throne room. With her gone, he can now focus on the room around him. Mercury begins to wander around the throne room.

A painting of the princess leaning against a castle wall catches his eye. She looked younger back then. She looks at Mercury with a soft foal-like gaze. The mare dons a gold crown that doesn't really fit her head. Mercury winces as he notices that the crown is rubbing against her horn. Surely she took it off after the painting was finished. I like the warm colors on this one. Huh. It's a shame I go here under cloud cover. Moving along the wall, his gaze falls upon an ariel painting of the city. All the roads lead to the castle. It looks a lot smaller than it does now. The shopping district is more compact, and upon very close inspection, the cobble looks much rougher. A date and the subject is scrawled on the bottom of the painting.

6/12/1201 The 250th anniversary of the Crystal Empire.

Hm… so not much growth has occurred since then. He muses, looking at the next picture. It depicts a slightly larger Crystal Empire 250 years later. The roads themselves look slightly nicer, but not much has changed overall. Damn Tia. He growls. Or am I just blaming someone for the lack of growth over that period? I really like this place.

Once Mercury hears hoofsteps, he snaps out of his thoughts and turns to the mare that made them. She drops two papers on the floor in front of them. Everything was filled out on them except for the name of the father, the location of the home, and the names of everyone who will live there. She offers him an already inked up quill. Mercury. Good, I know my name. The cave is to the north, and the names? Frostwing and Gladys. He writes down all the required information, copies it for the second sheet, then gives both to the mare. She takes it and giggles.

“Why thank you,” She says. “I will give this to the archivist. Welcome to the Crystal Empire!”

“I never got your name,” Mercury quips.

“Princess Melody,” She smiles. “My husband is away, and my kid is in her crib.”

“Next princess?” He asks her. Melody answers with a nod. “Thank you for your time! I finally feel like I'm going to make a difference.”

“You most definitely will. I will dispatch guards to your cave,” She says. “They will be out of sight and out of mind. Peace.” She hugs him and trots out of the room. Mercury teleports back to the cave.

Teleportation and flight was always a limited thing for him. He only kept a certain amount of locations in his mind, and that only worsened when Ruby died. Mercury did not want to touch the sky since she died either. It made him feel sick to his stomach and worsened his nightmares. He just hoped that Kazara would help him through this.

Mercury picks up the egg and uncloaks it. He holds it close and sighs softly. “I need you here,” He whispers. His hoof trails towards the top of the egg. It felt thinner up there. Mercury quickly discards the thought of magically speeding it up. That's unnatural, He shakes his head. So very unnatural.I want him to be good. Mercury whispers more soft things to the egg. He tilts his head when he senses movement inside it. After detecting that the dragon moved closer to his hooves, his heart flutters in excitement.

“Oh my god, it's really happening. H-he knows I'm here,” Merc sniffles and holds the egg closer. “H-hello there, little guy. H-hi!” He relaxes when he shuts his eyes. “Y-you are alive. Stay alive for me o-okay?”

Mercury’s mind soon turns to other things. Estimating the amount of time for a dragon egg to hatch is very difficult. It all depends on the amount of heat the egg receives, how protected it is, and the mood of the baby inside it. The more time it spends in favorable conditions, the more it wants to break free. Occasionally, one would hatch in unfavourable conditions if its life is on the line. The dragon inside him touches a claw to the softer inner shell where Mercury's hoof is. He is well aware of his presence, as he was dimly aware of his long gone birth parents. The hatchling is warm in Mercury's hooves. It shifts again somewhat strongly. The urge to break through the shell starts to grow.

“Relax… relax little hatchling. The sun will soon shine in your eyes,” He coos. “Gain your strength, so you won't tire yourself. I may be no dragon, but I see how beautiful they can be. It's a fierce beauty. My kind of beauty, to be fair.” He rests his head very softly on the egg and sighs. “Always has been.” The stallion feels a pang of drowsiness, but shakes it off with a shake of his head. Sleep comes at the worst times for him. It wasn’t about to take him today. Dark smoke begins to gather outside, and he watches as two dragons are slowly formed. Unlike the dragons from the Dragonlands, these dragons are quadrupeds. They look essentially identical, with only scale and eye colors as differences. The male is purple scaled with blue eyes, and the female is blue scaled with purple eyes.

“Now,” Mercury says. “I would definitely like you two to watch over this little dragon. This little dragon is going to grow up to be strong and kind. You will be his parents, as I fear the worst for his biological parents.” He looks towards the egg and rubs it gently. The two dragons nod and move closer to him. Mercury rests his head on the egg. Uncle Merc is going to take good care of you, and so are your parents. He thinks, before yawning and slowly drifting off to sleep.

Mercury shifts a bit when he feels the paw of Gladys, the dragoness, on his back. Gladys shifts Mercury over to her, and with him, the egg. She lays next to him and Frostwing, the male, lays on the other side of him. He drapes his tail over Mercury’s back and purrs ever so softly. The stallion curls up slightly, groaning softly. When he settles down, he smiles softly and sleep manages to come faster for him. Gladys and Frostwing keep a close eye on Mercury as he sleeps.




As the day turns into night, a thin film of smoke pools on the ground. It starts to build up, slowly creating an outline of an earth pony. Seeing the smoke, the dragons lift their heads and growl right at it. Frostwing stands and glares right at the smoke, seemingly ready to strike at any moment. When the smoke clears, a dark purple stallion shakes his head and grunts. He swiftly recovers and looks at the dragons. He flashes a smile right at the dragons and it’s as if all the tension in the air goes away. Something in that gaze causes Frostwing to stand down and go back to laying with Gladys and Mercury.

The stallion chuckles and trots over to Frostwing. I am certainly surprised he recognized me. He shivers gently as his gaze turns to the egg. He carefully navigates around the two dragons, Mercury, and the egg, only to sit down behind the egg. He runs a hoof over it and gasps softly, shuddering and closing his eyes.

“Yes,” The stallion softly sighs. Gently, he extends a mental probe towards the egg and uses it to get a read on the being inside. He eyes Mercury and shivers as the information comes through.

Strength… strength and what else? Longing? Ooh yes… the longing, He licks his lips in glee. A tingle runs through his body and he grunts. The gentle shift in magic was barely sensable by him. It made him happy all the same though. His attention turns to Mercury after he hears a soft groan. He withdraws his hoof from the egg and watches the batpony wake up. A quick probe into his mind shows that he too detected the magic shift.

Mercury’s eyes widen as he sees the stallion. “A-Atraxa?” He quickly sits up. The earth pony raises his hoof and Mercury says nothing more. A gentle cracking sound fills the air. With a gentle gasp, Mercury turns his gaze to the egg and notices that a small crack an inch long runs down starting from the top of it. A single black claw pokes through the shell. This is followed by a second one poking in next to the one that just came out. Mercury glances at Atraxa.

“This will take a while,” Atraxa remarks.

Mercury blinks when he leans back, then sighs. “Right… forgot, sorry. Got my hopes up.” His ears flatten a bit. “What are you doing here anyway? Shouldn’t you be watching over a-anyone else that might have survived?”

“I’ve been doing that,” Atraxa says. A silver colored key appears in front of Atraxa’s forelegs. He nudges it over to Mercury. Mercury takes the key only to stare at it and tuck it away. He already knew why Atraxa was giving the key to him. He makes a note to take care of whatever Atraxa wishes to do once the dragon is born. Atraxa then hugs Mercury and nestles his head under the batpony’s chin.

“I know you haven’t been getting much support after your partner died,” Atraxa whispers. “I know I’ve been silent about it. Depressingly watching my creations slowly eliminates my will to socialize. To be honest, I don’t know how they’ll get out of this. I can’t find a way for them to survive. You tried your hardest, and I admire that.” Mercury gently rubs at Atraxa’s mane and cheek. A few more cracking sounds pierce the air. “I… admire that. You needed someone to fill the gap for so long.”

Atraxa breaks the hug, allowing Mercury to get close to the egg. There are a few more cracks at the top of the egg and another one running down the side opposite to the first cracks. Oh my god, is it happening? His thoughts come fast and irrationally. He dispels the thoughts with a swift shake of the head and tells himself that it would still take time for the egg to hatch. Again, he holds down the urge to speed it up.

C’mon Merc, you’re better than this. You are way better than this. Mercury growls. He then calms himself when Atraxa rubs his mane gently.

“You’re excited. I thought you would have learned to tone down such things,” Mercury’s creator says with a sigh. He then shakes his head and chuckles. “Guess not.”

“I cannot stop comparing him to her,” Mercury says. “I cannot, even if I try my hardest.”

“He isn’t even born yet. He hasn’t looked at the world around him. Mercury, he won’t be Ruby.”

With a sigh, Mercury rolls his eyes. “Yeah, no shit. I… I’m painfully aware of that, thank you very much.” Atraxa shifts away from Mercury a bit as he detects Mercury’s mood darkening.

Atraxa looks down at his forelegs. “Look I… I’m sorry. I know you’re defensive over this. I know how you-”

“You don’t, so don’t try and pull that shit with me,” Mercury shivers. “Do you even know how it feels to lose someone that was a part of you? Not in the figurative sense, but literal.” Atraxa’s gaze snaps right to Mercury. Initially, it’s unreadable when Mercury looks into his eyes. As it softens, Mercury shifts a bit uncomfortably.

“You… you’re all a part of me. Whenever anyone dies, or gets hurt, a part of me get harmed with it. Yes, yes I know how it feels.” Atraxa sighs, feeling as if he overstayed his welcome. When he shifts away, Mercury’s ears flatten slightly.

“Then I must apologize. You know how I get sometimes. It’s no excuse, I know,” Mercury says softly. “I never thought about it in-”

“Shh, don’t continue with that,” Atraxa shakes his head. “Please? Focus on the bigger things. Turn it away from me, and especially away from yourself.” He indicates to the egg. A louder cracking noise is heard as the dragon inside works on the cracks he previously made. A moment later, a small and blue scaled dragon head smashes out from the top of the egg. His eyes are closed, but the expression on his face shows that he is winded.

Gladys lifts and tilts her head as she watches the newborn work on widening the new hole on the top. With a squeak, his head disappears into the egg. Gladys taps at the egg and the head pps back out. He looks at the dragoness and tries to move to her, but he ends up toppling over. Gladys snorts in amusement and Frostwing rolls his eyes. He nudges the egg with his snout.

Determined to break free from his egg prison, the hatchling widens the hole enough so that he slowly wiggles out of it. Immediately, everyone but Atraxa notices that the hatchling is bipedal just from the movements. The hatchling has blue scales everywhere on his body save for the underside of his tail and his lower chest, where the color is a light green. Grey spikes run from the topside of his tail to his upper back. Kazara tries to stand, only to collapse and grunt. He looks over at Gladys and extends an arm over to her.

Gladys shifts onto her side and grabs Kazara. She pulls him close and gives his cheek a gentle nuzzle. Frostwing watches the two carefully. Gently, he nudges Mercury with the tip of his tail and nods at him. Mercury shifts close to the pair and looks at Kazara closely. Staring back is a gaze full of childlike purity. Seeing the gaze sends a chill down Mercury's spine.

That gaze, He thinks. He closes his eyes as visions of a much younger Ruby flash through his head. Back then, they were pure. Mercury distinctly remembers thinking that there really wasn't anything wrong with the world he grew up in. His small bubble was just him and Ruby, and that was sacred to him. It won't last forever, the thought is sobering to him. He gently runs a hoof down Kazara's wing. Compared to his parents and Mercury himself, Kazara's wings take up a much smaller portion of his body.

Will he even be able to fly? Mercury thinks. A-A dragon would need flight. It's wrong if he doesn't have flight. The thoughts were almost too much to bear for him. Atraxa looks at Mercury when he detects that Mercury isn't well. Atraxa hugs Mercury gently.

"I love him all the same," Mercury whispers.

"As you should." Atraxa pats Mercury's back before breaking the hug and stepping back. "Look, I need to go. I want you to spent time with the hatchling, okay? He's more important than I am. At this moment, you three are his world and his life. Farewell, my friend. I will see you eventually." With a bow, smoke billows around him and he lets the shadows take them where he needs to go.

When all traces of Atraxa are gone, Mercury closes his eyes. Saying goodbye to him was always the hardest part, and he knew it was one of the few things that were reciprocated. He wonders where all his good friends are, or if they are even alive. He didn't often think about all that. When he opens his eyes, he sees Kazara nuzzling at his mother's chest. For just a moment, he felt as if everything was alright. It was as if the world finally granted something that was eluding him for years: peace. TIme seems to slow as all his worries fade away.

Mercury takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. He taps into the power reserves in mind and reserves just a bit of magic. Any shadows in the room are drawn to him and he grimaces as he lets their energies sink into him. It was never a pleasant experience for him. The shadows feel tingly against him, as if most of his body is mostly covered in bugs. The unpleasantness of it nearly forces him out of that state. His eyes flutter open for a split second, catching a glimpse of Frostwing’s wing shifting over him. He manages to shut his eyes a few moments before the shadows take his mind away.




A howl and a very loud crack in the Everfree forest breaks the stillness of the cool night air. A dark purple crack appears in the air in the center of a small village and widens to accommodate the width of a rather young pony. Mercury slowly steps out of the portal and collapses when his hooves hit the packed dirt. He is panting heavily. The few ponies that were out and about stop and stare at the newcomer. A pegasus and a unicorn trot up to him and look at him closely. The unicorn’s horn lights up and scans his body for any injuries, ignoring the bag that is strapped to his back. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, the unicorn is forced to step back to give Mercury space. She signals for the pegasus to step back and he does.

By the time Mercury responds, a small crowd has gathered around him. Mercury groans and sits up. He shakes his head, groaning softly.

“It is seven months since the new year,” An earth pony near the front of the crowd says. “We are in the 350th year. Who and what are you, outsider?”

Mercury flinches at the voice. “My name is Mercury, and I…” His ears flatten. “I’m nobody. I shouldn’t even be here, god dammit.” There’s a bitter edge to his voice that causes the crowd to step back a bit.

“Step aside, everyone,” A voice at the back says. The crowd splits and a mare trots toward Mercury. She is garbed in a tattered cloak. Her orange eyes lock onto Mercury. “He speaks the truth. If we are to remember our founding principles, we should do so now. Starshield, take him to your house and clean him up. I would like him to speak with me in an hour.” 

“By you wishes, Elder,” A young pegasus says. He bows toward the mare before turning to Mercury and beckoning him to follow. Mercury shakily stands, tries to take a step, then collapses from the effort. A gentle glow surrounds him and lifts him off of the ground. The unicorn that approached him earlier guides Mercury to the hut Starshield lives in. Mercury hits the wooden floor with a grunt when he drops out of the unicorn’s line of sight.

“I am going to need you to sit in this chair,” Starshield says. His tail flicks towards a chair sitting by a table in the center of the small living room. The stallion gets a brush off of a nearby wall and walks over to the chair. After a few deep breaths, Mercury stands up. He shakily makes his way over to the chair, sitting down in it and slumping tiredly.

“O-Ow,” Mercury winces when Starshield starts to comb his mane. He ignores the protesting stallion as he works out all the knots and kinks in Mercury’s mane.

“Hey look, this is going to take a while,” Starshield says. “There’s a lot of shit in you mane.” Starshield pulls out a twig and tosses it to the side. “How in the hell did you get this dirty?”

“Long fucking story, and I don’t want to talk about it yet,” Mercury growls. Gently, Starshield gets back to brushing. Mercury closes his eyes, feeling every movement the brush is making. The pain and discomfort slowly goes away. The minutes pass by without a single thought in Mercury’s head. He doesn’t know where he is, or how he got here. He expects that the conversation with the elder would clear the murkiness in his head. Deep down, he didn’t know why he was so dirty. He didn’t know why his mane was so messy. He could feel that knowledge just beyond his reach, and that no amount of reaching would get him closer. The outsider would just have to be patient.

Thirty minutes of brushing and gentle mental probing pass by swiftly for the outsider. He snaps out of his mental daze when Starshield steps back and announces that he is done. Mercury slowly sides off of the chair and onto his hooves. “I need that mare’s house. Take me there,” Mercury says gruffly. Starshield hesitates, prompting Mercury to stare at him. “Now.”

“R-Right away,” Starshield trots out of the hut and heads to the centermost hut. Along the way, Mercury takes a deep breath and shuts down the anger that bubbled up inside him. Starshield knocks on the door and steps aside. The village elder opens the door and peers at Starshield. Her gaze flicks to Mercury and she nods at him. Mercury trots into the hut before the elder closes the door. Mercury takes a seat by a nearby table, watching as the elder sits across from him.

“So nice of you to join me,” The mare smiles. “Especially as early as this. I half expected you to draft up answers.”

Mercury rolls his eyes. “Yeah, there’s no way I can predict what you are going to ask me.”

“We’re going to jump right in, okay?” Seeing an affirming nod, the elder frowns. “Now, what was all that portalling about?”

“I have no idea.”

“You’re clearly a foreigner. You have that look in your eye and the scent of many different worlds. Surely, there is a way you navigate to them?”

“Ah yes, the interdimensional rifts? Yes, that is how I navigate to the other worlds you speak of.”

The mare tilts her head. “Explain.”

“Certainly. They are… were usually random occurrences in the worlds I went to. I won’t bore you with the details. Let’s just say that they appear and lead to other places, mmkay?” He winces, his heart fluttering a beat, followed by a wave of sadness.

The mare rubs her chin in thought. “How long does it take for them to show up?”

“Average time is three weeks. Why are you so interested in this?”

The mare looks out a window and sighs. “I guarantee you that your arrival was felt. By whom? Their intentions? I do not know. You do not simply rip a hole in space and step through it and not attract attention.”

“It was not me that opened the rift. Normally, the world around me-”

“Normally. What makes this time different?”

“I do not know, elder. I...” The formality makes the elder smile a bit despite how serious she is taking this. “I just… remembered… kinda. I was walking through a field, my head felt as if it was being crushed, and I felt… compelled to go somewhere. I don’t know where. My… my mind blanked out and I snapped back to consciousness sweating with a crowd of ponies surrounding me. P-Ponies with marks on their ass. Is this a dream?” He takes a deep breath, shaking away the pangs of uncertainty. He knows he needs to have confidence here.

“No, this is real,” The elder says. “You really aren’t from around here, are you? Do you have proof of citizenship in this empire?”

“Nope. I have nothing of that sort.”

“Then you’ll fit right in,” The mare perks up, losing her serious tone slightly. “Are there any valuable services you can provide?”

Mercury looks thoughtful for a moment, then nods. “Let me check first, okay?” He closes his eyes and starts to focus on the room around him. He extends his mind to the shadow that the table casts on the ground and probes it. He draws it to him, but growls when he hits a mental barrier. The elder watches as the table shadow moves toward him and wraps around him. The shadow moves back under the table a split second later. Mercury opens his eyes and stares at the ground. His shoulders slump in defeat.

“N-No… no… no no no,” He mutters. He takes off the bag and shakily goes through it. His movements become more desperate over time, his breathing quickening in panic. “Nono fuck. Fuck fuck. S-she’s gone. She’s gone. Why is she-” Mercury falls silent and his eyes widen. “W-what the… f-fuck.” Mercury lays down and curls up tightly.

The elder looks at him in concern and steps toward him. She really isn’t sure what to do here, so she only watches as Mercury slowly breaks down. First, he starts to shake. Words that she does not understand come out of his mouth. He buries his face in his forelegs and shakes harder. The elder trots over to him and sits down. Mercury breaks out of his position and hugs the elder very tightly. He nestles his head into her neck and bursts into tears.

“T-this is all my fault! I-I failed to p-protect her. I… I a-always fail.” He opens his mouth to say something else, but only a whimper manages to escape before devolving back into sobbing.

The elder rubs at Mercury’s mane gently. The comforting words she whispers reach deaf years. The sorrow and shock is just too much for Mercury. “I know it hurts,” She says, not caring if he hears or not now. “I know. I lose others, and every time it happens, I blame myself. Every… time.” Her ears flatten. She nuzzles at his mane and tightens the hug.

Slowly, the initial shock and horror of suddenly losing his lifelong partner fades away. The claws of emotion slowly lets his consciousness and senses go, and he finally becomes aware of his surroundings. He feels his face being smothered by something soft. He feels forelegs wrapping around his side. He hears a voice whisper words that he can barely parse. Mercury sniffs and looks up at the earth pony’s chin.

“T-thank you,” He says softly. He takes a deep breath and rests his head against her chest. “J-just… thank you.” He sniffs. “I-I’m sorry for all this.”

“It’s fine,” The elder says with a sigh. “Do you want to vent about it at all?”

“N-not particularly. It… it just hurts,” Mercury says with an audible quiver in his voice.

“Hurts to lose the ones you love,” The elder says. “Even from old age. It’s something you can’t prevent.” Surprisingly, this elicits a chuckle from Mercury.

“You would be surprised at the things you discover,” Mercury says, turning to look back out the window. “You… would.”




Gently, even through the mindscape Mercury is experiencing, he can feel a small dragon body being placed on his back, and a small pair of arms softly wrapping around his neck in an embrace. It slowly lulls him into the peaceful sleep that he has desired for many, many years.
> Chapter 3: The Key and the Jungle Realm
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun’s morning rays gently fall upon the mountains of the Crystal Empire, causing Kazara to stir and opens his eyes. He yawns softly, blinking a few times to focus on his uncle’s cloak. He lays a claw on the tattered fabric, then slowly slides off his uncle’s back. His gaze sweeps around the cave, then over to the cave entrance. He notices the light and takes a step back when he feels slightly overwhelmed by how bright it is. Instinctively, he starts to run over to his dad, only making it around halfway before a paw strikes a rock. The hatchling hits the ground, starting to cry when he realizes that he can’t get to safety.

Slowly, the sounds of a hatchling in distress lifts Frostwing from his slumber. He lifts his head with an unhappy purr to look at Kazara. Frostwing shifts closer to Kazara and scoots the hatchling closer to him using his tail. Kazara latches onto his dad’s side, immediately burying his face into it and calming down. Kaz sniffles and looks up at his father, all his worries melting away. His watery gaze fades into a happier one when he breaks free from his dad. Knowing that he is being watched, Kaz carefully makes his way deeper into the cave.

The air around Kaz chills the further he goes down into the cave. His slowly adjusting vision picks out flecks of ice embedded on the smoothed out cave wall. He slowly walks over to the wall and places a claw on it. He yanks his claw away from the wall and stumbles back when a sharp feeling of coldness runs through his paw. He tears up when the shock turns to fear, so he immediately runs for the safest place he knows. Finding his way back was easy, yet getting there was rough. He stumbles multiple times on things that would not faze his family, even falling if it caught him off guard, which it often did. Seeing the light at the entrance of the cave only spurred him to get to safety harder.

Kazara hugs at one of Frostwing’s forepaws and buries his face in it. Frostwing gently wraps his second forepaw around Kaz and brings him close to his snout. The quivering hatchling latches onto the snout and nuzzles it softly. Frostwing snorts, giving Kaz’s chin a lick. He speaks with the rumble of an aged male dragon.

“There there. What happened, my child? Did the cave hurt you? Did the monsters get you?” He clears his throat, turns his head slightly, then coughs. Kazara blinks, his father’s words completely going over his head. Frostwing merely chuckles after giving Kazara’s forehead a lick. “Don’t worry, you’ll grow up fast.” He sets the hatchling down and looks back towards Gladys. He lances back towards Kaz when he notices that the feeling of a hatchling hugging him doesn’t go away. The dragon has his face buried in his paw. Frostwing’s gaze softens, scooping the dragon back up and holding him close. He closes his eyes and nuzzles at Kazara’s cheek.

Frostwing’s gentle purring elicits a soft groan from Mercury. He shifts onto his side and opens his eyes. “I hear a happy male,” He says groggily. “That’s good, I guess.” Mercury sighs softly and rolls to a stand. He stretches his legs out, groaning when the bones crack. HIs mind turns to his mental todo list, and he sighs at the first item or so on it. He wasn’t planning to go anywhere until his god came and ruined it for him.

Perhaps I’ll see the princess again, He thinks. Provided she isn’t away from her throne. His tail flicks in amusement. Mercury puts on his bag, nodding at Frostwing. “Keep him safe for me, okay?” He asks. The stallion turns around, and just before he can take a step, he hears the light sound of footsteps. Kaz gently hugs his foreleg and leans into it. Mercury lifts the leg the dragon is holding, only to see that he is still holding onto it.

“Uh,” Mercury says. He levitates Kaz off of his leg and sets him next to his father, only to see the hatchling come right back. Mercury moves to take a step, then shakes his head. Okay fuck… now what? He sits on the ground, his mind mulling over a number of possibilities. He opens his bag and digs through it, soon dragging out a piece of parchment, a sealed ink bottle, and a black feathered quill. With a sigh, he dips the quill into the ink and starts to write.

Dear Princess Melody,

Wherever you may be, I hope this message gets to you. I am merely inquiring about my status of citizenship in the empire. If I am to stay for any long length of time, I need to be guaranteed protection from anypony that would hurt Kazara. Write your response on the back, please.

Mercury.

With a whisper, the parchment disappears, it’s destination the Crystal Empire castle. The princess is pacing by her bed when the letter pops into existence. She stops, her gaze falling on it. The hoofwriting is neat and she recognizes it almost instantly from yesterday. Seeing the directive, she turns over the parchment and writes a message confirming his citizenship. The message Mercury sent her quickly fades away. Melody skims her message for accuracy, takes a step back, and watches it disappear. Half expecting company, she trots out of the room and takes a left. As it often does, her gaze falls on paintings hanging on the walls as she passes by them. She has the images of her extended family, the kingdom both new and old, and the snow covered mountains in her head, but she still finds herself eyeing the paintings.

I like this place, she thinks. That thought was not uncommon for her either. It’s… nice. Her tail flicks as she passes by a number of empty side rooms. The silence was occasionally haunting to her. She didn’t want to speak and hear her voice echoing off the walls as it did in the throne room. Melody wanted to hear lively discussion in the halls. It’s nice except for the silence, her mind continues. I need to fix that. Melody sighs softly as she trots through the doorway to the throne room, then sits on the throne. Her gaze falls on the large set of double doors at the end of the hallway as she settles back to wait on visitors.

Back at the cave, Mercury skims over Melody’s response. He looks at Kaz and levitates him onto his back. “Now hold on, dear Lightfoot,” He says. “Hold onto your dear life… dearest ka.” He trots into the cold wind and blowing snow, gritting his teeth as sharp dragon claws dig into his back.

Good… good, my little light. You listen, The thought warms him up a bit inside, and a small feeling of pride seeps into the warmth. “I love you, you know?” The hatchling does not respond. Kazara emits a soft growl when snow blows into his face. Mercury halts and glances back. Will… will he be okay? He closes his eyes and sighs shakily. A shadowed rope materializes around his body and ties Kazara down onto his back. The dragon squirms and cries out in protest as he feels pressure between his back spikes. Mercury sighs gently, the rope fading away.

“Bad idea. I apologize,” Mercury says. “I have to… believe. It will get better.” He continues trotting down the mountain, all while keeping aware of the weight on his back. Kaz buries his face in Mercury’s cloak, the rhythmic movements quieting him down and relaxing him. Soon, the wind does not bother him.

Mercury emerges from the storm after what feels like an eternity. He shakes the snow off of his head, then glances back to check on Kazara. To his surprise, the hatchling is sitting down. He’s looking straight at the kingdom, his mouth slightly agape. Kaz scampers onto Mercury’s head, laying down on it and looking ahead. To him, the city looks massive, and there’s an air of mysteriousness to it..

“This is the Crystal Empire, dear Lightfoot,” He says. “Our home empire.” Kaz’s gaze follows his hoof when he points it to the castle. Kaz’s eyes widen as he takes in the grand structure. His gaze falls on the light reflecting from the purple crystal that is embedded in the two main towers. Desire wells up within him, so he can’t help but hop off of Mercury. Shadows pool around the space below Kaz as he falls, shooting up to intercept him. When Kaz gently touches the ground, he starts to walk toward the city. Mercury scoops him up before he could get too far, then levitates him back onto Merc’s back. “Stay,” He says. Kaz stays. Mercury then resumes trotting.

The dragon stays surprisingly still when he nears the city. Upon entering it, ponies take notice of the dragon on his back. Mercury ignores the stares. He knows that some gazes are frightful, some gazes are in awe, and still some are in anger. He hears the whispers as clear as day, and his mind whirls with them. A dragon here? A baby dragon? Who are they? Is that the father? Will he kill this empire? Mercury shuts off his mind when the more hateful whispers come to him. Death threats usually did not bother him, but all of this is different. He has a dragon that filled the hole in his heart. Any hate towards Kazara will be hate towards him. He glares at the ponies who whispered hateful things.

Figures… they’re all from Celestia’s kingdom, He thinks bitterly. The ponies meet his gaze and step toward him. Mercury stops in his tracks. “Oh I’m sorry, I thought dragons were free in the Crystal Empire. You want all of his kind to die? Well guess what? What if I want the same for your kind?” He narrows his eyes, stepping towards the largest of his detractors. “You kill this child and you won’t just incur my wrath… now fuck off.” Mercury hisses, telepathically drawing a knife from a scabbard on his hind leg. He moves to brandish it, but the stallion steps back. He turns and gallops away. The other detractors fall into silence. Part of Mercury’s words instilled a sense of fear into them. Mercury whirls to face them, venom in his gaze. The ponies flinch, galloping away.

“Does anyone else have issues with this child?” He calls out. “Anyone at all? Huh?” He slowly looks around at the crowd that has slowly gathered. “No? None?” He puts away the hidden dagger. “Thank god.” Mercury shakes his head softly, then resumes trotting.

When they neared the main commercial district, the smell of food made Kaz perk up  He gently scratches at Mercury’s cloak, tearing through the fabric and indicating a food shop. Mercury grimaces, then sniffs the air. Something sweet permeates the air, coming from a local bakery. It appears quite busy with ponies frequently coming in and out carrying a variety of baked goods. Mercury eyes one crystal pony that emerges with a loaf of fresh bread. He licks his lips, then enters the shop.

A green coated shopkeep stands behind a counter with a number of breads, rolls, bagels, pastries, and cupcakes behind him and to either side. Mercury stands away from the doorway, browsing the selection. He then heads to the back of the line. As before, the crystal ponies were more impressed with the dragon on his back than the normal ponies were. The excitement was more subdued but still sensed in the shop. The crystal pony Mercury stops behind glances back at him.

“Is that a dragon?” She asks.

“Yes, yes he is,” Mercury sighs. “Shouldn’t that be obvious?” His abrasive tone causes her to frown a bit.

“Apologies,” The mare says. “How’d you come across it… him?”

“I’m his uncle.”

The mare’s eyes widen. “O-oh wow! How is being an uncle to a baby dragon?”

Mercury chuckles. “Oh it’s… nice. He’s a cutie, and I won’t let anyone harm him. He’s a day old.”

The mare nods, turning her gaze back to the line. She closes the gap in the line that was made from concentrating on their discussions. Kaz sniffs the air, staring at the treats. His interest and need for them spikes when Mercury approaches the counter.

“What would you have?” The baker asks with a smile.

“I would like a loaf of your bread, and I think this little guy wants a…” Kazara points at a pastry. “A pastry, please? Just one.” He places twelve bits on the counter. The baker grabs the loaf and the pastry, places it on the counter, then nods and takes the bits.

“Thank you, and have a wonderful day,” The shopkeep says. Mercury takes everything and trots out, taking a right and heading for the castle. He levitates the pastry to Kaz. The hatchling sniffs it, gives it a gentle lick, then eats it all in one bite. The hatchling then lays down and curls up. He bites at the tip of his tail gently. Shadows coat the bread, then start to break it down. Slowly, the energies that make up the bread sink into the stallion. A warmth fills his body, and he feels some lost energy come back to him.

No time to eat. Not here, not now, He thinks. Like before, the stallion stops at the gates and he is let in without much fuss. The guards eye the hatchling warily. Mercury nods in thanks and heads right for the throne room. Upon opening the set of double doors, Melody snaps out of her thoughts and trots down to greet him.

“Mercury,” She nods.

“Princess,” Mercury gently bows, only for her to sigh, then gasp and take a step back.

“A d-dr-” She stammers. “H-here? Mercury, what are you doing?”

“He wasn’t going to let me go without him,” Mercury shrugs. “Plus, I just assumed that you wanted to see the hatchling.”

“B-but the crystal-”

“They’re fine with him. They really are cool with him being here. Celestia’s Empire, however…” He shakes his head. “Not good.” Melody visibly relaxes. “If they would have attacked, I would have shown no mercy, Princess.”

“I get it,” Melody says. “You’re protective of him. May I get close to him?”

Mercury nods and lays down, fully bringing Kazara into her sights. She trots to his back and sits down. Her gaze softens at the sight of the sleepy lizard. She extends a hoof out and gently touches his side. He shifts to hug at her forehoof.

“A-aw,” She says. She pulls her hoof away.

Mercury nods, chuckling softly. Yeah, he is a good one, He thinks.

“So, what are you here for?” Melody looks at him and smiles. Mercury fishes out the key he was given and shows Melody.

“I was given this by my god. Long story. Anyway, he said that I should give it to you and you’ll know what to do with it.”

Melody tilts her head, tilting the key to either side and inspecting it closely. The gems embedded within the silver metal, and the teeth of the key itself, remind her of the stash of keys she already has. She rubs her chin and nods. The key certainly belonged to the castle, that much she knew. The width of the key also tells her that it looks like it can fit in a door somewhere.

“What am I supposed to do with this besides wait?” She asks. Melody shuts her eyes, thinking harder. “Other than… wait a minute... what if this doesn’t go to a door?”

Mercury nods, chuckling. “Bingo. For more specifics, you should wait until Kaz grows older. A lot older. Save the key until then. When your successor comes to age and takes the throne, you should give the key to them, and they should do it to their successor, and so on.”

“What you’re asking me to do is odd,” Melody sighs. “What would I have expected though? A dragon family in my empire is already an oddity, and you seem like an oddity yourself. I already know you mean no harm, but that still leaves open all sorts of questions. Questions upon questions, even. Yet, I do not wish to… to ask them.” Her ears flatten. “I fear the answers.”

“Understandable,” Mercury says. “There are things that I do not wish to disclose, and I do admit that I tire of people questioning me. There wouldn’t be much that I will answer.”

“Pointless to try? Fair enough. The mysterious will remain mysterious,” She flashes Mercury a smile. “What I like. Anyway, I shall put away the key. Would you like anything to drink or eat?”

Mercury hesitates, tilting his head a bit. Will it be rude if I refused? I don’t want to lie either. He thinks. He sighs gently, shaking his head. “I had a little something on the way. Stopped by the baker’s place to get baked goods.”

“Fair enough!” Melody smiles. “I shall see you whenever?” She hugs Mercury gently, giving his cheek a nuzzle before leaving the room.

“H-heh,” Mercury’s tail flicks at the nuzzle. He expected the hug, but the nuzzle threw him for a loop. That form of affection was a rarity for him. He checks for Kaz on his back, then heads out of the castle.

Melody makes her way toward her room, levitating the key in front of her. She hums softly, her gaze passing over everything she looked at on the way to the throne room as usual. Upon entering her room, she stores the key in a safe and locks it with a magical seal. She feels a link being established between the seal, herself, and her filly in a nearby nursery room. After a moment, she heads down the hall a few doors and trots into the nursery.

Upon stepping in, the nursery’s painted walls impart a sense of calmness into Melody. She always liked the decision of painting the Equestrian sky on the walls. Throughout the room are a number of cribs, and the only occupied one has a pink coated filly, giggling and staring at the sky. Melody smiles softly and trots over to the crib. She scoops up the filly into her arms and nuzzles her.

“Oh Cadence,” She giggles, kissing her forehead. “You’re gonna grow up and make me proud.” She relaxes further, the presence of her kid putting her mind at ease. Somehow, she knew that everything was going to be alright.






The sound of gentle rain patters on the roof of a mansion bordering on an expansive forest and an equally expansive jungle, where the sounds of all sorts of creatures fill the air. Squirrels and other small critters are scampering around the moss-caked roof. Hanging off the roof are a number of thick vines that extend all the way down the side of the house to the ground. Some parts of the vine are unnaturally thick, being reinforced over the years from animals scampering up and down it. Peppered along the sides of the house are small holes with nests inside of them.

Looking outside an open window on the second floor is Golden, but with a horn perching neatly on his forehead. Surrounding him is a pile of books, scrolls, and quills. The desk in front of him has parchment strewn everywhere without any sense of order. A few larger stacks of parchment take up space at the back of the table. Scrawled on the parchment are a number of notes and lists, along with dates on the top of the parchment. A number of candles near the parchment stacks burn brightly, giving the room a flowery scent. A humid breeze gently blows through, disturbing the flames and the parchment a little.

Golden levitates a painted light blue rock over and places it onto the most disturbed stack. He pushes away from the table and stands. The stallion gently licks at one of his forehooves, using it to smooth down his mane. He levitates the largest stack toward him, then trots toward a table in an adjacent corner. Golden sets the stack down on the table, sitting down in a chair and taking out leather, strands of vine, and a needle. Slowly, Golden begins to work on binding the pieces of parchment together.

The sound of a creaking door nearby snaps him out of his trance. He doesn’t need to look back, as he recognizes the hoofsteps as Solacia’s. Her hoof gently pets at his mane and she smiles gently.

“Hey there, Sol,” Golden says softly. He turns and smiles at her. The god of space sits down next to Golden, looking at the progress he has made. He looks like he is around halfway done with sewing the pages together.

“Thank you for this,” Solacia says. “I know it isn’t… easy to figure out who is busy when, then asking them for information. Not to mention the… horn.”

Golden grimaces, reflecting on the emotions he felt as he was walking the Canterlot streets. He lasted around ten seconds before he had to head to a more private area before breaking down entirely. He was not expecting all the anger coming from the locals. The god didn’t even know what was causing it. Since then, he didn’t step foot in the city, electing for the smaller towns instead.

Normally, it wouldn’t have been this bad for him. Any other day, he wouldn’t have experienced the flood of emotions upon reaching the centers of cities. That day wasn’t normal, however. It was the day he finally got his horn. He figured the gods trusted him enough to give him the biological equivalent of an amplifier for magic. What he wasn’t prepared for was the onslaught of foreign memories.

Golden shivers, then shakes his head. He focuses back on threading the needle through the pieces of parchment. He’s silent throughout this process, causing Solacia to worry a bit.

“Hey, I’m sorry,” She says softly. “I didn’t mean to… bring it up.”

“It’s okay,” Golden says. “Don’t… worry about it.” He takes a deep breath, calming himself before he could mess up the stitching. He finishes up with the binding at a quicker than usual rate, then binds the leather to the front and back pages before sliding it over to Solacia. “Find a bookshelf to put this on. I’m going to go and at least try to relax.” He stands, hugs the goddess, then trots out of the room. Heading outside is a mere matter of heading down the adjacent staircase, then out the door on the ground floor.

The warm air hits him like a truck as soon as he steps out. He blinks, then shakes his head and trots out from under the overhang. The omnipresent drizzle takes the oppressive heat away a little bit. He trots down a well-maintained path, eyeing at the squirrels perching on nearby tree branches. Seeing them puts his mind at ease a little bit. The path soon gives way to a clearing with thick vegetation. He heads to the center and sits in some already flattened plants. There, he closes his eyes and hones in the sounds of the forest. The chittering and chirping of the realms smaller creatures give way to the rustling of bushes deeper in the forest, but not out of earshot. Guesses go through his mind, but he discards them as he feels they are encroaching on the sanctity of this area.

With deeper breaths, he focuses further into the forest. The growls and the purrs from the more exotic wildlife make him feel more at peace. I’m not alone here, He thinks. I have the tigers, the rabbits, and the manticores to keep me at peace. He thinks calmly. He opens his eyes, laying down and closing his eyes once more. Absent was the fear of being easy prey, the fear of being nipped by bugs, and the worry that he might not wake up in a few hours. He knew the predators here were kinder than Equestrian ones, and that thought filled his mind with peace. Clinging onto that thought, he drifts off to sleep, not even worrying about what the next day would bring.
> Chapter 4: Transmission #15
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sounds of gentle knocking stir Golden out of his long slumber. Why did I decide to sleep here again? He thinks, opening an eye. A picture of Solacia laying on a cliff edge looking out toward the sun fills his gaze. He groans, then gets out of bed. With a yawn, the stallion glances around. It's a guest bedroom of sorts. The bed itself is quite plain. The flooring is a deep blue carpet that looks as good as new. With a sigh, Golden slowly trots to the bedroom door and opens it.
"Yes?" He asks. Meeting his gaze is Riloxia, a blue coated and black-maned stallion with a neutral gaze. Riloxia's hooves brush against heated linoleum flooring and shifts on his hooves slightly.
"Solacia and I would like to have a talk with you," Riloxia says bluntly. "I need you to come with me. I'm afraid something has happened and you must be made aware of it." He turns and begins trotting down the hall followed by Golden. Golden glances back at the door, then ahead at the seemingly endless hallway. With every passing door, nervousness slowly creeps into Golden's heart. 
Something is up, right? Something must be up otherwise he wouldn't look for me. Is it Solacia? I-is something wrong with her?
"Solacia is fine, Golden. I am aware that you worry about her whenever anything goes wrong." Riloxia says dryly, looking back at Golden with a gaze the alicorn could not read. "It gets a tad irritating, but that mushy emotion... stuff is apparently what you are here for." Golden bites his lip and ignores Riloxia's words. He keeps his eyes locked to the path ahead. The hallway progresses onward for what feels like ages. Eventually, Riloxia stops by an elevator door and pushes the only button on the metal panel next to the door. The stallion steps to the side and waits.
"You really don't want to tell me what this is for?" Golden asks, looking at him. His tail and ears flick a bit and he paws at the floor.
"This is for stuff that just transpired." Rolixia says. "Big things I'm sure your mind would be able to handle," He rolls his eyes and steps into the elevator.
"The fuck does that mean?" Golden asks. "I'm more than capable of handling this."
"We'll see," He states while pressing a few buttons on the interior panel. An LED screen embedded in the top corner of the elevator lights up, displaying a string of coordinates and a timer. The timer starts counting down as the elevator begins to move.
Golden sits down and closes his eyes. He attempts to reach out to the emotional centers of Riloxia's mind but finds that there is nothing of value within it. He scowls a bit. I just want to know what you're feeling. Let me in. With a gentle sigh, he opens his eyes and looks up at the display. As the seconds drag by, he paws at the floor once more, anxiety creeping into his body as it does every so often.
"Things will be fine, Golden," Riloxia says. "Trust me."
"You clearly don't trust me enough though." Golden says.
"I am going to need to trust you if I am going to tell you these sorts of things despite your erm... instability." Riloxia replies, glancing at Golden.
"So, tell me why you brought me here." Golden pokes at the wall next to him and looks at it.
"The timeline has shifted." Riloxia states. "In a more... negative way that I am still trying to understand."
"This doesn't involve me though, does it?"
"I wouldn't tell you if it didn't involve you somehow." Riloxia sighs heavily. "One of the alternate Equuses that we watched over," His horn sparks. "Version A-184?"
Golden racks his brain for the specific name. He then shakes his head. "I don't... understand." He says. "As far as I know, I've never heard of it in my life. How does this involve me?"
"I am sure you will find out soon enough. As will we all." Rilxoia huffs a bit. "Tell me, what do you remember of last week?
"W-well," Golden sighs. "I met my dear friend Arcanus. We had tea together in Filly and I distinctly recall having a good time." He smiles a little. "He told me of version A-152 and how some group known to bring harmony to the land defeated a king of shadows. It was a fun little story. Why do you ask?" Golden tilts his head.
"Oh, I just... wanted to know," Riloxia says, voice softening a bit. He sighs a little when a gentle ding is heard. The elevator doors open and brighter light floods the area from the rooms beyond the elevator doors. He leads Golden through a smaller hallway. Golden peeks into every room he passes by, lit or unlit. Every lit one is empty. As they near a door at the end of the hall, Golden fidgets a bit. Riloxia opens it and steps through.
Beyond the door is a large circular room. LED screens span across the entirety of the room's walls, each displaying a different civilized part of Equestria. Solacia breaks her gaze from a screen and looks over at Golden.
"Hi Goldie," She says softly and pats a cushion next to her. "Sit down with me."
Golden approaches and flies onto the couch, laying down and looking at her. "What do you want?" He asks softly. "Why did Riloxia bring me here to the observatory?"
Solacia's gaze softens and she sighs. Her horn sparks and a projector in the center of the room turns on. It projects a view of the planet after a moment. Golden looks at it. From what he could see, it's basically Equus in all its glory. Several landmasses dot the planet, the largest of which spans nearly from pole-to-pole. Even without a map of the world to guide him, Golden could spot out Griffonstone and a few cities along Equestria's western ocean.
Riloxia sits nearby. "Well, I can tell you that we didn't bring you here to talk about small stuff." His horn glows and the projection restarts, displaying the same planet. "Meet Equus number A-184. It is a much more militarized version of the happy little planet and kingdom we live on. To put things into perspective, you need to think of weapons that can kill from a distance and anypony can just... buy one and use it."
Golden shivers a bit and shakes his head. "That's... odd. Why are you telling me this?"
"To put it extremely lightly, the planet was erm... messed up. Messed up to the point where those higher up on the totem pole decided to fix it." Solacia says.
"Recall the little war Celestia had against the Twin Creators? Imagine that scale but much larger and spanning multiple kingdoms." Riloxia says. "Imagine bloodshed and death that never ends. The hate and suffering ponies feel both innocent and-" Solacia glares at Riloxia and he shuts up.
Golden starts to quiver. Solacia wraps her wings around him and holds him quite close. "Now now, Riloxia. Don't... scare the poor stallion." She says.
"What? He needs to learn that not everything is normal outside of the walls that surrounds this damned dimension." Solacia glares at Riloxia again but he doesn't seem to really care, continuing on much to Solacia's displeasure. 
"Imagine a conflict that makes those times look pacifistic. The two main factions never saw eye-to-eye on anything whether it was something major like who deserves to live and die or minor shit like the best place to get hay burgers from. This was clearly a mistake. This is what we in the business of unfucking intangible things call an uncorrectable error." He waves a hoof in the air and every screen in the room turns off along with the lights. After a moment, the lights turn on and the screens are nearly touching one another. On each, a single string of white text appears before it fades to black:
Transmission #15 from A-184 [7/5/2078]
With a gentle head tilt, Golden looks at the screens, unsure as to what's going to happen next.



"Solacia," An image of a white coated unicorn appears on multiple screens in the front of the room. He's looking slightly up and directly into the center of the room. His horn has a gentle blue glow. Every screen in the room is pointed at a different part of his body, and there is no overlap between the contents of each screen.
Golden's eyes widen a bit and he breaks the hug to shift forward. A-Arcanus? He thinks. W-when did you get there? W-why are you there?
Arcanus smiles a bit, but the gaze he gives one of the many cameras causes Golden to go cold inside. All at once, the cameras swing out and Golden gasps, shifting forward and going pale.
The plains all around him are in flames. Thick black smoke fills the air, casting the area in near darkness. A few bodies are strewn around him, impaled by spears. He starts advancing through the plains, the flames licking at the cameras. He sidesteps some of the bodies and sighs heavily. A few loud roaring noises pass by his head and multiple pops are heard in quick succession.
"Solacia it... didn't have to come to this. When you sent me on this mission, I thought it would be a routine one." Arcanus states with a soft voice. He gently brushes some grass aside, revealing a few dandelions. "I said it time and time again, but this shit isn't normal. Yeah, you know. I know you know. Look, I have some things to say and I hope you brought Golden with you because he's... gonna need to hear this too."
Golden looks at Solacia, the curiosity in his gaze overtaking some of the horror. Solacia keeps watching the screen, ears pinned back. He too can't seem to read her gaze. Something inside him tells him not to look back at the screens, but he does so anyway.
"You know, these ponies were my friends." He stops by one of the bodies further into the plains. The fire has long since stripped away any defining features, leaving a burnt husk of bone and underfur. Golden's gaze lingers on the body. When he tries to look away, but finds that he can't, so he begins to take deep breaths. At that moment, he wished he had the constitution his unicorn friend seems to have.
"I had friends on both major sides. Nopony ever talked about the third side that operated unseen for years, I assume. Look, I don't know. I just came here a few days ago. Regardless of the time span, I have friends there too. They just wanted everypony to get along. They wanted to... set things right. They wanted to do the same thing I wanted to do, so we became close since my last message a few days ago." His gaze and voice soften slightly. 
"It's just... it's a shame that our methods to achieve peace were so wildly different. I get it. I really do. When you've known nothing but bloodshed and war for years, you want a respite from it but you can't fucking leave. These folks do not have anyone to bring with them. They have nowhere to go. There's war to the north, what remains of the Crystal Empire isn't safe. Cities to the east and west have been turned into strongholds. The few pockets of civilization that remain are in remote areas where very few ponies dare to tread. Either you risk your flank making the trip to the deserts or the badlands, or you risk your flank just staying." He sighs and progresses further down the plains. Another pop is heard, and something ricochets off his shield.
"They call those implements of destruction 'guns'. They use it to kill each other from a distance sort of like what some of the unicorn royal guards are trained in. What's... different and much scarier is any pony can use them provided they have some way to trigger the mechanism that fires the... usually deadly bullet. I'm protected from it." A beam of blue magic rockets off from his horn in the direction of the shot. A scream is briefly heard and then there is silence. "I've been putting down as many of these suffering souls as I can, but all of this is... tangential to why I'm sending this message."
"But why-" Golden begins.
"Forces outside of my control have decided that this ends today." Arcanus says. "All of it." He stops moving and sits down, watching as the fires slowly chew through the grass. Yelling is heard in the distance, but Arcanus does not move. He also doesn't move when an explosion goes off nearby, throwing dirt and grass up into the air and rumbling the grounds. "Every soul in this kingdom will know peace."
The cameras swing back in to show Arcanus. His head is tilted up toward the sky with his eyes closed. "Solacia and Riloxia," He says. "I have rescued the wolf folk you requested me to rescue. The rescue was a bit rough because they initially didn't believe my stories but you both know that I pull through. That being said, I do hope you know what you're doing. The stories I heard of them spooked me. I do hope you both know that I trust you more than some random feral. Though, there is also a more pressing matter." He lets out a soft sigh, then looks right at a camera. "This is my final message. I appreciate what you three have done for me but I... I don't think I'm coming home from this one."
Golden's eyes widen a bit. "W-what?" He says quietly. "W-what Arcanus no, no you..." He shakes his head and shifts away.
"I know. Riloxia, you won't care." He smiles a bit. "Just another casualty, am I right? Solacia, I'm sure you'll be shocked to hear that I won't be able to escape this time. My teleporting has been disabled by things I do not understand. It's magic more powerful than my own. Hell, all of their magic is more powerful than my own so I'm surprised it took that faction this long to... find me." He fires another beam at somepony unseen in the smoke. Another scream is heard, causing Golden to wince.
I don't understand. Golden thinks. W-what's going on?What is he going on about? H-He has to be coming back.
The area around Arcanus' horn sparks a bit and he grunts and shakes his head. "Here comes the magical interference." He stands and resumes trotting, taking it slow this time and looking around.
"There isn't much left to see," He says. "There is only fire and death in these plains. I'm sure Celestia is holed up in her castle looking down at these fields. She isn't turning her gaze outwards to what remains of Ponyville and the Everfree. What remains is... well... something you all will shortly see. Legend has it that-" 
His ear flicks and the air around his horn sparks more. He winces again. After a moment, he shakes his head. A pulse of blue magic slips by him. The camera feeds cut out a bit but then flick back on. One of the southwest cameras swing out away from Arcanus and toward smoke choking the air. With a gentle whisper from the unicorn, a light breeze starts driving the smoke away. Burning plains stretch on for miles. Toward the horizon is a faint orange glow. Arcanus watches as well-armed pegasi patrolling the clearing stop what they're doing and scatter.
"Golden," He says softly. "I hope you're here. Nay I... I know you're here. I feel your presence. I just pray to Luna and Celestia that you're okay." He looks right at one of the cameras. His gaze sweeps around the room and he looks at the center of it. "I-if you're not, then I don't know what to say. Look I..." He glances back a bit, a hint of fear crossing his gaze. Shooting out over the horizon is a towering wall of flame crossing over the landscape. The camera zooms in, showing a few pegasi getting swallowed up by it. 
His voice gets a bit more panicked. He paws at the ground and looks back at the center of the room. Golden starts to shake as his gaze locks onto the flames swiftly cutting across the plains. W-what? He thinks. 
Arcanus chuckles a bit, then whimpers as his ears flatten. "I-I'm a fool. I should have told you this m-months ago b-before I really got into this position. H-hell, I was q-quite surprised you couldn't sense it but I... I like you. Nay, I c-considered you f-far more than a friend when I d-departed last week. There's just something about you that I j-just can't help but love. I just..." He tears up a bit. "I just wish I-I was there. I-I'm so s-sorry. I-I" In a flash, the fire slips through the shield and the cameras cut to black. 
Golden sits on the couch, staring at the screens in disbelief. He waits for the cameras to turn back on. He waits to see his friend's face pop up on the screen. As seconds turn into minutes, he starts to shake. "No." He says quietly. "No that can't be." He laughs lightly and shakes his head. "He has to be lying. He... he has to. He..." Golden hops off the couch and trots up to one of the screens. He sits down in front of it, staring closely at the screen. "It's gotta be fake. H-he can't be gone."
Solacia looks at Golden and shakes her head. She hops off the couch, trots to him, then sits down by his side. Solacia pulls him into a hug. Golden keeps staring at the screen, starting to shake a bit. He then starts to lean into the hug, biting his lip. "I'm so sorry Goldie. T-there was nothing I could have-"
Golden tenses up at her words, pulling his head away a bit and looking at her. "B-bullshit. I-I don't believe you. M-my friend is still out there. A-Arcanus is still alive."
"G-Golden please," Her voice breaks a bit and she looks away. "T-this hurts me too." She holds Golden tighter. Golden tries to break from her embrace. Solacia sighs a bit and releases him.
"N-no he... h-he's a-alive and w-well... h-he," He sniffles. He starts quivering. When Solacia reaches over, he collapses into her and bursts into tears, burying his face in her neck. Solacia holds him close and rubs at his mane. When she looks back, she finds that Riloxia is gone. Her ears flatten slightly. She holds Golden closer, continuing to stroke his mane.
F-fuck, I-I should have done something. I-I shouldn't have listened to R-Riloxia, so t-this was my fault. Solacia closes her eyes and looks down.
Golden nuzzles heavily at Solacia's neck and tightens the hug. "W-why did he h-have to d-do this, Sol? W-why did he have to l-leave t-this planet o-only to d-die?" He buries his face harder into Sol's neck. "I-it's not f-fair!"
Solacia nods shakily, fighting back tears. Her wings tighten around him and she shakily strokes down his back and sides. Golden occasionally nuzzles at Solacia's tear-stained neck, trying to find comfort in the softness of it. Slowly, over what feels like hours, Golden's sobbing quiets down to a faint whimper. Sleep slowly overtakes him, and he goes limp though it takes a while for Solacia to notice.
Solacia keeps watch over the sleeping alicorn. She continues to gently stroke his neck. Only then, does she feel tears sting her eyes. F-fuck, she thinks. N-not... not now. She tries to blink them away, then rubs at her cheeks with a forehoof.
"F-fuck I... I-I gotta p-put him to bed," Solacia says shakily, sniffling. She teleports both herself and Golden into one of the many beds in the compound. She takes a quick look around and sighs shakily. 
N-no, h-he needs to be home. The space goddess whimpers softly, teleporting the both of them into Golden's realm.



In front of the two is a large lake. On one side, a squirrel perches on a tree branch overhanging the lake. On the other, a deer on the other side scatters into the thick brush. Solacia turns her head to the sound of rustling leaves and spots the deer tail disappearing into it. She glances toward the sky and gently places Golden down, cutting the flow of magic that has kept him held in the air for the past half hour as she was heading through the jungle.
Here will d-do. Endless blue sky, she thinks. I don't often see it anymore. She ruffles her wings and lays down. Sol drapes a wing over Golden. She looks down at him and sighs. She's calmer, but there's something in her gaze she gives Golden that betrays how she's really feeling.
"I'll always be here for you. I'm just... s-so so sorry for t-the shit you had to go through today." She says, regret slipping into her voice. "A-all of this was my f-fault and I p-pray that you'll... forgive me." Her horn sparks and she extends her mind out to one of her sisters.
H-hey Raikia, y-you awake? She asks, being careful to not display her sadness through her voice but letting her exhaustion slip through. I d-don't need you here, I just need you to... comfort Golden. Y-your touch is far kinder than mine.
From the connection, Solacia detects affirmation before she's forced to withdraw from her sister's mind. With a soft sigh, she stands and trots away, leaving Golden in the clearing to sleep. She heads into his mansion, progresses past the foyer, and hops up on his living room couch. She looks out the window and tries to relax.
I... promise that I will make up for this when you wake. She thinks. She rolls onto her back and stares at the ceiling, kicking the air with a hind leg. Just as she loses herself in thought, the voice of a mare pops into her head.
Hey Sol, I know you didn't want me here but I'm coming anyway. I want you to tell me what's going on with him and I'll see what I can do, the voice says. Solacia rolls onto her side and slides herself off the couch. She trots to the front door and steps back out, looking around. She rubs her eyes a bit.
"Nnf, fuck," She says softly.
Raikia appears next to the front door in a pink flash, causing Raikia to jump. The pink alicorn looks at Sol and giggles a little. "Hi there, sis," She hugs her and nuzzles at her cheek, then lets go.
"Hey, Rai," Solacia says. "Would you like to see him?"
"No, I already have my plans for the guy. What happened? Everything seemed fine earlier today and suddenly I felt as if something went wrong. Brushed it off because I'm somewhat used to it but what was it? Also, you look really worn out," She pokes at her chest. 
Solacia pulls her into an even tighter hug. "We lost someone," She says.
"We did?" Raikia's ears flatten slightly. "I didn't know."
"That's the point. Nopony but Rily and I w-were supposed to... s-see the transmissions. I guess he stepped over me and decided that Golden needed to know what was going on too. I don't get him sometimes." Solacia starts leading her into the mansion.
"You've lived with him for one and a half millennium, Solacia. I can guess that you can guess that you know why." She rubs Solacia's side once inside the mansion.
"I wish I could understand him. I can't see the most important bits of the timeline so any decision that he makes within that space," She pauses. "I guess is hidden from me."
"Well what if he didn't base his decision off of what he saw in the timeline?" Raikia asks. "I guess I'm getting ahead of myself. Who did we lose? I'd like to... inform their family." Her ears pin back a bit.
"We lost Arcanus." Solacia says somewhat shakily.
"Oh, he was close to you, wasn't he?" Raikia asks softly.
"Being directly involved with my line of work, yes. Willingly a puppet to the space and time gods. It's a story as old as Equestria itself, you know? The stories that never tell of what sorts of attachments those bring," She looks at the floor, then shakes her head.
"Why was it his time?"
Solacia shrugs and sits on the couch. "We have no god of death so that means I have no immediate way of knowing. All I know was that it happened in real time. It... it was a live feed."
"Did Riloxia know ahead of time?"
"As far as I know, no. Arcanus was set for extraction not long after he died. We might have been too late. It... hurts. Rily warned me it was going to be close and that interfering might move the timeline forward. Whether or not it would have been is another story. H-him bringing Golden along showed off more forethought than I would usually see from him which is... a-awfully strange."
Raikia hugs her gently. "Sis, you should not blame yourself."
"If Riloxia wasn't so... insistent on following his little rules, Arcanus would have been alive." Solacia shifts away and looks out the window. A hind leg twitches. Raikia looks at her with a softened gaze, then rests her head on Solacia's neck.
Solacia looks at the floor after a moment. "I am not in the best mood right now but thank you for coming either way. I might not want to blame him, but it's his job to make sound decisions. I don't think that willingly risking and discarding the life of my close partner and destabilizing my brother some more was a smart decision in the long term." Solacia relaxes a bit when Raikia gives her neck a rub.
"He might have fucked up, yes," Raikia says. "But even the best fuck up."
"Perfection isn't relevant, sis. It never was. Some mistakes carry more weight than others. You know this better than almost everyone else on this team."
Raikia winces. "Not this again, Sol."
"I'm sorry," She looks over at her. "I didn't mean to bring that sore spot up."
"You're frustrated. I don't need our little emotion sensing stallion to see it in your eyes," She nuzzles her neck. "I'd like you to take a break."
A b-break? Solacia thinks. She perks up a bit, then deflates and paws at the couch. "Rily won't-"
"Who cares what he thinks? You need it for your health right now. Golden does too. I'll make sure he gets the break he desperately needs and I want you to take one as well, okay?" She kisses her cheek.
Solacia sighs shakily. "B-but what would I do?"
"I hear that the Crystal Empire is a good place to visit if you're getting tired of the summer heat," Raikia smiles. "Besides you don't need to take a boat or spend precious energy teleporting across the ocean. Nothing is more relaxing than a train trip to a place outside your jurisdiction."
Solacia tilts her head slightly, giving her words some thought. "M-maybe I'll do that. Might take my mind off... G-Golden."
"I'll buy a train ticket for you. Would a few days work?"
"I don't know."
"Then a few days." She pats Solacia's head. "Worrying about those close to you will be my job, okay?"
"I don't want anypony else to take the role, so you'll have to do it. Are you okay with it?"
"I'm okay with it, silly. Gods help each other out." Raikia giggles and pokes her.
"W-when should I go?"
"Any time. Again, I'll handle stuff on my end." Raikia tilts her head as Sol shifts back. "Am I being too forceful? Just... take time to decide, okay?"
Solacia sighs shakily and nods. "I-it is feeling a little forced, but I can h-handle it."
"Good," She smiles. "I'm off to check on Goldie." She teleports away, leaving Sol alone to watch over the mansion once more. After a while, she too teleports away.
> Chapter 5: The Spring
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The din of the capital city fills the air and one part of Golden wants nothing to do with it. The alicorn maneuvers carefully through one of the many crowds streaming to and from the central shops, keeping his gaze ahead. Even through his slight scowl and gently flattened ears, he admired the fortitude of the ponies he passed by. They certainly didn't have to take time out of their day to brave the streets, especially in the middle of the week, and during the middle of a planned snow event. He ruminates that perhaps things would be different if it were not for the street lamps lighting the streets. However, he knew deep within him that a city full of unicorns would solve that little light issue.

Golden passes by a map of the city illuminated by one of the street lamps and gets out of the way of the crowd. He stops and gazes at the title, then checks the arrow pointing to the map's current location. He flicks his eyes over to the street corner ahead of him, then smiles softly and makes his way across the street, bucking a snowbank with a light giggle. 

On the street corner sits a quaint wooden building. The off-yellow glow from the lights inside gnaws away at the anxiety bubbling up within him as he nears the front step. A deep breath dispels the rest. In one swift motion, the alicorn opens the door and prances in. Immediately, a warm blast of air rushes down his body, eliciting a gentle shiver. Golden shakes snow and ice crystals from his mane and taps all four hooves on the floor in a rhythmic matter just as he's used to, scattering snow which doesn't last for long. Dimly he senses a bemused presence watching him. He looks up and spots out a larger unicorn stallion decked out in only a bow tie. Golden smiles warmly.

The stallion meets his smile with a well-rehearsed one and speaks with a similar cadence. "Table for one?"

Golden shakes his head. "No, I've actually got a reservation for two. The name on it is Golden Shine." A flicker of realization comes across the greeter's face and he dips his head for a second. He gathers two menus from a table next to him and starts to trot through the building.

Golden snorts softly, noting the gesture. Took somepony long enough. He follows behind them, glancing at other patrons as he passes by. Most don't meet his gaze and instead focus on their food or each other. Golden didn't expect anything differently. He smiles warmly, taking the content vibes of the room in. These ponies here were happy even if they chose to cloak it in soft smiles and pleasantries. Here, there was no pangs of awe or reverence, no sorrow or pain. There was only peace. Instinctively, his body relaxes.

When he snaps back to reality, he's sat down with his left wing brushing gently against the window. The host slides a menu to him and he taps the topside of it, peering at all the options on it. His gaze then falls on the window and he watches the world go by, at least for a little while. He fixates on the faces of those that pass by. A smile here, a frown there, a giggle followed by concern when the pony's partner slips and falls on their flank. Golden tilts their head, sensing a hint of anger from the pony. Anger? Nah. Golden shakes their head quickly. It didn't make sense to him, so he didn't dwell on it. Today wasn't the day for that.

A warm presence fills his heart, jostling him from his internal dwellings. He looks to his right and pats the seat next to him, then spreads a wing out. "Arcanus!" Golden grins. "I was wondering when you'd show up." The unicorn meets his grin with his own, then sits down, minding the hoof. Golden closes the wing around him and pulls him close.

"I was wondering when you'd snap out of your little funk," Tension in Arcanus' body melts away. He leans in and nuzzles into his neck, then gives a clump of fur a gentle nibble. "You okay?"

"Yeah?" Golden tilts his head. They shudder and lean a little into him. "I hope so. How long were you--"

"A moment," Arcanus chuckles, giving the contours of Golden's cheek a gentle brush with a hoof tip. "Not long enough for things to get awkward, but long enough to think that something was up."

Golden giggles a bit. He couldn't argue with that. He tightens his wing around the smaller unicorn and looks into his icy blue eyes. They are as warm and full of life as he remembered. He buries his snout in Arcanus' neck and relaxes further, catching a scent of mint and lavender. At that moment, everything about him seemed to be perfect. He lets the warmth of his presence wash over him and relax him further. The emotions of others in the room melt away, leaving only Arcanus and himself. All his anxieties wither and fade when the unicorn gently presses against him, trailing a hoof up his side and to his neck. Golden closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, taking the moment in. When he opens them, he finds that Arcanus has nuzzled into the nook of his wing. Golden runs a hoof through his mane.

"Happy birthday, dear friend," Golden smiles. "My dear... and might I say affectionate friend."

Arcanus' cheeks flush and he pulls his snout out from under his wing. "Ah uh... fuck," He chuckles. "Geez. I don't know what got into me," Arcanus shakes his head and looks away, smiling sheepishly. "It's your fault."

"Me?" Golden giggles and pokes his side.

"Yeah you. You're the only one this close to me," They smirk and look at the menu for a moment. It fades away as quickly as it came. "Or is it the other way around?"

Golden looks over at the menu. "Hey, you were the one that was brimming with excitement when you saw the horn perched on my head. Must've thought I was a god or something. Funny how that is."

"But you are!" He nuzzles Golden's cheek. "That's not why I stuck with you though."

Golden smiles and points to one of the many salads on the menu. At twenty bits it wasn't the cheapest, nor was it the most expensive option in that section of the menu. "Carrots, sweet onion, lettuce, and celery with a garnish of... brambleberries? Oh it comes with a soup from the polar territories?" Golden looks at Arcanus, "I'll have that." Arcanus looks back at him and nods.

"Just for fun, I'll have the item right next to yours," Arcanus pulls Golden's hoof over to what he chose. It was simpler fare, something that anypony could whip up provided they could find lunar orchids nestled in the valleys of the northern mountains. It too comes with the same nondescript soup. Golden couldn't tell if Arcanus was toying around with his selection, or if he genuinely wanted to try it out. Regardless, Golden's stall tactic seemed to have worked at least for now.

Golden leans back slightly into their seat, tapping the table lightly. "You stuck with me because I'm one of the few who take interest in you. Going around as a sort of a contractor and fixing whatever needs to be fixed with the magic you have, all while furthering the study of magic in the kingdom."

"Equus."

"Sorry, Equus. You're global?"

Arcanus nips at his ear with a gentle smile. "If you could say that. I had a single job in Griffonstone to patch up King Gya's protective wards. He was very insistent that I was the one to do it. Something about it being a learning experience other unicorns don't give a shit about? I asked him who he heard my name from and his kid goes to a school in Canterlot. Weird fucking coincidence that is. Anyway, the spell that kept the lights on failed because the head sorceress was indisposed because of course she was. I was in town so of course one of the school staff members said that they had a problem," Arcanus giggles. He casts his gaze over at the approaching waiter and relays the pair's order. The waiter gathers up the menus and departs.

"So of course I asked what the issue was and she said it was really dumb and that she was terribly sorry, but the pony that keeps the lights on is out today. Had to fight off a Celestia-dammed bugbear. The spell was only known by that pony so of course I had to go," He giggles and rubs Golden's wing, eliciting a heavy shudder from the alicorn.

"C-careful," Golden says.

"No." Arcanus rubs the wing again, causing another shiver. "Magic replication is always a fun problem to solve. You gotta get in their mind if you want to do it right, you know?" Arcanus casts his gaze on Golden, slugging his chest when he shakes his head. "Silly. I was in and out in twenty minutes. Just a quick cast-n-go. No mess, no angry kids, no angry parents. Some form of monetary compensation. The kids get their magical light that only one pony knows how to light back, the staff gets a spell scroll I created, and I get paid and the king of the fucking lionbirds sends me a scroll two months later. What's not to like?"

Golden giggles softly. "So, was patching up the wards a learning experience?"

"It..." Arcanus pauses and looks out the window, but only for a moment. "It was, but not in the way I expected coming into the job. According to what Gya told me and from my own research, the wards were created by an old griffon clan. Their name was loosely translated to the... guild of stormfeathers? Like I said, loose translation. Old Gryffish is a real bitch," He sighs. "Either way, they were adept in their own form of magic and claimed it was divinely inspired. I'd call it horsefeathers but... woof." Arcanus shivers. "Who knew a long-dead ragtag group of griffons could create something so efficient and complex. It rivaled the unicorn clans in the Everfree, and there were far more of those unicorn fuckers running around. Just thinking about what the guild could have done if there were... more of them, you know?"

"We could only guess," Golden says.

"Magic like that could buy you a ticket for a seat on the world stage," Arcanus says. "Playing with the big stallions like Equestria and the Dragonlands and... and..." Arcanus frowns. "Erm... fuck." He sighs and looks over at Golden expectantly. "Who's a world superpower other than us and the dragons?"

"Fuck if I know. There's the federation of wildlands out to the east, but that term is--"

"Shit and overly broad?"

"Overly broad, but I... don't think that means it's bad," Golden sighs, looking out the window. He noted a bit of unease in the air. Guilt came soon thereafter, but he sequesters it. "Sorry."

Arcanus wraps his hooves around Golden and yanks him close. "You aren't going to fuck things up by disagreeing with me, you know?" He chuckles and tightens his embrace. Golden relaxes and nuzzles under his chin.

"You? No. With others?" Golden nibbles some chin fur, then smooths it down. "Hell if I know." 

"So... try not to feel as bad about it next time," Arcanus smiles and pokes him on the snout.

Golden catches the waiter out of the corner of their eye, then shifts away from Arcanus, clearing their throat and folding their wings. The waiter levitates down a bowl of soup and a bowl of salad in front of each pony in the pair, along with two spoons a few napkins and a strip of parchment. "Shall I get water for the both of you?" He asks.

"No need," Arcanus says.

"I'll have one, y-yeah," Golden replies. "I should have... said something earlier."

"I shall return." The waiter bows their head and trots away.

Golden levitates a lettuce leaf up and nips at it. "Yep, that's lettuce." He eats the rest of the leaf while levitating the bowl over. They start eating from the bowl.

Arcanus gazes at him, chortling. "You know, if I went to a restaurant in Canterlot, I wouldn't eat out of the bowl." They levitate over the utensil and the parchment, then skim the text on the parchment. "But, do whatever you're comfortable with." The utensil shifts into a fork and they stab into a chunk of the salad, starting to eat.

Golden hesitates mid-bite, then scans the room. They shrug and continue eating, tapping into their telepathic connection with Arcanus. Nopony gives a shit. Besides, there were at least two ponies here that had some frustration with the utensils. Not that I blame them. It's easier this way.

"Whatever works for them." Arcanus' fork shifts back into a spoon and they spoon up some soup, sipping it shortly thereafter. They shudder softly. "Huh. Interesting."

Golden levitates his spoon into his own soup, then sips a spoonful. The taste of cabbage and dirt fills his maw, with a hint of sweetness as a chaser. Golden shivers heavily and puts the spoon down, then relaxes. "Well that... hm."

"Have you been up there past the Crystal Empire? Maybe that would help you sort out the component parts here." Arcanus queries.

"I haven't. Can't tell you what's in this other than cabbage. I... guess I like it?" Golden sips again and relaxes further. 

"Good." Arcanus smiles and brushes at his cheek. He then pulls away and focuses on his own food, choosing to eat the rest in silence. Golden too, doesn't seem to have much else to say. The food was food and it was priced accordingly. A part of him did wonder what else was in the soup, but he wasn't any closer to figuring it out by the time he finished it. The alicorn pushes back his two empty bowls, then sets down a small pile of bits.

"This will cover us," Golden smiles.

Arcanus counts through the bits. "You're on top of things, aren't you?" He gets up, then starts to head out of the building. He trots past tables that were once occupied. The pony's plates are still on the table and some haven't even finished their meals. Golden follows Arcanus, expectantly looking toward the area the host resides, but finds that it too is empty.

"We've stayed that long?" Golden asks, stepping out into the cold winter air. With it comes the sound of conversation and the unique blend of stress, high-mindedness, and aloofness that only Canterlot can provide. Golden glances back at the exterior of the building. A warmth creeps into him even as the lights are extinguished one by one.

"Seems so." Arcanus chuckles, turning to face Golden. "Didn't feel like it, but time flies when you're in the presence of good company. Speaking of, the last time we got together, you went to my place. I've not seen yours and have been curious about it."

"It's n-nothing special," Golden paws at the snow gently, gazing at the trail left by his hoof. "But we can--" Suddenly, the whole world feels hot. Golden tenses up heavily and his breathing suddenly quickens in alarm. The fur on his back raises. Then the pain came, starting on their back legs and radiating out almost immediately from there.  Golden yells out and stumbles back, his hind legs twitching. Frantically, the quickly receding rational part of their mind attempts to shut out the part of them they despise and manages to. Only barely catching their breath, Golden snaps their gaze instinctively towards Arcanus and gasps sharply, their expression twisting into abject horror. "A-A-" They stare rooted in fear at their friend, ablaze in front of the storefront. Words came to his mouth, but he could not say them. A scream bubbles up, but only surfaces as a squeak as the blaze slowly creeps up Arcanus' body.

"H-help!" Golden cries out, his voice cracking almost immediately. "S-somepony!" Golden's breathing quickens further and they try to conjure something, anything to quell the rapidly intensifying blaze. Their horn sparks and with a pop, they're slid back. "A-anypony please!" Golden shouts louder. Frantically, he looks at the ponies passing by without a care in the world. "H-HEY! PLEASE STOP!" Golden cries, pointing at an earth pony passing by. "STOP AND-" The pony doesn't. His next words are caught in his throat as he watches Arcanus stumble closer.

"A-A-" Golden stammers, watching as the snow melts and boils around Arcanus. Frantically, he tries to douse him with water and only gets another pop of magical feedback in return. Another cast to dump snow over him and another pop. Another cast to take him to safety and another pop. Another spell to drive a knife into his friend's heart and another pop. Another stumble forward and Golden too stumbles towards his friend, any light left in his eyes dying. 

"A-Arcanus... I-I..." More words die in his mouth as the pony stumbles closer, nearly collapsing in the process. He mouths something toward Arcanus and stumbles into him, wrapping his hooves around him. He presses his snout against theirs and tears up more, closing his eyes and feeling nothing when the fire shoots up into his body. I-I'm so...sorry. 

"Are we good, Golden?" Came the reply. And then there was nothing. 





A pink blur smashes into Golden's side, rousing the alicorn with a loud yelp and forcing him onto his left wing. A sharp rock presses onto it and Golden tenses and whimpers. Dazed, he tries to stand, but collapses and gasps as a sharp pain radiates up his left side and wing. A duller secondary pain spreads throughout the rest of their fur. They pale and curl up tightly, quivering.

"G-Goldie!" Raikia's cracking, hoarse voice fills his ears. She stands up and brushes herself off, then hugs him tightly, quivering hard and nuzzling heavily into his neck. He finds himself unable to read her emotions. He noticed she was at least shaken, but why? Desperately, he bites through the pain and tries to expand his senses out, but can only find himself amidst the jumbling mess.

She tightens the hug, putting pressure on his right wing. Golden lets out another yelp and shakes her off, terror taking hold as the pain worsens. Tears fill his eyes and he curls up tightly, trying to fight off the pain. All his senses yell at him, telling him that something was wrong. He could feel it deep within him, but when he tried to think back he couldn't see what the cause was. 

Raikia withdraws from him, eyes wide. "G-Golden! Y-you... you..." Her ears flatten. "Y-you were screaming and yelling and thrashing around but I couldn't w-wake you. T-the grass--"

The grass? Golden tenses up, a fresh wave of fear coming over him. A breeze flutters past and with it comes an acrid scent. The fur on his back bristle and he wills his body to look at the source. Directly next to him is a patch of blackened grass and scorched earth as if somepony lit up an effigy in the same spot he laid in. A fresh wave of heat washes over him, eliciting a sharp gasp from the alicorn. It is only then that a second, much closer and stronger scent fills their nostrils. They shudder sharply and look down. It is only then that a blackened foreleg -- his blackened foreleg -- enters his view. He slowly looks over the outline of his leg toward his chest. It too is similarly blackened and charred. His breathing starts to quicken.

"No," Golden says softly. "No no no no," The memories of the dream come crashing back. He curls up tighter and closes his eyes, bursting into tears.

Raikia cautiously approaches, pulling him into a tight embrace. He can do nothing but bury his quivering snout and body into it. He's pulled closer and she gently runs a hoof down from the top of his mane. "Shhhhhhhh..." She says gently. He knew who it was. He knew she was with him the whole time and it should have brought him comfort, yet at that moment he only wanted him. His sobbing renews.

The goddess of love pulls Golden closer and nuzzles into his cheek. She holds him as he slowly relaxes into her embrace. He buries his charred, tear-stricken face into her fur. He clings onto her and closes his eyes. Sorrow and pain slowly fade. He registers cool comfort exuding from the alicorn holding him and reluctantly steps into it. It was comfort that only few could have supplied. He clings onto it, letting it wash over him and convince him that everything was going to be okay. At that moment, he needed it and it was there. He looks up into her eyes. She looked back down at him. They were full of sorrow and pain. There was guilt. Most of all, there was comfort. He reaches out to touch her.

Are we good? He thinks, shuddering. A-are we? His hoof stops short of her cheek. Tears sting his eyes again. The friend from the nightmare's words repeat in his head over and over and over again. The veneer of calm was starting to slip away and he reached out to it, only to find nothing left. His hoof falls and he goes limp into her, starting to cry again. Raikia wraps her wings around him and brushes his back gently. It wasn't touched by the horror that unfurled in front of her.

W-what happened to you? She thinks, shuddering. W-what the fuck was that? She hadn't seen anything like this before. She'd seen ponies burn themselves and get too close to fire. She too was burned from occasional fuckups in the kitchen, or kink play with her favorite local dragons, but nothing seemed natural here. There was no lightning. Nopony else was in the realm, for better or for worse.

I-I'm so sorry, She says weakly. Golden nuzzles harder into her, half in acknowledgment and half in need. I should have been there sooner.

She tightens the hug, then breaks it. She crosses over to the burnt patch and sits down, tracing the outline. She mixes the dirt into the ash and the ash into the grass. None of this made sense to her. Golden lifted his head and she immediately felt his gaze. She looks over at them, opening her mouth, then closing it. She casts her gaze to the ground, ears flattening. 

"R-Raikia..." Golden says quietly. He gazes at her sleek body, then bites their lip and shudders. "C-come here. I... I'm cold." They shiver again. They didn't notice the chill under the heat before.

She crosses back over to the alicorn and sits with him. She looks at him closely, then hugs him. He quivers into her, but no tears were falling. Progress. What did he feel? She draws a circle over Golden's back. He was fine when he fell asleep. She sighs shakily.

"I-I'm so sorry," She says. "I-I should have... t-tried harder." She tightens the hug. "B-but I was s-so so scared. I-I-"

"Raikia," Golden frowns, staring straight into her eyes. 

"W-what?" She asks, anxiously stepping closer.

"C-can you take me somewhere warm?" He asks more firmly. He starts to shiver.

"B-but you're already--"

"I-I'm not," Golden whispers, paling slightly. "Please... p-please." Golden hugs her gently and nuzzles into her neck. "A-anything to... remove the chill."

"Y-you're in no state to leave." 

"Raikia!" Golden whines into her ear. He hated being forceful. "Please! I need this." 

She flinches, turning away from Golden's steadfast gaze. She pulls away from him, though a part of her wished he would stay. She opens a portal rimmed in her trademark pink color. The alicorn nods firmly at her and trots through it, the light of the portal casting shadows on his mane. She stares at what remains of the contours and strands of gold and blue. Perhaps it was darker than she remembered.

She finds him laying down alongside a pool of water. Steam slowly wafts up from it leaving beads of water clinging to the patches of fur that remain. All around him are other larger pools of water and smoothed down cave walls. Heated air pours out of well-hidden cracks in the stone. Raikia sits down alongside him and lean into his body, watching as the candelabras' shadows play on his fur. She looks into the water. A faint pink sheen echoes out onto the surface of the water and sinks into it before dispelling entirely. 

"The heat will... relax you and the water will heal you," She says softly, pushing herself into the water without much thought or fanfare. 

"It will h-hurt though," Golden stammers knowing it to be true. The icy chill within and around him grows. He shifts a forehoof forward, but finds that he cannot complete the action.

"Yes," Raikia looks up at him. "But only for a moment. Focus on the water and on me." 

Golden's expression shifts from doubt to dread. With a deep breath, he focuses on the water and the heat in front of him. He moves towards the water's edge. With a second deep breath, he closes his eyes and slides into the water. The burns sting and coax out a heavy whine from the embattled alicorn. He takes a quivering step forward through the water toward Raikia. He buckles into the water on the second step, bringing a sharp burning sensation up to the top of his neck. He yelps sharply and curls up once again, quivering.

Slowly, he breathes in the stale humid air tinged with burnt fur. He holds his breath for a moment, then shakily breathes the pain and the sorrow out. The next breath came easier. After ten, there was nothing left within them. On the eleventh, he holds his breath and dunks his head into the water. The heat radiates pain through his head and body, worse than anything he felt slipping into the water. He jerks his head up toward the surface and fights it back down, forcing himself to stay below the surface. Slowly, the pain in and around his head recedes and the chill creeps into the void it left. He wasn't sure what it was, but he found its presence calming. He buries his snout into his forelegs and loses himself within them, body relaxing further.

All I need to do is... take a breath. He thinks frankly. And... I'd be free. His lungs protest. All I need is to- He relaxes further. Maybe there was some worry here or there, but he didn't need to worry about that now. Golden tenses. Worry? Came a thought. No, he wasn't worried. He couldn't be worried. He runs through all the emotions he thinks he feels in his head, and none of it was worry. He was fine. Everything around him was fine. All he needed to do was let it in and biology will take care of the rest. Against his will, his mind fixates. It fixates on the worry, seeking through his whole mind, body, and soul but finding none. It seeks outward much to his protestations and halts. 

Raikia. 

At once, a drive he didn't remember he had sinks into every part of himself and takes hold. He lifts himself from the water, gulping in the cold, soothing air. His breathing starts to get shakier. The next one catches in his lungs as he catches his reflection on the water. His blackened fur is blackened no more and any burnt off batches of coat and mane have been replaced with soft, shiny fur. He stares into it for what feels like an eternity. For the first time today, something was normal. He starts to cry again.

Raikia pulls him close and presses him tight into her chest. "You're okay," She coos into his ear. "You're safe." She buries her snout into his neck, brushing into his mane and side fur. "You're home," She lifts them slightly, working her forelegs to nestle in the crook of his. At the same time. she wraps a wing around him and uses it to pull him against her more. She nestles her chin under the top of his head and closes her eyes, softly petting up and down his side. "You're here and I love you."

Golden nuzzles into her neck, taking in her words. He sniffles, catching strawberries and a hint of vanilla buried within the fur. Golden buries his snout into it, envisioning himself in a strawberry patch. All tension in his body slowly dissipates with the march of her gentle hooves up and down.

"I... I wasn't thinking," He says, voice muffled into the fur. "I'm so sorry I worried you." His ears pin back.

She traces around to his chest, speaking softly. "We'll work through it. Together. Just... us," She peers down at him.

He meets her gaze and takes in the warmth and the care within it. The fluttery comfort he picked up from time to time from her could be intense, but it wasn't exactly like this. It brings him back to searching the unnervingly quiet streets of small towns and city outskirts for anypony that was up when the night was old. While they were few and far between, there was either loneliness; or comfort, joy, and peace in their hearts. He sees that she was one of the only two that knew him and felt that way. He dwells on Arcanus and sorrow wells up within him, but none escaped. He was here, and everything can turn out okay after all. 

Raikia pets the side of his snout, lingering around his nose. "Shall we... exit the water?" She says. She releases her hold on him.

He stands and exits the water, sitting next to it. He looks down at his reflection again, losing himself in it. Raikia sits behind him and runs a hoof down his spine, eliciting a soft shiver from him. "You've relaxed, but you've still got tension in that body of yours. Not that I blame you. You have been through the wringer, after all," She sighs.

"You don't have to make me feel any--"

Raikia wraps her forelegs around him and giggles. "Shush. I told myself and my sis that I was going to do the right thing so I'm doing the right thing. Just let me get a set of towels and I will make sure you feel great by the end of this." She trots to the exit of the cavern where pink and purple towels hang on a rack. She grabs one, drapes it over her neck, and trots back.

A-at least the temperature leads to warm towels, Golden relaxes a bit, then sighs shakily. She's right. Heat helps.

She settles down behind him, placing the towels next to him with a smile. "Ready?" She asks.

"Mhm."

A pink shimmer surrounds her hooves. She gently presses them into Golden's lower back. Immediately, a wave of pleasure followed by relaxation travels up his spine and through his body. He lets out a faint groan and goes limp. She gently brushes against his lower neck, back, and shoulders, warding away tension he didn't even know he had. A slight wince breaks him out of his funk slightly as Raikia's hooves pass over a tense shoulder muscle. She tuts, pressing down on it and rolling back and forth over it, working the length of the muscle. 

"Y-your hooves are... m-magical. H-how in the fuck do you do it?" Golden sighs in comfort.

Raikia giggles softly. "It's a secret! Remember that alicorns don't divulge their secrets."

Golden glances back at her. "You know, I don't remember that tidbit," His tail waves in the air. "But I'll pretend to remember if it makes you happy."

Raikia bats at his back with a soft giggle. She trots to the other side of the pool, pulling a towel from the edge and returning She puts it on her back and lays back down next to Golden. She focuses in on his neck this time. Another shiver travels down Golden's spine. 

"This is the first time I've ever seen this place," Golden mutters. "I heard it from Solacia, but she spoke of it as if it wasn't real. Or... she had that tone. I don't know."

"No, it's definitely real," She levitates the towel off her back. "Spread 'em." She leans over and softly licks at where the wing connects to his body. He jolts, looking back at her and blushing. He obeys, unfurling his wings. They were pristine, as if he had finished a strenuous preening session. He bites his lip and shudders as the towel is draped over it. The other towels are lukewarm compared to the heat that seeps into their wings. They shudder heavily into the towel, thankful that it wasn't the burning hot that he dreaded.

"E-emotionally I feel kind of drained but... fuck those hooves of yours are mmf," Golden looks at the wet dirt caked around the pool edge. His blush deepens.

Raikia shifts forward over and giggles, whispering into his ear. "That's good. I'm glad you like them." She gives the tip of his ear a lick. Golden squirms a little, but the massages stop it. As she works her way down his back, she hits muscles that are more tense. She pouts at the group of back muscles, starting to roll her hooves over it. Golden tenses up, then relaxes and sighs, letting her do her work.

"T-thanks for this again," He says softly. He looks over, hears drooping slightly. His blush has let up a little, but she still notices it in the dim light. She feigns surprise and gives his nose a kiss. It scrunches from the contact.

"It's my pleasure," She remarks. "Especially for somepony like you."

Golden blushes more. His ears, however, droop. Flashes of his past incarnation's anger still bother him in his dreams and in moments of peace. How could she feel this way toward him when he knew he got very upset in his past? How could anypony?

Raikia sighs and shifts closer. She gently nibbles at his cheek, trailing her tongue along the blush and toward the seam of his lips. She reluctantly pulls away. "My dear, I'm no empath but I know that you worry about things that have long since passed. It's there here and now that paves the way to the future. You've stopped worrying about what past yous did and guess what? You've gotten better! What would your past incarnations say about that?"

She's so sweet. He sighs softly. "Maybe they'd be surprised. I-I... I don't know. I guess I'm upset because I feel inadequate," He paws at the floor, anxiety bubbling up. "That maybe I'm not doing my job as a god of emotion."

She gives his mane a stroke. "I don't want to fall under the logic traps that Rily does, but you don't have a reason to worry that you haven't been doing your job. You don't need to be called into this big sweeping multi-discipline job to prove that you've not been slacking off. On that front, there has simply been no reason for pull you in. And the fact that things haven't shit the bed with my work shows that you've been doing what you can. What you do and what I do are related. Love is an emotion. You can feel it within me, right?"

Golden shudders. "Yeah, I... I can. I feel it from you and others when you work. I feel it here. It..." They shudder. "It's... complex."

"Exactly," She smiles. "If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't exist." She leans her snout in close to theirs and give his lips a slow, teasing lick. Golden quivers slightly, leaning into it. He doesn't dare retaliate. "If it wasn't for me, you'd be deprived of whatever you feel now. We need each other. Hell, we need every role that currently exists now. Take the god of death for example. We don't need them because there have been very little deaths that haven't fallen from old age or... miscarriages. There's been few breakups. Most that do fall into despair have a safety net in the form of other ponies. We are at a time of peace in the nation. Have been for well over three hundred years."

"Ever since the banishment of the unicorn tribes, I know." Golden recalls. Those times were particularly rough for the gods. Solacia attempted to step in and imprison them, but they would slip through cracks in her hastily built defenses. Failing that, the gods tried to physically fight the unicorns. Golden never felt so much pain as he did before he felt his fur burn away. They took everything from him including his life. Flashbacks to his death rattles and the final fight often left him shaking and sobbing despite it being a different life. Riloxia, in a rare fit of compassion, tried to identify the abnormal behavior Golden experienced through the time stream. He found essentially nothing, so he and the rest of the gods written it off as a curse. As retribution from the death, Celestia finally stepped in and sealed the tribes in a dimension not even Solacia could access.

Since then, no threat has eclipsed the skirmishes. The citizens went on to do great things. Golden lived on watching the first contact with Griffonstone occurred in 1300 which brought a whole new trade route into the picture. He always thought it was weird how the griffons got preferential treatment over the dragons in the Dragonlands, despite the dragons being a much older and more established species in the world. At the time, he assumed it was due to Celestia's anger at her own sister. He remembered how fiery the anger was, and how she lashed out. Out of fear, he asked Solacia if Celestia would banish Riloxia. Perhaps he was too young to understand that Celestia's actions didn't have a bearing on the pantheon. Her negative answer to the question made sense to him at the time though. Celestia's inconsistencies haunted him for the better part of the year. However, he resigned to the fact that things would be odd for years to come. He saw the cycle of Celestia decreeing some batshit thing, ponies getting mad at her decrees, then they go back to their lives as if nothing had happened. Part of him wondered why the anger wasn't channeled towards burning it all down. He takes a deep breath, trying to refocus his thoughts on more productive things.

"So I'm not useless," Golden sighs. "I was there at the start of it all and give the ponies the ultimate mixed bag."

"Life too is a mixed bag," Raikia places a forehoof on his flank and rubs up and down it. "Maybe because emotion comes into play. Maybe because other ponies come into play," She pats it gently. Golden glances back, but doesn't seem to mind. She pulls him into a gentle hug. "With life, you can surround yourself with ponies and other beings that you love."

"L-like... me," Golden glances over. The flutter seemed to have permeated the area by the time she brushed at his butt. He draws himself into her embrace, her rubbing, and her love with a gentle shudder.

"Like you," She says. She then plants her lips on his cheek for only a moment.

"I... I've not been a god for long," Golden says, frowning. "How close were we?"

Raikia looks at the pool, then looks toward Golden. "Search your heart for that answer. The curse that has been laid on you is both a force of evil and a force of good."

Golden blinks confusion away. They close their eyes and sigh. The inky blackness in his vision slowly gives way to color and soft shapes until it suddenly sharpens. He sees her smiles and the comfort hidden deep within her eyes. He sees how she looks at him exiting her home on the floating island. He sees how the hugs last a little bit longer with him than with the other pantheon members. The tea times and the picnics flash ahead of events that have given him so much sorrow. He sees how each death and major event affects her, though knows that he shouldn't be seeing it. He feels her at Creation enveloping him in a warm hug to fight away the cold and emptiness of space. Most of all, he sees the long, winding conversations amidst walks through their realms and how it made them smile, no matter what secrets were shared. He opens his eyes and his heart aches. He remains silent, taking in all that he'd seen.

"So this is... love," Golden whispers. He mentally chides himself for not seeing it.

"You could say that, yes," She traces over his flanks. "What is love to you?"

He opens his mouth then closes it. He heard this question before from her and the answer stirred deep within him. He takes a deep breath, bringing it forward. "It is choosing to accept the flaws in a pony, no matter how small. It is... covering their weaknesses and augmenting their strengths. It's taking somepony in no matter how... fucked up they are, bathing them, and telling them that they're safe. No, not just telling them. They... they can see it in your actions," Golden leans into Raikia. "You showed up for them when their friends didn't."

She ruffles his mane gently. "The other gods love you, yes," She says. "Can you tell what makes this so different?"

Golden pauses. Now this is an unfamiliar question. He feels her hooves travel up his body to his wing. It then circles above it and continues up his neck. "It's a spectrum," Golden says. "On one end, you have Riloxia. A... cold love. A tough love. He admonishes me because he cares. I presume he wants what's best for me, but I can't tell." Golden sighs, wishing Riloxia was easier to read. At least then he'd have insight into his decisions. "On the other side, there's you," He looks at her. "A warm love. You... admonish me and praise me and do it out of love. You also want to see what's best for me," Golden pauses, finding the words. "But you do it even if it hurts. I... I think back to that day..." Golden bites his lip. She had stopped mid-fight to bring him to safety. He didn't know how he could see that either.

Raikia pulls him in tighter. "Believe me, none of us wanted to see you die that day. The love for their creation made them continue."

"It didn't for you?" Golden asks. "Or am I more important than that?"

She frowns. "No, that's not what I meant. Well..." She looks into the water. "It's not rational. I saw you go down and acted in what I thought was our best interest."

"Even if in the end it didn't matter," They both conclude simultaneously, glancing into each other's eyes. Golden shuffles slightly, then lets out a laugh. Raikia can't help but giggle with him. She takes in his entrancing smile and shifts closer, giving it a light pet. Golden nuzzles at the shoe of her hoof.

"Isn't it funny how... the world can't love you back?" Golden focuses back in on the water's edge and shifts some dirt around. "Ponies can, but we spend our lives trying to make the world a better place."

"What is the world but all the creatures that inhabit it?" Raikia smiles, leaning into him. "Neither of us would want to live in a world where there was no life. I would... instinctively try and seed the world after traveling it and finding nothing."

"But would you try and... do it alone?" Golden asks.

"Celestia no. I'd need your help with that." Raikia smirks, pushing away from him. Golden stammers slightly before settling into a pout. "Got you!" She giggles and bats at his side, then laughs.

"Look," Golden grunts from the impact, sighing a bit. "If it came down to it-"

"Oh but the inbreeding would be so-"

"Bad?"

"Interesting," She muses. "It depends on how we do it, though. I could create ponies and seed them, but that repeats history."

"It worked, didn't it?" Golden reaches over and toys with her mane.

"Yes, but that's boring." Raikia grouses. "Is it not fun to... fuck a foal into someone?" She looks over at him.

"W-why are you asking me that?" Golden asks, tilting their head.

Raikia smiles innocently and wraps her foreleg around Golden's. She looks into his eyes, seeing the gentle bite on his lower lip. Golden lets out a flustered snort as his thoughts scatter and settle into uncertainty in her overwhelming presence. To an outsider, she held the same gentle demeanor and gaze as she did when she started to massage him. It's usually what made her advances so striking. He never expected he'd be the target of it, much less see through her more heightened emotions.

"I'm not asking, my dear," She coos, giving his chin a lick. "I'm offering it. This isn't a transaction or a tease. It's certainly not your fucking birthday and I'm not doing this out of any official capacity."

Golden's heart flutters slightly. He leans into her tongue's slow movements along his chin. "B-but..."

"You have your reservations," She says. "And I respect that. I do too. Let's... lay it all down on the table, then." She stands and trots about a meter away, gently flicking her tail but revealing nothing behind it. She turns to face him, then lays down. She nods gently at them.

Golden relaxes slightly, thankful that she was cautious. He takes a deep breath, sequestering Raikia's emotions. "Is it right?" He asks.

"Right?"

"Right for gods to... take pleasure in each other's presence?"

"That's up for you to decide." She smiles. "You and I are the only ones who can."

"But Rolixia calls us..."

"Siblings?" Raikia giggles. "I can't pretend to know the answer to that. I don't think he knows the answer to that more than any one here does."

"But what if we are?" Golden asks.

"Golden," She stretches her forelegs out. "I don't care. Ponies can find love and comfort in the kindest or the most... depraved things. You blame yourself for all the negative emotions and it's my fault for all the negative paraphilia running around. You feel bad about your stuff. I don't feel bad about mine. Yes, it can cause harm to others, but you know what I came to realize?"

Golden bites his lip harder. "What?"

"I've made ways to remove those harms as they cropped up. The local corpse-fucker knows it's fucked up and may find the taboo to be hot, and maybe it may bring harm to... well... the corpse's family." She sighs. "Do you know what I do in that situation? I point them to ones that won't cause an uproar, or remind them that there are spells to create bodies that have no connection to the real world."

"But-"

"No matter what it is, Golden," She says. Golden recoils from the sharpness of her voice. Her expression softens. "Look, I know where you're going, but it's on them if they choose an unsafe outlet. Especially if I teach them what the outlet is. At that point, my job is done. Yes, some parts of it are controversial as fuck, but I can't say I didn't try. If they pick the outlet, they'll come to rely on it and lives are saved, or hearts aren't broken. And you know what? They thank me," She frowns. "If they don't go through with it, then... I won't waste my energy thinking about it."

Golden sighs shakily, looking at her. This... will take some getting used to.

Raikia continues. "Maybe I'm desensitized. Who fucking knows. It's up to you to figure out if me fucking you, or Sol fucking me, or Riloxia fucking any of us crosses a line. Does it cross one to you?"

Golden tenses a bit. He looks into the water. A line had to be drawn somewhere and it didn't take much thought to sort out what it was. "Depends on who's... hurt?" He stands and trots over, laying by her side.

"I don't know," Raikia says, looking over at him. "Not you or I. Not Solacia. Rolixia may shake his head, but who cares what he thinks? Some puritan somewhere will take issue with it, but it's up to you if them bitching about it matters."

Golden nods. "I don't think it does. I don't think it ever did," He says carefully. Raikia's face brightens and she kisses his snout. A tingle rubs up his spine. "What about you?"

"Mm," She giggles. "Truth be told, I don't have many hangups about this. The only thing that feels off is how willing you are to go through with this. You... just lost your friend and it's not even been a week. You sure you're thinking straight?"

"Of course not," Golden frowns. He winces, a little stung by her remark. "I lost a friend and had a nightmare abut losing him again," He shivers heavily. "I'm still numb about it, but I have to fill it with something that isn't anger."

She pets his neck lightly. "I'm sorry," She says. "I can't imagine what you're going through," She hugs his side, closing her eyes. "But are you certain you want to do this? Are you really truly certain? The last thing I want to do is have this whole thing not matter. I'm sure you're feeling that too, right?" She opens her eyes.

Golden rubs along her wing feathers. He leans in to nibble softly at a set of misplaced feathers, using his tongue and snout to smooth them down. He remains silent, mind working for an answer. The more he thinks, the more uncertainty moves in. What if she was right? Reluctantly, he breaks the hug apologizing sheepishly. Even if Raikia was extremely alluring, Golden simply couldn't bring himself to engage in his more carnal desires. She found all the ways to sweep himself off his hooves and to ground him when needed. He still had a long road ahead of him and he wasn't ready. He spawns in a watch and glances at the face of it, seeing it slowly tick second by second. He really wasn't ready.

"I have an appointment in an hour or so. I... should have kept track of time better."

"No worries," She smiles. "Take the week off. Marefriend's orders."

Golden blushes. "U-uh marefriend? O-oh wow hm... uh... u-uh," He rubs his head, ears pinning back. His thoughts scatter once more. 

Raikia bats his side again, playfully leaning in and nuzzling where her leg made contact. "I'll vouch for you and let them know you can't make it. Family emergencies," Her ears flatten, a hollow smile showing. "Just rest and take your time, darling. Can you do that for me?"

Golden momentarily takes a breath, gathering everything that was scattered inside him from all her remarks. He plants a gentle kiss on her cheek. "I... can't promise anything."

"If you need me, I'll be there."

Golden relaxes, smiling. "W-well uh... I love you."

"I love you too." She meets his smile with a faint giggle.

In a flash, Golden finds himself back home. He breathes in the humid air and exhales shakily. Maybe having her as the light at the end of my tunnel won't be so bad.