When the brightness fades and I regain my vision, I find myself in what seems to be a bedroom. In the center is a large round bed with dark purple sheets and pillows. Around the bed is a black curtain that has been pulled back, revealing the bed inside. Against the wall on both sides of the bed are small dark desks that each hold a small lamp. The walls seem to be made of dark grey stone and go in a circular formation. Across from the bed is a large black dresser that has a large mirror behind it. A few brushes and bottles of what I presume to be perfumes are scattered on the dresser, strange. Didn't know you had to brush energy hair. On the right side of the room is a large glass double door that leads to a balcony. Beyond that is a beautiful view of the area around.

"Miles," Luna says, getting my attention. She's sitting by the bed looking at me with an intense look.

"Luna, I swear, I didn't know what I was doing-"

"Miles, that's not why I brought you here, though we will need to talk about that later. I had a question about something you said earlier."

"Alright... I guess. What did you need to know?"

"I need to know about Spatium and Tempus." When she says this, my heart drops. I know how this story will end... and I finally don't want it, but I will pay for my mistake.

"What do you need to know about them?"

"Well... anything really. I... tried to look them up, but they don't seem to come up in our records. I want to know more about these ancient alicorns, so anything you can tell me will be useful." She says with pleading eyes.

"I don't really like to talk about them that much... bad things happened and I'm to blame for them."

"Please... I won't hold you accountable for anything, I just... really need to know." Sigh. You say that now, but yeah... you will...

"Well, it all started with a simple request..."

---

I hate waiting in the debriefing room. Regulation says that we have to be in uniform, meaning we have to put all of our armor on and sit in a musty old room, but I never understood why. Every debriefing before has been the same: come in, get lectured, leave, and have Sine re-lecture us on what we already heard. Pretty boring stuff, but I guess it beats sitting back home and studying. Whatever, I sit back in my seat and look around a bit. Just a bunch of desks facing a hologram board, with all of my friends sitting in different seats.

"Hey Miles," Inficiunt says as he takes a seat next to me, "knock knock."

"For fuck’s sake Cunt, get a new joke," Dare interrupts, "the first time was okay, but after eleven years of the same joke, it kind of gets old."

"Hey, it still gets the ladies to laugh," he counters, putting up his hands.

"Yeah, at you," Fidus says.

"Doesn't matter what they laugh at, the end result is always the same," Inficiunt defends.

"I hate how true that is," Eximius says from behind. We all share a small laugh as Captain Susurrans walks in the room, followed by Altum.

"SUPERIOR OFFICER ON DECK!" I yell as we all stand and salute.

"At ease," Captain Bellum says as he taps the board, bringing up the projection. After flipping through a few files, he settles on one that's a simple slide presentation titled Re-Surface Integration. "Miles, we're ready for your presentation," he says, as he and Altum take a seat at the front table. I look around in disbelief. They really want to hear my plan for repopulating the surface. They can't be serious. I stand up and walk to the front.

"Well, my plan is fairly simple. We cannot stay underground indefinitely. Our cities are becoming overcrowded; soon we won't be able to feed our own people without harsh rationing; if our enemy attacks Topaz we have no plans for evacuation, or a way to send our people into hiding. We need to go back to the surface," I say as I move to the next slide, showing two energy readings. They are simple lines that bounce up and down in beat to beeps.

"What am I looking at here?" Altum asks.

"These," I say as I point to the lines, "are two energy readings. One belongs to me, the other belongs to a surface dweller. I've been sending pings of energy from the tower out to the surface-"

"Are you insane!?" Altum yells as he stands to his feet. "You could alert the enemy to our pres—"

"That would be impossible," I say, cutting him off. "I've been using the tower’s frequency to emit these, if they couldn't read them before they won't be able to read them now. Plus, whatever is sending these pings of energy back clearly has archaic abilities, so it couldn't be the Unfamiliar." Altum sits back down and crosses his arms. "Now, I wish to meet with this being and try to see if they can speak, have a civilization, whatever I can to see what the surface is like. From there we either begin plans to move colonies up there, or we go back to our cities and forget about the surface." Captain Bellum thinks about this for a while before he looks up to me.

"Alright, let's hear your plan." I smile from his support and move to the next slide.

"Okay, well, the idea is really simple..."

We're currently sitting in a squad of jeeps by the main gates to the city. The gates are large steel bulkheads that slide up, this one is number three. We finally got clearance to move on with my plans, and here we are. The first people to leave the city in hundreds of years and we're the ones to do it. So, needless to say, everyone is a little excited.

"Miles, I can't fucking believe they approved your plans," Sine says from the front seat.

"I know, not to mention how quick it went through," I reply from gunner.

"Please," Fidus says from behind, "We're fucking Spartans. You could’ve requested for a harem of virgins and they would have sent them the next day." Dolum gives a small chuckle from the driver’s seat.

"Yeah, but this is at least something noble," Tenera says timidly. Before I can say anything a loud metallic squeak catches our attention. The bulkhead slowly begins to rise as we start up the jeeps. Once we have enough room for clearance, we drive through.

We take lead down the narrow path, as stalagmites and stalactites fill the sides, barely giving us enough room to drive through. The area is very cold and dark, the only light coming from our vehicle’s headlights. The road is bumpy, and I immediately regret riding gunner when my helmet slams into a stone column.

"And that's why we wear helmets," Sine says sarcastically. We drive out for a few kilometers and stop abruptly. I reach down and try the console's navigation, but because we're out of the city we have no signal.

"Eighteen kilometers, right?" I ask.

"That's what the odometer says," Dolum says as he shuts off the engine.

"Alright, now we go up," I say as the other jeep pulls up behind us. I look back and nod to Eximius, who is driving. He turns off his engine and sits back. I lock the turret in place and jump off the back. I flare my hands, sending the black lines to my shoulders, and slam my palms into the ground. Instantly the ground below us sends us higher up. I focus to keep the ceiling at its current distance from us while moving the soil below us higher up. I keep this up until the ceiling above erupts as we enter a catacomb. This area is an open underground cavern, the sound of water dripping from above fills the area. Small stalactites are spotted here and there, but other than that, the room is fairly rounded off. The ceiling looks to be about fifteen meters high, and the sides seem to be twenty meters wide. Our jeeps sit in the far end of the cavern.

"Alright, set up in the center, Dolum, Eximius, stay on the jeeps and give us some light," Captain Bellum orders as he leaves the passenger seat of the other jeep. We all follow the Captain to the center and quickly make a small room. Nothing special, four walls, a roof, and a table with some seats. I take some leftover gems from my workshop and set them in the walls. After some quick enchanting, they shine bright white, lighting the room. To be honest, it was mostly me using my magic as everyone else just watched, but I don't care right now, because I get to lead the negotiations.

"You ready for this?" Captain Bellum asks as he turns to me.

I turn to him and say, "As ready as I'll ever be."

"Let's do a walkie check," he says as he grabs his shoulder walkie, "Check check." I hear his voice come clearly through my shoulder, so I return the call.

"Alright. Everything is set up, time for all of you to pull back."

"I honestly don't like this part of the plan. Why can't we just leave at least one of us to watch your back?" Susurrans asks as he looks around the room.

"I already told you, it can only be me. If anyone else were to be here, we double the chance of having something go wrong. Don't worry, I can handle myself." He gives me a concerned look as he grabs my shoulder.

"I know you can, but that doesn't stop me from worrying. Alright, we'll head back, radio us when you need us." He gives me a few pats on the back before he regroups with the others. Eximius and Captain Bellum both slam their hands into the ground and send the jeeps into the ground.

I turn back to the room I created and decide to make a few more final touches. I make two doors, one at either side of the structure, and I’m about to start some other modifications when a loud crash catches my attention. I walk out the far door and stop in my tracks. Standing a few meters away are two... creatures. They walk on four legs, have long necks, and both have strange marks on their backsides. They don’t seem to be wearing any clothing, but their body build makes up for the lack of modesty… sort of.

One is all white, with dark grey eyes and wavy black energy hair. It seems to be a male, with a large conical... thing coming off of his head. He also has two strange appendages coming off his sides, that are covered in a strange material that I've never seen before. He has a mark that seems to be a strange stone wedge with a yellow and white orb above it. The other creature seems to be female... and pregnant. Very pregnant. She's all black, with all of the same body features as the other one, except the large bulges coming from her stomach. Her... mark seems to be a swirl of white dots that get larger the closer to the center they get and she has bright yellow eyes. They both stand at about eye level with me, with their... head thing going well above me. The white one walks over to the black one and checks on her. I take this chance to approach the two of them. When the white one sees me, he jumps straight at me, knocking me flat on my back. He pins me to the ground and looks me straight in the eyes.

"What sort of demon art thou?" he demands in a deep voice.

"You can talk? I mean... are you the one I've been communicating with?" I ask, my astonishment blatant.

"Thou art the one who sendeth the waves of energy?" The black one asks in a gentle voice as she walks towards us.

"Umm... yeah. That was me."

"Why dost thou send for us if thou only wish to harm us?" Harm them? Why would they think I want to harm them? I look around and see that I never shut off the magic in my hands. Fucking dumbass. I shut off the magic and try to relax.

"I'm sorry, there must have been a misunderstanding. I don't mean to harm anyone. My magic was set so I could build this room behind us, I only wish to speak with you." The black one walks up to the white one and gives him a gentle nudge with her nose. He gives a small snort as he gets off me.

"Apologies. I only acted to defend the one- ones I love." I stand up and look between the two of them. Well... I guess it's his mate, then.

I extend my hand to the white one and say, "Greetings, my name is Miles Eremita. I'm the representative of the Terradisian people." He looks at my hand and seems a little confused.

He gives a deep bow and says, "I am Tempus, Ruler of Time. This is my beloved, Spatium, Ruler of Space." Spatium gives a small smile as she gives a small bow. I take back my hand and do my own bow.

"So, I'm sure there are plenty of questions you wish to ask me, I know I have my own, why don't we step inside and get comfortable?" I say as I gesture towards the room. They both nod and follow me inside. I walk over to the other side of the table I made and sit down. Tempus looks over the two seats before setting a white aura field around his head appendage. The seats I made become surrounded by this field and begin to change. Once the field is gone, the two seats are lower and are rounded off on the inside. Spatium gives him another gentle nudge on his cheek as she slowly lowers herself into her seat. Once down, Tempus takes his seat and looks back to me. No one says anything for a while and I'm starting to sweat from my nerves getting the best of me. I sigh as I remove my helmet, and nearly fall back as Tempus jumps on top of the table.

"What sort of demon art thou, to remove thine own head!?"

"Whoa, calm down. It's just a helmet. It's to protect my head." He looks me over again before he gets back down and into his seat.

"A helmet thou sayest, interesting. Am I to assume that thou art wearing full armor then?"

"Yes," I say as I begin to remove the armor from my arms. As I do this they watch intently, Spatium out of curiosity and Tempus out of a need to protect Spatium. Once I finish I show my arms before I rest them on the table and cross my fingers. Once again the room fills with an awkward silence as we stare each other down.

"So, if thou art not a demon, what art thou?"

"My people are called humans. What sort of creature are you?"

"We are ponies," Spatium says. "Human, you say? Thou wouldst not happen to be one of the star travelers from long ago, wouldst thou?" Star travelers? Either she means the Unfamiliar or the early people who used to travel in space.

"Well... my people traveled in space before, but that was a long time ago." She looks down in deep thought as Tempus glares at me. I need to turn this to a more positive subject.

"So... when are you expecting?"

"Beg thy pardon?" Spatium says as she looks back to me.

"You’re with child... right?" Oh please be pregnant, please be pregnant, please don't make it so I just called her fat.

She smiles as she looks down and rubs her belly. "Yes, in one month’s time I shall be giving birth to our firstborn." Tempus gets a huge smile as he looks over to her.

"Well, congratulations. I wish nothing but the best for your child."

"Enough of thy flattery and honeyed words. Thou summoned us here for a reason, what is it thou wisheth to discuss?" Tempus cuts to the chase, getting a nudge from Spatium.

"Alright, let's get to work. My people have lived underground now for generations, but we wish to stop this. I wish to bring my people back to the surface, but I don't want to bring them there blindly. I sent signals out in hopes of finding intelligent life, and here you are."

"Why dost thou wish to find intelligent life?" Spatium asks.

"I need to know about current surface dealings. I don't want my people to appear somewhere that already belongs to another group of people. I don't wish to cause a fight that may erupt the surface in a war."

"Thou seekest peace?" Tempus asks.

"Yes, a peace that will allow my people to live harmoniously with the current surface dwellers."

He thinks about this for a while before he looks back up to me. "Thou hast my blessings. But if thou wishest to bring thy people to the surface, I must speak with all the representatives of the land. I alone cannot barter the land of others. Let us meet again sometime in the future."

"Perfect. Take all the time you need. Whenever you're ready, just send a signal down a day ahead and I'll be here."

"Until we meet again, friend," he says as he stands and does a bow. I hesitate for a second before I return the bow. Did he just call me his friend? Spatium slowly stands back up and walks over to me. She extends her leg and holds it there. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do, so I kneel down and shake her leg. She gives me a confused look before she sets her leg down.

"It seems next time we meet; we must go over proper etiquette."

"Oh, sorry about that, I didn't mean to offend."

"It is quite fine; we must be off now. Thou shalt expect our call within the new season." The new season?

I stand back up and say, "Vale usque nos obvium iterum." They both stop for a second before they walk out the back. I walk over to the door and watch Tempus create a field of energy around the two of them. When the energy fades away, the spot where they once stood in is now empty.

I grab my walkie and say, "Caravan, this is Pilgrim, mission accomplished."

After what felt like eternity, I finally find myself back in the room. The other day the alarm was sent that we were getting a transmission from above, and I almost died in excitement. So, here I am, back in this room, waiting patiently, no armor, no weapons, just me and all my questions. Luckily the gems I set are still lit, and the cavern is still holding strong, but I still did a structural check on everything. After about thirty minutes I hear a loud bang from the outside of the room and run out to see what happened. When I get there I see Tempus and Spatium standing there. Spatium is tremendously skinnier and has something strapped to her side.

"Hail, Miles Eremita, we have returned!" Tempus says joyfully.

"Tempus, Spatium, glad to see you again. I hope you bring good news."

"We do," Tempus says as they approach me, "we have spoken with the other groups-"

"I was actually talking about your child," I interrupt, "I hope everything went well." Tempus puts on another large smile as he looks over to the little bundle on Spatium's side.

"Everything went perfectly. Miles, greet my daughter, Celestia," he says as he uses his aura to levitate a small white pony out of the strap. She has bright pink hair and all the appendages that her parents have. She lacks a mark and is sleeping.

"May I?" I ask as I hold out my arms. Spatium looks a little nervous by this, but Tempus levitates her over to me anyway. I take hold of her and look down at her. She slowly opens her eyes and looks up to me with those bright pink eyes and grows the biggest smile ever. She lets out an adorable little giggle as she raises her legs and begins to play with my face. "Brave one, isn't she?"

"She taketh it from her father," Spatium says as she walks into the room. I follow her in and hand her off to Spatium. This kid is way too cute... and poky. I wanted to hold her a bit longer, but I would’ve lost an eye in the process. We all take our old seats and go back into silence... well almost. Celestia keeps making the most adorable baby sounds as Spatium plays with her, pointing her leg at her, poking her nose, that kind of stuff.

"So, what's the good news?"

"I have spoken with all of the clan heads and we have agreed to allow a portion of land for thy subjects, but only after thou give us a census of its potential citizens."

"We plan on moving one million in the first year-"

"One million!" Tempus yells, causing Celestia to coil up and give small whimpers. "Thou can't be serious. We thought thou would move ten thousand at most. There is no way any would allow one million. It's out of the question." Well... fuck.

"Ten thousand you say... that would be really hard to pull. My people don't want to move unless we bring a high volume of people... do you think you could convince these leaders to allow more people?"

"Maybe... it would take some time... dost thou think thee could convince thine people to allow less to make the pilgrimage?"

"Only time will tell." Tempus nods to me as they both begin to rise.

"Well met, Miles Eremita, we must adjourn to begin deliberations. We shall call for thee again when we have our answer."

"Farewell, and next time, let's make some time to get to know one another. I'd like to be more than strangers."

"Very well," he says as he bows to me. I bow back and turn to Spatium. She raises an eyebrow as she brings up her leg again. Eximius, you better be right. I kneel down and give a quick kiss to the bottom of her leg.

"Well, it seems thou hast found time to learn some proper manners. Fare thee well, Miles Eremita."

"Vale usque nos obvium iterum." As they disappear the same way as before I grab my walkie and say, "Caravan, this is Pilgrim, mission flare."

The past few years have been dragging by way too slowly. Our negotiations have been making progress, but they only want to make discussions during one time of the year, and even then it takes months for requests to be made. I've worked my people down to two hundred fifty thousand, but Tempus has only been able to work his people up to fifty thousand. At this rate, it'll take us three or four years to finally work something out. That, plus all the preparations for moving people there, getting the supplies ready, and getting people to volunteer to go, we're looking at another year for us to finally make the move. Well, I guess something like this will just have to take its time to come to fruition.

On the bright side, at least I get to speak with Tempus and Spatium every now and again. They are actually pretty good people. And Celestia is just an adorable treat. She also grew up pretty fast. She's still very little, compared to her parents, but she can already walk, run, talk, basically anything a toddler could do. If I remember correctly, today is her birthday. I decided to make her a gift. Nothing big, just a gold tiara embedded with a ruby on the top. I'm going to enchant a photo of all of us together in the ruby, so the little troublemaker will have something to remember me by.

FLASH

"Uncle Miles, Uncle Miles!" I look out of the room and see Celestia running towards me, leaving behind Tempus and Spatium.

"Hey there squirt," I say as I get out of my seat and kneel before her. She runs up and jumps into my arms. I catch her and stand with a twist, getting giggles from Celestia.

"Hey, hey, dost thou know what day it is today?" she asks eagerly, wiggling in my arms.

"I have no idea; what day is it?"

"IT'S MINE BIRTHDAY!" she yells as she tries to squeeze me in a hug. I pick her up and set her on the ground as I get on my knees.

"Mmm... that's impossible, if I remember correctly, your birthday was last year."

"But... I thought today was mine birthday," she says as she gives a little pout. AW... SWEET BARBRA.... cuteness overload. Must fix.

"THAT'S BECAUSE IT IS YOUR BIRTHDAY!"

"I KNEW IT!" She screams as she begins to hop around me.

"And I got you a present," I say, getting a shocked look from Spatium.

"Thou didst, what is it, what is it?"

"Ah, ah, aahh. Close your eyes first." She scrunches up her face as she closes her eyes as tightly as possible. TOO. DAMN. CUTE. I pull out the tiara and present it to her, getting a small gasp from Spatium. "Okay, open your eyes."

SQUEE

She jumps straight into my arms again and gives me the biggest hug she can muster.

"Thank thee, thank thee! I love it. Can I wear it? Can I, can I, can I?" I set her back down and try to fit it on her head, but it goes completely around and hangs from her neck.

"Hold on, let me fit it real quick." I take it and send some energy into it. The spell is simple enough, I'm just going to make it shrink and grow to fit her appropriately, I have the same spell on my potestatum annulums. When I finish, I set it on her head, and it's a perfect fit.

She runs over to Tempus and asks, "How does it look, daddy?"

"Almost as beautiful as thee. Thank thee for this, Miles, thou hadst no need to do this."

"Pfft, need? I wanted to do this. It wasn't a problem, but there is one more thing that I need to do with it."

"What's that?" Celestia asks as she walks over to me. I take the tiara and set it on the table. I then instruct the three of them to stand aside and group together. As they do so, I set the spell in the gem, thirty seconds. I scramble behind them and order them to smile, which they do.

FLASH

I walk over to the tiara and pick it up. When I look back, the three of them look scared beyond belief.

"Don't worry, it was just a picture. Here, let me show you." I flare some energy into the ruby, making it project a picture of the four of us a few centimeters from the gem. The three of them walk over and inspect the picture closely.

"How didst thou get us inside such a small space, Uncle Miles?" Celestia asks in wonder.

"Hehe, no dear, we aren't in there. It’s a magical copy of our likeness. It's just so you can always have something to remember me by." I shut off my magic, ending the hologram, and set the tiara back on her head.

"Mmmm... okay, now I will always have my mommy, my daddy, and my Uncle Miles with me," she says with the biggest smile ever. TOO. DAMN. CUTE.

"Celestia, why don't thou go show mother thy tiara, Uncle Miles and I have many things to discuss." Tempus asks sweetly, giving her a nudge towards Spatium.

"Okay daddy," she says as she pulls Spatium away.

"I seriously hope you've got my number." I tell him as we watch the two of them step out of the room.

"As do I."

"Alright, like always, at the same time."

"Very well."

"Eighty thousand," we say at the same time.

"Finally!"

"Most wondrous!"

"Alright, I'll get my people to start preparations. Finally, after all this time, we're finally going to see that sky." We both share a laugh at that. Apparently this ‘sky’ is something so mundane to the people of the surface, that the idea of never seeing it is absurd.

"I cannot wait to meet you on the surface, it has taken far too long for this joyous day to arrive."

"Uncle Miles?" Celestia says as she walks up to me. "What doth this mean?" I look down and see the etching I put on the back.

"‘Cum vobis semper’. It means, with you always..."

We're halfway to getting our preparations ready for our colony to move back to the surface. I was the first to sign up for it and I can't wait. Captain Bellum, Altum and I are heading out to go to the surface. It was decided that we should head out early and make sure we bring proper equipment. It's a good idea, I just wish Altum wasn't here. That fucking sadistic bastard always finds a way to stick his greasy fingers into my work, fucking power hungry asshole. Whatever, I can handle a little Altum for the opportunity to be the first human to walk on the surface in hundreds of years.

"I still don't understand why you didn't bring your weapons," Captain Bellum says as we push our way through the soil, heading up.

"I don't see the need for them."

"We're going to untraversed land, with no intel, no backup and no communication. I think that barters some need for firepower," Altum says.

"Hey, don't like it, head back. We're going to be meeting Tempus up there anyway. I doubt something would attack someone of such high political standing."

"At least let me put a barrier on you, some extra protection couldn't hurt," Captain Bellum says.

"I trust Tempus." We continue to push our way until the ceiling above ends and all we can see is a grey ceiling. I push the ground below us up until it's level with the ground around it.

The surface. The area around is fairly hard to see. There's a light grey smoke screen all around, making our visibility limited. I look around until I see a figure up above coming down to us. After a few seconds the figure is joined by another one. A little bit later the figures reveal themselves to be Tempus and Spatium flying towards us.

"Down here!" I yell out to them, getting their attention right away.

"So that's a pony," Captain Bellum says with wonder in his voice.

"Such power..." Altum mutters to himself. Please don't make me look bad. They finally make it to us and land in front of us.

"Miles! It's good to see thee on the surface," Tempus says as he and Spatium bow to us. The Captain and I return the gesture, but Altum remains up, gawking at the two of them.

"Art thou ready to see thy new home?" Spatium says.

"I've been ready ever since we met, lead the way."

Tempus gives me a nod and begins to turn, but suddenly a white flash appears from my back, and the back of Tempus’s head explodes outward. In the distance I hear the muffled sound of a rifle firing as I watch Tempus’s body slowly fall to the ground.

"TTTEEEEMMPPPUUUUUSSSS!" Spatium yells as she runs over to him and holds his body up. I can see the entry wound on the side of his head pour blood out as Spatium begins to wail over his lifeless body. "TEMPUS! NO! NO! WHY!? WWWHHHYYY!? WHAT DIDST THOU DO MILES? WHAT DIDST THOU DO!? WE TRUSTED THEE! WE THOUGHT THOU WERE OUR FRIEND! TTTTTEEEMMMMPUSSSS!"

I don't register the next few events. The only thing I can register is remembering that bullet bounce off that barrier and slam into Tempus’s head. Watching the brain matter fly out the back, seeing him slowly fall to the ground, seeing the life drain from his eyes in the matter of seconds, the screams of Spatium yelling. When I finally get a hold of myself, I find myself lying in a bed in the hospital ward back in Topaz. All of my friends are around me, looking down at me with worried looks. I slowly begin to sit up, making them all sigh in relief.

"What's going on?" I ask in a raspy voice.

"Miles! Oh thank goodness. You've been in shock for three days now," Tenera says as she gives me a hug.

"Captain Bellum told us what happened, we're sorry about your friend Miles," Sine says, as bluntly as ever.

"Where is Susurrans?" I ask, getting serious looks from everyone.

"Captain Bellum is outside-" Eximius begins.

"Bring him to me!" I bark at them. They all look at me with concern, but Fidus finally goes to retrieve him.

"Miles, what's wrong?" Auxy asks, but I don't answer. Fidus returns with Susurrans shortly after. Susurrans asks them all to leave, which they do reluctantly, before he turns to me.

"How are you feeling-"

"Did you put a barrier on me?"

"I-I... well..."

"SPIT IT OUT! DID YOU PUT A BARRIER ON ME!?" He takes a deep sigh before he looks me square in the eyes.

"Yes. Like it or not, you are a soldier of Terradisia. We cannot allow you to walk around in dangerous territory without some protection. I was just following orders, Miles." I look away from him; I can't look at him without wanting to tear his head off. Following orders, like I've never heard that before. "Miles?"

"Orders sir."

"Miles, what's wrong with you-"

"ORDERS, sir."

"..."

"Orders sir."

---

When I finish telling Luna about Tempus and Spatium, I'm fuming with rage. I'm pacing back and forth, looking for anything to vent my anger on. Luna's been sitting there the entire time, processing what I told her.

"I don't get it," she says, getting my attention. "How is it your fault that Tempus died, you didn't fire anything..."

"It's my fucking fault because I pushed for humans to move to the surface! If I hadn't, then I would never have met them, and he would have lived. Nobody would have had a reason to shoot him. IT'S MY FUCKING FAULT HE'S DEAD!" I break down and fall back against the wall in a fit of tears. "Why did he have to die? If he had been four centimeters to the right, or if I hadn't had that fucking barrier, he would have lived. I deserve to die for what I did to him." I bury my face in my arm as I cry out my sorrow.

I really wish I had died instead of him. He had Spatium, he had Celestia. They had to go on without him because of me. I probably ruined Celly’s childhood by killing her father. Who knows what kind of resentment they must’ve had towards me? As I cry out, I feel Luna grab me and pull me into her embrace. I grab onto her and cry my heart out.

Next Chapter: Chapter 28 Mending Broken Hearts Estimated time remaining: 82 Hours, 9 Minutes