Original Link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IofK963l3d0MNWVrtc2UDDN8xciKu6CuqW8jmWhj4sY/edit?usp=sharing

For hours, the beast men kept running and picking up more rebels that became too slow or weak to keep up the pace. It felt like these creatures had infinite stamina as they were not showing any signs of exhaustion. Not one of them had been speaking so far. They just seemed to be aiming for a specific place and after more than two days of non-stop running, it finally came into their view.

Enormous stalagmitic columns started coarsely dotting the landscape, gradually getting more and more dense. As if that sight was not surreal enough, they were being brought straight to the center of this landscape, which consisted of rich plant life with many unique animals roaming around freely. A huge oasis in the middle of a wasteland with ivy vines, trees and bushes having completely overgrown the sharp pillars of rock. Now that they got here, the rebels could see that most of these columns were hollowed out and had windows chiseled into them, thousands of curious and excited looking beast man heads poking out of them. The rebellion had been brought straight to the heart of their society.

At last, their saviors stopped running and gently placed down the exhausted rebels. Finally, they, too, collapsed from exhaustion, several even unconscious. They must have given it their all to bring the rebels here as fast as possible. Just moments after the arrival, more beast men came running, bringing medical supplies as well as fresh food and water, immediately beginning to treat the injured and malnourished rebels as well as the beast men bringing them here. That confirmed it to Twilight, as she as well found a halved coconut being placed in her front hooves, filled to be brim with its water. They really were here to help them. It felt like an enormous weight had been taken off from the heart of the purple mare and she gladly began drinking. They were all going to survive now.

Over the course of several hours, the beast men did not have much to talk about. They were way too busy spreading the news of the arrival of the rebellion as well as tending to it. Some of the rebels were in a critical state and needed a lot of attention to prevent their passing. But the few times a beast man could find the time to talk, it was assuring that none of them were going to be harmed. The beast men also kept repeating over and over that they would rather leave the talking to their leader, who was currently unavailable. It took until late at night before things finally started to calm down. It was then when the moonlight became suddenly blocked off by a giant soaring through the sky and gently landing inside the vast oasis not much later, taking great care in not accidentally crushing anyone. It was the winged monkey. He was injured and bleeding, but alive. He instantly was welcomed by loud cheering. Now that Celestia and Luna actually had a moment to properly look at this creature, they gasped at almost the exact same time as they stared at the creature with wide open eyes.

“Scorpan!” they exclaimed in a stunned tone.

The giant responded with a happy smile, lowering himself to get a better look at the sisters and allow the smaller beast men to treat his injuries under the light of magically glowing plants that now were shining their light on them, as if commanded to.

“It is so good to see you two again. How long has it been? Five hundred years? Six hundred?” he asked in a friendly tone.

The name of this colossus instantly made Twilight’s eyes to go wide open as well and additionally caused her jaw to drop. She found no words to express how stunned she was. This was the creature Starswirl mentioned to her?! This was Scorpan?! Of course, Twilight already knew of him beforehand from the many history books she read. When Starswirl dropped his name, she did not give it much thought. She was still too busy dealing with her new discoveries back then and actually did not expect to meet a being that had already existed so long ago. Even during the short time the ancient pony wizard had been resurrected, he already predicted this meeting. Twilight could not stop being amazed at his skills and foresight. He knew she would come across him! He knew this would happen! The purple mare did not even pay attention to what he, Luna and Celestia were talking about. It was just relief enough to see that Celestia’s lips were actually moving and she was smiling again after such a long time of silence and gloom. After some time, Scorpan’s eyes moved over to Twilight, making her snap out of her stun.

“The fabled Twilight Sparkle. I have been looking forward to the day we could finally meet,” he spoke very calmly, despite his injury.

“So you are the Lord Scorpan? The hero who turned against his own arbitrary brother and thus saved Equestria? His name is Tirek, if I recall correctly?” the purple mare wondered, now naturally assuming that his brother would still be around, too.

“I am and… Well… he was,” the giant replied, his expression now turning sad. “For his crimes, my brother was imprisoned in Tartarus. But the demons eventually found this prison and quickly turned it into a stronghold, slaughtering him along with every other creature locked in there.”

As soon as he said that, Celestia stopped smiling again. She lowered her head in guilt and shame once more, being reminded of yet another thing she could be blamed for. Twilight was about to ask how he knew of the demons and speak out her condolence, but watching how the white fallen alicorn reacted to this, she changed her mind and decided to dodge the topic altogether. Thinking about it for a moment, it would seem that at some point in the last few years, Celestia informed him somehow. Suddenly, the memory of a promise came to Twilight’s mind.

“I have a message for you from Starswirl. He asked me to give you his best regards and to tell you that he is very proud of what you have accomplished,” the purple mare relayed.

Scorpan’s eyes went wide for a moment, but quickly became relaxed again and he even started to chuckle a bit.

“Ah, I should have known. Thank you,” he responded happily.

Judging by his reaction, he wasn’t all that surprised to hear of his old, long-dead friend again. Maybe he was even half expecting it. Twilight’s gaze wandered to the other beast men before returning to their leader, needing to raise her head quite a bit to meet his gaze. She figured it would be appropriate to bring up another topic and talk about the main reason for her confusion, which also seemed to be the reason why Celestia and Luna did not immediately recognize him.

“None of the history books mentioned you were this tall. The depictions I saw of you suggested that you were about alicorn-size,” she commented, openly showing her confusion.

“Oh! Pardon me for perplexing you! I should explain this,” Scorpan spoke, now sitting down to the ground. “You see, we beast men are closely related to other mighty animal hybrid creatures, such as cockatrice, chimeras, cyclopes, jackalopes, manticores and more. Actually, cyclopes are a type of beast man. Also, as a matter of fact, the griffons are actually distantly related offspring from the beast men, who developed down their own path. But I digress. Being created out of various very different animals, we need a lot of magic to even function. We are known to be powerful… ‘magic sponges’ is a fitting word, I guess. This goes so far that we even have the ability to rob other magical beings or objects of their magic. When we do that, we significantly gain in strength, size and of course magical capabilities. Furthermore, the more magic we absorb, the longer our lifespan becomes. Some of the oldest recorded beast men were multiple thousand years old.”

“So basically…” Rarity started, her face already showing disgust. “The reason you are this huge and ancient is because you stole the magic from a lot of magical creatures?”

“Oh no, no. We don’t do that anymore for almost half a millennium by now! I actually am quite proud to say that I actively contributed to this change of mind! After I had seen just how beautiful and prosper Equestria was and the way my own brother treated it, I knew my kind couldn’t go on the way it had been for so long anymore. We were only looking out for our own needs, leaving any other species in the dust behind us. Our egoistic ways kept our homeland constantly exhausted. When I first introduced the concept of cooperation among each other and with other beings, my parents the king and queen did not approve. It took until their passing that I finally got my chance. It was difficult to change the mind of a society that had been set in its ways for eons, but after several hundreds of years, I finally succeeded. On this side of the world, we soon became known for being the guardians of the weak. In return for helping others, we found ourselves showered with love and kindness. From all over, they came to visit us in our homeland and helped to improve our own living standards. This is how this beautiful oasis was created. I usually am always right at the front when one of our neighbors gets in trouble and I quickly became elevated to the status of a hero for that, even among beast men. Mighty leaders from all around us kept on bringing me precious artifacts so I could take the magic inside of them, so I could become even stronger, so I could help even more. I assure you, my size comes solely from the equally tall mountain of artefacts which I took the magic from. I earned this the good and honest way,” Scorpan explained casually.

“To imagine you became so powerful that you can keep up with the mightiest demon I have ever encountered… To imagine that you know who I am, even though the troubles of Equestria are so far away from you… It is reassuring to know that even this far south, the word of our cause is being heard,” the purple mare commented.

“I just hope you can forgive me for not taking actions any sooner. I tried to get my fellow beast men to join your cause, but as you heard, we tend to take some time before change occurs. Helping neighbors and actively participating in a war are two very different things, it seems. Don’t misunderstand, we only even heard of Blueblood and your rebellion about a year back. We just took too long debating over what to do. Everyone was very shocked when we finally heard of what happened in the Crystal Empire and that our idleness contributed to the sheer number of lives lost… So many felt deep guilt and I just recently managed to use this to change their minds...” the giant winged monkey explained in regret.

“Realistically speaking, you probably wouldn’t have been able to come in time to help us anyway. It is terrible how many died that day… But we need to honor their deaths. Our allies died fighting for a cause they believed in. The least we can do is to keep on fighting, so that one day they may not have died in vain,” Twilight stated, a calm sadness in her voice.

“Words of wisdom, spoken like a true leader,” Scorpan commented, a smile growing on his face again. “We should have met sooner, Miss Sparkle.”

The purple mare herself just couldn’t stay sad for long in the presence of this ancient giant either. Despite being incredibly mighty, his aura was very harmonious and gentle. Twilight had to admit that his mere existence was starting to please her more and more. He was the living evidence that one could become mighty and be remembered throughout history without having to fall to corruption, like Blueblood. In fact, the way this entire oasis felt really backed up Scorpan’s story. A wild mixture of magic, balanced out just right for all the beings living here to flourish. Twilight could only sense benevolence, mercy and regret in the beast men, but no traces of their arrogant and aggressive past. The more she thought of it, the clearer it became to her. This is it. This is their refuge the rebellion had been looking for. Twilight raised her head again and opened her mouth, but it seemed like Scorpan already knew what she was going to ask.

“Of course you can stay. This is why we brought you here. It is time for the beast men to get involved and we will actively support you wherever we can,” he spoke swiftly.

“Wow! Really?!” Derpy Hooves instantly started shouting out.

As the eyes turned over to her, the rebels saw the gray reaper mare beam. Perhaps she was acting more casual and relaxed than she had actually been all this time to keep the mood of the rebels up. Or perhaps she actually was struggling during their wandership through the wasteland way more than she gave away. Whatever the reason may be, she openly showed enormous relief now, her excitement only increasing as Scorpan nodded in response with a patient smile.

“Oh my gosh! You hear that, everyone? We finally got a new home! We are safe! Thank you so much, Mr. Monkey!” she shouted while zipping through the air.

“Haha! Aren’t you a sweet little mare,” the giant commented while laughing, but soon recollected himself. “By the way, it is Mr. Gargoyle. I know, I’m mostly monkey. But there is also some bat and lion in me. Beast men consist of lots of different types of creatures and since we all are compatible with each other, the offspring often turns out to be a very different race than the parents. As for me, I fall under the gargoyle category.”

“Okay!” Derpy cheered, still flying through the air and notifying the rebels. “Come on, guys! Didn’t you hear it? We made it! We got a new HQ!”

The gray mare acted as a catalyst for the rest of the rebels. Little by little, it sunk in. None of them actually expected that the rebellion would stay here. As realization kicked in that they finally had a safe haven, the mood rapidly improved. They finally could truly start to rebuild, scout for more stray rebels wandering around aimlessly and guide them here. They finally could start recruiting again and soon, the first plans on the rebellion’s next move against Blueblood would be planned. Especially the leadership circle seemed immensely relieved over this development.

All except for Fluttershy. Her expression, as usual, remained blank. To her, this was just like any other day, any other event. Why did this already seem so familiar to her? Had she really gone through that much already that every twist and development in this war seemed old already? Once again, her hoof lowered to the heart pin, gradually slipping back to her memories again.

Fluttershy’s eyes went wide open as her touch only reached the strange fabric her cloak was made of. She looked down. She looked around… The heart pin was gone.