“I can’t believe how easily you get to them Applejack. I’ve never had half the success you have.” Twilight was honest in her admiration and slight self-deprecation. Applejack had kept Raegdan and Luna in line almost effortlessly since day one. The two of them had come down to the gardens, curious to witness the organization taking place, and they instantly got to work trying to mess everything up.

Their every attempt to further sabotage themselves in the planning of the storytelling event, either by suggesting doing a body search on everypony and securing every unicorn’s horn with a field distortion collar, or putting an inhibition spell on them on their entrance, was swiftly shot down by Applejack, with some help from Rarity. Twilight still wasn’t entirely sure if they had meant it or if they were just poking their own dark kind of fun at them by that point. Pinkie egged them on by asking if they could have Rainbow Dash flying above with some thunder clouds ready to strike down any naysayers. Raegdan and Luna actually applauded at the suggestion.

Twilight on her own would have made her throat hoarse trying to talk some sense to Raegdan, and all she would get in return was a pat on the head. Twilight was amazingly relieved when Luna started yawning and Raegdan escorted her back to her tower.

“I believe our dear Applejack might have Applebloom to thank for that,” Rarity snickered.

“True that! Those two are just like little rascals at times, ah swear. Attract their attention with something shiny, or something they care about, and they will hang on your lips,” Applejack said proudly. “Word of advice, sugarcube. Don’t try to antagonize them. They’ll get all stubborn. Move their attention elsewhere and then get back to what you want them to do from another angle. Like when they were fighting remember? They were all set to ignore us when we would tell them to stop. Say something they don’t expect to give them the pause ya need and then be firm and unmoving.”

Twilight rubbed her head. “Suddenly, my parents successful dealings with Raegdan make sense.”

“If ya think those two are tough to handle, try to keep a bunch of fillies like Applebloom and her friends in line.” Applejack laughed.

“You just need to know the buttons to push darling. Sweetie Belle will do anything if I frame it so it refers to her friends, or getting her cutie mark. Those two are even simpler in comparison. They are each other’s big, shiny lever, and they haven’t realized it yet. Too bad for them that even Commander Steadfast saw it though.” Rarity looked up at the stairs they were passing by. “You say you used to live up there?”

“Yep, astronomy tower. My room was on the first floor but in later years I spent so much time at the observatory I moved most of my belongings at the top. Raegdan lived in there.” Twilight pointed at a wooden door, hidden from view by a couple of columns.

“It looks like a storeroom,” Rarity observed.

Twilight opened the door and walked in the dusty large room. “That’s because it is.”

There was dust everywhere. The room was dark and there was only a single window to illuminate it, the glass of which had turned almost black by the amount of dirt on it, letting nothing through. The only real light came from Twilight’s spell. Black shadows were cast around them from the huge crates laid haphazardly and the covered furniture.

“He lived in here? Why?” Applejack asked. “Don’t tell me Princess Celestia ran out of guest rooms,” she said dubiously. She patted a covered couch and sneezed loudly when a cloud of dust covered her.

“He chose this place himself.” Twilight pointed at the end of the storeroom. “He made his bunk in a small space behind that huge box, right against the wall. He always lived with as little as possible. He kept the absolute minimum of clothes he needed. He only ate what the kitchens would serve anyway. He did his own cleaning. He never asked for more, he even hunted for the meat he needed instead of letting Princess Celestia have some brought from the Griffins.”

“But why? I thought for sure that the Princess would let him stay in a proper room,” Rarity said.

“He claimed that all this was an amazingly tremendous luxury for him compared to what he used to have. Or not have.” They all looked at the grimy room around them, dark, humid, and full of cobwebs. “He said he didn’t want to upset his luck. I wonder how he makes do in Luna’s room now.”

Rarity gave a knowing hum that Applejack snickered at.

“Stop that! Here it is. His “room”.” Twilight introduced them to Raegdan’s old dwellings.

It was a sad, little corner. His bed was a pile of old blankets laid on the floor. It was obvious that he used to keep this closed section clean, but everything had been reclaimed by dust. Three small wooden boxes were on the side, pushed against the large crate that served as a makeshift wall. A few stubbed candles were still on top of one. He had pinned a multitude of papers on the crate. Twilight hadn’t been here in many, many years and had never seen them here before. She got closer.

They were old drawings made by her and Spike. Raegdan had kept almost all of them. Space was made in the middle for one in particular. Twilight recognized it. She remembered drawing it along with Spike when she was ten.

It showed her next to her parents and her brother. Spike was on the other side of her and he had added Princess Celestia to his other side. At the end, distant from all of them, stood a biped figure. The top of the drawing was titled “Our families”. It was the first time they had ever included Raegdan in any of their drawings. Even if they had set him apart, he still treasured it apparently.

Next to that childish drawing he had pinned three photos. One of her, one of Spike, and one of Princess Celestia. Below, there were more photos. Shining, Cadance, her parents, Prince Blueblood, and… four mares she didn’t know. She didn’t expect to see Blueblood have a place of honor here. Then again, they were, more or less, all the friends Raegdan had.

But who were those four? She examined them carefully. Two of them were smiling, if you could call it that, they looked so fragile and hesitant. The other two seemed… lifeless. Especially the last one. Her eyes looked dead. If he had their photos here they must be friends of his, but Twilight was certain she had never seen these mares before.

Twilight felt her heart give a little jerk. She noted the way he had positioned the bedding’s head across the photos. It was the first and last thing he saw every day.

“This is what he considers luxury then? I would hate to see what he thinks as austerity.” Rarity gently poked the blankets and spread them out. They were old and threadbare.

“Where did he keep his stuff, Twilight?” Applejack asked. She was also examining the makeshift wall.

“These boxes here, I guess. Let’s take a look inside,” she answered.

The first of the three boxes was a grand disappointment. It wasn’t empty. It would be better if it was. Instead, they found ashes inside.

“Whelp, I guess we found the notes and stuff we were looking for,” Applejack said, unneededly.

Twilight looked at the box cover they removed. There was less dust on it than on the rest of the room. She sighed. This did not bode well. “Next one,” she said.

The second one was empty. Rarity’s horn lit and she pulled a few threads from the bottom. “I believe we found his old closet,” she said. She critically eyed the threads. “Horrible quality. I don’t know how much this cost, but anything would be too much.”

They opened the last box. That one was still full of various items. They started to pull them out carefully.

Twilight pulled out a couple of books. She looked at them with distaste. What was he doing with this kind of reading material?

“What are these about, Twilight?” Applejack asked as she left Rarity to rummage in the box on her own.

“This one is about eugenics.” She noted Applejack’s blank look. “It’s basically like breeding, but for ponies. You know, selectively increase desired characteristics by mating-”

“Yeah, ok, ah get it. Very classy. The other one?”

“This one is also peculiar. It’s a book with alternate theories of teleportation.”

“Like the thing you do?” Applejack asked.

“Kinda. This one was written centuries ago. It has some radical theories on using the same principles to make or use portals to other places.”

Rarity lifted her head from her search. “Other places?”

“Other cities. Or even other continents.” Twilight frowned. “It can’t work obviously, the magic requirements alone are huge, but the theories here have some value. Thing is, there was only one copy and it was stolen from the Royal Archives a few years ago.”

Applejack eyed the book suspiciously. “Are ya telling me we just found that copy?”

“I do. I wonder what he needed from this? It’s useless to him without somepony to cast spells and a teleportation spell or portal would never work for him.” Twilight opened the book at a random page. She gasped with horror at what she saw. She quickly checked the rest of the book. It was the same! “I can’t believe this!”

“Twi?”

“He ruined it! He covered the better part of most of the pages with ink and even tore some off. This is monstrous!”

“Oh my, I think I just found something interesting here!” Rarity yelled at them.

She pulled out a small wooden box that had been tied shut with string. A word was deeply carved on it in Raegdan’s written language. Twilight’s outrage melted away at the sight. She had seen this box before.

“I… completely forgot about that. Strange. I would have thought he would keep it somewhere near him.” Twilight put the books she was holding down.

“Is it something valuable?” Rarity asked. She was examining the knot on the string.

“It is for him, yes. The word on it? It says “home”,” she told them. Rarity rotated the box so she could examine the carved word. “It’s the one single thing he has left from where he came from.”

“Just this? I- I have to admit, I am very curious. But I am not going to handle such a personal item without his permission.” Rarity reluctantly put the box back inside the small crate.

“Ah don’t suppose you know what he has in there, Twilight?” Applejack asked. Curiosity had gotten the best of her farmer friend. Who could blame her? She doubted if she could stop herself from opening the box in her place.

“It’s…” Twilight hesitated but decided to tell them nonetheless. Better to hear it from her than risk asking Raegdan himself at some point. “It’s an old ring. Or what remains of it. It’s broken, worn down, and half melted. I think it’s made of poor quality iron or tin. It’s not a pretty sight. It’s all he has left, and you can’t even tell what it is anymore,” Twilight told them with sadness.

“Did it have any important significance for him? Apart from being a piece of home of course.” Rarity’s eyes were locked on the box.

“Yes. His mother gave it to him as a gift when he was still a child. He told me he never stopped wearing it until his finger was too big for it. When it became too small, he hung it around his neck. It didn’t have any material value, but he held on to it because it made her happy to see him keeping it around. It’s… worth everything to him.”

Applejack took off her hat and held it to her chest for a moment of silence. Twilight and Rarity brushed at their eyes. It was so easy to forget. Raegdan always seemed so much at ease with what happened in his life. Like nothing could really faze him for long. He was always making fun of whatever happened to him or ignored it as unimportant, but Twilight had began to understand that all this was just a facade, to keep everypony from realizing how lonely he was. So far away from his home, friends, and family, it might as well be a different planet away. He told her once while drunk that he would rather die than go back to trying to find the way to return, no matter how much he wanted to go back home.

A home that all he had to remember it by was a misshapen piece of metal that he kept stashed away because he couldn’t bear to look at it without crying. She only asked him to show it to her once. She swore to never do that again after what happened. He gruffly told her to wait for him outside after showing it to her while he packed the mangled memento out of sight. Twilight had stalled long enough at the door to barely hear the sound of his soft crying. It was the only time that he cried or shown true regret about his lot in life that she knew of. She ran out before she was noticed and neither of them ever mentioned the ring again.

He had latched on them so hard, as if he was drowning and they were the rope holding him up. How did he really feel? Underneath all his bravado, how much pain was he hiding? She tried imagining losing everypony in her life. Just gone, with no way to hear from them again. The thought of it alone almost physically hurt. She couldn’t actually do it. Her heart and brain rebelled against it.

Luna could understand, she realized. She certainly must have known what it was like to be ripped off from her world, better than anypony else ever could. Twilight sighed inwardly. Both of them had gone through experiences that could be described as torture -that they were most adamant not to share-, both had lost their world, had performed actions they were ashamed of -another thing they wouldn’t share, though Luna wasn’t such a terrible mystery-, and both were unbelievingly lonely before they met. Twilight wondered how much Luna knew about Raegdan’s past. She was probably the only one who knew the complete truth. Raegdan must have certainly-

“There’s a second box here,” Rarity announced. She showed them another version of the box that contained the ring.

“I haven’t seen that before,” Twilight said, mystified. She examined the box carefully. There were two different words carved on the top, neither of which she knew, with two and five letters respectfully. The string on it looked much older and frayed by time. It had obviously been a very long time since it had been opened.

“So, no idea what he has in there?” Applejack asked.

“None at all. I… should we open it?” Twilight was heavily conflicted. She either found out what was in here now or she never did. What if it was as personal as the ring? Maybe it wasn’t. Maybe all that was in there was an old piece of cloth that they could get no meaning out of. Would it be a breach of his personal life if they saw something they couldn’t understand the importance of?

“It’s your call Twilight,” Applejack burdened her with the sole responsibility.

Twilight took the box in her magic. She shouldn’t, she knew that, but… damnit, Luna knew everything about Raegdan and she had spent only a year with him. Twilight was jealous of her, she accepted that, but Twilight herself could be trusted with Raegdan’s secrets as well. She carefully untied the string, not paying attention to the little voice that called her a hypocrite.

All three of them grouped around the box as she opened it, and they all recoiled back at the sight. Twilight lost her grip on the box, but Rarity managed to catch it before it hit the floor.

They slowly gathered around again to take a second, longer look. Inside the box was a long lock of blonde hair, a small purple ribbon tied around it. One end of the hair was slightly burned, blackened and curling on itself. The other end had dried out, reddish brown flakes covering it.

They stood silent, looking at it for some time.

“Who do ya think this belonged to?” Applejack asked in a whisper.

“Do you… do you think it was someone from his family?” Rarity asked in an equally low whisper.

“Gosh, ah hope not.”

Twilight sealed the box again and gave it to Rarity to put it back. That had been a mistake. A horrible, horrible mistake. He had lost more than she ever thought, didn’t he?

Rarity had returned to the crate’s contents. “There’s more here. Oh, this here looks official. Let’s see what it… of course. What else? Celestia forbid we don’t find something morbid again.”

“What’s that now?” Applejack asked, slightly amused.

Rarity was leafing through a few papers. “Well, these here are bank account statements. Raegdan might be living an austere life, but he really has about… oh. That’s… that’s a lot of bits.”

Twilight’s curiosity was piqued. She could barely recollect something that Princess Celestia said about reimbursing Raegdan some day for some of the things he shared, but wasn’t one hundred percent sure on that. She had figured that the bits he spent on them today was most of what he had earned.

“How much does he have left if you subtract what he gave us today?” she asked, feeling slightly guilty for taking his money. It’s not like he had a steady income of any kind, unless Luna had arranged for him to start getting paid as the sole member of her Lunar Guard.

“A lot,” Rarity answered to Twilight’s intense surprise. “He is rich. Very, very rich. I think he has a share in the… Equestrian Railroad Association? Dear Celestia, how did he manage that?” Rarity was astonished.

Twilight felt a flash in her brain as she made the link. She remembered when he saw the train station for the first time. He had fallen down in laughter, his legs kicking up in the air when he saw the stallions tethered up in front.

“I think I know how. Remember how the trains got pulled before they built the steam engines?” Twilight reminded them.

Rarity blinked with a vacant look before she also made the connection. “Ah, I see. Another gift from his home. It seems he traded this one for a share in the company. Though from what I see here, he has barely touched any of the money it earned him. The biggest withdraws I can find here -apart from what he spent today- are about fifty to a hundred bits per month on average. That’s a pittance. But… hmm… he has quite a large amount of money funneled out to other accounts, monthly.”

“What was all that morbid stuff about?” Applejack asked.

“Oh, yes. Sorry, it slipped my mind when I saw those numbers.” She brought another sheet in front of the stack she held. “It’s his last will and testament. I do not believe we should read this.”

“Oh.” That was all Twilight felt like saying.

“Well, it’s meant to be read at some point, isn’t? We’ve gone this far anyway. Besides, ah’m pretty sure ah can guess who gets everything of this newly discovered fortune,” Applejack said with a meaningful eyebrow wiggling in Twilight’s direction.

“Well…” Rarity started reading with fading reluctance. “It’s not much. Basically he leaves what little of material personal possessions he has to you and Spike, Twilight, to keep, share, or destroy as you see fit. There are instructions for his funeral,” Rarity frowned in displeasure. “There is not to be one, no funeral, no grave, and no memorial of any kind. He wants his body burned and the ashes thrown anywhere available. He suggests a -oh Celestia- a landfill. Seriously, what happened to his self-respect?” Rarity demanded, waving the papers around her. “As for the money… oh… that’s- that’s strange…” Rarity’s eyes shifted from Twilight to Applejack.

“Well? Don’t keep us in suspense. Twilight and Spike get everything, right? What’s the big deal?” Applejack asked impatiently.

“True. He has left instructions that all his fortune is to be liquefied and every bit he has, except enough to continue those monthly payments for a few years, is to be divided by three. One third goes to Twilight. One third to Spike. The last third… well, the last third of the money is to be delivered to the Apple family, owners of Sweet Apple Acres at Ponyville.”

“...what?”

“It’s quite clear, Applejack. When Raegdan… passes on, you and your family will not have to worry about bits for some time.” Rarity told her. She leafed back at the bank papers. “Or, as it would be more appropriate to say, a long time,” she added.

Applejack closed her eyes, breathing deeply. Twilight was stunned. She wracked her head to figure what this meant. Why would Raegdan… why? How? Why?

“Twily?” Applejack said, calmly.

“Uh, yes?” Twilight had an idea what was coming. She wasn’t looking forward to it.

“Would you mind explaining to me the meaning of this? Why would Raegdan have my family in his will when he never met any of us?” Applejack said in a very calm tone.

“I have no idea?” Honesty was the best route, wasn’t it? Then why did it feel to Twilight that it wouldn’t do a fat load of good to her.

“You have no idea. Twilight, ah don’t like this. Ah don’t like this one tiny bit. Ah don’t know how or why, but ah don’t want my family involved in any of Raegdan’s hare brained schemes. So, let’s try this again. What’s the meaning of this?” Applejack was getting upset at her.

“Applejack, honestly, I have no idea why he would do that.” Applejack didn’t look convinced. “I swear! He might… maybe he did it as charity? Maybe it’s his own way of helping out my friends.”

“Ah don’t need charity Twilight!” Applejack said, offended.

“I know you don’t Applejack. I didn’t mean it like that. I don’t know why. I never know why he does half the stuff he does. Believe me.”

Rarity came in between them. “Applejack, dear, you’re overreacting. Maybe this is nothing but a gift from him. For some reason he thought you deserved it more, or would put the bits to better use. He obviously values family. Perhaps he felt a connection with yours through Twilight’s letters. It’s not like he did something bad. Let’s just ignore this, shall we?”

“...Fine. Ah don’t like it, but fine. And ah want answers, real ones, when all this is said and done, ya hear?”

“Of course, Applejack. We all do. Now, I think there’s almost nothing left in here. Another wasted effort girls. Nothing of real use here. Oh, this is different. What is-”

Rarity screamed and threw the white cylinder she had pulled out away from her. She turned around and ran behind them, screaming all the time.

“What the hay? What was that about?” Applejack asked, covering her ears with her hooves.

Twilight approached whatever it was that caused Rarity to act like that. She pulled it closer with her magic. It was white, tapered to a pointy end, and…

Oh.

“Oh, Raegdan. What have you done?” Twilight thought to herself.

Rarity was making croaking noises in the corner. She was doing all she could do to keep herself from emptying her stomach. It was perfectly understandable. This was a very disturbing find.

“Twilight, is this what ah think it is?” Applejack asked, disgusted.

“Yes. That’s a unicorn’s horn.” Twilight examined it carefully, despite how reluctant she was. It was just the bone of the horn, what they called in medical terms the alicorn. It was long, much longer than average, almost Celestia sized. She checked the base. The part that was connected to the rest of the skull had been expertly trimmed off. This horn had been removed with painstaking care. Who did it belong to? Why did Raegdan have-

“Is there anything else in there?” Twilight asked Applejack.

“I… uh…”

“Applejack!” Twilight called to bring her back to attention.

“Ah, yeah, let me check.” Apprehensive for anything similar popping out at her, Applejack dug all the way down to the end of the box’s contents. Twilight waited, examining the horn’s sharp end.

“Nope, nothing else Twilight. Look, can we go now? I think I’ve had enough of digging through Raegdan’s stuff for a lifetime. Ah really like the big guy, but ah’m sorely tempted to bring that thing there to Princess Celestia’s attention and let her get to the bottom of this. If Shining Armor hadn’t said-” Applejack covered her muzzle with her hooves.

Twilight’s eyes popped straight at Applejack. That was it. She had enough of tipping around, waiting for Raegdan to drop little hints, and she certainly wasn’t going to stand for her friends hiding information from her. A little filly left orphaned. A mare left crippled. A stallion lost in a coma. Pinkie Pie almost dead. Raegdan and Luna apparently afraid of their own rooms, inspecting them for traps every day, as if they were intruders in their own living quarters. A horrendous… thing like this in Raegdan’s possessions. And all for what?

She had no idea. Three days trying to deduce what the heck was going on and she still had no idea. None at all. Someponies were trying to kill Luna and Raegdan. Why? She had no idea. Luna and Raegdan were afraid of something, but it wasn’t the ponies trying to kill them, at least not really. What was it? She had no idea. Luna and Raegdan had assembled an armory. For what? She had no idea. What was the real reason they needed a personal army? No idea. Why weren’t they honest with them, or Celestia? She glanced at the bone in her magic field. She was starting to have some suspicions for this at least, but this was the end of it. She was done wading through ignorance, timidly asking for scraps, and acting like a little filly again, trusting other ponies to know best. She was a grown mare. She would have her answers.

And Applejack had some of them.

“You are a horrible liar Applejack. You know it and I know it. So don’t try to lie about this. What did Shining Armor say? I want to know everything!” Twilight demanded.

Applejack sighed in surrender. “Gotta say, it would be a load off mah chest sugarcube. But are ya sure about that? It’s not… good. Not good at all.”

“Everything, Applejack. All that you know,” Twilight reiterated.

Applejack told her everything, holding nothing back. Applejack told her about Raegdan’s suicide attempt. That alone was almost enough to break her newfound resolve, but Twilight pressed on. Her expertise lay on her mind, on her thinking. She had to know as much as possible or she would continue being a dead weight.

Applejack then told her about Shining Armor’s theory of what Raegdan did years ago.

Twilight let the horn fall and clatter to the ground, raising a small cloud of dust. She looked at it with rising horror. Rarity’s face was filled with disgust. Applejack let the facade of calmness fade from her and adopted a stance of surrender. She had known what it was the moment she saw it, Twilight realized. Applejack didn’t want to tell Twilight because Applejack believed in family most of all, and she didn’t want to do anything that might ruin Twilight and Spike’s relationship with Raegdan, not when she wasn’t entirely sure.

“It’s a trophy.” Twilight whispered to herself in horrified fascination.

“Maybe,” Applejack said. “Or maybe it’s something else entirely. Maybe he stole it from a medical school for instance. Ah don’t think so, but we don’t know for sure do we?” She brought her hoof to Twilight’s shoulder. “Look, sugarcube, we can’t know for sure, can we? It might be nothing at all.”

“He was skinning him when I went in there…” Twilight kept whispering, memories rushing back to her.

“What? Twily, what are you talking about?”

“When I had that fight with Raegdan,” Twilight explained, speaking in a low voice and broken, trembling sentences. She felt cold, so very cold. The dust and tight confines of the storage room were choking her. “Two years ago. I… I found some papers in Princess Celestia’s office. Old ones. They were about Raegdan. Reports. From the medical wing, back when they first found him. They had brought him in almost dead. Bones broken, burnt, slashed apart, and a hole in his chest that had pierced him through, barely missing going through his heart. He almost didn’t make it. They kept him muzzled. That’s what I found most strange. As if they were afraid he was going to try and bite them, eat them. I… I wondered then. We never met one of Raegdan’s kind before but… that must mean he never met one of our kind either, right? So… so if he met a pony, and he was hungry… if he was hunting for food… they called him a monster as soon as he arrived here, even half dead. Why, unless-”

“Twilight, ah think you might be overreacting. That’s just an assumption-”

“-so I went to find him, ask him what had happened so long ago. He was down in the dungeons. I went inside and I saw him- he tried to tell me it was just a large boar. He had cut off the head and legs, but there was enough of the coat left… I convinced myself later on that I had just imagined it. That I was too lost in my own fears and I just… projected something made up in my mind over what really was there.”

“Twilight? What are you saying? You said you made a mistake, didn’t you? Come on, Raegdan wouldn’t do something like that,” Applejack insisted.

“Boars don’t have white coats. Boars don’t have colors on their flanks like- like cutie marks. He was skinning a pony!” She pointed at the horn in front of her. “This pony. Oh, Celestia… what did he do? How could he do this?” she shouted in horror.

She turned around and started marching outside. Applejack and Rarity rushed beside her.

“Twilight? Twilight, where are you going?” Rarity asked, frightened.

“The dungeons,” she answered. “There might still be something there. You are right, Applejack, I don’t know. But I have to. I will,” Twilight choked.

The dungeons were bleak and damp, as they should be. It was what you expected of them. You weren’t sent here for giggling too loudly after all. But Twilight and her two friends went deeper, entering the level below them. The old dungeons. Here, there was no light, no small grates that allowed a modicum of sunlight to pierce through and remind the prisoners that on the surface there was life and light.

Down here there was only darkness and the fire lit torches that struggled to keep it at bay.

Twilight didn’t bother with those. Her horn lit up and she created a magic lantern to shine above them, bathing the dreary surroundings in a soft, blue glow. She nodded towards a heavy iron door that blocked one of the cells, deep down the corridor.

“That’s the one,” she said. “It is going to be quite… smelly, just so you know. It’s very bloody work, what he is doing, and it leaves quite a distinct smell.” Her voice echoed on the cold, stone walls.

“Oh, great,” said Rarity. “I swear, I will never feel clean enough…”

Twilight opened the door. The room inside was…

It was sparkling clean, that’s what it was. She examined the floor. The wet stone was shining in the magically conjured light. This room had been thoroughly cleaned, and recently at that. There were still some puddles of water in the corner. When did they-

Twilight’s gaze locked in the middle of the room. There, upon a lone stool, were two small pouches, inviting them to look through them with their presence.

“This certainly looks better than I feared,” Rarity said in relief. She noticed the stool that Twilight was approaching. “Oh. This isn’t going to end well, I can tell.”

Twilight examined the pouches as her friends approached her, one from each side. They were black and cheap looking. The smaller one was on top of the bigger one, the base pouch having something solid stashed in it. Twilight picked up the small pouch first, dread filling her, and pulled out some of it’s contents.

It was hair. Just a tiny pile of a few short hairs wrapped in a piece of paper.

“Huh? Now that’s kinda anticlimactic, ain’t it?” Applejack said.

Twilight wasn’t sure about that. She concentrated on her spell, changed the light’s color to a bright white, and checked the short hairs again.

It was a small collection of different colored ones. There were white ones, blue, orange, purpl-

“Uh oh,” Twilight said.

“What?” Applejack asked. “What did ah miss? Rarity? Why are you looking all scared? What’s going on?”

Twilight, her magic grip shaking, piled the coat hairs back in the small pouch and retrieved the bigger one. She pulled out the pair of rectangles that it contained.

“Ah, ponyfeathers,” Applejack cursed in understanding.

Two metal squares. One of them had a hole pierced through it. The other one had a small bump. Twilight looked back into the pouch. Yep, there it was. The metal spike she had used.

“They know!” Rarity said, hysterically. “Twilight, they know! I told you this was a bad idea. They are gonna have our heads! He is gonna…” her eyes flicked towards the grizzly trophy that Twilight kept in a pouch. “He is gonna have our horns!” she hissed in terror.

The heavy door behind them shook the room with a vibrating, clanging sound as it was forcefully shut.

The three young mares felt their hearts beat somewhere between their neck and mouth. They spinned around to see Raegdan, fully armed and armored, tucking the door’s key in his belt. Twilight had to admit, when you were face to face with him like this, knowing he was not currently on your side, he looked much more… terrifying. He switched hands on the lit torch he was carrying and pulled out his hammer. He pointed at them with it.

“You two,” he said coldly to Rarity and Applejack. “Corners. One each.”

Applejack took a step forward. Rarity had frozen in place, her only movement the chattering of her teeth. “Hey now, big fella. Look, I know what we did was wrong, but-”

“Corners. Now!” Raegdan whispered harsh and loud.

Rarity ran towards the back left, as far away from Raegdan as possible. Applejack gulped and slowly stepped backwards towards the other one.

Raegdan finally turned his attention to the last mare in the large cell. “Sit,” he told Twilight. There was no reason to fight him on such a simple order. An hour before she wouldn’t. Now however, she had decided she would no longer bend her head and obey blindly. Not with what she knew.

“You can’t keep us in here against our wishes,” she told him. Raegdan’s helm leaned sideways, a gesture portraying his question. “If I want to I can teleport my friends and myself outside in seconds,” she let him know. “And you can’t stop me. So don’t try to give orders to me!”

Raegdan nodded. A dark chuckle sounded underneath his helmet, chilling Twilight’s blood. What did he find so funny-

He took a step back and used the bottom of his hammer to strike the iron door behind him three times. When the loud noise stopped echoing in the room, he spoke.

“Luna?”

“Yes?” Luna’s voice came from outside. Oh, this was bad. Twilight didn’t expect Raegdan to have her here with him. Still, it didn’t change things. Twilight was extremely proficient with the teleportation spell. She should be able to escape even Luna herself.

She hoped.

“Twilight says that she can teleport all three of them away. Tell me again, how would you stop her?”

“I would not even attempt to,” Luna said behind the door. Twilight gulped when she heard her tone. Luna spoke calmly, but there was a fury hiding behind her words. “I know the teleport spell myself, as well as far more dangerous and painful spells. I also know exactly where Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash are at the moment. So please, by all means, let her know she is free to go any time she wishes.”

“Thank you, Luna.”

It was the simple and factual way they talked that convinced her. It could be just a bluff; she hoped fervently it was all just a bluff. Not knowing for sure if it was or not meant that Twilight couldn’t risk it. Not when she didn’t even know what they were planning to do to them right now. Maybe… maybe this was supposed to serve as a warning? To scare them into not talking to Celestia?

Twilight sat on the stool.

When Raegdan came to stand in front of her, she asked the first question that came to mind. “Why is Luna staying outside?”

“Because I begged her to give you a chance,” Raegdan answered. He was keeping his voice low on purpose, as if doing his best to refrain from giving in to a mounting rage and screaming his head off at them. Every word came out as a hiss, distorted almost beyond any recognition from the helmet covering his head.

“If it was anyone else but you…” his hands shook, the trembling torchlight making mockeries of everything it illuminated. “Anyone else would be dead now. If Luna didn’t kill them, I would. Do you have any idea what you even did?”

“We knew you were-”

“We trusted you!” Ragdan yelled with the full strength of his lungs. “We gave you our trust and you… you mocked us right behind our backs!” He pointed at Applejack with a trembling arm. “One day after your blustering speech about trust you were ransacking through our room. Honesty… hah,” he ridiculed. “It’s the same thing everywhere, nothing but a big pile of crap!” Applejack lowered her head in shame.

“Don’t you dare blame Applejack,” Twilight yelled. “That was my decision and she supported me because she is my friend, and you are a stinking liar!”

“Are you actually going to try to turn this around on me? While you were caught red handed?” Raegdan said with sarcasm.

Twilight’s indignation flared up. She wasn’t going to be laughed off or yelled down this time. “You and Luna are building weapons! We saw it!”

Raegdan rushed forward and ripped the steel samples Twilight was still holding out of her magic grasp, violently. “Exactly! And you and your friends just… frolicked in there, unheeding of the danger. You have absolutely no idea what half of those things were in there Twilight. One wrong move and… were you fucking trying to kill yourself?” he shouted.

“You are the one who is keeping these kinds of secrets!” Twilight countered. “Don’t you try and pin this on me. I keep asking, and asking, and begging for answers, and all I get are half truths, outright lies, or nothing at all. What did you expect?” she said in indignation.

“I expected you to show some decency to the fact that we might have a reason we keep things to ourselves,” Raegdan yelled, furious. “We have explosives in there Twilight. Explosives! One wrong spill, one wrong spell, was all it would take to set them off. Nevermind what Celestia would do if she knew. You and your friends would be dead. And the reason we build them is our own. I don’t lie about the fact that I have secrets. I’ve straight out told you that I have them! But you just had to know more, didn’t you?” he jeered.

Twilight took two deep breaths to calm herself down a bit. Tears would not help. “You do lie. You lie about everything. Always. This stops now.” Twilight revealed the horn they found.

“You lied to me,” she whispered savagely. “You made me think I was a horrible, faithless daughter to you. You killed somepony, you were gutting him right in front of me, and you lied and piled guilt I shouldn’t feel on me!” She threw the bone at his chest. Rarity and Applejack gasped softly at the disrespect she showed towards the last remains of the unnamed unicorn.

Raegdan’s dark eye slits stared at the horn at his feet for a moment before bringing his armored boot down with a grunt and snapping the object that brought his sins to light at two. “You went through Luna’s tower, you went through my room, do you want to search my pockets too? Or do you want to wait until I am asleep so you can also do this behind my back?”

“Don’t try to guilt trip me! Don’t try to change the subject! I want answers. Either you give them to me or to Princess Celestia!” Twilight threatened him. “Was this the pony who had me foalnapped?”

Raegdan loomed threateningly over Twilight. “Who told you about this? No one should… Shining Armor! I can’t believe he actually-”

Twilight pushed him away from her. “Don’t try to intimidate me either. I am not scared of you! No, Shining Armor did not tell me. He wasn’t sure himself. He told Applejack what he suspected.”

Applejack hushed a whisper at her from her corner. “Twilight, ah love ya like a sister, but please don’t put me in the middle of this.”

“Her?” Raegdan asked, scandalized. “The moron talked about something like this with the fucking bearer of the element of honesty? Heavens, does all of Canterlot know already?”

“Hey!” Applejack shouted offended. “Ah didn’t tell nopony but Twilight. Just because ah like being honest doesn’t mean ah can’t keep a secret!”

“That’s enough!” Twilight shouted them both down. “Tell me now, Raegdan. No more avoidances. No more lies. Just the truth, for once in your life. What did you do in here?”

“None of your business,” he yelled.

“Then it will become Princess Celestia’s business, unless you tell me.”

“You think Luna will let you reach her, without your friends paying the price?” Muffled laughter came out of his iron visage that Twilight cut short in an instant.

“You think Princess Celestia will let Luna get off with a slap on the hoof if she hurts my friends?” she smirked back. That must have wiped the smile off his face. He anxiously looked over his shoulder towards the door.

Raegdan stared back at her, still as a statue. “You want the truth?” he asked in a scared whisper after a few seconds.

“Yes!”

“No matter what? Even if I believe it’s in your best interests not to know?”

“Yes!”

“And what if it means my death? Do you still want to know?”

There was a bright blue line of light behind Raegdan, brighter than anything Twilight had ever seen, leaving the door’s lock dripping in a flow of molten metal. Luna kicked it open and ran inside, sweating and gasping for breath. “That’s enough! We are proceeding with the plan, Raegdan. They can’t know.”

For a few gut wrenching moments Raegdan didn’t answer. “No.”

“No? Raegdan, my sister will no longer protect you, nor allow me to. They will push for your execution. I am not losing you, not now!” Luna shouted in anger.

“She asked for the truth, Luna. I will tell her. She wants my life in her hands? I’ll let her have it.”

“You’ll- are you insane? You are throwing everything away for what? You think she will understand? She can’t. None of them can. All they know is their comfort and perceived safety! You took it upon yourself to stop the monsters preying upon them and they will hang you for it because you were not up to their impossible standards! That’s what they do! She’s never had to make a harsh choice in her life! She will not understand!”

“Why not?” Twilight challenged. Her blood was boiling, and she took advantage of the boldness her rage was giving her to speak her mind. “You think that I am an idiot? That I can’t understand Raegdan if he tries to talk honestly to me for a change? Do you think you are the only one who deserves to know the truth about him, just because you two sleep together?” she erupted.

Luna’s eyes widened in surprise. “I thought we were keeping our bedroom arrangement a secret!” she hissed at Raegdan sideways.

“Is she even talking about that, or-”

Luna brought her hoof down on the floor with force, the sound echoing in the deep, dark dungeon cell. “Enough! The point is moot. By the time I am done it won’t matter what they found out-”

Raegdan knelt beside Luna and pulled her against him in a one armed hug. “Luna… Let me do this instead, please?”

“They will never trust us, Raegdan, and we can’t trust them in turn!”

“It’s Twilight, Luna. If she can’t forgive me for this, even a little, then how are we going to accomplish anything? Luna, please.”

“Raegdan… if they talk, you will be killed. I won’t be able to save you. I no longer have the strength to stand alone against my sister. I understand why you hesitate to approve, but this is the only way we can make sure you will stay safe.” Luna whispered pleadingly.

“I know. Luna, it’s either me or you taking a fall at this point. Please. Let it be me.”

“This is an attempt to level the field between us once more, isn’t it? Raegdan, there is no need. I can-”

“What if Celestia finds out if you do this? We are not risking you-”

“No! I had enough of this. I am not losing what little I have left. I’ll wipe out their-”

“Luna,” Raegdan said with calmness in contrast to Luna’s panic. “I never told Celestia where the rift currently is. Worst they can do is kill me. But you…”

Luna trembled and slowly closed her eyes in surrender.

Raegdan gently run his gloved fingers through Luna’s mane as he rose up. “Twilight, get up and step back.” Twilight did as he asked. Raegdan unsheathed one of his daggers and used it as a lever to tilt the stone the stool was standing on. He got a hold of it and pulled it off, revealing a secret stash. Twilight was impressed. She would never had thought to search right below her, in the room’s middle, in a simple hole. She would have searched for magical imprints or a secret mechanism, not a hole in the ground, and after seeing the kind of clean up they performed she would not have even tried. From the hole he removed a box filled with papers and a rolled up canvas.

“Raegdan, please, don’t,” Luna begged.

“You wanted the truth, little one? Here it is!” He unrolled the canvas in front of her. Inside it, meticulously stashed, were a variety of tools. Twilight saw scissors, screwdrivers, hammers, pliers, nails, cutters, saws, files, and a lot of other similar things. Almost all of them were speckled with rust.

“What is this?” she asked.

“Your precious truth. You asked me what I did in here? This is what I did. I tortured and killed fourteen ponies, mares and stallions. Then, I ate most of their remains to dispose of them without being caught. I disguised them as a result of my hunts. The horn belonged to lucky number fifteen. I kept him alive and in as much horrific, excruciating pain as I could manage for almost a week. I tried for more, I really did, but I ran out of medical supplies. When he couldn’t take it any more he ended up like the others. I cut him apart, skinned him, ate him. That’s who you saw.” He pointed at the shattered horn on the ground.

Twilight looked back at the sharp instruments.

That wasn’t rust.

She backed up away from him. Fifteen ponies. He- he did this to fifteen ponies! She tried to gulp down something that had gotten stuck in her throat. She couldn’t keep her eyes from straying to a serrated knife. Some of its teeth had been broken off and… and there was something stuck between a few of the rest.

“Raegdan, I can still-” Raegdan brought a finger to Luna’s lips, keeping her from continuing.

“The truth. Nothing but the truth,” he mourned. “I made them beg for death, Twilight. I broke their hooves and hammered hot red nails through the cracks, all the way to the bone. I smashed and sawed off their horns. I ripped off their wings. I plucked out their eyes, I cut off their ears, and I pulled off their teeth one by one. I didn’t bother wasting my time doing this to all of them, most of them were simple thugs. But on a few special occasions, I got really creative.” His voice got lower and growling as he recited the torment he brought upon his victims.

Twilight could swear she felt a waft of sickening, metallic smell coming from that hideous pile of metal instruments. It took all of Twilight’s courage and resolve to stop herself from teleporting away that instant from this monstrosity, that had taken her stepfather’s form, to her friends’ side and get them out from here where this kind of slaughter took place. She still took two shaky steps towards them. They were right. Everypony who ever called him a monster was right. She just didn’t see it for so very long. She had been blind because the monster was on her side, wasn’t she? He mutilated ponies and he did not care, he did not even try to defend himsel-

“I killed him because he got in my way. I crushed him because he wanted to save his friend. I took him from you because he stopped me!”

Luna was looking at her with her eyes shining wet in the flickering torchlight, accusing her silently for the death her following actions would bring on her only friend. Raegdan was standing still next to her, his helmet turned away from Twilight, shoulders slumped in defeat. He didn’t believe Twilight would hide this from Celestia for him. He had given up and waited for Twilight to run off and bring Celestia’s wrath upon him. Once more, he offered no defense, no excuse for himself.

Twilight desperately wanted her mentor to help her. This was too much. She loved Raegdan to bits, once upon a time, but this was fifteen deaths they were talking about. This was a crime. Murder. Worse. He confessed and he called it the truth. The dried blood on the tools he used was proof enough to convince her.

But was it the whole truth?

“Why?”

“Why, what?” he asked back.

“Why did you do this to them? Even if you had a reason to want them dead, even if it was because they were the ones who foalnapped me… why did you torture them this way? Why didn’t you tell somepony about them instead?” She trembled. She wasn’t sure if it was fear or disgust. What the tartarus was happening? Just earlier today he… and now...

Oh, Celestia. Which was the real one? The father or the monster?

“Why I never told anyone about them is easy. I have no tangible proof I wish to offer that they did anything at all. All I had to go on was hints that took me years to assemble… and afterwards what they screamed in hopes I’d stop.” He was completely indifferent to what horror his words alluded. Luna seemed to worry, but only because he revealed what he did to them, not for his actions themselves.

“It took me a long time to find the first link in the chain. From then on, everything escalated quickly. The moment I got them in here they never stood a chance. They told me everything. So I kept moving on, from one to the next, until I got every single one of them, no matter where they hid, or who they were. Magical defenses and alarms were a joke and no bodyguard of theirs ever saw me coming,” he chuckled humorlessly. “You ponies barely know anything about stealth if it doesn’t involve invisibility and silence spells. Hell, I only delayed because I needed to rationalize my absences from the castle when I went after them by leaving on a hunt, and all that meat took a while to finish off.” Twilight heard Rarity behind her throw up.

“And all that… all that torture and killing… because they foalnapped me? Fifteen ponies dead in such a horrible way because you didn’t trust Princess Celestia to find proof? To bring them to justice?”

“Partially… but also because I am guilty of the same crime your brother is. We both prefer to keep a secret from her rather than hurt her by letting her know about something she can’t help with, or facts that would only bring her pain, even if she should be aware of them. Go ahead and ask him if he has told her about the bribed guards yet.” He raised his head away from the floor to look at her direction. “And as far as I’m concerned I was justice enough for those bastards. Anything else but me was a mercy they didn’t deserve.”

“Princess Celestia knows about the foalnapping, so that’s a load of horseapples,” Twilight said, harshly. “You are hiding something else. Tell me!” she demanded.

There was a slight hesitation. “Fine.” He motioned towards Applejack and Rarity. “You two can come near now.” He bent down and started searching through the papers in the box.

“I should have you bite it off,” Luna muttered.

“I’m sorry?” Raegdan said, distracted.

“You forced me to do it when I broke our promise the first time. You are killing yourself as surely as tying a rope around your neck. You should bite one off from your side,” Luna groused.

Raegdan waved his right hand in the air, palm and fingers spread open. “Tell you what, when they run off to your sister I’ll tear off the whole hand with my teeth. It will help fill the time until Celestia comes here to chain me up.” He returned to his search as Luna narrowed her eyes at him.

Twilight was perplexed by the whole exchange. There were whole layers of meaning in those few short sentences they kept exchanging, hints of a most strange relationship and their precious secrets. Trying to resolve them would distract her from the task at hoof however, so she chose to ignore them.

After a few seconds of sorting through, Raegdan had pulled a small stack together. “Here you go, little one.” He threw a paper out of the thin stack at her hooves.

“Don’t call me that!” Raegdan bowed his head at her clipped tone. “What’s this?” she asked.

“You.”

Twilight brought the paper in front of her, Applejack and Rarity reading along from her sides. There was a small photo included. It depicted a young unicorn filly with a white coat and a pink mane. The document was filled with personal info. Name, cutie mark -not earned yet-, parents, age -just eleven years old-, residence, an accounting of her disappearance-

It was a page out of a missing pony’s report. Poor little filly. But what did this have to do with her?

And why did she look vaguely familiar?

“I think you mixed up your pages there. That’s not mine,” Twilight said.

“No?” Raegdan questioned with fake surprise. “Are you sure? Well, maybe it’s this one then.”

A young pegasus mare, fourteen years old, cutie mark of a sun bursting through a cloud, light pink coat with a two colored mane of white and yellow.

“How about this one? Are you sure this isn’t you? Or maybe this one? One of these two maybe?”

Unicorn filly, eleven years old. Pegasus, thirteen. Earth pony, twelve years old. Another unicorn, thirteen years old too.

“I don’t understand. None of these have anything to do with my foalnapping. Will you stop your riddles and tell me straight out what this is about?” Twilight complained.

“You are right, little one. None of those girls is you. The reason is, I saved you.” Raegdan pushed his finger against Twilight’s forehead, below her horn. Twilight knocked it away with a hoof.

“That’s your defense? You saved me from getting lost like these poor fillies and that means what you did is excused?”

Rarity was still looking transfixed at the first report. “What- what happened to them? Why do you keep these?” she asked in a whisper.

Raegdan went back to digging through the box. He paused to take off his helmet and gloves, letting Twilight see his face. He didn’t look good. There were lines all over his face. Twilight noticed a new, hoof sized bruise on his cheek.

“You have a little sister I think?” he asked without looking. His fingers were dancing on the edges of the folders, their dexterity separating pages and thumbing through them at an amazing speed.

“Yes. Sweetie Belle,” Rarity answered warily. She was still afraid, but her fear had been tempered by her curiosity.

“Does she look a lot like you?”

“We are sisters,” Rarity simply said.

Raegdan finally found what he was looking for. He gave another few pages to Twilight. “Keep her at Ponyville. I can’t know about the rest of the large cities, but if something like this happened right under Celestia’s nose in Canterlot... It’s almost impossible that something like this could happen to her now, but why take the risk?”

Orphanage reports this time. Twilight skimmed them quickly.

“These have nothing to do with the missing fillies,” Twilight said. “Or me.”

“They don’t?” Raegdan asked. She really disliked the way he fed her little nuggets of information, keeping her on the edge. It was frustrating her and making her anger fade away. He always did that. Whenever he had something to teach her he brought her slowly to understanding with questions, inching her closer and closer to the answer.

“No, they don’t. These are all about newborn foals.”

“Compare the dates,” Raegdan instructed her.

Twilight put the files next to each other doing as he said. They were not the same, none of them were. She was missing something. What was she supposed to try to find out? Were these foals related in some way?

Rarity gasped beside her. She was still holding the first page Raegdan handed them. Her eyes were flickering in a panic from that page to another that Twilight was holding in her magic. Twilight compared the dates. Still not the same. There was a difference of a little over eleven months-

Her blood went cold the same moment her stomach churned in disgust.

“No. This can’t be true. This… abomination can’t happen in Canterlot.” She refused to believe what she was seeing. This was sick. This was grotesque. This was…

Applejack was grinding her teeth in righteous anger as Rarity whispered what she had figured out in her ear. Twilight could barely contain her tears. “Why… how could somepony do something like this?”

Raegdan collected the condemning papers out of Twilight’s trembling magic hold and back into the box. “Pretty, fertile young mares. Some of them with extraordinary physical attributes. Horns longer than normal. Large wings. A favored symbol for a cutie mark. Light coloring.” He looked at Twilight. “Magical strength far beyond what’s normal. And young enough to have multiple tries at a perfect newborn. At least, that was the excuse for some of them. For the others, it was just the fun of it. I’ve told you before, little one. Life's not fair.”

Oh Celestia. Oh Celestia, no. This was what they had in store for her back then?

This is what they did to these poor fillies?

“What happened to them?” she croaked out. This could have been her. She felt bile rise up her throat.

Raegdan shrugged. “I took too long for most of them. One of them smashed her own head open just as soon as I untied her. I... I didn’t stop her. Another one committed suicide the day after I left her at her home. Two of them are in a mental hospital, one of them catatonic. I can’t just go and ask about them, but I don’t think they have gotten any better yet. I doubt they ever will. They had been... used for years.”

“What about the other two?” Applejack asked.

“They seem to be coping so far. I had them swear not to tell what happened to them. In return, I promised them I’d make sure this would not happen again -and I did- and some financial aid for them and the others, or their families. I check up on them from time to time. It helps them stay sane if they have someone to vent to.”

“You… you saved them!” Rarity breathed in amazement.

Raegdan picked up his helmet again. He didn’t put it back on, he kept it in front of him, examining it. He pricked one of his fingers on the central horn, a drop of red blood crawling down on it. “Not much of a rescue, was it?” he said with another one of his shrugs.

“Too little, too late,” he added in a brooding whisper.

“You still didn’t completely explain why you never told Princess Celestia about… this,” Twilight pointed out.

“What, is it so hard to believe that I was reluctant to go up to her and say “Hey, Celestia. I killed a few more of your subjects right behind your back, fifteen of them, catch you later.” What would it serve anyway? They were dead and she would only blame herself when she had no way of knowing. There are… things going on that she doesn’t know about, she has no way to know about them. Too many lies, interests, and people, between her and those who need her. I have no idea about most either, but I have more… experience than her in what dark crap people can get into and I’m a really suspicious bastard. Maybe I should have kept one of them alive and face the punishment for my actions, I realized that later, but you know… moron.” He shrugged. “Now I can’t prove crap and I have no idea about their connections with other nasty business they were implicated into because I didn’t think to ask while… I can’t imagine something worse than this going on, not even I expected to see this happen here, but that doesn’t mean they are less bad either. Yeah, I’d rather rip out my own heart than see her expression when she hears about all that,” he finished bitterly.

He kicked the box back into the hole. “There’s your whole truth, Twilight. At least, as far as you are getting. I’m not giving you names. There are some secrets that are not mine to give. Now that you got most of what you wanted, what are you going to do?” he asked her. That was a good question. What was she going to do?

Twilight pulled the girls back to discuss their next move under a silence spell. Luna finally approached Raegdan and sat next to him. They both looked ready to wait an eternity for Twilight and her friends to come to a decision.

How did the tables turn like that from a few minutes ago? When had they stopped being the accused and become judge, jury and… and executioner?

“This still doesn’t make it right,” Rarity told them. “I know I wouldn’t say the same if that had been Sweetie Belle. That unicorn filly looked so much like her... I really, really want to keep my mouth shut and let him get away with it, but…”

“Rules are there for a reason,” Applejack grumbled.

“Yes. On the other hoof… those girls wouldn’t share the same opinion would they? Or their families.” Rarity wiped her eyes. “It’s so easy to say that what he did was right, or what he did was wrong. I wish I knew for sure which one it was. It’s hard to tell when the decision is on you.”

“I know,” Applejack agreed. “It sickens me to think what those poor girls went through, their families losing them to that… Ah wouldn’t stoop to torture, but if ah had those responsible right here in front of me… ah think I’d be guilty for murder too. What he did however, that wasn’t right either. There’s a thing called due process, right?”

“Yes,” Twilight said. “He has no proof that what he did was excused. He didn’t have the right to do these horrible things. Torture is not accepted by Princess Celestia’s laws for any reason, and even if it were it would be by her permission alone. By all accounts, in a court of law, he would be found guilty.” Twilight kept her stare on the floor. She didn’t want to look towards Raegdan or Luna. She didn’t want to make this kind of judgement.

“Would he?” Rarity wondered.

“What do ya mean?”

“Well, he doesn’t have solid proof that those ponies were guilty. At least, none that he is willing to give. On the other hoof, there is no proof that he actually did anything, is there? He made sure of it.” Rarity noted.

“What about these… tools?” Applejack pointed towards the still rolled out canvas.

“Bloody knives in the room he uses to butcher the animals he catches for meat?” Rarity was thoughtful. “I doubt Luna would let this pass as concrete evidence. I don’t know if they can figure out who the blood belonged to however.”

“They can’t,” Twilight said. “Not after so much time. The spells won’t detect anything.” She kept thinking of Raegdan letting Spike climb on his shoulders, laughing as he threw him on a mattress only for Spike to start climbing all over him again. Spike’s little claws cut him a little sometimes, but Raegdan never complained. He just kept playing with him, keeping the baby dragon busy and entertained.

“There are the fillies he rescued,” Applejack reminded them.

“Yes. Everything would rather depend on them, wouldn’t it? What do you think they would do?” Rarity asked.

Applejack took off her hat and gave it a brief pat to clear some dust that wasn’t there before putting it back on. “Probably not condemn the guy who saved them from all that.”

“So all we have for certain is his own confession. We could try to give him in. We would probably succeed. No pony would take his word over ours would they?” Rarity asked for confirmation she didn’t really need. They all knew what would happen if Twilight would point at him and cry out “murderer”.

“That wouldn’t be right either, would it?” Applejack kicked at the floor in frustration. “We would be throwing him to the wolves and they would eat him up because they don’t like him or Luna, not for what he did or didn’t do.”

“Which means there wouldn’t be much of a fair trial for him,” Rarity huffed.

“There wasn’t any trial of any kind for those mystery ponies either,” Applejack reminded Rarity. “Just his own brand of vigilantism. But you are right. It ain’t sticking right with me to do near the same with him.”

“You don’t want to give him in either, do you?” Rarity whispered, shamefully.

“After seeing the pictures of those fillies and knowing what happened to them? No. Ah might change my opinion later, when it really hits me what he did to all those ponies, but right now ah want to pat him in the back and say “good job”. Twilight, if we tell Celestia about this… what will she do?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight confessed. “She will probably imprison him and start an investigation. She will do her best to give him a fair trial. Which means she might distance herself away from it so she won’t influence it to his advantage either. Or she might support him. I… can’t know for sure, not anymore.”

“And while she does that, what will Luna do?” Rarity asked.

Twilight tried to estimate the Alicorn’s actions. “She will try to get him out of it in all likelihood. Support him. Whatever little leeway she still has will get torn apart in the process if she defends these kind of actions, and she will. There will be a rift with her sister again, I just know it. And without Raegdan or us on her side -I doubt she will want to even see us after this- whoever wants her dead…”

They pondered the implications of their decision in silence.

Rarity listed their options. “So if we stay silent, we let him get away with torture and the murder of fifteen ponies. We would become accomplices in a way actually. If we talk, he will end up dead. Either by law or some knife in the back. Luna might end up the same way, or worse, we could get another incident similar to Nightmare Moon again, right?”

“If we end up getting him killed?” Applejack asked, disbelievingly. “She is gonna have the guts of everypony involved. Ah don’t think Raegdan is gonna allow her to do anything risky to herself or us, but the moment he is dead and gone? She is gonna go berserk, ah’m sure.”

“We are not telling anypony. Not yet,” Twilight suddenly decided. It was as if a light guided her path. There was only one way out of this that she could see and she would follow through. She brought her silence spell down and marched in front of the waiting pair. She would do the right thing this time. No more hiding behind her hoof. Raegdan kept telling her all the time… well, now she believed him. Even if he saved those girls, that had to be an accident. He wouldn’t do this for them. There was no true pity or kindness in his heart. He just pretended, always acting, always wearing a mask, over a mask, over another mask. She was certain that she knew what hid beneath all his lies now.

A monster.

If Rainbow Dash wasn’t her friend he would have broken her, just like Leaf Stream. If Pinkie Pie wasn’t her friend he would have let her die. If Rarity wasn’t her friend he would kill her for entering his armory. If Applejack wasn’t her friend he would kill her too for knowing his secret.

This creature belonged in this very cell, with the door locked and barred, never allowed to see daylight again.

“We will continue as we were, as if nothing ever happened. We will keep helping you, for Luna and Celestia’s sake. Here’s the trade off. The moment that Luna’s position is secure, when you are both safe and we can be certain there will be a fair trial… you will confess to Princess Celestia. There will be no more secrets like this from you.” Twilight laid down her terms.

Luna’s motion to protest was stopped by Raegdan. “Agreed, little one,” he said with a quiet serenity.

Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Don’t call me that, not anymore. Maybe you were right in doing that, or maybe you were not. I can’t believe a liar like you that every single one of them deserved everything of what you did to them, and even if they did, you had no right. I can’t even trust your word that any of this happened, if those girls even existed, or that… madness happened to them. I won’t be the one to decide that though. But what I know is that you lied to me, you hurt me, you threatened my friends, and you tried to force me to choose between you and what I was taught to believe in, and I will not forgive you for any of this. I’m not going to cover for you anymore, or turn a blind eye to what you do. The slightest suspicious activity, from either of you two, and I’ll let Princess Celestia know everything.”

“Littl- Twilight… I’m sorry.”

“No, you are not.” Twilight’s breath hitched on her throat. “You are sorry that now I understand what you really are, not for what you did.” Twilight turned her back on it and Luna. “Let’s go. We need to be up early tomorrow to tackle the last few chores, and Rarity still has to prepare herself for tomorrow’s dance with Prince Blueblood. Unless you’ve changed your mind, Rarity?”

“No, I… will go ahead with it.”

Twilight led her friends out, slamming shut the heavy door behind her. Raegdan and Luna kept their heads low as they left. She heard it yell for her when they had almost reached the stairs heading up to the upper dungeons.

“Twilight? Twilight, please don’t tell little flame or little pink! Twilight? Twilight!”

She didn’t bother answering back to that thing.

It was longer than an hour afterwards that the silence broke in the dank cell.

“Don’t think I didn’t notice you hiding your horn behind me.”

“I would have told you. I wasn’t going to hide this from you.”

“I know. It’s fine Luna.”

“They would have told Celestia. Twilight wasn’t sure what to do and believed that she should know what’s been happening behind her back. By everyone.”

“I know, it’s ok Luna, I don’t blame you. Did you… make her hate me? Would she have forgiven me otherwise?”

“I… don’t know. Mind control is a misnomer. I put some dams in the river of their thoughts. I don’t take over the consciousness, not unless I have no other choice.”

“At least… she won’t suspect we did this to them. Not if it ended this way for me.”

“I’m sorry. Maybe she will change her mind or I could give it another shot later on.”

“Don’t. I don’t need their love. I’ll be… fine.”

“She might talk later. Or her friends might.”

“I don’t think so. If they didn’t go for it now… still, putting some inhibitions about it on them would not be amiss. You need to put some more “dams” about this on Shining Armor. Maybe reinforce those on him already too.”

“First thing tomorrow. I feel as if time is pressing us. Celestia suspects too much, she is just stalling like she always does. We can’t win against her, not on our own while she has the Elements and her guards. “Law” and “Justice” lie in the hooves of those who have the power to force it and right now she is the absolute law. We only get one chance Raegdan.”

“We can’t afford to wait or rely on the girls alone. I think we should start plan B in the meanwhile.”

“That’s a risk. Plus, we will need to waste time to train them.”

“We would need to train them anyway even if they were guards, we have to make soldiers out of them. Besides, they might turn out more loyal to you if we work extensively on them. Let’s just start scouting them out. If the girls’ way works out, we will have our forces complete even faster.”

“I will begin tonight. Can we head to bed now?”

“Sure. Do you think they can find those who keep trying to kill us?”

“Not unless we let them. I’ve done some work on Rarity already. She will fail.”

“Rainbow Dash?”

“We will let her do her part and tell Shining Armor everything she finds out. They are both ours practically. We might learn something new and interesting.”

“Luna?”

“Yes?”

“It hurts.”