Twilight didn’t bother with a glass. She drank straight from the faucet, gurgled the water, and spit it back out. Some of the foul taste left her mouth. She repeated the process two more times. Her stomach quivered. It was still spasming, even though there was nothing left to throw up. Her eyes stung with tears, but she held them back. If she started crying she wouldn’t stop.

She had some questions, but she didn’t know if she wanted the answers. She didn’t want to go back into that room, not yet.

That poor girl.

Her poor brother.

These poor people.

Princess Celestia was right. Raegdan was a demon, but one that changed, right? She would never have suspected him being able to do these things, not even at his worst. Never mind the millions of dead… did they even happen or did he just imagine them in a state of madness? Could he really have gone on a murder spree of such proportions with no one to ever stop him?

Twilight couldn’t imagine Raegdan laying a hand on a foal, even less one that he cared about. Though… it made sense why now. The way he took care of her and Spike… was he trying to make it up for her? There was nothing he wouldn’t tolerate from either of them. Even if Twilight herself went in there and threw his precious ring away he would only look at her, tell her that what she did hurt him, and leave it at that. He only hit her once in her life, and that was so he could stop her from mistakenly killing Pinkie Pie. That little slap he gave her at the cafe didn’t count. It was barely a tap.

How do you… how do you handle something like this? Maybe you can’t. Maybe it’s impossible. All you can do is judge from what you know, what you’ve seen him do. There is nothing else to judge him with. Nothing. Just his word, and is that enough? Should she lay the blame of a million deaths on him when she could never know if they truly existed?

She couldn’t tell Princess Celestia about the ponies he killed. Not yet. Not if Solid Charge decided he can trust him. Luna needs him, and even if she didn’t, that Leviathan would still be alive without Raegdan there to help her. They needed him… or she was fishing for excuses. Anything to move that day even an hour further away.

This is so confusing. She laid down on the cold tiles of the bathroom. It was so much easier when all she had to do was find the Elements and use them on the bad guy. What are you supposed to do in this kind of situation? She doubted she’d find the answer in any book no matter how much she’d search. Who else had to figure out if a loved one, who is an alien, should be held responsible for genocide, that may or may not have occurred in other dimensions that are not accessible, while in an unstable state of mind that occured exactly because of the actions he undertook and the circumstances he found himself in that you are trying to judge him for?

Her head hurt.

Twilight gathered what remained of her courage and went back outside. The others were waiting for her. She didn’t return the nods of encouragement, or questioning glances. She sat down and waited for somepony else to speak.

Solid Charge waited to see if Twilight had something to say. When she didn’t, he took the initiative instead. “What stopped you from killing yourself?”

“Something I’d like to keep private no matter what. I’m not saying more about that. Don’t ask.” Something seemed awry about Raegdan. She watched him carefully until she noticed how he breathed. Slow inhales through his nose, with long exhales through his mouth. Controlled and strictly measured. He was almost completely focused on that simple act.

“Fine,” Solid Charge agreed. “Then what happened? More travelling?”

“In a sense. I arrived here afterwards. Celestia received news about a monster in a forest. She came after me and she beat me senseless. Pure magic might not work, but she’s strong, knows more spells than anyone, and has a horn as long as a spear,” Raegdan said, tapping his chest where she knew a large circular scar was. “She didn’t end me only because I opened my big mouth. She took me to Canterlot, and that’s it.”

“I’m getting the sense that you told us nowhere near everything,” Solid Charge rumbled, tapping a finger on his lips. “How did Princess Celestia hear about you?”

“A pony went to Canterlot and told her about a monster in a nearby forest.”

Solid Charge stood up. He paced a little, thinking. Strangely, he seemed to be watching Twilight far more than Raegdan.

“Do you need to know anything more?” Raegdan asked him in a sharp tone.

“No. No, that’s enough.”

“Got enough to make your decision?”

“Not yet. You mentioned things we should know anyway. What are these?”

“Right. I forgot about that. This is about the Leviathan,” Raegdan said.

Twilight’s head rose up. “What about it? Is it still alive or are there more of them?”

“I’m pretty sure it’s dead. I’m also pretty sure there are way more of them, but that’s not what I wanted to talk about. This has to do with the reason we had to kill the Leviathan before Celestia got to it,” Raegdan explained.

“Oh, this I got to hear,” Leaf Stream said. “It’s been driving me crazy. The only reason I could come up with was that you were afraid of getting robbed of your kill.”

“Really? Huh. You weren’t far off. That’s what I was worried about at first. Still, if we couldn’t stop her we’d settle with it. No, it was because-” Raegdan paused and looked at Twilight with a melancholic smirk twisting his lips. “On second thought… let’s do some of that training Twilight talked about. Why do you think we didn’t want Celestia to reach the Leviathan?”

Leaf Stream responded with a deadpan expression. “What, we’re doing a test now? Are we going to have homework too?”

“No, but we’ll be doing a lot of field trips if this pans out. Come on. Think.”

“Oh gee, you’re bucking serious. Let’s see, uh… Princess Luna didn’t want her sister to get hurt?”

Raegdan shook his head.

Cast Iron offered a second suggestion, which actually made Twilight jump. She had forgotten the second minotaur was even here, so silent he had been the whole time.

“The rifts. You didn’t want Princess Celestia to suspect the Leviathan had come from there.”

Leaf Stream shook her right hoof in a negative while her left tapped at her chin. “No, Princess Celestia probably suspects where the Leviathans came from ever since this guy popped in. That can’t be it, and Princess Celestia fighting the Leviathan wouldn’t actually tell her anything about the rifts. The explosion. You had better explosives than you told us and didn’t want Princess Celestia to see them before you got them inside the Leviathan.”

“You’re thinking the wrong way,” Raegdan said patiently. Twilight was reminded of the old days, when he would understand a concept before she did, and instead of giving her the answer outright he would make her work for it. She had a suspicion he was doing the same thing now not just to teach them, but to take Twilight’s mind off the story he just told them. It worked good enough admittedly. Twilight was slowly being taken in by the puzzle he offered.

“Instead of trying to come up with answers, ask simple questions,” he continued instructing. “Don’t waste your time trying to conjure up with grand theories, or get lost in a web of your own making. Keep it simple. One simple question, following it to the end.”

“Simple. Right,” Leaf Stream said, thoroughly unconvinced, and still seeing the whole idea as unnecessary. “Ok, let’s try it. A simple question, huh? Hmm. Hey, grandpa, what would happen if Princess Celestia managed to get to it before the Leviathan croaked?”

“She’d fight it of course,” the minotaur answered, thinking deeply. “She’s probably try to fight it on her own first, just like Princess Luna did… Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Princess Luna express worry about that exact thing happening?”

“Hey, yeah.” Cast Iron said. “That’s exactly what she said. That Princess Celestia would try to fight it. I don’t get it, so what if Princess Celestia tried the same thing?”

Twilight added her own thoughts, keeping Raegdan’s suggestion in mind. “There are a lot of outcomes we could come up with, but the most obvious and simple ones are; either Princess Celestia failed to hurt it, just like Luna did, or-”

“Or she managed to hurt it…” Leaf Stream finished. “That doesn’t make sense! Isn’t Princess Luna supposed to be almost as strong as Princess Celestia?”

“I don’t know,” Solid Charge said, scrunching his face. “You’re the pony.”

“They are,” Twilight said. “At least, they’re supposed to, but if Luna wasn’t able to do it, then that would mean… Raegdan, that- that can’t be true, right? You’re trying to make us believe… no, you wouldn’t dive into the Leviathan’s mouth for a simple misdirection…”

“As I said, we’d tell you someday soon anyway,” Raegdan answered. He took a deep breath, and pointed at Twilight. “Good job. That wasn’t so hard if you stopped dreaming up scenarios, was it? You got it right. Here’s the truth. Twilight can beat Luna’s magic without breaking a sweat.”

“What?” Twilight yelled in complete surprise. This was a vast difference from Luna being weaker than Princess Celestia. “That’s not true! Luna’s an Alicorn. Her magic is more powerful than mine.”

“It used to,” Raegdan said, now examining the remains of his bottled juice by his bedside. “She was more powerful than you before her banishment. She could beat Celestia in a fight easily enough if she wanted, if only because she had more experience in fights. Not anymore. She still has her spells, some even better than she used to, but she no longer has the magic. She can barely hold some of them up for seconds. She can still fly as fast as she used to, at least for a while, but she has to drain her unicorn magic to bolster her pegasus magic to keep it up. She’s not even as physically strong as she used to be either. It’s all gone, and it doesn’t look like it’s coming back anytime soon.”

This couldn’t be true. Luna… weaker than her? Twilight was stronger than an Alicorn? How-

“How did this happen?” Twilight asked in shock.

His eyes flickered to her horn for a moment. “I don’t know. Her stay on the moon perhaps? Perhaps she didn’t come down whole. Maybe when you blasted her you killed more than the Nightmare. Maybe summoning the Nightmare had cost her more than she realized. Of course it might just be a matter of waiting. Maybe she’ll be back to normal in a few years, but for now…”

Twilight understood. “That’s why you didn’t want Princess Celestia to get involved. Because if she tried to hurt the Leviathan with her magic, and she managed to pierce its defenses-”

“The jig would be up. Celestia would realize something was going on if she managed to do something her sister didn’t even get close to achieving. Yeah. Mouths zipped. Luna doesn’t want anyone to know, and she’s right. If those that want to hurt her find out she’s weakened so much…”

“Is this why she didn’t raise the moon?” Twilight asked. She balked a bit under Raegdan’s intense stare, and rushed to explain herself further. “While you were on your way to the Thestrals Rarity noticed the moon being raised without Princess Luna doing anything.”

Raegdan relaxed back to his pillow. “Hm. She’s got an eye for noticing- what am I saying, of course she has. Celestia has been raising and lowering the moon, like she has been doing since Luna was gone. Luna told her she doesn’t feel ready to take up all of her duties yet. The truth is that while she can raise it, it would drain her almost completely. If she took to raising and lowering the moon again, she would be forced to spend the rest of the night resting so she could barely be able to lower it down again at dawn. The stress would probably kill her after a while.”

“But why doesn’t she let Princess Celestia know? She might be able to-”

“Because Luna doesn’t want to let her know. End of discussion, you don’t have a say in it, not one of you does!” Raegdan said strictly. “It’s her call, and her call only. You won’t even discuss this among yourselves. For all intents and purposes, you never knew this. Understand?”

“It’s a reasonable precaution though taken too far,” Solid Charge said. “Agreed. Normally I’d say it might be best you don’t tell your friends either,” he told Twilight. “The less who know the better, but in this case it would be better if they did so they can help keep up the cover.” Twilight took special notice of the way Raegdan regarded the minotaur at this statement, as if truly noticing him for the first time.

Solid Charge rose up from his chair. “I think I have heard enough to make my decision about you.” He addressed everypony else in the room. “I’d like to talk with the rest of you before I notify Princess Celestia. In private. In another room,” he specified, and made his way out. Twilight and the other two members of the Lunar Guard followed him.

Twilight heard Raegdan chuckle behind them as she closed the door. “Letting me stew in my own juices. I think I’m starting to like him…”

“I’m not sure if I believe half the stuff he told us,” Solid Charge said with a heavy scowl as soon as Twilight put up a silence spell around the room. It was identical to the one they were before, though with more empty beds. Twilight wondered how many patients the hospital had to refuse or move elsewhere to keep this floor empty.

Leaf Stream glanced thoughtfully at the door. “Look, I’d seriously be right up there with you to pile some dirt on the guy under normal circumstances, but here’s the thing. He didn’t really make himself look good, did he?”

“I don’t think he likes himself enough to try,” Twilight said quietly. She was reminded of his confession back in the dungeons. He didn’t spare himself at all there either. Quite the opposite in fact.

“If he’s done even one tenth of what he claims, then that wouldn’t be that strange. That girl… I’m not going to believe that he went around committing genocide on whole populations though. There’s only one of him. No matter how good he is at fighting, he would end up dead before too long.” Solid Charge gave the wall next to him a good whack, and started pacing around the room.

“Yeah, about that,” Leaf Stream said as she lied on a sheetless bed with a sigh of relief. “I don’t think he’s that good at fighting at all.”

Solid Charge stopped in his tracks to look back at the dark green pony. “I think your lack of wings and my broken arm will disagree. So do the eight griffins he killed today.”

“Not what I mean,” Leaf Stream said with a painful moan as she rolled her shoulders. “When we fought him in the arena he was holding up well, but nowhere near as good as someone with his experiences should if he had any decent talent in it. Don’t get me wrong, he was scary good, but he might have lost anyway, even if we weren’t trying to kill him there. It was three on one, sooner or later we’d tag him. When he got serious though... “ Leaf Stream huffed. “See, I don’t think he got serious about fighting at that moment or… damnit, how to explain this?” She tapped her hooves together a couple of times, trying to come up with the words. “I don’t think he’s good at fighting. I think he’s exceedingly good at killing.”

“Ah,” Solid Charge said simply in understanding.

“What’s that supposed to mean? I don’t get it,” Cast Iron said.

“Me neither,” Twilight admitted. “There’s no difference, is there? How can he be good at killing somepony if he can’t fight as well?”

Solid Charge sat on the edge of a bed. “There’s a huge difference. Take Cast Iron and Leaf Stream for example. Get them to fight as practice, or simply spar, Cast Iron will win.” Leaf Stream protested with a sarcastic exhale. “Put them in a fight to the death however, and Cast Iron will die. No offense buddy. See, even if Cast Iron got the advantage he would hesitate too much to land the killing blow. Not just to thrust a spear into her, but in the fight itself as well. Almost everyone does. It’s why soldiers keep sparring with blunted weapons. We teach ourselves not to think too much of hitting our opponent in the middle of the fight. Even with all that, when the time comes to kill, almost everyone will hesitate for a moment at least. It’s often where you will see towering minotaurs fall dead before a scrawny runt. One good hit is all it takes in the end. Getting in the state of mind where you can hurt or kill someone with no pause is… very hard to put it simply.”

“It- it really makes that much of a difference?” Twilight asked in shock.

“Oh yeah,” Leaf Stream answered, smiling bitterly and gazing at her own stumps. “Your pops? He doesn’t hesitate at all when it comes to hurting or killing. Doesn’t matter if the other guy is faster, stronger, or plain better, he will connect first because he started swinging first. It puts a whole other spin on his attitude, doesn’t it?”

“Right. It takes far more than that to do what he claims he did though,” Solid Charge reiterated.

“Meh. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. Who knows what weapons he got his grabby hands on out there,” Leaf Stream said. “Don’t you remember what he said about his kind and their stuff?”

“They’d have the same to fight back with.”

Leaf Stream shrugged. “Well, if he managed it, he obviously found a way.”

“Does it matter if he did or not?” Cast Iron asked. The rest of them looked at him questioningly. “He honestly believes he did. We can’t find out if it’s true or not, but we know that it is for him. He believes that he’s capable at the very least of doing something like that.”

“I don’t know. I guess it’s not important either way. It wouldn’t make a difference anyway,” Solid Charge said, standing up once more. “I had made my decision as soon as Princess Celestia gave me the responsibility. I’m going to tell her that he should remain at Princess Luna’s side.”

“You are?” Twilight gasped in disbelief. “You did? Before you even talked to him?”

“Sure. He was attacked by seventeen griffins and managed to kill eight of them while wounded. You have no idea how bad off he was even before they did a number on him. Not only that, he is fiercely loyal to Princess Luna as well. If we can keep him from doing stuff like he tried to do today, where else would she get such a bodyguard? If it wasn’t for others trying to kill her I’d say good riddance, but things being what they are I have no choice. Princess Luna’s safety must come first despite my misgivings.”

“That… makes sense.” Twilight sat down, thinking. Solid Charge was right as far as the way he thought was concerned. Raegdan was the best person to guard over Luna, ignoring the fact that Luna didn’t trust anypony else.

“It’s not like Princess Luna wouldn’t get him back as soon as she wakes up,” Solid Charge continued. “If she forgives him for what he pulled that is, and I think she will. This was never about getting him imprisoned or not. Princess Luna would never let Princess Celestia do it. Princess Celestia doesn’t have any authority over Princess Luna’s guard the moment she is up and about again, and Princess Celestia knows it. This was about giving him a wake up call, and I agree with Princess Celestia’s reasoning. Today’s events proved that we don’t have the luxury to coax them out of their shell little by little. One of them needed a push for their own good.”

“I understand…” Twilight said, feeling out of sorts. She didn’t really know Solid Charge. She had met him for only minutes before. This was the largest amount of time she spent with him, with any of Luna’s guard, and she didn’t have a good grasp of their character yet. Solid Charge seemed like a fair, practical fellow however, so maybe…

She chewed on her lower lip, still unsure if this was the right call, but pushing on regardless. “Can I ask you a question?”

“I think I know what’s it going to be about.”

“How do you- if Raegdan really did what he claims, if he- how do you-” She fumbled with the words, trying desperately to make herself understood without making herself sound hateful.

Solid Charge bid her silent with a calming gesture of his arm. “You know I used to be in the minotaur army, right?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Do you know why I left?”

Twilight’s mind rummaged through everything Rarity had told her about the two minotaurs. “It hasn’t come up, no.”

“Let me tell you then,” Solid Charge said, sitting on a bed once more in front of Twilight. “Equestria isn’t the only place where monsters roam. Minos has its own share as well. The army usually keeps them at bay, but sometimes one of them tends to escape notice and roam close to towns or villages. When that happens it’s the closest unit’s responsibility to intervene and keep civilians safe. I was part of a team that responded to one of these occasions when a village reported sighting a Catoblepas.”

“A what?” Leaf Stream asked.

“Catoblepas,” Twilight answered, having read about the beasts in one of her books before. “Quadrupled beasts that look like a disfigured cross of a body of a buffalo and an oversized head of a boar. It releases a paralytic gas with every exhale.”

“Pretty much,” Solid Charge agreed. “Most books don’t mention how huge they can get, or the armored scales they develop over their body. It’s very dangerous, and very easy to underestimate. It’s head is too heavy and it’s neck too long, so it keeps it low to the ground. It makes it look slow. It’s not, and it can swing its head like a pendulum with lightning speed. It killed two of us, and gored another one in a second. We managed to drive it away, but all we did was briefly scare it away. We failed to kill it.”

“What did you do?” Twilight asked.

“We could have waited for reinforcements, but until they got there the Catoblepas would have free roam. We had no idea where it had gone, and we were near farmlands, filled with residences scattered around with no way to safeguard them. The officer in charge refused to let it kill anyone if we could stop it. So he formed a plan.”

“Good for him,” Leaf Stream said. “What was it?”

“Lay out a bait for an ambush, identify its weak spots while it was busy eating, and kill it.”

“Good plan! What went wrong?” Leaf Stream asked, characteristically sarcastic.

“Nothing, except for the fact that the bait was the soldier who was wounded before.”

Twilight felt her lungs empty on their own volition. Leaf Stream’s eyes went wide. “You’re shitting me!”

Solid Charge shook his head, eyes on the floor. “I wish I was. No, we used the wounded minotaur as a dangling piece of meat. He died of course. The Catoblepas ate him alive, but we killed the beast. It might have killed more minotaurs if we hadn’t done that, but…” Solid Charge let out a deep breath full of past frustrations,” but we have no idea if that’s true. At the moment we were convinced it was the right thing, the captain even managed to convince the wounded minotaur himself that it was the heroic thing to do, and he believed him, right up to the point the Catoblepas showed up and he realized how awful his death was going to be and started screaming for help. We let him make us go through with it because he was the one in charge. We didn’t stop him. I left the army a few weeks afterwards. I told myself I wasn’t going to let others push me into doing what was wrong again.”

He scowled, looking at his arm. “Turns out I didn’t learn my lesson that well. I was going to actually let Grunge rape miss Rarity because I was scared of him. I had never believed I could sink so low. I’m not going to let this happen a third time, even if it kills me. I’m actually grateful Raegdan stopped us. I’d be even if he had killed us, but he didn’t, thanks to miss Rarity. She gave us a chance we didn’t deserve.”

“What happened to the guy?” Leaf Stream asked. “The officer?”

“He insisted it was for the greater good. He insisted so much in fact, that he convinced every single one of the higher ups who questioned him. He wasn’t awarded or anything, but he didn’t face any punishment either. Turns out he didn’t convince himself half as well. He hung himself a week later.”

Solid Charge ran his thick fingers through his mane. “Now, you’re probably wondering what that has to do with your question. Two things actually. First of all, we all screw up, sometimes horribly, despite our best intentions. I learned -I hope so- my lesson. I doubt Raegdan has, but I believe he might have started reading the first lines. If that story with the girl was true…” The unflinching minotaur swiped his fingers across his eyes in a suspicious movement.

“And the second thing?” Twilight asked.

The minotaur put his arm on her shoulder in a comforting manner. “Punishment. Or justice. It isn’t always easy to figure out what’s the right one. My captain killed himself. He tied a noose around his neck and ended it all. It didn’t bring back the dead. It didn’t make me feel better for my part in it. Perhaps it was justice, but it didn’t feel that way to me. If Raegdan really did what he claims then there are only two punishments that I can think of that would fit the crime. The first one would make us just as bad, and as for the second one… Does one death make up for thousands? No. A death for a death only amounts to two deaths. As long as he’s not dangerous to innocents I say we let him attempt to make up for what he did. He’ll never be able to, it’s too much, but trying does count for something. It always does.”

“I’m… I’m not sure if he’s even going to try…” Twilight confessed.

“I heard from miss Rarity and Applejack about how he helped raise you. He kept you safe, he never hurt you, he kept you close to your family, he never let you doubt how he felt about you… am I correct?”

Twilight nodded, trying to block the memories Solid Charge summoned with his words lest she started tearing up. “Yes. Spike and me both.”

“He was trying to make up for the girl. He gave you two everything he never gave to her. That means he’s willing to make up for some of his actions, that he wants to.”

Solid Charge smiled apologetically to Twilight. “I don’t like him, not at all. He wouldn’t hesitate to use someone else as bait. He would call it the right thing to do, and believe it to his core. He didn’t however. He didn’t order us or anyone else to jump in the Leviathan’s throat. He went himself with no hesitation. Yes, he did so in order to protect Princess Luna, but he did it for someone other than himself. Remember what he said about killing? Little by little, until the tens became hundreds, and the hundreds became thousands. Who’s to say he won’t start caring for others this way too?”

“Do you really believe this?” Twilight asked.

Solid Charge’s hand on her shoulder tightened gently in a gesture of support. “I don’t know. But I don’t want to be the kind of person that would kill him and say it needed to be done.”

He huffed in half-amusement. “Just try not to get hurt, ok? I don’t want to find out I was wrong not to believe that part of his story.”

Twilight closed the door behind her as gently as possible. The girls had all fallen asleep and she didn’t want to wake them up. They probably had tried to wait for her, but their own fatigue must have overtaken them. It wasn’t entirely unexpected. The sun would come up in a few hours, and today had been exhausting.

She gave a shot at sleep herself but sweet unconsciousness was beyond her grasp. There was too much on her mind, almost literally. She could swear there was a voice at the edge of her hearing, shouting at her. It wasn’t saying nice things. It mostly spewed hate and anger, directed at its favourite target. She ignored it as much as possible. After everything she heard today, there was only one thing she was certain of, and that was that she didn’t want to give in to these kind of emotions.

Perhaps forgiveness wasn’t meant for the wrongdoer’s sake but for yours.

Speaking of which, it was where she was currently heading. She wanted to see Raegdan, perhaps talk to him if he hadn’t fallen asleep yet. It might not be the best decision, but she didn’t know where else to go.

It reminded her of being a little filly. Sometimes, very rarely, she would find it hard to sleep or have a nightmare and find it almost impossible to drift back to sleep. She never had the courage to go to Princess Celestia and wake her up for her own insignificant troubles, no matter how often Princess Celestia admonished her for not doing that. Raegdan was a different issue altogether. He slept too little, and he never had an issue losing what little sleep he got for her sake. He’d talk with her, or lull her to sleep with his stories, and when he felt that Twilight needed something more he would take her in his arms and knock on Princess Celestia’s doors until he woke her up while at the same time kicking away at the guards who were trying to stop him.

Raegdan welcomed her every time. Did he do the same for the girl? Did he grudgingly let her sleep next to him or did he send her away? She believed, or hoped, that he allowed her to lie next to him when she had nightmares. That he let his presence soothe her, and that she took this as a sign of love.

She stopped before Raegdan’s room and was about to cast a silence spell to open it without noise when she heard voices from inside. She recognised one of them as Leaf Stream. Her curiosity taking over, Twilight opened the door and stepped inside.

It wasn’t just Leaf Stream in the room. Solid Charge and Cast Iron also sat near Raegdan, listening to him. They both raised an arm in a quick greeting. Leaf Stream was too busy taking notes to even bother looking at the door.

“-of them to be with him at all times. Even in the bathroom. From now on he should be the only one tending to Luna.”

Leaf Stream finished scribbling on her notebook and spat the pencil she was holding in her mouth aside. “What about the nurses?”

“Don’t even allow them in the room,” Raegdan warned. “All it takes is one of them “checking” the IV’s and before you know it Luna has an air bubble in her veins. Just him.”

“Alright, got it,” Leaf Stream agreed. Her eyes ran over her notes. “Why do we need to have the thestrals and the guards use a combination of secret words, and why so many of them? Wouldn’t it be easier if we only used one?”

“If it’s just one then someone paying attention would notice it being used repeatedly. Better to have a choice of them,” Raegdan said with his eyes closed. He sounded so amazingly tired…

“Right. Makes sense. What if somepony forces them to give them one of the passwords though?”

“Easy enough. Select a password, say… cucumber. If someone forces them for a password they can give them this one.”

“Ooh. Then we can know exactly-”

“Yeah. Do you have any guards inside Luna’s room?”

“Uh, no. I got them stationed outside her door, and Princess Celestia reinforced her spells on the windows-”

“Put a couple of them inside. There are spells like teleportation, and a window that is enchanted to be almost unbreakable comes down to a window that can still break. In fact, have these windows built over. They can restore them when Luna’s out of here. Randomize the layout inside too, move the beds in the middle and stuff like that. It will remove the threat of teleporting.”

“Obstacles can stop unicorns from teleporting somewhere?”

Raegdan smirked evilly. “No.”

“Oh. Oh crap. Ok, that’s gonna be gruesome...” Leaf Stream mumbled with her lips around the pencil once more. “There. Anything else?”

“Not right now. Just instruct the guards to keep their posts no matter what. Even if they hear Celestia scream for help, they are to stand guard over Luna. You swallowed that diversion way too easily.”

“Yeah, don’t remind me,” Leaf Stream said, her cheeks glowing red. “We’re gonna get everything done now and leave you with your visit.” She nodded towards Twilight while letting out a wide yawn.

“Don’t keep him up too long,” Leaf Stream said as the three Lunar guards passed her on the way to the door. “That doctor came by a few minutes ago and for a moment I could swear he was going to bite my throat.” Twilight nodded but Leaf Stream didn’t even turn her head to see.

“Cast, you’ve been kinda quiet…” Solid Charge prompted his friend as they left.

“Sorry. Just thinking about that griffin I shot-” Twilight didn’t hear the rest as Solid Charge closed the door behind him.

Twilight walked towards Raegdan who was looking at her expectantly. “Sharing tips?” she asked.

“A simple lesson in security,” Raegdan answered. “Just like you told me I should be doing. I… have to admit, this might work. I’d rather guard over Luna myself, but this could work almost as well.”

“Better,” Twilight assured him. “She is much safer now than she ever was. I didn’t see any guards at your door however. What about you?”

“I don’t need them. Besides, this way I could work as a bait of sorts,” Raegdan answered with a nasty smile. “A less desirable but also less defended target. I doubt anyone’s going to try anything, but if they do that’s one less attempt on Luna.”

“You’re wounded and bedridden,” Twilight reminded him.

Raegdan lifted his covers. His hammer was at his side, as well as one of the griffin’s crossbows with a bundle of bolts.

“Oh. I see.”

“I’ve also got a dagger under my pillow, but I’m too tired to fish it out right now.”

“Isn’t that too much of a risk?” Twilight asked with concern.

“Not really. I’m prepared and on my guard. There’s always risk. At least now I know where it might come from,” he said, nodding towards the door. “I know that fidgeting. You want to ask something. Is that why you’re not sleeping?”

“Partly,” Twilight admitted. “Raegdan… was I a replacement?”

“No,” he answered immediately.

“I mean, it would only be natural if-”

“Listen to me!” he interrupted her with a severe tone. “You are not her replacement. She can’t be replaced. She was unique, and I miss her more than you can imagine, and I’ll never, ever forget her.”

Twilight felt her ears droop, the corners of her mouth bend downwards, and her eyes moisten. He was right of course, she was- she was his first, the one he thought of all the time, and-

“You can’t be her replacement,” Raegdan insisted,” just like she, or anyone else, couldn’t replace you. I love you for you Twilight. Yes, I admit, I came to save you because it’s what she would have wanted, but I didn’t force myself to love you for her sake. Not you or little flame.”

Twilight swiped a tear from her eyes that she failed to stop. “I’m- I’m sorry I doubted you. I- I know you love us, I just-”

“It’s alright. It’s late. Shouldn’t you be asleep?”

“Shouldn’t you?” Twilight retorted with a slight smile.

“I doubt I’ll be able to sleep. Too much on my mind.”

“Yeah,” Twilight agreed. “I feel the same way.”

Raegdan looked at her, fidgeting with his hands once more. “Would you… like to hear a story? A proper one? To help you sleep?”

Twilight smiled. Her magic took a hold of his hammer and moved it to the other side of the bed, making room for herself. She used her magic to turn off the lights and climbed on the wide bed. Raegdan pulled the covers over her and offered her his arm as a pillow. She settled on it, feeling a little guilty for putting pressure on his arm that surely hurt him, but she knew that he’d have it no other way. She felt like a little filly once more. Warm, safe, and loved.

“Twilight,” Raegdan began. “About what I’ve done, all of it, I-”

She shushed him quickly before he would have time to make her mind wander back to the same black thoughts. “I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to think about it. I want to sleep. Story?”

“Story,” he said, holding her tight.

Twilight closed her eyes, feeling a warmth spread inside her as Raegdan started his tale. That little girl kept trying to make Raegdan into something better, despite what he had done to her. She didn’t give up. Twilight wouldn’t either. She could do that much for her, she thought as she let the words spoken by the tongue of an alien being wash over her, and carry her to sleep.

“Once upon a time, there was a hole in the ground where a hobbit lived. It wasn’t a dirty hole, or a narrow hole, or a dark hole. It was a hobbit hole, and that meant it was clean, and full of light and comfort...”

In the darkness of a hospital room away from home, listening to the alien tale of a traveller beyond this world, an adult Twilight Sparkle fell asleep, comforted by a recuperating killer.

My hand reaches down for the trigger. It doesn’t reach it fast enough. The gun is hoisted out of my mouth as soon as I pull the trigger. The bullet misses my skull and goes through my cheek instead, tearing a hole. The monster is still alive. It needs to die. It must die. I killed her. I killed my little one. I must die. My weapon. Where did my weapon go? Who could-

I open my eyes.

Two pillars of dark metal stand before me. My eyes glide up the gigantic armored form in dread. Not again. Not again, please.

The three jewels on the black crown almost blind me with their shimmering light. The way the darkness dances around the edge of the light is mesmerizing. It’s prowling around the luminescence like a predator, edging for the kill, waiting for the right moment to extinguish the light.

“You’re not real. You were never real. This isn’t happening.”

The god reaches down for me.

“You always break them. So... abominable of you.” A metal clad finger runs down my cheek to my throat. I believe I can feel the pressure, the burn, but it’s in my head, it’s all in my head. Please, make it all be in my head. I don’t know. I don’t know and that makes it worse.

“I’m done. No more. It stops here.” It’s all I can manage to say in the grips of terror. The sole defiance I can offer, but it doesn’t matter. There’s nothing there. Just a shadow in my mind. It’s not real… but if it isn’t… if it isn’t...

“No… no, you’re not done. You’re not quite ready yet. Almost, but not there. So close. Just a few more, perhaps as few as one. It’s about time I send another gift anyway. So many, so little time. Don’t worry my little slave. You will be fine. You know what to do. What you always do.”

I don’t want to keep going. I want to stop. I want to end.

I go through the rift.