---

“The Pilgrimage proves we are willing to give of ourselves for the greater good. What does it say about me if I turn my back on this?”
Tali’Zorah nar Rayya, Mass Effect.

---

Ponyville, Equestria. May 3rd, Year 3 Era Harmonia.

“Some future or alternate version of myself,” Celestia whispered. The pronouncement Alexander Reiner had made lay heavy on the air, like a bell tolling, the echo long outliving the sound.

‘She was fighting to save us from you’. She could scarcely believe it, and yet there was no rebuttal from the others, no outraged denial from Luna. What he had said clearly matched up with whatever they had seen.

She and her sister had stepped away from the others, the younger ponies speaking amongst themselves, save for Lyra Heartstrings, who was speaking with Reiner quietly.

“Strange,” Celestia continued. “I knew such things were possible, even likely.” She gave a weak chuckle. “So many magical theoreticians and physicists have just been granted the proof of a lifetime… and yet here I am, faced with it, and I want so desperately not to believe it.”

“Believe it, sister,” Luna said quietly. “There was… a thing. In Reiner’s head. A representation of the version of you that he fights against.”

“A representation,” Celestia repeated. “What sort of ‘representation’ was it?”

“Not a good one,” Luna said quietly. “It… it was self aware, somehow. Claimed to be influencing Reiner’s actions and moods – ‘pushing’ him, and though I cannot say what it was pushing him towards, I daresay there are a few speculations one could make.”

Celestia glanced back at Reiner, who was still talking to Lyra.

“It doesn’t seem to affect his outward bearing,” she said quietly.

“We have no way to know what it affects,” Luna pointed out. “We do not have a basis for comparison. For all we know, it has fundamentally changed everything about him.”

“That’s true,” Celestia said with a nod. “Can this… whatever it is… be exorcised from him, do you think?”

“Possibly?” Luna said quietly, shrugging. “I am not certain: we are not familiar with the magic used.” She sighed. “But it does beg the question: could all this be a deception?”

“A deception?” Celestia repeated. “In what sense?”

“This human, the things he’s seen, all of it,” Luna said quietly. “It might be a front for something else. We have had many enemies across our long years, sister. We could be being deceived to serve the interests of any one of them.” She gave Reiner a surreptitious glance. “He may not even be aware of the deception.”

Celestia nodded slowly. “I see why you might think that. Truthfully, I had not considered it, but it does not seem beyond the realms of possibility: we know minds can be manipulated through magical means.” She purses her lips. “That being said…”

She trailed off, her brow furrowing thoughtfully.

“What?” Luna asked, leaning in. “What is it?”

“I believe this to be the truth,” Celestia replied quietly, looking Luna dead in the eye. “I believe this to be as he says it is: a war, against some other version of Equestria.” She sighed, looking away from Luna again, her eyes downcast. “Perhaps the depths of his rage and fear are being fuelled by some dark presence, or perhaps his darker impulses are being amplified… or perhaps what you saw is merely a manifestation of hatred for me. I do not know, but I do not sense true malice, nor do I feel as though this is some kind of trick.”

“But if all this is true, what now?” Luna asked in a hushed tone. “What can we do?”

Celestia looked at her. “If it is true… then it is not my place to decide alone.”

“I’ll support whatever you need, all of the family will,” Luna said quietly. “You know you can count on us.”

“And yet, the choice still falls on me,” Celestia said ruefully, smiling without mirth. She looked back at Reiner, who looked incredibly tired. “But not only me.”

Celestia turned fully and took a step toward Reiner, who looked up at the sound and tensed in his bed.

“What?” he asked.

“I can’t pretend to understand exactly what has happened to you, nor can I begin to feel the depths of rage and loss you must feel,” Celestia told him, speaking slowly and gently. “But I want to help you, in any way that I can.”

“Then find a way to send me home,” Reiner replied grimly. “That’s the only help I want, or need, from you.”

“I doubt that’s true,” Celestia said, smiling softly. “It is certainly the only help you want, I’m sure – after all, you clearly hold no love for me – but I suspect from what I have been told that you may need all the help you can get.”

Reiner said nothing, but he looked away, and Celestia gave him a small smile.

“I know you don’t trust me,” she said quietly, “and in your position, I would no doubt feel the same. But surely there must be some help I can offer.”

“Soldiers,” Reiner said quietly. “Airships. Weapons. Resources. Medical supplies. Can you offer those things?”

Celestia’s smile faded. “Equestria has not fought a war for over five hundred years, and that was only a border skirmish. But yes. I can offer weapons, soldiers. Foolish as I may no doubt sound to you, is there no diplomatic solution?”

“Princess,” Twilight Sparkle put in, “from what we saw… it’s like nothing I could imagine our Equestria doing.”

“I must concur,” Luna said quietly. “I do not know how this other version of you could have fallen so low… but surely there is no just cause for what I saw. The… the…”

She trailed off, her expression sickened. Reiner coughed, but his expression was surprisingly neutral.

“Lyra… my Lyra… once hoped for a diplomatic solution.” He looked sad as he said it. “But then she… she started studying, learning… and all she said was, we weren’t fighting what we thought we were, we weren’t dealing with a normal foe, and that we had no choice but to keep fighting.” He paused. “That… that was one of the last things she said to me, two days before she went to the Thunderchild... and then she was taken. Executed.”

“By my other self,” Celestia surmised.

“Yeah,” Reiner said quietly.

“What did she mean by that?” Lyra asked, frowning, and Celestia couldn’t help but smile at the young mare’s inquisitiveness.

“I could never make sense of her journals after she was gone,” Reiner said to her. “And the people she spoke to – Jim, Mifune, Constantine – they had little pieces of the puzzle, but never the whole thing.”

“Whatever the case,” Celestia said quietly, “if it is soldiers you need… I do not enjoy the notion of entering such a conflict, but enter it I will.”

Reiner sighed. “I’m not trying to be unfair to you, Princess – God knows I don’t want to turn away help – but even if you’re more familiar with pony warfare than we were, even if you have more regular means of counteracting their magic, they’re a war economy. Millions of soldiers, weapons, equipment.” He pursed his lips. “The Solar Empire, the Equestria I’m fighting… is a war machine.”

Celestia nodded, but then gave another small smile. “Ponies are industrious, Alexander Reiner. When faced with challenges, we do not shy away. We will overcome any obstacle placed before us, and we will triumph.” And then she gave a small smile. “And it may well prove that we will not join you alone.”

Reiner frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Hold to hope, Alexander Reiner,” Celestia said. “And I will see to it that hope returns to you.” She looked to Luna. “Sister, come with me.” She turned to Twilight. “You and your friends should come to Canterlot: take the first train tomorrow, and prepare yourselves for difficult times ahead.”

“We understand, Princess,” Twilight said solemnly. “We’ll be ready, don’t worry.”

The other Element Bearers echoed her sentiments, and Celestia smiled, before turning to Lyra.

“And you, Ms Heartstrings,” she began.

“With your permission, I’ll stay here with Alex,” Lyra said before Celestia could continue. “We’ll let you know if anything changes.”

“Of course,” Celestia said, inclining her head. “That would be probably be for the best.” She leant forward and spoke quieter. “Perhaps you should keep the details of what you experienced in his head to yourself, however.”

“Why?” Lyra asked, whispering.

“Because I do not wish to alarm him, for one thing,” Celestia said quietly. “We will help as we can, when we can. Until then, we should try and keep him positive.”

Lyra nodded and smiled. “I can do that.”

Celestia smiled back. “Good luck, then, Ms Heartstrings.”

And without another word, she left the little room, her mind already spinning with ideas and plans. Behind her, she could hear Luna trotting to keep pace, the younger ponies scurrying behind her.

“Sister, what do you intend?” the Lunar Diarch asked.

“We have millennia of alliances and favours to call upon, Sister,” Celestia replied. “I intend to see about cashing them all in.”

---

The dreams of a stallion bound by class and station.

Cadance blinked as she found herself in the realm of dreams. It had taken little time to focus her mind on the task at hoof: a side effect of her Alicorn abilities. While she was in no way as skilled a dreamwalker as Princess Luna, it was still easy enough for her to navigate.

The place she had found herself in, upon focusing on her cousin, was a misty, veiled place, difficult to make any sense of. She was fairly sure she was walking on wood, but other than that she could make no sense of it.

“Bluey?” she called out. “You out here?”

There was the gentle ding-ding of a bell, and suddenly the mist cleared enough that Cadance could see she was standing on a dock, a mighty Galleon looming above her. She blinked, looking up at it.

“Well,” she murmured. “That… is something.”

“Avast!” came a voice, speaking in an over-exaggerated pirate accent. A figure appeared on the edge of the Galleon. “Who goes there?!”

“Princess Cadance!” Cadance called up. “Looking for – uh, Captain Blueblood!”

In response, the figure grabbed a rope and rappelled down the side of the ship, landing in front of Cadance. In a single move he swept his hat off, revealing the blonde mane of Prince Astron Blueblood, his eyes wide and a grin on his face.

“Cady!” he said. “Well, this is a pleasant surprise!”

“So’s this,” Cadance said. “You’re lucid-dreaming?”

“A little gift from the shared heritage,” Blueblood said with a modest shrug. “I quite like it. Nothing as big as planet moving, eh?”

“You can say that again,” Cadance chuckled.

Blueblood gave her a quick hug, before stepping back. “What are you doing running around through my head? Giving your Alicorn-ness a whirl? Or did you fancy joining me on an expedition?!”

He made an expansive gesture at the ship.

Cadance chuckled. “Well, Bluey, suddenly I understand the way you stay sane with all those aristocrats.”

“Ah, they’re alright for the most part,” Blueblood waved off, “but I long for the days when I could go on a round-the-world ride on the Starspear, just me and the lads!”

“And so…” Cadance gestured at the ship.

“Ah, right, the Galleon!” Blueblood said. “Recent hobby of mine – obviously flying an airship round in my own head has certain limits that makes the adrenaline rush… inadequate, shall we say.”

Cadance laughed. “You’re an adrenaline junkie!”

“Well, a little,” Blueblood said with a shrug. “You said yourself, I deal with aristocrats all day. There are many endorphins one no doubt gets shot through one’s system, dealing with those chaps -”

“Not an admission you’d want to make to Auntie Luna.”

“- but adrenaline is not one of them.” He shrugged. “Still, duty calls.”

Cadance’s laugh subsided. “Actually, that’s part of what I needed to talk to you about.”

“Oh?” Blueblood said. “I figured you had to have a reason to visit, but…”

“There’s some kind of unknown creature,” Cadance said simply. “The Princesses are dealing with it, but the situation might escalate. Me and Shiny are coming up to help them deal with it: they might need -”

“The aristocracy,” Blueblood finished. “Right, when I wake up I’ll get started on buttering some lads up. If Auntie C needs to raise a few levies or ask for some money towards an expansion or something, I’m sure my ‘friends’ will oblige.”

Cadance shook her head. “I don’t know how you deal with that horseapples.”

“Navigating politics is like navigating anything else,” Blueblood said with a wink. “Just needs the right compass. Now then, if you’ll excuse me.”

He grabbed the rope, and was suddenly hoisted back up to his ship. Cadance sighed.

“See you soon, Cousin,” she whispered. And then she was gone.

---

The Train To Canterlot. May 4th.

Twilight looked out the window across the vast green wilderness between Ponyville and Canterlot. The distance always seemed so small in maps, yet the journey took a good few hours, and there seemed to be so much nature in-between the two places, boggling the mind with its beauty.

A jewel unparalleled in her beauty, nature tamed, not as a beast harnessed but a friend made, Twilight thought, quoting a poem she had read from Marestotle or some such philosopher of old. But the jewel was imperilled, now. If Celestia meant to do what the human had suggested…

“War,” Applejack said suddenly, bringing Twilight’s attention back to the here and now. The Earth Pony looked tired, as though she’d been up all night: there were bags under her eyes, and her hat was on at a crooked angle, as though she’d put it on in a rush.

“That’s what it might come to,” Twilight said quietly.

“It’s crazy, ain’t it?” Applejack asked, giving Twilight a rueful smile. “Y’know, I don’t think I’ve ever thought about wars before, ‘cept as a thing that comes up in some o’ those history books Cheerilee makes Applebloom read.”

“It’s the Death Tree’s doing,” Rainbow Dash said quietly. She looked little better off than Applejack. “Like I said – it’s a -”

“Would you give your darn tree a rest?” Applejack snapped. “Our kith and kin’ll be sent to fight and die, don’t you get that? An’ all the while, you’re goin’ on about some darn legend!”

Rainbow’s nostrils flared angrily for a second, but she wisely decided to remain silent. After a moment, she looked out of the window, clearly not interested in talking.

None of the others said anything. Pinkie and Fluttershy both looked miserable, which was understandable, under the circumstances. Rarity, meanwhile, was busy sketching something.

“How can you work at a time like this?” Applejack asked the seamstress irritably.

“It helps me,” Rarity replied shortly. “And if I’m right…” She brought the paper up, showing the group the drawing – a series of small symbols upon the loose impression of an arm. “This should help us.”

“Those are…” Twilight began slowly. “The symbols on Reiner’s body. You drew them?”

“I believe they’re some sort of runes,” Rarity said. “I drew them from memory. The marks on his body are some kind of tattoos, I think, though Celestia only knows what they might represent.”

“They glowed,” Fluttershy put in. “When he tried to destroy himself, and when he tried to… when he grabbed me,” she corrected herself. “What was it Redheart said?”

“That the markings were thaumically reactive,” Twilight said quietly, frowning as she ran possibilities through her mind. “The blood wasn’t, but his markings were.”

“Even if that’s true,” Rainbow said quietly, “what good’s it do us?”

Twilight took the drawing. “I think I know somepony who might have an idea, when we get to Canterlot.”

“Who?” Pinkie asked, speaking for the first time in a while.

“One of my old Professors,” Twilight clarified. “He’s… a bit of an old eccentric, but he studied arcane lore like this.”

“The Princesses would know something, surely?” Rarity asked.

“They might,” Twilight agreed with a sad smile, “but I think they’re probably a bit preoccupied with other things, don’t you?”

---

Palatial Chambers, Canterlot.

Prince Blueblood’s living quarters in Canterlot palace were, to be blunt, atrocious.

Princess Luna would have been lying if she had said that she didn’t resent needing to go wake the most well-known layabout of the entire Equestrian royal family. Part of it was that she didn’t particularly like him: to awake from a thousand years to find that Princes of the royal house of Unicornia were less the heroic, disciplined, trained warriors and diplomats that she had left behind, and more a collection of foppish dandies.

This room was, disappointingly enough, just what she had come to expect. Strewn clothes all about, more than a few empty wine bottles, and – Luna wrinkled her nose in disgust – at least one set of mare’s underwear that she could only imagine came from a courtesan of some description.

And this is the heir of the Unicornian line, she thought with a scowl,

“Blueblood!” she called irritably. “Astron Blueblood, where are you?!”

There was a momentary pause, and then, from the bedroom, there came the slouched, naked (What sort of Canterlot noble sleeps naked?) figure of Astron Blueblood, blonde mane messy and eyes bleary. He blinked at her.

“Auntie L?” he said dazedly. “What are you doing here? I’m not having a nightmare.”

“You’re wide awake, Blueblood,” Luna replied stiffly,. “For a given value therein.”

He blinked, frowning, before his eyes widened in realisation.

“Oh!” he said. “Cadance’s message! I remember.”

“She spoke to you, then?” Luna asked.

“Quite a pleasant chat, actually,” he told her, going to one of his tables with a yawn. He picked up a glass and an unmarked bottle and poured a drink of what looked like red wine. “Want one?”

“No, thank you,” Luna replied with a grimace.

“Suit yourself, Auntie,” Blueblood said with a smile, before downing the entire glass and pouring another one.

Luna wrinkled her nose once again. “Don’t you think it is a little early for that kind of drinking?”

“Hardly,” Blueblood replied with a smirk. “I know for a fact there’s a few old chums of mine who’s still be on last night’s bender right about now, and probably will be ‘til this time tomorrow.” He raised his glass in a mock toast. “Might as well show solidarity with the colts, eh?”

Luna shook her head wearily. “Just… make yourself presentable. The situation Cadance warned you about is more serious than we had previously imagined, and your… expertise will be required.”

“Oh?” Blueblood asked. “How serious are we talking?”

“War,” Luna said simply.

Blueblood blinked, before downing his wine in one gulp.

“Right then,” he said, sounding ironically more sober than before. “I assume Auntie Celestia would like to -”

“Speak with you presently,” Luna finished, “yes. Hence -”

“Becoming presentable, quite so,” Blueblood said, picking up a brush and neatening his mane perfunctorily. His horn glowed for a moment, and the worst of the bags under his eyes disappeared. “Times like this I’m glad I conned Professor Trotsworth into teaching me that anti-hangover spell.”

“Indeed,” Luna said with a sigh. “Just… show up soon, yes?”

“Can do,” Blueblood said. “Ta ta, Auntie L.”

Without another word, Luna stalked out of the chambers, glad to finish her business with Blueblood as quickly as she had.

---

Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.

Twilight trotted along the corridor, feeling an unreasonable wave of nervousness in her stomach.

Well, is it entirely unreasonable? she considered. There's so much that could be going on, so many questions…

She shook her head as she trotted, making sure to keep her saddlebag secure. Fortunately for her, even with Celestia preoccupied with matters of state, there were others she could ask for help.

The first port of call would have been her old headmaster - unfortunately, Spell Nexus was “on an important joint archaeological trip with the Zebra historical council at the moment, and can’t be contacted yet”. So she went in search of another of her old teachers.

She approached a door at the end of the corridor. Twilight smiled softly as she saw the simple sign on his office door, with a simple wooden frame, the name Manewell Trotsworth printed on it in plain lettering.

He never was one for ostentation, she thought. It was reassuring to see that he apparently hadn’t changed that much.

She knocked gently on the door.

“One moment, please!” came a slightly harried-sounding voice. After a moment, the door opened, and a grey-maned and coated stallion popped his head out of the door. “Yes? Oh – Twilight Sparkle!”

“Professor Trotsworth?” Twilight greeted. “How are you?”

“Fine, fine!” he greeted. “Come in, come in!”

He stepped aside and Twilight entered his room. Sure enough, the office was in the same sort of general sparse configuration that she was familiar with from her days in school. There was a haze of smoke in the air, however.

“I do apologise,” he said. “We’ve had some - well, I suppose you'd call it, ‘experimental’ stuff come in.” He motioned to a desk nearby, where a few vials full of odd green and blue liquid were spewing the smoke. “I should be able to clear it up. Then we can talk about - what did you come to talk about?

“Well,” she said, “if you've got a moment, I need your help with something, Professor Trotsworth.”

His horn glowed blue, and a moment later the smoke began to dissipate. Once the last of the smoke had cleared, his horn glowed again, and a window opened at the back of his office.

“Whatever could that be, Ms Sparkle?” Trotsworth asked. “If I recall correctly, you’ve usually proven bright enough on your own to figure out any issues you’re faced with: certainly, what I’ve heard about your adventures – or should that be misadventures?” he added with a wry smirk, “in Ponyville demonstrate that.”

“Perhaps, but this is regarding something beyond my experience,” Twilight said. She retrieved Rarity’s scroll from her saddlebag. “If you could have a look at these?”

Upon the paper were rough sketches of what appeared to be runes. Trotsworth narrowed his eyes slightly, and looked over the scroll.

“Where did you get this?” he asked quietly.

“These are sketches my friend Rarity made, based on tattoos that were marked on a being called a human,” Twilight explained. “I was hoping you'd be able to help me ascertain their significance.”

“Perhaps, perhaps,” Trotsworth said quietly. “Curious: I believe some of these are familiar, but some of them most certainly are not.”

“Do you have any thoughts?” Twilight pressed.

Trotsworth looked her in the eye. “Be patient, young Unicorn. I’m certain the answer will reveal itself in due course.”

Twilight blushed. “Sorry, Professor. It’s just… this is important. The human…”

“I have no doubt it is important,” Trotsworth said, “and so I will make an effort to expedite my research.” He gave her a reassuring smile. “Leave it with me, Twilight. I’ll do what I can.”

Twilight nodded. “Thank you, Professor.”

She left his office feeling a little reassured: Trotsworth was one of the more accomplished professors in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Hopefully he’d be able to figure something out.

---

Ponyville Hospital.

It was not a good morning to visit Alexander Reiner.

He had been silent the entire time Lyra had been there, barely acknowledging her arrival. He seemed instead to be fixated with looking out the window, a forlorn expression in his face.

Lyra has stayed with him anyway. Her mind was racing – he had seemed so… so powerful, so dangerous, when he had threatened Fluttershy or when he had tried to destroy himself. But now... whatever injuries he’d taken were taking their toll. He was quiet, and seemed smaller.

“Will they help?” he whispered suddenly, and Lyra looked up. “Can I dare to hope?”

“Princess Celestia always comes through,” Lyra said quietly. “I mean… here, she does. Obviously not where you’re from.”

“Funnily enough, everypony I ever spoke to said that, for most of their lives, she’s been benevolent,” Alex said. “It was like… like some sort of slow change, starting a few years before the portal to Earth manifested. Then she started… changing. Becoming crueler, more tyrannical, more unforgiving…”

“Can we…” Lyra interrupted, feeling a little ill. “Can we talk about something else. Please?”

Alex gave her a blank look. “What?”

“Sorry, it’s just…” she shook her head. “This is all… a lot. You know? Hearing that the Princess who’s ruled your home for pretty much forever is actually a Tyrant somewhere else is… well, it’s not reassuring.”

Alex blinked, before nodding slowly. “I… yeah, okay. Sorry.” He paused. “What do you want to talk about instead?”

“Well…” Lyra hesitated. “What about you?”

“Me?” Alex said, frowning. “There’s… really, there’s not much to say.”

“I’m sure that’s not true,” Lyra said. “I mean, what about your family?”

Alex chuckled. “My family… my mom was a girl from some small part of Texas, but she met my Dad and they moved to… I dunno, some other small place, she never really spoke about it. My Dad… his name was Andrew Reiner, and he was… he was killed.”

Lyra put a hoof to her mouth. “Oh, no. I… may I ask…”

“He was a soldier, like me,” Alex said. “Got himself shot in the Gulf War. Mom didn’t like to talk about it much. After that, she met a guy called Dan Radwick. Great guy, I guess. Businessman. Moved around a lot, so we followed him. Mom and I took his name, so did I, and I didn’t learn much about my Dad from her. She… didn’t like to talk about it.”

His mouth thinned into a hard line, and he brought a hand up to his neck.

“I guess…” he continued. “I guess I didn’t really know much about my Dad until… until Granddad Al died.”

“Granddad Al?” Lyra repeated. “Your…”

“Dad’s Dad,” Alex clarified. “Albert Reiner. He had a bunch of his old diaries he left to me, a bunch of Dad’s old stuff… he’d lived through a lot of shit. Some of it not so good.” His expression grew distant. “I wanted to know more, but Mom… didn’t want to talk about it. Still. She’d moved on. Maybe she was scared I’d follow Dad’s footsteps, go off trying to be a soldier.”

“You did, though,” Lyra guessed. “Didn’t you?”

“Oh, yeah,” Alex laughed. “Right after I changed my name back to Reiner. I remember Mom and Dan trying to talk me out of it. Dan… he was cool with the name, he just worried, but Mom…” He sighed. “She started screaming, yelling about how I’d go die stupidly for some guy in a suit and his bank balance. ‘Just like a Reiner’.”

He shook his head, running a hand through his short hair.

“That was the last time we spoke,” he said quietly. “I mean… you know, we resented each other a lot. She resented me for being so much like Dad, reminding her of him, when she still… and I resented her for changing the name, not telling me about him… then there was what happened with Maxine and Mary…”

“Maxine and Mary?” Lyra repeated. “Who are they?”

Alex chuckled. “Mary… Mary’s my sister. Full blooded one. When I was growing up, she and I were really close.” He paused. “She was born right before Dad died, I think. For a while everything was okay, but then Maxine came along, Dan’s daughter…”

He paused, closing his eyes.

“Are you alright?” Lyra asked.

“Yeah,” Alex said. “Just… old baggage. Maxine was always Mon’s favourite, growing up. I guess she didn’t remind anyone of their dead husband, right?” His expression grew sour. “I guess I’ve been unfair to her, too. She never did anything wrong, tried helping even, but I resented her. We… before Mom died… we didn’t speak to each other much. We talked more, recently… after…”

He put a hand over his eyes, rubbing sand out of them, before lying back on his bed.

“Damn them,” he whispered. “They took so much. Maxine and Mary… they both used to be so happy, y’know? Then…”

“It’s alright if you don’t want to go on,” Lyra said. “I’m sorry to bring up painful memories.”

“Everything’s painful,” Alex said dully. “Every damn thing I remember. There’s nothing good left. Nothing clean. It’s all covered in grime and blood, and the sounds are all screaming. I can’t recall the taste of good food, or the sound of water, or the smell of grass.” He snorted. “I’m naked. Naked in the dark. Nothing between me and the fire.”

Lyra swallowed, unsure what to say. Was that a side effect of the… the whatever it was in his head? Or was it just that he’d been worn down by everything he’d done?

“It’s weird,” he said after a moment. “You and I… we’ve had this conversation. I’ve told you this before. But I haven’t.”

“I guess it’s not the only thing that’ll be weird,” Lyra said with a weak chuckle.

“Never told you about Mary’s…” he added as though he hadn’t heard her. “You died before then.”

Lyra didn’t know what to say to that, so she put a hoof on his bed. He rested his hand on top of it.

“I’m… so happy,” he whispered. “I don’t care if this goes ass over tits later. Right now, you’re alive. That… that might be the best thing that’s happened to me in years.” He closed his eyes. “God, Lyra, the things I’ve done… all I wanted to do was keep it the way you wanted it. Keep it pure. But that bastard Gardner, Defiance… it’s all muck, Lyra. All shit. I failed you. I failed you…”

His eyes stayed closed.

“I think,” a voice said from behind Lyra, “that he’s asleep.”

Lyra looked to see Redheart staring at them both, a strange, almost wistful expression on her face.

“Nurse,” Lyra said softly. “Are you alright?”

“Me? Of course,” Redheart said, smiling. “Are you? I was in the doorway for a few moments… it sounded like a… well, a heavy conversation.”

“Yeah,” Lyra said. She looked at Alex’s sleeping form. “I guess. But worth it, y’know. He’s…”

“A remarkable creature,” Redheart suggested.

“Yeah,” Lyra said. “A remarkable human.”

“Well, you never know,” Redheart said with a shrug. “Maybe they’re all like that.”

“Maybe,” Lyra said. “Maybe every creature is remarkable. In its own way.”

“That’s a nice thought,” Redheart said softly.

Lyra stood up. “I’m gonna head off, get some coffee, make my way back in a little while. Please let me know if anything changes.”

“Of course, Ms Heartstrings,” Redheart said. “Don’t worry. Your… new friend… is safe with us.”

Lyra smiled. “Thanks, Redheart. I appreciate that.”

She trotted out of the room, her head still spinning with everything Alex had spoken about. The way he’d spoken to her… for a moment, she’d thought it sounded like a lover, but upon reflection, it sounded more like…

… more like a confession. Or a prayer to a God.

---

Redheart sighed as Lyra Heartstrings left the room, before looking at Alex Reiner.

Well, they always say that humanity is large and contains multitudes, she thought. Good to know this one feels remorse.

She’d learned long ago that her enemies – no matter what they seemed like – were just creatures like her. Fighting for whatever they believed in. Although this war was different – and some nagging part of her kept wanting to think of humans as unfeeling monsters worthy only of conversion or destruction – she still felt a degree of something resembling respect.

I guess we all do what we think we have to, not necessarily what we enjoy. She checked Reiner’s pulse, then his temperature.

He was stable, but he didn’t seem to be getting much better, and there was only so much traditional healing spells could do for him without stretching the boundaries of her cover. Sure, she knew how to heal a human (she remembered desperately applying healing magic to a PER member, trying to keep them from spilling their guts out onto the floor), but ‘Nurse Redheart’ had no way of knowing how to do anything for him. She couldn’t risk healing him, not without blowing her cover.

If ‘we’ don’t learn more about you soon, she thought with a sigh, I won’t have to kill you.

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