Praeratus didn't know how long did he ran. Nor did he care. He had to get away from Celestia, get away from her before he broke her heart further than it surely and already was.

'Have to run, stay away from her, have to run, stay away from her...' Was the nearly maddened mantra going on his head, with each phrase coming and going with the beats of his heart, which only got worse as he ran even faster through a forest.

'You know, this is all that bitch's fault for making you remember.' Said the voice in his head, which in contrats to its previows statements full of anger sounded... concerned for him.

Too bad he didn't care for it, but he did care about its blatant insult towards Celestia.

“SHUT THE FRACK UP, IT'S MY FAULT FOR BREAKING MY PROMISE TO HER!!!” He shouted at it, his roar echoing throughout the woods.

Eventually he stopped running and found himself in a clearing. He wasn't tired, nor out of breath, but he needed to do something, anything to calm himself before he did something he would regret.

Praeratus did what he did best: breaking things.

He began tearing the place to pieces. He broke the trees surrounding the clearing, shattered the rocks doting it, even stomped on the soil... He kicked, slashed, punched, bit and even used psionics, all to blow off steam. He also killed animals that had the bad luck of not getting away fast enough, but he didn't pay them mind.

By the time he finally calmed down, the clearing was several times wider, covered in gravel, dust, tree bark and some gore and blood after an unquantificable period of time of wrecking the place, and Praeratus was left panting and shaking from the experience.

“That... that should suffice.” He said to no one. Well, no one but himself.

'You did all that just to vent some steam... why exactly if I may ask?' Asked the voice.

“To think of what to do.” Praeratus replied as he sit on a boulder that miraculously survived his onslaught. Wiping his muzzle with his hands, he grunted. “I shouldn't have run away like a damn coward. Dammit I didn't even say WHY I can't and shouldn't love her back!”

'Oh c'mon you can't be serious! Celestia doesn't love you, she can't1'

“And why, exactly, can't she love me?” He asked to the voice.

'Well, for starters, you're not even a mammal so she can't really feel attracted to you even in the primal sense. And don't come to me about the planet's races, you're still a goddamn alien that simply looks like one of them... which is also one of the most distrusted if what we've seen is to go by.'

'Second, what would the ponies think-hell, what would Equus think if the Princess of the Sun, Bringer of the Day and whatever other titles she has enters in a romantic relationship with a very powerful being that's supposed to be morally superior because he's an alien and is genuinely superior because of his aforementioned power yet doesn't act as such?'

“They would have to respect her opinion precisely because she's the one rasing and lowering the Sun of Equus each day for one thousand eleven hundred and eleven years, and she was most of that time alone and regretting imprisoning her only family on the Moon, whereas her subjects don't give a damn about her feelings. I think she deserves something better than just a play as award.”

'You say you want to love her, yet you also compared your love with a prize.'

“Don't make it seem like that, you fracking idiot! I can't compare shit!” He roared. “And-"

'Fine fine fine, she deserves to be loved by someone that can love her back. I get it, and understand it to a point... but I refuse to like it'

“Well, too bad, because I don't-” Began to say Praeratus before the voice interrupted him.

'Also... DID YOU FORGET ABOUT ALLURA!?!?' It said, screaming the last part. 'You can't just break your promise to her!'

Praeratus stayed silent as the voice ranted about her.

Allura, an älf noble he met after the War before becoming a xeno-hunter... and his first and only love.

At least for now.

Praeratus shook his head and put those thoughts aside. He remembered what she told him on that awful day.

“I already did; in fact, I broke that promise several times before!” Screamed back the therawyrm. “I haven't forgotten her despite she wanting me to live my life, to find somebody to love and forget about her her!”

'Allura was on the verge of a coma when she said that, she probably wasn't thinking straight!'

“Oh, Allura was completely lucid when she spoke to and made me swear to live for her after she died.”

'She's didn't die, she's just in a coma!'

“The doctors said she wouldn't ever wake up from that coma, and that it was better to let her die in peace than to make her suffer!”

'You weren't there to see it! For all you know-' It began to say before Praeratus interrupted it just like it interrupted him before.

“Just because I wasn't there to see her death doesn't mean she did! We filled all the papers, we got flak for it, nearly offed myself because of the guilt, and remembered that I had a new life to take care of, and Allura's promise!”

Praeratus would have ranted more and more if he hadn't heard a twig snap behind him... and a gasp of horror.

Was it amongst the most cliche things he had seen since he arrived in Equus alongside laughably evil bastards, random music and wacky physics? Yes, but it also meant he was being watched.

The former Centurion quickly turned to the direction the noise came from, raised his hand and used telekinesis to lift whoever had been watching him and propel them to him.

Them, in this case, was not about gender, but quantity.

“Hey, don't be so rough!”

Praeratus eyes widened, then narrowed when he saw who had been spying on him.

It was Luna and Discord. He had been so clouded with fear that he didn't detect their brain emissions.

“Oh hi there Praeratus!” Discord greeted, an awkward smile on his face and eyes trembling in fear (literally).

The blue alicorn, on the other hand, was glaring daggers at him, which was incredible given what nearly happened to her the last time she did that.

Praeratus ignored the draconequus and focused on the princess, who continued to glare at him.

“I suppose you came here when you heard the ruckus I made.” He said to her.

“Yes, but only after two days of you going berserk.” Replied Luna, still glaring.

“Wait, what?” Praeratus asked in bewilderment before dropping the two. Well, Discord was dropped, Luna flapped her wings to stay afloat. “What do you mean with 'two days'?”

“Buddy, you may not know it, but you have been ripping and tearing this place to pieces for two days straight.” Replied Discord as he dusted himself. “Three, if we count after we arrived.

'Three... three fracking days!?' Thought Praeratus in bewilderment.

“And boy was it scary! I mean, I can do worse, but not with these noodle arms of mine!”

“Discord...” Muttered Luna, annoyed by her friend's incessant and useless babbling.

“I wonder what would Flutters think of your rampage? I know, she's my best friend, but I really, really want to see her reaction if she saw-”

Discord was unable to end that phrase because Luna screamed with the Royal Canterlot Voice.

“DISCORD, SHUT THE BUCK UP!”

The force of Luna's shout catapulted a screaming Discord to the other side of the enlarged clearing, stopping only when he crashed into a particularly large tree. It also pushed her back a few yards, but neither she nor Praeratus took notice of this.

Luna snorted in satisfaction before turning back to Praeratus.

“How long have you been watching me?” Asked the xeno-hunter, fearing he had been acting like a feral beast for more than two days.

“Since you stopped being a living engine of destruction and started speaking to no one several hours ago. We followed you here after you broke my sister's heart, but I knew better than to approach you as you were.”

Praeratus grunted in shame. He must have been really angry with himself if he had killed someone he knew about enough to care for them.

“Who's this Allura you've been talking about?”

As if a switch had been pressed, Praeratus' ashamed expression became angry.

“I'ts none of your damn concern!” He roared at her. While his shout was not psionically enhanced, it was still strong enough to startle Luna and make her stop flying. After that he stood his towering seven foot tall, five foot wide body over the six foot pony that wasn't even half as wide. “And how much did you hear!”

“It is my damn concern if its related to my sister's well being!” Screamed back Luna, just as angrily as the much larger alien. “You broke my sister's heart!”

“First off, and before we start a shouting match, that you will definitely lose, how do you know about that?”

Luna, knowing that Praeratus was right, forced herself to calm down and looked up at him again.

“I saw you both having a date through the city, and thinking that a bit of spying would do nopony arm I followed you as-”

“It wasn't a date.” Praeratus interrupted.

“She's in love with you, and enjoyed your company, and it didn't seem you disliked it, so in essence it was.” Rpelied Luna before continuing. “Naturally I was confused by this, since it was the first time in ever I saw both of you doing things together, and so I watched you from afar with a scrying spell. I then watched as you broke Celestia's heart by telling her that though you wanted to love her, you couldn't, and shouldn't.”

“Go on.”

“Naturally I was incensed with you, but rather to chase you then I came to Celestia to bring her back to the palace and comfort her.”

Praeratus sighed again, and returned to being ashamed of himself. Maybe he should have specified why he could't love her back instead of just saying he couldn't and running away like a coward.

“And after that?” He asked.

“After that I heard that something was tearing apart the center of a nearby forest, and putting two and two together I came to see you talking to yourself like a madstallion for an entire day.” She said while gesturing up, making Praeratus look at the sky and realize it was night.

“And for the record” Said Discord, teleporting to them after snapping his back to place. “, we also came because you threw a boulder to Manehattan, which for the record again is several leagues away from here. NAUTICAL leagues, which are longer than nautical miles, which in turn-”

“Discord, he gets it.” Groaned Luna, her anger temporarily forgotten to deal with Discord's obnoxious pointing out.

“Damn...” The thought of people nearly dying because of him was, well, unsettling to say the least.

“And what of Celestia?”

“Right now she's at the play in Ponyville-HEY!” Luna screamed again as Praeratus sped off. “WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING!?”

“To fix a mistake.” She heard Praeratus scream before disappearing into th woods at ludicrous speed.

“YOU THINK I'M GOING TO!!!... let you!... leave like that?” She began to scream before trailing off and eventually falling silent and slumping to the ground in defeat. She doubted the alien warrior had even heard her.

“Well, look at the bright side.” Said Discord, standing next to her with a giant bag of ice on his head. “He's trying to fix whatever happened between them instead of just mucking around in useless... Hey, fancy go to the play?”

Praeratus ran through the forest and eventually got out, looked around and, spotting Ponyville in the very far distance, raced to it, his speed enhanced thanks to his psionics.

'Must make amends with Celestia!' Thought Praeratus furiously, running at full speed to the town and either destroying trees and rocks on his way or jumping over bewildered animals and ponies. 'Before she kills herself or something!'

'Oh c'mon, you think a thousand years old mature woman would kill herself-' Began to say the voice before Praeratus interrupted it.

“Yes, yes I do! I nearly spaced myself if not for Cyranus being there, remember!?”

'Well, yeah, but... Hey, stop running and look up.'

Praeratus, confused by the voice's response, did so just when he was a mere mile from Ponyville.

“Where?”

'That cloud over there, at your left. The white bitch is there with the purple one.'

Praeratus would have screamed at it to shut it up, but instead looked up and, after sending a psionic probe, realized that it was right, Celestia and Twilight were up there.

And even with the distance, he could heard the sobbing.

Without even thinking, Praeratus was already covered in a psionic barrier that encompassed him, then hovering and raising to the cloud.

Twilight, who was about to confront Celestia and beg her forgiveness after getting mad over her lack of acting skills, got the greatest scare of her life when Praeratus, who until that point hadn't shown any capacity of flight, came out from the cloud she and Celestia were on and hovered between them (despite breaking many of Equestria's laws of physics, Praeratus was unable to stand on clouds like pegasi could).

“A-” Praeratus grabbed Twilight's muzzle before she could scream. After a few seconds, the purple alicorn realized who he was and calmed down, but before she were able to do anything, Praeratus spoke to her through telepathy.

'I know why are you here, and understand it, but you too know what happened between me and Celestia, and that's worse than just some theater play. Go back to the theater.'

Twilight gave him a quizzical look mixed with some anger.

'Please, I need to tell her something about... Just leave, please.' He said, and for the third time since Praeratus came to Equus she saw him genuinely feeling bad and ashamed.

Twilight gave him a look of empathy before nodding. Praeratus, nodding back in gratitude, let go of her muzzle and watched as she teleported back to Canterlot.

The sound of the teleport spell made Celestia cease her crying for a moment and glance behind her. When she saw that Praeratus was hovering behind her, she became so startled that she jumped and nearly fell if not for Praeratus pulling her.

“P-Praeratus what are you doing here!?” She said as Praeratus brought her over to him and made her sit on the cloud.

“First of all, why are YOU here? Aren't you supposed to be at your one-oneswhatever anniversary?And why are you crying? It's not just because of me, I can tell.” He already knew by reading Twilight's mind, but he wanted to hear it from Celestia.

“W-well” Celestia started. “, after isolating myself for two days, Twilight called me to do the rehearsal of the play and, well, it turns out that being a ruler does not make you a good actress.”

“And hearing that from your own former protegee must have hurt, right?” Praeratus said.

“Actually, I didn't leave because she told me I was bad, I did because she wasn't honest with me right until the very end.” Replied Celestia, now calm and composed. “I actually like being criticized by my friends since, you know, I'm the princess. It's just that Twilight wasn't honest with me, I am a very poor actress yet she bottled up her frustration right until an hour ago. And you? Why are you here?” She asked him.

“To ask for forgiveness. I shouldn't have ran away like a fracking coward and rampaged through the forest like some mindless beast.”

“Praeratus here's nothing to forgive!” She said as she stood up and hugged him. “I was rash and stupid, thinking that you would actually return my feelings with everything that's-” She began to say before Praeratus interrupted her.

“It's not that!” Praeratus replied as he gently pushed Celestia away from him. “I WANT to love you, but I feel I CAN'T or SHOULDN'T, remember?”

“I can understand that, but why?”

Praeratus, hearing the dreaded and yet expected word, looked down to the cloud for a solid minute.

“Praeratus?” Celestia asked, worried by the therawyrm's lack of response.

Praeratus sighed and then looked up at her. He looked like he was about to cry. Not stoically look forward to comfort a crying child, not frown sadly like a commander that failed his men, actually cry.

“I... I think you should know about her.”

“Her?”

“My dead wife.”

Next chapter will be a complete flashback, and might have timeskips showing the relationship between Praeratus and Allura, I'm still not sure. What I'm sure about is that I'll try my damnest to make it actually tragic.

And yes, Allura is from Voltron, except she's not a princess here. I did say that the story would also have minor crossovers didn't I?