Man of War

Chapter 279 Memories of You

I hum to myself as I sit in the tram. It's driving up to the surface at a steady pace. It'll only be a few more moments before I arrive at the station. I thought I'd have to be down in Topaz much longer. But I guess not. I'm trying to have one last peaceful moment before I go hunting for Miles. I really hope he hasn't done anything foalish. I was really looking forward to our vacation together at the end of the month.

As the tram levels out I grab the backpack of goods and lift in my magic. It's made for humans, so I can't just sling it on. When we finally come to a stop the bell chimes and the doors slide open. I take a deep breath before walking out. I doubt he's there, but the best place to start is at home. If I'm lucky he's there and this is all a false alarm. If only I could rely on such luck.

FW-BOOM

I throw myself to the ground as a blast of energy goes flying over head. A tree explodes behind me and sends chunks of wood all over. I look over to where it came from and see human Miles standing there. He's shirtless and breathing heavily. He doesn't seem injured, but I can tell he's been fighting for some time. I take a look around before teleporting near him. I don't want to appear directly next to him, just in case I catch him off guard.

"Miles!" I call out to him. He snaps around and raises his arms to me, his magical lines up to his shoulders.

"Fuck!" He yells as he drops his arms. "What are you doing here!? I nearly took your head off! ... Oh sweet Barbra."

"What are you doing here!?" I snap back. I step towards him but he steps back. He takes another glance at me and I realize that he's eyeing me. "Focus!"

"You need to get out of here! There's something out there!" He yells to me, spinning around to find whatever it is. I take a look around and ignite my horn. I don't doubt that there is something here. I just haven't seen anything.

"What is it?" I ask as I step beside him to cover his flank. "Baloths? Some kind of serpent? ...dragon?"

He just shakes his head as he continues to look around. I keep my guard up as well as I try to see what's out there. Because of the partial clouds there are parts of the forest that are much darker than the rest. Even with a full moon I can't fully see what's out there. And I know in this form I have greater sight at night. So Miles must have even less vision than I do.

As I scan the area I nearly miss it. It's hiding behind a tree, watching us. Whatever that thing is, it's tall. Possibly fifteen to twenty feet. It looks as if it's made of wood except for the face. It looks porcelain, especially with the long crack going across its face. It has one antler reaching out to its left. I should be able to see the other, but it's not there. Maybe Miles broke it off?

It's behind the tree staring at us with a single arm wrapped around holding a branch. It almost seems scared of us. Maybe it's waiting for us to do something? I keep my eyes on it as I prepare a spell. If we don't have to keep fighting it then we can just leave.

"I see it." I whisper to Miles. "Should we just leave?"

"How many do you see?" He asks, still watching my back.

"Just one."

"I saw two. I'd prefer to destroy them. I don't want them near the kids... they've seen the kids." I curse my luck for that. Maybe I shouldn't have sent Shadow and the others back then.

"Okay... anything I should know?" I ask. I don't intend for him to fight alone. As much as he'd prefer otherwise.

"They move fast and silent. Tough as shit too. Dodgy too. They seem scared of fire though." I hum to him as I stare down the creature. It hasn't moved yet. What could it be doing?

"Why is it staring at me?" I ask Miles as I begin to pour magic into my prepared spell. Just to add more power to the attack.

"Dunno. They do that before attacking." He tells me as he takes a few steps away from me. "Know what they are?"

"Never seen them before. Should we take the initiative? Maybe we can-"

SNAP

Before I could finish my sentence a creature suddenly appeared at my side. I almost missed timed my spell to defend myself as he tried to pulverize me. But dozens of sabers appeared and sliced at the beast, snapping its arm off. At the same time the other creature came around and tried to do the same to Miles. But he was able to put a shield up in time.

I bring my arcane swords up and start to push forward. The creature tries to attack again but dozens of swords are swarming it. My attacks aren't breaking through as much as the first attack, but I have enough to keep the creature off balance. It covers its head for a moment before it sends out a high pitch screech that echoes throughout the woods. I have to step back from the power of its voice, nearly losing my spell in the process.

The creature stomps down and throws its arms out. The arm that I severed grows back instantly while all of the cuts I put close up. In the span of a second it seems as if it's back to normal. I try to push my attack, but the creature ran off to the right. A second later it appears on my left and tries to punch my side. I move my swords in the way and leap into the air with my wings. Its fist shatters several swords, but they buy me enough time to get away.

I race up and begin to channel the magic of the forest into myself. Whatever this thing is, I can't just whittle away at it. It needs to be one decisive attack. I glance down and watch as the creatures move to attack Miles. He moves between pushing one back with magic while dodging the other as best he can. Each blast of magic he sends out is enough to brighten the forest. But they're just too fast for him to catch. He's trying to set them up to be as close to one another as possible. The problem is that they move far too quickly for something like that.

Miles starts to push back on them, using beams of energy to try and force them to retreat. But the creatures don't care that they are taking hits. One of them charges directly at him before it takes a beam of Soul Fire directly to the chest. Wood explodes all over as the other one lunges forward and grabs Miles. I inhale and take all of the energy I've taken so far and unleash it upon the creature.

The world goes dark as all of the surrounding light disappears. My beam of energy catches the creature mid throw and blasts it into the ground. I hold the spell on it as I focus on destroying it. The light emitting from the beam glows faintly like the moon, revealing the area around us. Before I met Miles this was my most powerful spell possible. Moonblast. I've never been able to cast it so quickly before. Nor with so much power.

All of the world fades away when I drop the spell. My head spins a little and I can hear the ground sizzle as the floor burns. I slowly lower myself as light begins to come back. It's as if someone had turned out the lights only to slowly bring them back on. The creature and everything that was behind it is gone. Burned to a crisp. Only its arm is left.

Miles pries himself from its grasp and stands back up. Looking around we don't see the other one. But I have a feeling that it left. They were smart enough to wait for a surprise attack. I doubt that it'll wait for another when it's out numbered.

"Well," Miles starts as he feels the ground where I attacked. "At least this time you didn't hit me."

"... OH! It was one time!" I yell back at him, getting him to chuckle. "I swear! Besides! You told me to do it!"

"Mmm... I don't recall that part." He says as he stares out into the wilderness. I huff in annoyance. Of course he doesn't recall that part! So convenient for him to forget that he wanted me to do that! Noooo, it has to be 'my powerful wife attacked me' or 'try not to hit me this time!'

"Well, not that I think it will, but we should keep watch here for a bit. Just to make sure that nothing comes to check the battlefield afterwards." He tells me as he starts to walk towards the tram station.

"I'd hardly call this a battlefield." I comment as I follow after him. I stop when I see the an orange bag on the ground. Intrigued, I pick it up and open it... "Miles."

"Yeah?" He asks as he picks up my bag from Topaz.

"Why do you have a bag with sex toys with you?" I ask as I levitate a vibrator out of the bag. He looks over to me and goes white in the face. I stare at him before I look back down to the bag. I spin it around and see Shadow's name written on it. And, of course, as I read her name more of her toys fall out of the bag.

...

...

I drop the bag and scurry off towards the tram station. There are too many questions that I don't want answers to. I'm sure there will be discussions later about the missing... items. But for now I don't want to think about that. Miles follows after me as he looks over the bag I 'borrowed' from Topaz.

"So... wanna tell me what you were doing in Topaz?" Miles asks as we awkwardly take a seat at the tram station. I take a deep breath as I try to think of what to say.

I know honesty is the best policy. I know that Miles won't be mad or anything like that. I just... I don't know if I'm ready to tell him. I don't know how to be this forward about something like this. And I don't know why!? He's my husband! Why is there no other secrets between us besides this!? I know he'd tell me if... actually, he did just tell me! So why can't I find the courage?

"Miles." I start but stop as I feel my heart skip a beat. I take a deep breath as try to calm myself. But I can't seem to get a hold of myself.

Miles slowly moves a hand to hold my hoof. He gives me a gentle squeeze and a smile. I sigh and lean against him, resting my head on his shoulder. He always has a way to know just what to do for me. It almost makes me feel guilty honestly. Because I don't know if I have the same effect for him.

"What ever it is, I promise you, it's nowhere near as bad as you think it is. You can tell me." He tells me quietly as he rubs his thumb against my hoof. I think on it for a moment before I decide to be honest in a different way.

"Miles... there is something I want to tell you, want to show you, but... I don't know why. But I'm not ready to do so. There's just something nagging at the back of my mind telling me to wait. I'm sorry, but... there's something I'm keeping from you."

There's a moment of silence between the two of us. With my head against him I can feel his heart still racing from the previous fight. He hasn't looked at me yet. Still staring out at the woods. His thumb is still making circles against my hoof.

"Was that all?" He asks with almost a chuckle. I lift my head to look him right in the eyes. He seems like this is some sort of joke!

"Aren't you mad!? Isn't your whole society about honesty and truth!? This isn't some joke Miles! It's been... difficult to deal with!" He nods to me as he leans back against the bench. He stretches out for a moment before rocking forward and jumping to his feet. He looks back to me and smiles that little cocky smile he gets.

"Luna, amica mea, honesty doesn't mean you have to say what you don't want to. If there's something that you're not ready to tell me, then that's okay. Because you told me that there is something. You can be honest and truthful without being forthcoming. And if it's really this bothersome for you, and you really want to figure it out on your own, then I'll support you."

I look away for a moment as I feel a weight lift from my soul. I should have known he'd be understanding about this. But... I guess I let my nerves get the better of me. I glance up to Miles as I feel a wave of silliness wash over me. Of course he'd let this go so easily.

"Itane?" I ask in his tongue. Even though it's one of his native languages, it's become our own little escape of sorts. We use it to speak only to one another. Or to let each other know that this is at a different level from before. There are a few others that can speak it, but none use it the way we can. "Non mihi molestus es?"

"Numquam." He says as he steps forward and takes a knee before me. He takes a single hoof in both of his hands and kisses it gently.

I feel myself melt as he slowly start to kiss his way up my foreleg. Each tiny peck of his lips is enough to make my heart flutter as I watch him breathlessly. I become lost to his touch. Wondering how far he'll reach... how far he'll go. Just as he reaches my chest he pushes back to stand. I almost feel abandoned when he does so. But he just smiles to me and motions with his head for us to return home.

I take one last look out to the forest before I rise to follow after him. Whatever that thing was, I don't think it'll be coming back anytime soon. Despite how formidable it was, I don't think it was meant to attack. It seemed better at spying. But our time in the Everfree has ended. We need to get back home and make sure the kids are safe.

"So..." Miles starts as we walk down the path together. "First on my mind, aside from you that is, why do you have Tenera's old laundry bag?"

"What!?" I nearly trip over myself when he says that. I take the bag from him and look it over. There doesn't seem to be anything on there that says that it's hers. "What makes you say that it's hers!?"

It looks like any other human bag. Olive green canvas with a thicker black bottom. There isn't a single thing about this bag that could possibly stand out about it! Miles chuckles a little as he rubs his neck. One of his tells that what he's about to say isn't the easiest.

"Well... I mean, it is just a bag. But the clothes inside are the giveaway. I mostly remember that yellow dress of hers. It was her favorite to wear for special, non formal, occasions." I open the bad and see the old tattered yellow dress rolled up on top.

...

...

...

"I first want to say that I did not intend to steal from her specifically. I just happened into what was her room and then... yeah." I feel my ears pin back as I nervously pass the bag back to him. He laugh a little at me as he opens the bag and looks inside again.

I feel myself blush as I watch him dig through it. All of this pop and circumstance and he's probably going to figure it out right now. He stops when he sees something though. I can tell it caught him off guard. He pulls out the tablet and drops the bag as he turns it on. I can practically see his heart break when he sees the Kor sisters once more.

"I don't believe it." He mutters as he runs a hand over the screen. I feel myself hold my breath as he looks it over. I don't know how he's going to feel about this. Will he be mad that I took it without telling him? Will he be happy just to see them once more? Both?

"I couldn't open it." I tell him, hoping that this will buy me some credibility. "It needs a code. I didn't want to chance guessing in fear of getting locked out."

He doesn't say anything. He just stumbles backwards until he finds and tree and drops to sit. He stares at the photo for a moment longer before he starts to smile. Even just seeing the corner of his mouth twitch up was enough to put my nerves at ease. At the very least he's happy to see them again.

"This picture here," He tells me as he pats the ground next to himself. I take a seat beside him and look at the photo with him. "This is our graduation. Not only were they the first female Spartans in Topaz Falls history, they were also able to do it together. While not the first siblings in history, it's still impressive."

"Wow..." I mutter as I look down at the screen. "Would you happen to know how to open it? If only for the pictures."

He thinks about it for a moment before swiping to try and log on. Whatever the code is, it's a four digit password. He tries a few numbers, but they don't work. He hums to himself as he swipes the login screen away. He starts to check the notifications and we start to read the messages sent by Fidus.

The first few are a bit jumbled. A letter here. A single word there. Judging by the dates, it took Fidus four months to send a full message. But then they start to paint a larger picture.

August 26th, 1132: Heading to hospital. Stomach pains.

September 19th, 1132: Pregnant.

November 2nd, 1132: Don't tell command. I can still fight.

December 12th, 1132: I don't need anything so stop asking! All I do is sit on my ass and do nothing anyway.

Only four messages in the first few months but I can already get what's going on. I remember well enough when we were in Miles's memories what happened to her. It seems her assault culminated in a pregnancy. A pregnancy she tried to ignore it seems. I don't have the timeline down to an exact yet, but it seems like this all happened before Topaz Falls was abandoned. Or possibly during?

Miles moves back to the code screen and stares at it for a moment. He types in a number and tries it, but it fails. He hums to himself as he stares at it. I try to think of something to add, but I don't have a single clue as to what it could be. A birthday? A special date? Possibly something to do with their unit? It could be anything!

"Did you know Tenera once wanted to date me?" Miles asks as he stares at the screen. The question surprises me for a moment.

"I think you've mentioned it once. Or we saw a clear interaction before." I tell him as I try to stomach my jealousy.

"Yeah. Of course I had no clue at the time. I was so focused on school or the Spartans that I didn't even consider romance. It just wasn't anything that came to mind. And I knew there were attractive people out there. But... I don't know. I guess I just never saw them. Not until I saw you that is."

I smile from the compliment. I don't think he meant it as a compliment though. He can be rather factual at times. Still, it's nice to hear him speak of me like that. It's nice to know that he's genuine in his attraction and love for me.

1-3-3-7

He types in a code and the screen presents the home page. We stare at it for a moment before he chuckles a little. I'm still at a loss though. What was that code? Miles glances to me and notices my slight confusion.

"My old room number." I stare at him before chuckling a little. My chuckle grows to a laugh and we both share in the silliness of it all. The poor dear must have had it really bad for him. I feel a little pity for her though. I'm sure Miles being clueless wasn't helpful in the slightest.

He moves to read all of the messages from Fidus. Reading through them, we get a better picture of what happened between the two sisters.

Tenera was juggling between fighting the Kroth and supporting her sister. But Fidus clearly wasn't taking the pregnancy well. She wanted to fight. But not just the enemy. She was fighting her friends and family too. It's hard to get a clear picture, but the impression I get is that she wanted to take care of everything herself. She didn't want to be a burden.

But by the time they got to the Emerald City she was too far along to do any fighting. She was supposed to start her six year maternity leave. Captains orders. We see messages where Tenera would update Fidus with doctor appointments but then have to yell at her to actually go. Or where Fidus would start yelling at Tenera about hiding certain supplements. It's clear that she didn't want to change her life style.

Then they arrive to Ruby Canyon. I get the impression that Tenera had to drag her all the way there. At the very least it sounds like Fidus didn't want to leave the Emerald City. She wanted to stay and fight in the civil war. Tenera wanted to get her o Ruby Canyon for some cure. Something that she wanted her and the baby to get. She talked about fighting for the two of them so they could secure their future. Something along those lines at least.

But then the messages become odd. There are a few giving random addresses. One is giving coordinates with a differential number, whatever that means. But the last one is a date, but it doesn't line up with the date of the message. August fifteenth, eleven thirty three? There's no context to that date. It's just there. Date wise it's after all of the other messages. But it's after when the actual message was sent.

Miles stares at it for a moment before scrolling back up to reread some of the messages. Once through them he goes to the home page and thinks for a moment before closing the device. He passes it to me, so I take it in my magic.

"Sorry, I don't think I can go through pictures right now." He tells me. I nod to him as I put the tablet away.

"I understand. But what was going on with those messages?" I ask. He thinks to himself for a moment before shaking his head.

"I think I have an idea, but I'm not sure. They almost seem like coordinates for time travel. I know Celestia could do that for a few minutes, maybe that's what's going on?" I hum in thought.

That does seem likely. But what could they possibly be needing from him? And would it be wise to travel back in time? Couldn't that cause great harm to the timeline? Not to mention we can't rule out the fact that this might also be a trap. Discord was there in the past. Maybe he was messing with their communications. Or maybe it was from Miles to Miles to get him back there.

If he went, would he stay? Would he help his friends travel to Equestria? If Celestia can send him back in intervals, wouldn't that be enough to give them the edge?

All of these questions are too much for me to think on. But the one thing I feel from all this is that we shouldn't do anything too rash right now. If it really is for time travel, then there is no rush to do anything. The past isn't going anywhere.

"I think we should wait to act on this." I tell him, getting him to nod slowly. "We don't have enough information to act on. We can always come back to this later."

"I agree." He tells me as he sits back. "Plus, if I'm going to beat your challenge, I can't go crusading through time. Can I?"

I laugh a little from that. At least he's still interested in that. Though, I am too. So it's doubly good in that regard. I scoot closer to him and rest myself against his side. The night has become quiet once again. Even the winds have grown still, despite our location.

"Tempestive saw me." Miles tells me as he looks to the starry night.

"... Oh." Well, when it rains I guess. "Did you speak with him?"

"Not yet. I had Shadow take-"

"Wait! Why was he in the forest to begin with!?" I yell, almost falling over.

"Don't look at me! I didn't bring him!" Miles defends. As shocking as it is to have him see Miles as a human, I'm more concerned about him just... galivanting through the Everfree! "I thought he was asleep when I saw the girls on the cameras! He must have heard me make a run for it and followed!"

I sigh in annoyance as I think about Tempestive. We're going to have another, even longer, conversation about him entering the forest. But, that aside. He knows what a human is. Or, at the very least, he's seen one. They even had some interaction now. We knew this day was coming. Though, I wish he was just a little older. I guess these things were just bound to occur.

"So... how should we handle this?" Miles asks me as he relaxes back against the tree. "Should we just full force tell him everything? Or do you think we should trail it for now until he's a bit older?"

"Truthfully, I'd prefer to wait. He's only six, this might still be a lot to take in." I tell him, getting a firm nod of approval from him. "But, he's going to have questions. So... I think we should answer his questions in full, but if not go any further than we need to."

"We should have a timeline." Miles adds. "We talked about it before, but there was never a line in the sand. When do we think will be the age where he'll be able to handle everything? How old are we talking? Ten? Twelve? Eight?"

I mull it over for a moment as I try to think on it. There's still that small part of me that wants him to stay my little foal for as long as possible. But that's not fair to him. But when would make the most sense for him to learn about this? If not now, when?

I still think now is too young. I think having his cutie mark would be a good starting point though. Learning he's not fully pony while not knowing what makes him special? That just seems like a bad idea. But there's a chance he may never get one. He's half human. I don't think it's too likely, since Miles has one. But we don't know that for sure.

"Having his cutie mark is a good starting point." I tell Miles, breaking him from his own thoughts. "Assuming he gets one."

"Right. I think that's a good idea. Maybe delay it a week or two from then. But, in case he doesn't get one? He should learn about it before he's an adult. It's only fair to him."

"That we're in agreement on... so... Twelve? Ten maybe?" I ask. I do want to delay it a tad bit longer. And honestly if he doesn't have a cutie mark by then it would help him make sense of everything.

"Let's go in the middle then. If by the time he is eleven he does not have a cutie mark, then we'll tell him. But when he gets his cutie mark, we'll tell him shortly after that. Deal?" He asks before holding his hand out. I shake his hand and give a firm shake.

"Deal. Well, that's assuming he doesn't ask a million questions tonight." I tell him, getting him to chuckle.

"Right. All this planning and he might just barrel through everything later." He says as he looks back up to the night sky. I look up with him and stare up at the tapestry of constellations.

"This night reminds me of when I first arrived in Ponyville." Miles says after a moment of silence.

"How so?" I ask, leaning against him more. He just shrugs as he wraps an arm around to hold me against him.

"I don't know. It just... There was a lot of uncertainty that day. And now... it feels similar." I hum in response.

"I see... but things are good now... right?" I ask, a bit curious to his answer. He just chuckles as he tightens his hold on me.

"Leagues better. The night is... there's change in the air. You know? Just like back then. Look what happened in under a year when I first arrived."

"Pfft! A year? Miles, you had me pregnant in barely a few months!" I tell him, getting us both to snicker.

"Well! You know... old habits and all... Anyway! I just feel as if we're at a turning point. We going to start trying for another baby. Tempestive is learning about his true nature. Fuck, Shadow graduates this year! Things are going to start changing again. And I feel hopeful, you know?"

I look up to the night sky and think on that for a moment. Miles isn't one to normally talk or feel hopeful. But hearing him say that, it puts a smile on my face. Back then, he didn't want to think about the future. He knew he wanted one, but that wasn't a luxury he could afford. But now... now there's nothing but time for us. We can afford to be hopeful again.

"Yeah, I get it." I tell him as I nestle against him, letting my heart fill with hopes and dreams again.