Vagabond : Ruination of an Memory

by talavane

Rating: teen
Tags: Romance, Adventure, Human
Length: 5583

You make due with what is thrown at you. Sometimes this means hurting those closest to you, or at other times, even yourself. Forced to walk in the wake of another, the stimga associated shall be just another used as an distraction.

Many things didn't matter. It didn't matter that they were separated on arrival to someplace so foreign, or that one would fight for his life while the other was on approach to regaining his own. Nor did it matter that as one willfully shared parts of his life, the other was having the most sacred of his own twisted and tormented. Two friends sent together through the void, split asunder on arrival, reunite once more only to find wisdom in what must be left behind in order to keep moving forward.

But that didn't matter, in the end. What mattered, to him, was that it hurt him. It burrowed and clawed it's way down to his very core in order to find his torment, his true pain through memories that still linger. But where there once was one, there surely lay more. And he will see fit to help them understand in return.

But what of those who gave comfort and kindness to another? They surely couldn't understand, and if they cannot, then friendship is just an another word used for convenience. As two move away by going back in different ways, the ponies will find the conflict between the short and long goodbye.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-03-17 00:40:02 UTC

Chapter 1

His hand, now balled into a fist, hovers before the vintage wooden door. He knew not how many minutes he had stood there as his mind tried to grasp whatever bearings were left to be grabbed. Hesitantly, once more, he knocks a few times.

"First house I find and no one is home." His defeated tone hushes out to no one before he lets his forehead hit the wooden door with a hard thud. He closes his eyes to a rather disturbing thought before light pattering from behind the door catches him off guard. Leaning his head up sideways, he presses his ear as the scuffing seems to travel away. "No wait!"

He starts to pound the door even harder, "Hey I don't mean you any harm I'm just looking for my friend!" With moments of silence giving way to his ever growing desperation, he pulls something from the tattered pocket that at one time was called pants, only to rush to the window and plant it against the glass. "Don't want nothing but if you've seen him!"

Pressing his face against the glass in attempt to look inside to no avail thanks to the sunlight above, he leans back up in frustrated defeat. Letting a scowl cross his face, he walks back towards the door as if to attempt knocking once more. Instead, the subtle clicking of a lock and creak of old hinges robs whatever anger he held as he begins to attempt a volley of gratification...to a rabbit.

"..." He does little more than stare down at the solid white, and in his mind, highly deformed rabbit. Only when the rabbit begins to shut the door once more does his body react before his mind with a rather shaky hand sliding between the disappearing slither.

The rabbit, now seemingly disturbed through it's own expression, begins to repeatedly smack the wayward hand with a rather large carrot. While not nearly as infuriated as with the other silly looking creature who just thought he was cute, the ever shaky hand defied him further by slowly pulling the door open even wider. Ready to launch his weapon, the picture in his face gives him pause.

"H-have you..seen him?" He asks in a calm and soothing voice that had the rabbit any other caretaker would of easily passed as such. But rather, through the more subtle shake of the fingers holding the picture as they lightly tab the being on the left, it knew otherwise. The man's answer comes as the rabbit bolts out of the small opening, to behind, and begins waving it's paw down the path to which the man follows to just ahead.

"I, well, I guess thank..." the slamming of the door behind him causing him to slightly jump, "...you". Taking a moment to let both of his hands slap his forehead, he gives a little comforting rub to ward against further insanity before beginning his trek once more. His slow journey comes to a short pause at the bricks of a small bridge, not but maybe a few long strides at most. The slow rise of his hand to grasp around and rub his chin gives way to open thoughts. "Hooves? Well why not."

Letting his hand fall back to his side ushers his first step over the neatly laid brick and mortar. He stops for a moment halfway to give a good stomp, the lack of echo causing his brow to rise in subtle impression. The light quiver of his hand seems to draw his attention back to the task at hand with the cast of his gaze now on the edge of an seemingly medieval town. Giving his head a light shake, perhaps in attempt to renew his vigor, he presses forward past the bridge and into the rather barren of life town.

"I don't really know a way to thank all of you." He addresses all of the ponies gathered around him, "Taking me in. Feeding me. Finding a way back home and...." his tone lowers as hesitation comes his way, "..helping me look."

"We will continue, and when found, promise to honor the request." The dark blue pony with wings and horn announces with a firm voice. "We do, however, wish that circumstances would allow otherwise..." only to confront her own pause, "Mister Craig." Her firm nod for personal success of properly addressing the soon departed shared by those around her.

"Kind words as always," Craig does his well tolerated lowering of head in stead of full bow, "Princess Luna." opting now to retain his posture as he addresses those near. "Princess Celestia. Twilight Sparkle. Rainbow Dash. Rarity. Applejack. Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy." before turning towards the others a bit further back, "and last but not least, Ponyville."

"You sure you don't have anymore?" Pinkie Pie asks with a partially raised brow.

"I only had two cans left on me when I got here Pinkie." Craig casually answers to the evening of her brow, "You'd have to ask Twilight about the second one though." His grin slowly growing to the dual expressions of surprise.

"You holding out on me?" Pinkie gives Twilight her patented evil eye.

"Craig!" Twilight raises her voice through the single call out to the low chuckling of a turned back.

"Starting to wonder what all the fuss is about myself." Applejack lowly hums.

"Pff. Like it could be any better than your cider." Rainbow confidently dismisses.

"Oh nothing could be better than Applejack's cider!" Pinkie's agreement only bolsters Rainbow's puffed out chest, "But it was so bubbly! And it tasted soooo bad but I don't even care!" before eying Twilight even closer, "I. Want. More."

"Pinkie! That is no way for a lady to act." Rarity chimes in to the given shenanigans, "Even if this foreign beverage only sample was fully consumed in utter abandonment for sharing." Letting the not so subtle hoof jab jab just a bit harder towards lavender.

"Alright!" Twilight yells out in defeated frustration, "I'll see if I can make more."

"More what?" Pinkie, either in a fit of forgetfulness or ornery, pushes just a little more.

"Mountain Dew!" Twilight seethes, "This is all your fault!" she ruthlessly jabs her hoof in the air.

"Hey now." Craig smiles at the fun that had filled his past few weeks against the worry, "Just the delivery boy."

"While I always love seeing those under my care having such laughs," Princess Celestia humbly interrupts something she herself rarely gets to view so close, "We must hurry less we risk another finding the artifact on your side of the portal now that we've activated the way point."

"Ah. Sorry sorry." Craig apologizes to the gentle shake of Princess Celestia against the need, "But just to be on the same page you need me to throw the artifact back through my side while you hold it stable on this one?"

"Correct." Princess Celestia confirms. "Starswirl had always wondered what happened when one of his transported stones never rematerialized. We must make sure that the cost paid thus far is all that must be."

"Yeah.." his cast down before rising along with his words, "I know that he..wou..ld..." before his staggering past the princess causes all to turn to face as well "Adam?!" His journey soon accompanied by an almost ear deafening stampede of clops, his wide smile robbed by the sound swallowed hard impact of his friend's one knee into cobblestone. "Adam!"

"Hey!" Craig places his hand over back of Adam's front shoulders in attempt to give him a gentle shake, the former's only expression is one of head tilted confusion. Through the shake, and rile of debris, does the stench rile his nose. Letting his hands squeeze for but a moment against the slight flinch of his friend, he lifts them only to find one stained black. "Shit."

"We need to get him to the hospital!" Fluttershy, having smelled the stench all to familiar to her, left little in the way of sway. She roundabout towards Adam's backside as pink glow carefully tears apart and away the clothing much to the hope crushing sink on the timid pony's muzzle.

"C'mon dude we're gonna get you help okay?" Once more putting his hands, with one closer to his neck, on his critically injured friend. His expression shifts towards confusion as Adam instead grabs hold of his shirt, twisting, and he pulls him closer in attempt to talk in a language not yet relearned. "C-can one of you cast that spell on him so he can talk the same way we are?"

Twilight, having heard the request, looks towards the princesses as she was just about to revert Craig back to his of old. Their solemn nod in unison told her enough that she even hesitated mid concentration, her mind trying to lean away from implied.

"..said tell me something to let me know I still ain't dying back at that tree." Adam's dialect changes mid sentence. The weight of such a request not lost to those near, the princesses having motioned for their guards to help disperse the gathered crowd.

"I..caught you doing a jig to invisible touch."

"..oh..." Adam's voice lowers to near inaudible levels, "..don't think even my imagination could rile that up."

"Now lets get you..." Craig finds his voice interrupted by the tightened grip to his shirt collar.

"You son of a bitch that means you were looking through my window!"

"How else was I gonna record it on...I-I mean..."

"You got it on video!?" Adam's sudden tense movement serving little other than to aggravate his wound further, much to the verbal dismay of one timid pegasus and select few other ponies near enough to witness the absentminded act.

"S-stop!" Fluttershy raises her voice to the lunatic display before her.

"Hey Craig." Adam casually addresses. "Why can I understand them now?"

"We have given you the ability, granted from tireless efforts of my student Twilight Sparkle, to speak in our dialect." Princess Celestia opts into the chaotic fray. "But If I may, I am a bit surprised by how calm you appear, and continue, to be."

"Yeah." His dry tone incites more worry than curiosity, "I guess reenacting the blair witch project can take a lot out of you." Such context lost on all but the one before him whose own expression contorts to one on even greater edge.

"I am not...familiar with the reference." Princess Celestia calmly replies, and hopefully, inquires.

"Oh just some stupid movie about an evil spirit hunting down and killing some people in the woods." The answer followed by subtle golden glow before downtrodden expressions are spread from one princess to the other.

"I'm sorry but can we do this at the hospital?!" Craig, having finally had enough of the casual delays to the life threatening one before him, lets his frustrations get the better of him. "Please?" his pleads with his eyes into the purple ones cast down upon him.

"We cannot stop what was just set in motion." Her reply comes hushed but firm.

"But!"

"But we can still stop what has claimed far too much."

"So can I!" Craig looks up with further defiance, "We might not have magic but our medicine.."

"Craig." Adam gently tries to get his friend's attention.

"But our medicine is top notch! All you need to do is try and make sure he can make the trip back and..."

"Craig." He once more attempts to get his friend's attention even against his own sigh.

"And hold out long enough for me to get him to a hospital. So...!"

"Craig!" Adam makes sure to twist and pull on his friend's shirt even harder, "Why do you smell like lavender?"

"Craig smells like Twilight?" Pinkie looks between the two in question.

"What?!" Craig and Twilight simultaneously outburst to the implication.

"Well now that you all said something," Applejack rubs her hoof to the underside of her muzzle. "Twi did say last week that she was tuckered out from studying Craig all night." the subtle rise of warmth in her cheeks spreading all around.

"Oh how delightfully scandalous." Rarity presses her manicure hoof against the front of her muzzle only to earn awkward stares from her friends. "I said delightful."

"Hey sorry to burst the bubble but aren't we forgetting something?" Rainbow, rather grounded by the distraught across Fluttershy's muzzle, tries to be the pony of reason. "I mean can't you just heal him a bit and send him through like Craig asked?"

"Mister Adams." Princess Luna firmly addresses their newly arrived guest. "Can you stand?" Given not an answer but struggling action, she chooses to adopt a more casual expression as she discreetly sets her horn aglow to the slow but steadying rise. "Please come with me as well, Mister Craig."

"P-princess Luna?" Fluttershy softly questions the lunar princess in surprise, and possible shock, at the path leading not to Ponyville hospital, but instead towards the portal. She quickly looks towards Princess Celestia for some sort of encouragement, but like her fellow ponies, are only met with silent somber.

"Mister Craig. Please run your hand over the portal." Princess Luna's request getting perplexed stares from both human and pony, but compliance nonetheless as his fingers slide through the portal like liquid glass. "As it should be. Now..." she once more begins to request only to find preemptive action rewarded with almost violent magical backlash.

"What the hell..?" Craig stares at the turbulent ripples across the portal before back to his friend.

"In an effort to protect not only our own world, but yours as well, our side negates magic from passing." Princess Celestia answers from behind, and from further behind does understand begin to dawn. "While Adam may not have traditionally obtained the magic flowing through his veins, the corruption within, does."

Craig attempts to focus his growing discontent into the ball of his clenched fist. "I...I'm trying to understand and...maybe I'm just not but It feels like your not saying you can't help, but won't."

"If he leaves he will die." Princess Luna, much to the slightly widening eyes of her more charismatic sister, decides to throw needless theatrics out of the way. "If he attempts to force his way through the portal it will kill him."

"Then if he can't go back I'm not either." Craig, while meaning what he says, is unable to hide the hesitation riding his voice through each word. "Not going to abandon my friend again." The last of them catching his friend's full, but undirected, attention.

"Then you forsake more to the same fate of your friend." Princess Luna spares little in her declaration.

"But the portal leads right..."

"Not for long!" She steps a bit closer. "Within mere hours the waypoint will dissolve once more and randomly deposit any more who come through anywhere across our lands. Most would find haven within the safety of our controlled borders but not all."

"You must understand that it was the very thing that you lack that also serves as the strongest defense to what has taken hold of your friend." Princess Celestia, while keeping her distance as to let her sister retain the reins, impedes only to lay better foundation.

"But that's just it I don't!" Craig lashes out at none but the desperate attempt to come to terms with that which now hold his friend, and now him through moral dilemma, far from home. "Can't you just get rid of it?"

"The abomination that attacked your friend feeds on magic itself not as a target but through a defense of what it truly needs." Princess Luna pushes back her own frustrations to tighten the reins once more. "With no magic within it was able to attach to Adam's life force from the very start. It is now the only thing keeping the wounds it made from hemorrhaging uncontrolled."

"Then how are you going to stop it?"

"We aren't. But if we act in time we can built a proper defense once lacked and to help sustain his life."

"Which one did you get frisky with again?"

"We did not get frisky!"

"Oh, that one."

"Dude..." Craig quickly warns.

"Heyyyy. Leave the donkeys alone." Pinkie jabs a hoof towards Twilight.

Adam merely stares as the yet to be disclosed creatures in front of him go about their instigated antics. Whether by tunnel vision or unawareness does he not pay any heed to the silent stares of the princesses as he crosses his arms. He slowly drifts his eyes over towards the sudden raising of hands in submission from the slightly chuckling Craig, causing a smirk of his own.

"I think they'd be really sad if their friend got hurt and couldn't go home." Adam's words, while accompanied with a small smile and rather positive disposition, quickly snuffs out the renewed antics. "But I think they'd be downright miserable if day after day they had to watch that friend suffer because of a decision he made out of misplaced guilt."

"Cause I'd rather you make the choice that means the most to you instead." He throws out in the end.

"What makes you think I'm not?" Craig replies with crossing his own arms.

The two men stand side by side in silence before Adam turns his head towards the one who lead him to the portal, giving an quick but silent stare to the considered one given in return. To Princess Luna's added confusion, Adam gives her a subtle nod.

"Ironic, isn't it." Adam casually admits while looking at his slightly burned hand once more. Having ignored or never seen the slow hand coming to his shoulder in comfort, he opts instead to lunge towards the portal with enough magical discharge to propel him back towards the now scattering bearers. Having nearly blinded all near, none are able to concentrate in time to help cushion his fall as he slides, then flips, into a posture much like the one he had just left earlier.

"Everypony get away from him!"

"Why would he do that?!"

"Clear the square immediately!"

"Why the hell did you do that Adam!"

"The residue isn't letting my magic grab hold..."

"Stop yelling...I'm fine. Just need..a minute." Adam emits a tone like that of someone waking up groggy from a nap. His eyes slowly begin to clear much like the ringing in his ears, but it is the pain, or lack thereof, that retains all of his focus. "..or two."

"Have transport brought immediately!" Princess Celestia seems to heed not a care for his declaration of ample recovery, "Inform Ponyville Hospital to be ready for a critically injured patient and to ready appropriate sedatives for..!" Her words, and the very movements of any and all around who see, waver to the bloody fist slamming into the cobblestone without relent several times.

"Dude, you gotta calm down!" Craig, unsure of where he can grab hold that isn't burned or wounded due to dirt and debris, opts instead to kneel down in front of him as he attempts to get his friend to stop hurting himself. "Adam you gotta listen!"

"It's bullshit!" Adam punches the cobblestone once more with a sickening crack. "I get chased, bite, clawed, ran up trees and driven into fucking rivers. I have some demon chase me using the voice..." Letting the words lower into a cringe instead, "And you know what finally brings me down?" Lifting his bloody hand to point towards the portal, "A door!"

"L-listen I know this isn't.."

"I believe I heard you being addressed as Luna?" He does a few subtle nods back to the hesitant one given, "You said if I go through that portal that I'd die right?" Waiting until once more answer given as he slowly rises to his feet, "Immediately?"

"Why would you..."

"How long do I got if the stuff in me were suddenly removed?"

"A few minutes perhaps. But we cannot allow..."

"Don't need your permission." Before turning towards Craig who had just started to speak, "Or yours." where his stare now drifts towards the largest of them in pure white. "So I know it's gotta be closed on my side but I wouldn't know how."

Princess Celestia hesitates. She looks back and forth towards the defiant scowls of her sister and otherworldly guest against what she could only describe as perhaps a mentally compromised one not understanding the weight of intended action. She is about to play her words until she is thrown back by the eruption of hearty laughter.

"Should of seen the looks on your faces." Adam lets his laughter lower to a humble chuckle shared by none near, "Gotta apologize that you're getting to see the batty side that only Craig here gets to endure." letting his elbow jab out to an ever growing scowl.

"That was not funny!" Craig almost erupts, "You're scaring them!"

"Most likely not a good time to ask for a favor." His face returns to his normally neutral expression before looking down towards the one he had teased a few times already. "Twilight I think? Any chance did Craig here bring with him a long silver box?"

Twilight, still rather upset at the recent display, decides to give a rather terse response. "Yes."

"Can I have it?"

Craig slowly lowers his hand into his pants pocket, "Why?"

"Well regardless of how this pans out I'd like to at least leave a message behind back home." Adam moves his hand out to catch the rather roughly slammed dual tape recorder that they had used when examining the artifact. "Glad I bought this. But since I'd rather not leave a message of a strangled murloc, I might need my old dialect back as well." before testing it out by pressing play on the first tape.

"Listen I said I was sorry okay?"

"Sorry doesn't begin to cover it mister!"

"How was I supposed to know that horns are sensitive?!"

"Because you ask!"

"I was trying to scare you with a flick as a friendly prank!"

"And what did you learn?"

"That you can throw me across the damn room?"

Adam slowly, much to the utter embarrassment of those recorded, presses the stop button.

"You know that could of gone in so many different directions." He softly eludes before ejecting the first tape, giving it a fling towards the red unicorn that seems to crush said tape infinity in pink magic, before switching tape two into slot one.

"Nothing on..."

"No!" Craig gives his answer much to quick as a few snickers sneak out among the small crowd.

"Okay. I'm ready for the voodoo that you do, Twilight."

"Well, Craig, you might as well..."

"No." Adam interrupts in a tone that catches many off guard. "Just me."

"O-okay." Twilight, put off my the too quick changes in demeanor, concentrates magic into Adam.

Adam, still looking at the tape recorder, looks up and motions with his free hand a few mouth motions towards both his friend and slowly towards the others. When enough samples give him his cue he finally presses the button with the red filled circle.

"I swear something isn't right with that one." Applejack keeps her voice to a hush.

"Everypony is worried and he's laughing about it." Rarity almost glowers.

"I think the infection is making him act that way." Fluttershy adds in her two cents.

"Yeah right." Rainbow finds the immediate hissing cue to follow suite, "Even Craig acted like this wasn't really out of the ordinary." turning her muzzle towards the most rambunctious of them all, "Hey Pinkie." before tilting her head, "Pinkie?"

Pinkie, unlike almost any other time, had remained absolutely still as she stared over towards Princess Luna and the two humans. In an almost frightful eruption of movement she seems to slink to her hooves before moving back towards the others. "Something's wrong!"

"Pinkie calm down." Applejack heeds her own raised voice before pushing it lower.

"Do you see what such uncouth behavior brings about?" Rarity chastises to the one responsible, "All he's done is make everypony upset and frankly..." she gives a small pause to the weight of her words, "He better apologize I say."

"M-maybe he feels guilty himself." Fluttershy grabs their attention. "B-because Craig has been so excited about going home unless it was about finding his friend."

"Hey. Craig is being a true friend by staying behind too if his friend can't go back." Rainbow rides her element with little consideration, "So maybe this Adam should be nicer and stop giving Craig and the Princesses such crud." giving one more look towards the portal. "I mean even Craig has his back turned towards him now."

"Girls. Something's wrong." Twilight, having silently moved back to the huddled group, is unable to hide her worry as she seems to ride on the same wavelength already adopted by Pinkie. "Very wrong." Causing the others to look towards the portal.

"What the hay are you two seeing that we aren't." Rainbow fumes some frustration before looking once more towards her friends, who direct their attention not to the portal but to the white alicorn standing rigid off to the side of them all.

"Princess Celestia looks.." Fluttershy begins to state.

"...tense?" Applejack attempts to finish for her.

"She asked me telepathically to show her the imprinting spell for their language after Adam arrived." Twilight elaborates to her fellow bearers, "I think she is listening to whatever Adam is saying." before perking up to the hand signal that was one of a few that Craig had shown her now being used by Adam. "Whatever it is I'm sure the Princesses have it well under control."

Princess Celestia, having heard her young subjects carry on, focused not on words but on the hand squeezing so hard that white had started to overtake light pink. If perhaps in a lapse of judgement, she lets a hoof grind into the cobblestone below through knowing not a way to ease, not further escalate, an already tense moment of choice.

Adam slowly lowers the tape recorded as he takes notice of Twilight's horn flickering pink for a few seconds. While words begin to once more blend back into coherence his ears take a backseat to his eyes held in place by purple, widening to dissipating golden hue and perhaps the reflection of his own guilt. "Whose she?" bringing attention in line with his own.

"She is our sister, Princess Celestia." Princess Luna states with a firm tone. "Introduce yourself."

"She looks worried." Adam cannot help but vocalize even against his own inner warnings.

"For some we are not allowed the luxury of what we may personally seek."

"And what do you seek, if allowed such?" Adam allows his arm to usher Luna to lead.

Princess Luna softly inhales before eliciting her even softer sigh as she steps forth, and in between, Adam and the sudden increase in tension of the Solar Princess, "That vexed artifact thrown back through..."

"LUNA!" The sound bolstered yell of Princess Celestia, having noticed Adam duck further behind her sister at her highest impede, serves only to distract as Princess Luna and Craig are propelled away from the portal's sudden magical discharge.

Craig, having been sent much farther than Princess Luna, braces for the imminent impact of stone before being jerked to a sailing standstill. As the ache across his singed back soothes against the still ringing within his ears, his rather colorful words in a haze of confusion slowly come to terms, "...ck just happened!" as he begins his futile struggle, "Adam, you alright?!"

"I need the entire square emptied!" Princess Celestia's voice rings across the dust riddled square behind the large standing tree as frightened or shocked unknown voices begin to erupt all about. "Escort the bearers to the Library." Taking considerations of quick protests, but ultimately held to the role that she must still play, "Now."

"Hey I'm not going anywhere without..." having then been lifted back up straight and abruptly released from golden glow, does his eyes focus in on the still chaotic waves riding all over the portal's surface. The quick tension of muscle and whites of his eyes communicate when words refuse to leave his lips as he makes a dash back from where he once stood. "What the fuck are you doing!?" his anger, misplaced, comes to the one who once more encases him in golden hue that seems to expand into a sphere.

Trotting within that which only she controls, Princess Celestia cuts those inside off from the rest of the world as all sounds save for heavy breathing is held at bay. "I need you to listen to me for we have very little time."

Craig, in a fit of panic, instead launches his resistance through knuckle abrasive punches that do little more than impede even further the already chaotic, but not entirely lost, situation. "He can still be saved." is enough to bring it to a standstill.

"How?! You just said if he went through the portal he'd die!"

"Adam is dying. And he will die unless he is sent back in time. But neither of you can carry the artifact through the portal as the immediate pressure of the portal's collapse will kill you as the object travels through. It has to be thrown through or left behind."

Having little time to do otherwise, but deep down knowing all the time to have to live with it, he runs a hand through his hair.

"You will have to make a choice Craig. Just like he did. Just make sure you understand it before you do." Her words, like the sphere, are swallowed up from the sudden incursion of sound once more as she casts the dialect spell once more. He step backwards a few, still looking the princess in the eye, before his turnabout and then quickened pace takes him up to and then through the portal.

Princess Celestia takes a moment to look about, taking note of the now barren square that not long ago was hustle and bustle with sincere, if somber, last goodbyes and well wishes. Her eyes finally lay upon the silent and stilled fixture that she called sister, causing her hooves to make their journey before she could will it herself, as costs were still to be paid.

"We failed to stop him..."

"It is I who hesitated, dear sister." Princess Celestia shifts her gaze towards one royal guard mare who had, even through her absolute command, stayed exactly where she had been ordered to. Her eyes gently close as she uses her head to instruct the guard closer, opening once more to let the light of her sun reflect off their watery coating as the entire square basks in silent glow.

The guard ventures to just before the princesses, her posture rigid and proud, as theirs falters to the weight of a backup plan that they wish could be burned and forgotten in the heat of the sun. Each princess takes their turn not to usher stoic commands but to crane down and nuzzle one, that just like all, was more precious to them than all the bits of Equestria.

"Are you still sure?"

"Yes Princess Celestia." The guardpony, taking notice of the stare, falters her own. "I'm sure, C-celestia."

"When you make the push through I do not know what you shall find." Celestia lets her tone flow through one of a friend, not a ruler. "You will have but a minute to take hold of the artifact and cross the portal once..." forcing her eyes to quickly shut and shaking her head in attempt to push forth the words, "...once more."

"I understaaaahhh!" The guardpony screams out over the sudden burst of light, sound, and weight on her bare backside.

Both princesses yell in surprise and some fright from the high pitched scream moments earlier, before the loud popping echo vibrates all within the encased square, much to the burden on their highly sensitive ears. Their attention swiftly moves towards where the portal had been, where now only a small round stone with glyph remains, then back to the slightly charred human.

Princess Luna wastes little time rushing over and pressing her horn aglow over the man's bare back, opening her eyes and then once more closing them in brief relief before teleporting them both away.

Encasing down the square once more, perhaps out of wishing for a few minutes of personal space and peace, Princess Celestia lightly steps over towards the artifact still smoking on the cobblestone. "..thank you, Craig." she once more lets her tone flow not as a ruler, but something closer to a friend.

She lets her hoof move forward, perhaps in foalish anger at all the pain and suffering over the centuries, and lightly smacks the artifact onto it's underside. Tilting her head as what appears to be slightly burned paper adhesive catches her eye, she pulls the paper off. Unable to make out the foreign scribbling until she once more casts her eyes glow only to be caught off guard.

Her eyes slowly read, even through minor burn damage, each supposed word as she continues down the white sheet of paper. As she nears the end the golden sphere that cuts her off from the rest of her world begins to dissipate much like the breath of her sigh.

"The spell doesn't cover literacy..."