King of the Dead

Luna stares at us hesitantly one last time. “Are you absolutely sure you want this? We could just teleport your city away.”

Emeris looks over each shoulder at our troops. “Raise your hand if you wanna see the city get blown to hell.” Everyone but Brutus raises their hand.

Luna grins then leaps into the air and keeps flying up until we can barely see her. The ground starts to shake, and a massive purple shining orb slowly forms in front of her. Rocks, sticks and everything on the ground bounces up and down as Luna lets out a furious howl and sends her orb rocketing at the final remains of the Taraskan palace.
In a split second, the charred stone that echoed our sins, is engulfed in purple fire. The explosion is so fast, it’s hard to fully register. It spreads to the very edge of the city before launching everything into the air. Houses that I had walked past every day as a child, were incinerated. I saw old stone fountains, forges, Zukaferas, everything that represented our culture was now both airborne and being obliterated. Luna lands in the middle of our small group and throws up a shield right as pieces of stone litter the ground around us.
Everyone jumps when a massive block of stairs crashes behind us, kicking up a dust cloud. There were no more structures, just a sea of black stone. Luna looks around and nods. “Yeah, I mean I’ll still have to throw away most of the stone or reuse it but...there you go!” As she looks around at us, we stare silently. We wanted to cheer but something inside us couldn’t.
Brutus crosses his arms and looks off to his left. “This still feels like we’re being erased. Not just literally but...as a people.” No one argues with him, which was a first. I place a hand on Luna’s shoulder and pat it a few times before rubbing between her shoulder blades. She looks up and smiles with her ears back. Everyone turns around and starts walking back to Canterlot.
I can see Brutus’ shifty brown eyes through his helmet slits. He keeps glancing at Luna before clearing his throat. “So, Princess Luna, how do you feel about all this?” Her ears go up straight and her back muscles get tense. I can’t help but shoot him a glare before she answers.
“I’m not entirely sure. I talked it over with her many times before we came here, and we honestly can’t think of a different solution. I guess you can say I’m opposed but I don’t know what else to do besides the memory wipe.”
Brutus looks her over then goes back to staring ahead. “So, you’re okay participating in the biggest lie in history. Gotcha.” Someone shoves him hard from behind. He whirls around furiously while walking backwards to keep up with the group.
“What?! It’s true! You all know it! We were well within our rights to stop fighting when we got here but we chose to keep fighting!”

Private Inginia groans loudly. “Actually, no. Most of us, including you, Brutus, wanted to stop. Raiden is technically the one who told us to keep fighting.”

Brutus snorts. “Yeah, with King Hurrand’s approval.” Luna inhales deeply then flutters her wings.

“I can see there are some...tensions building here. I’ll help prepare the transportation spell. It should be ready when you return.”

She flies off in a hurry. My hands ball themselves into fists and I’m almost at the point of knocking him out. “What the hell is your problem?! This isn’t easy for her either! How dare you just throw her into the middle like that!”

He continues walking forward and throws up a dramatic shrug. “So? She’s not even a Taraskan! After having to get into another war, watch all of our friends die and become an endangered species, we’ve earned the right to live here! I say we storm in there, tell Celestia that we’re not leaving and if she tries to force us, we use some good old Taraskan tactics to fix the problem! Who’s with me!?” He gets a split second to hear a few cheers before he turns around and gets a roundhouse kick to the face from Lucretia.

Brutus holds the side of his head while rolling around on the ground gradually. Lucretia balls up her hands and looks around at everyone furiously. “Who cheered?! Which one of you cheered for him?!”

It’s dead silent. Emeris and I scan the crowd as well. It was nothing but silent stares or people glancing at the ground.

Lucretia gets in the middle of our group.

“No! Absolutely not! We are not getting into another fight! I’m done with it! Yeah, this situation sucks and it’s completely unfair but what else is there?! We’re going! Lift Brutus off the ground and let’s just get this over with!”

The rest of the walk is quiet. Even Lucretia knew this wasn’t going to sit well with everyone. The real question was if someone was going to try something when we got back.

As a group of fifteen, it felt strangely quiet entering the palace. The days of large battalions were over and while I was happy the war was gone, everything I grew up with was gone too. The moment we enter through the large double doors of Canterlot Palace, we’re overcome with a rather impressive sight. The path to the throne room has pony guards on every wall with freshly cleaned golden armor.

As we walk by them, each one gives a vigorous salute. There’s even civilians who wave at us cheerfully. The three unicorns from the very beginning that we had to subdue, wear red capes and bow to us as we walk with faces as stern and strong as Taraskan steel. There was no way they knew what was going on, so what did Celestia tell them? I take in a deep breath and give an enthusiastic nod to anypony who locks eyes with me.

Row after row, room after room, every wall has ponies of every sort waiting eagerly to thank us. I glance down at Luna who beams up at me. She motions for me to get close, so I lean over. “I had no idea about this!” she whispers excitedly. The more we walk, the harder it is to keep moving. A mix of anger and sadness swims through my veins. Being appreciated, truly appreciated, was something I had always dreamed of. Yet, knowing each and every single one of them was about to never know I existed, was sickening.

Celestia stands by herself with a slightly warm smile on her face. Two guards close the doors behind us and stand outside the room with everyone else. Celestia takes in a slow breath.

“Raiden...all of you...I never stopped to thank you. You came here knowing nothing but pain and yet still saved my world using nothing but your steel and wits.” She points to a window that was previously blank. It had a mural in colored glass, showing a full suite of Taraskan armor sitting in a throne that looks just like Celestia’s. She turns back to me with a few small tears welling in her eyes. “I know this is all unfair to you, but it was the best I can do. I owe you everything and it feels like I can give you nothing. If there was any other way-”

Brutus lets out a loud groan.

“Don’t care, let's get this over with.” I close my eyes and grumble. Celestia stops smiling and tilts her head up a ways while keeping her eyes on us.

“Very well, follow me please.” her tone is flat and annoyed. We go through one of the doors to the left of her throne and down several passageways, eventually ending up at the door to her room. She opens it with her magic and motions with her head for us to go inside. It’s silent save for the clanking of armor.

There’s a silver ring in the middle of the room, twice the size of the doorway. In the middle of it, like a vertical puddle, is a purple liquid that defies everything we had seen. Some parts of it seem to swim like waves but much faster than possible and yet other sections flow almost twice as slow. Every pair of eyes in the room can’t look away, not even Luna.

Celestia shuts the door behind us then points a hoof at the portal.

“I’ve already been through, it’s perfectly safe. There’s food, water and a decent size castle Luna built long ago.” Luna wags her tail behind her and taps her front hooves rapidly.

“This is so exciting because it will be a first for me as well!” Brutus angrily stomps forward.

“No reason to drag this out. Bye.” He storms through the portal with an impressive lack of hesitation. He disappears immediately. Celestia looks over at me and her eyes widen slightly.

“Raiden before you go, I forgot to mention something. We never found Hurrand. If we do find him, do you want us to send him to you?”

Emeris steps forward and starts talking with his hands.

“Okay first thing you do, find a hole and yay big and yay wide, right?” He says while sticking his arms out as far as they can go. “And as deep as you can. Then you’re gonna cut off his hands and feet, toss him in and watch him squirm.” The room erupts with laughter and I’m reminded of one small detail: I never told them what Versa told me about Hurrand. My eyes find her standing quietly in the back. We lock eyes for what feels like eternity. Should I tell them? There was no telling how much Zaran was bullying Hurrand into what he did. In the time it takes me to blink twice, I realize my answer. Hurrand can rot in hell.

I was done with him. Innocent or not, it wasn’t my responsibility to resolve every issue that comes up. He was the past and I was walking away. He was nothing more than a scar that needed to be forgotten about; never fully healed but no longer hurting. All eyes are on me as I walk through the glowing ring. There’s no delay and within a blink of an eye, I’m in a completely different world.

I hadn’t been dumbfounded this hard since we had first come to Equestria. Ahead of us, was a colossal stone palace, similar in design to Canterlot. It didn’t have the shine or color scheme as Canterlot, but every inch of the dull-gray stone had intricate designs in it. Some pieces had what was clearly art; spirals branching from a single point that intentionally overlapped other larger spirals. The outside walls had depictions that were clearly retellings of Equestrian stories.

There were also dull trees that dotted the landscape but seemed to stop about two hundred feet out. After that, it was a barren landscape.

I walk up to one of the murals etched into the wall and the details are extraordinary. The depiction of a pony was no larger than my palm but had so much detail to the face that you could recognize them. Emeris’ hand slaps my shoulder. As I look up at him, he motions to the portal. Everyone else slowly fans out but in the middle of the crowd, Luna stares up at the palace with a look of bewilderment and horror. Emeris sighs with pity.

“I think she’s starting to grasp just how long she was here. Do you think this is gonna trigger any memories?” My eyes bulge at his comment and I run over to her. With both hands on her shoulders, I gently shake her but she’s in a total trance. I motion to two of my shoulders and instruct them to keep an eye on her. Every ounce of me wanted to stay and comfort her, but I had an entire kingdom to relocate, and we were given almost no intel on this place.

I stick a hand high in the air and make two large circles with my arm as if I was drawing on the sky. Emeris, Lucretia and a few of our lieutenants let out quiet whistles. Once everyone has circled up, I take a knee.

“Alright, Emeris I want you to take a small squad and scout the surrounding area. I need to know the terrain and if we have any neighbors, anomalies or hazards to worry about. Lucretia and I will scout inside and make sure nothing moved in. Everyone keep an eye out for Brutus as well. His tracks lead inside. Oh, and Emeris, we need to know our supply situation so let us know if you see anything edible. I’m assuming we’ll be fine unless Celestia sent us here to die.”

I unhook my helmet from my back and toss it on. We’re a quiet wave of steel as everyone fans out. I follow Brutus’ tracks that end at the stairs leading inside. The doors are attached to the walls by their own special hinges as large as my head. It was a miracle they could support the weight. The inside is pitch black, so Lucretia pulls out two torches from her backpack, lights them with some flint and tinder then hands one to me.

The inside gives me the creeps. The ceiling was taller than Canterlot, but still had the same tables with vases and flowers along the walls that cast creepy dancing shadows from the torch light. Artistically, the flowers were exceptionally well-done, but there was no shrugging off the disturbing implication of all the statues: that’s just how long she was here by herself. Every mural on every window, every table, every golden accent on every door was the same as Canterlot palace. There was the occasional deviation of charred stone, but she had clearly stopped that after a while.

I freeze just outside the doors to the throne room. There’s clearly some kind of message in the wall, and while I couldn’t make out the language, it looked to have been violently stabbed in, not carved with care. I decide to hold off on the throne room and take the corridor that leads alongside the room. A shudder runs down my back when I see the same language but different messages all along the hallway. Some of the messages were large, some were smaller, all had the appearance of random stab marks into the stone. One message even had a large hole in it from a magical blast after it was written that made it impossible to decipher what it said.

Something wraps itself around my right leg and I whirl around with a gasp. Luna sits on her haunches with her forelegs clasping me. Her eyes are wide and petrified. I glance around and notice there’s no track marks of any kind and chance putting away my sword and take off my helmet. I rub her left hear gently and take a knee. She seems to snap out of her trance and looks up at me.

Her words are odd and clearly in a different language.

“Luna, what are you saying? Are you alright?” I say gently, while stroking the back of her neck. She gives me the same confused look and tilts her head. Emeris rounds the corner panting.

“Sorry, saw her bolt and tried to catch up but I only have two legs.” He walks up, with his hands on his hips and panting heavily. He stares at us then shrugs.

“What is it?” Luna turns to look at him puzzled and keeps speaking her strange language.

Emeris’ mouth hangs open.

“Oh...the spell. You know the one they told us about that translates all languages? The one that Starswirl came up with a long time ago? It must not have come through with us. She’s speaking her language and we’re speaking ours. Crap, we’re gonna have to teach her Common.” Luna looks between us confused then freezes when she sees the hallway of messages I was just gawking at. Emeris sees it too and lets out a long, low whistle.

“I don’t know what what says but I know crazy from isolation when I see it.”

Luna looks at me, blushes then starts chipping away the messages with her hoof. The doors to the Throne room open and Brutus walks out, arms filled with muffins and grilled veggies. He stops and looks at Emeris and I casually.

“Dude, you would not believe what I just found. Come check this out!”

We follow him but Luna decides to keep erasing her messages. I glance over my shoulder at her as she sits on her haunches, erasing messages. Emeris slaps a hand on my shoulder.

“Don’t worry about it, just give her time and space if she needs it. If she needs you, she’ll come find you.”

Brutus eagerly shoves the doors to the kitchen open. He holds up his hands defensively.

“Alright alright check this out!” He opens a cabinet that has a tray of biscuits and gestures to it with his hand as if he’s offering it. Emeris takes one and looks it over confused.

“This...how old is this? It...wait it’s warm?!” He takes a bite, and his eyes widen.

“This is fresh! How in the holy hell?!” Brutus holds up his hands again.

“Wait wait wait, that’s not the best part!” He takes the tray out in a hurry and hands it to me. He closes the cupboard and the inside glows green below the door. When he opens it, there’s a completely identical tray of biscuits with steam coming off them.

He turns back to me with a massive smile I’ve never seen on him before.

“Every cupboard has something different too!” One by one, he opens every cupboard and despite there being hundreds, none of them have the same food. Everything is fresh or cold as it’s supposed to be.

Brutus walks around the kitchen with triumphant strides, turning on every faucet eagerly.

“We also have all the water we need! I have no idea where any of this crap comes from and not a single part of me cares! I mean...we can easily repopulate our entire species here!”

Emeris slowly looks up at him cautiously.

“Um...that’s assuming that the women want to.”

Brutus stops and whirls around to face Emeris angrily.

“What do you mean want to?! Why wouldn’t they?! It’s our species!”

Emeris sets down a muffin timidly.

“Brutus...there’s only four females left. Lucretia doesn’t want to, Versa isn’t interested in men, Termin probably will, I mean-”

Brutus slams his fists into the counters so hard, there’s cracks in the stone when he lifts them. He storms back to the throne room where everyone waits. They all look up at the commotion as they stand in a circle.

Brutus charges up to them and balls his hands into fists.

“Okay there’s an issue we need to address! What are we going to do now?! Food and water are not issues, they're magically provided but what about us?! As a country, as a people, as Taraskans? We need to repopulate!”

Lucretia rubs her left forearm reluctantly while Versa crosses her arms. Private Inginia freezes and looks over at Lucretia. Lieutenant Termin nods with a smile. She had expressed wanting to start a new family after losing both her kids at the bakery once it collapsed when we teleported here. Termin stands by Brutus, eyes wide as the moon.

“I agree! I think it’s each woman’s responsibility to have as many kids as we can! Obviously, that means we’ll have to do arrangements later on down the road to prevent inbreeding, but we can figure that out later!” The uncomfortable silence makes Termin and Brutus shift around. Lucretia glares so hard it even makes me look at the ground.

“I don’t want to have kids! On top of not wanting to pass down all of my health issues, I just don’t want to! Plus, I don’t think my body could even handle it! But mostly, I don’t want to!” She ends her sentence almost screaming with hands balled. Versa actually steps forward out of the crowd with her black hair tied back in a ponytail.

“I...also do not want this. I am not...interested in men, let alone being a mother.”

Brutus holds his hands to the side of his head.

“This is crap! There’s four of you! That’s more than enough!”

Lucretia cringes so hard, I worry she might injure her back.

“Inginia is thirteen you creep!”

Brutus shrugs dramatically.

“So?! She can still have kids! Or maybe she can wait a few years! if the women don’t want to have kids, they should be forced to!” he screams.

The room goes quiet. Emeris and I slowly back away from him, expecting a sudden gory mob. Even Termin slowly looks over at him. Brutus screams again then storms back into the hallway. Termin gives a weak smile then looks everyone over.

“Well, I’m not okay with forcing it on anyone but I do think it’s every Taraskan woman’s responsibility to have kids since we’re talking about our species here! For those of you not wanting to actually...do the deed, there’s plenty of ways to get the...ingredients inside you without intercourse. So...yeah I’ll just leave that there.”

Lucretia recoils in disgust and blinks rapidly. As another argument spills out, I walk after Brutus. He dips into a side room and I hear him rummaging around. I poke my head in the room and see him going through Inginia’s medical bag with a candle in his other hand. He whirls around and stands up straight with fear in his eyes, then sets the candle down without taking his stare off me. There’s a small bag in his hand. I look at him and for a few seconds, we stand there, the deafening silence felt like daggers in the chest.

“Brutus...you’re not a medic or even a surgeon. So...why do you have chaus powder? You’re not putting anyone under for surgery so...why do you need it?”

He licks his lips once then glances down at the package and stammers repeatedly. He hurls the bag to the ground in a sudden fit of rage.

“This is complete crap! We’re talking about our species here! Not even a single country! If I could have the kids, I would but I can’t, so-”

“So, you think rape is an acceptable compromise?!” I say sarcastically.

Brutus’ face goes red.

“You are such a coward! This is exactly why King Hurrand tortured you! Because you were weak, and you needed it!”

My mouth hangs open. His first insult is with his words. His second, is when he draws his sword. I look at his weapon calmly, with my arms crossed, and my weight on my left leg.

“You’re not seriously going to attack me, are you?”

He points it at me.

“I’m not going extinct just because of your cowardice! I should be the one leading these people and I say we live!”

I give a condescending snort and draw my steel. His eyes bulge and his frown recedes faster than his hairline. I stand there completely unfazed by his threats with my head lowered. He can barely see my eyes as I stare into his very soul.

“Last chance. Put it away or die.”

His sword trembles but he doesn’t lower it. I reach behind me and put on my helmet while he scrambles to put on his and I let him do it without moving a muscle. His eyes dart back and forth as panic sets in.

He lunges at me and I deflect it with a quick swipe. He recovers fast and tries to bring his sword down on me. I hold my sword up and block it then give him a good boot to the stomach. He goes tumbling back and knocks over a table but regains his footing too quickly for me to follow up. He grabs a cutting board, but I already know what he’s going to do. He hurls it at me, and I duck out of the way. I reverse my sword in my hand and block a predictable swipe. He continues forward and tackles me out into the hall.

Right as we go to the ground, I use our momentum and my legs to send him flying overhead. He hits the wall, and his metal armor makes him skid about eight feet in the air before he hits the ground. I look around for my sword that’s at my side, snatch it and get to my feet. Despite just taking a nasty tumble, Brutus is already back up. He stretches his back slightly, groans and shakes the pain off.

He holds his sword with one hand and this time he’s getting serious. He lowers his head a bit while keeping his eyes on me. He darts forward with another jab. Right as I go to deflect it, he whirls around the opposite way and goes for a heavy slash at my head. I don’t have time to block so I duck and stone from the wall scatters everywhere. Before I can even fully regain my posture, he kicks me in the chest.

He goes for another lunge at my chest that I deflect right above my hilt. I sock him in the face, and he tumbles backwards in a stun. I try to plunge my sword into him, but he opens his eyes at the last second and leaps back, making me shred part of the wall off. I pull my sword back and bring it down. He blocks over his head and deflects another lunge of mine. He takes a swing at my head with his fist, and I lean back barely avoiding it. He pays for it by catching just the tip of my sword across his stomach when I swipe mid dodge.

Without even recoiling, he leaps forward and stomps on my chest. I go flying backwards at an angle and hit the wall. I lean my head to the right and avoid getting impaled at the last second. His sword scratches as it grazes my helmet. I bring up my sword to stab him, but he leaps into me, keeping his midsection close to mine. My swords too long to bring back at this range. He makes a critical mistake and raises his sword above his head to hit me. Right as he does, I tilt my head back as far as I can and slam my helmet spike into his mouth.

He screams in pain, recoils back and slashes wildly while holding his mouth that spews blood. He looks back at me and in a furious rage, throws his sword at my face. Right as I block it, he’s already tackled me against the wall. With one hand on my shoulder, he grabs my arm before we collide and bashes my wrist against the wall, making me lose control just long enough to drop my sword. He releases my shoulder, hits me in the face and boots me in the stomach again.

I let out a growl of anger and as he tries to punch my face again, I duck and sock him in the stomach, opening his cut way further. His grunt almost sounds like he’s vomiting. I bring up my knee spike and try to jam it into his face. He leans his head to the left and sparks litter the wall as it scrapes against his helmet. He punches me in the side twice despite me having him bent over.

I slam my elbow spike down, but he’s too close to my chest. I end up just hitting the back of his helmet, but he still cries out in pain. He tries to yank his other arm back to punch me, but I shove his head back and he swings at air. He staggers for a second, shakes his head and balls his fists in front of his face, ready for another go. His eyes dart over my shoulder and I can hear the crowd at the end of the hall.

He punches at my face and I’m barely able to lean out of the way. I try to kick his midsection again, but he anticipates it. He turns to the side and catches my leg. I sock him in the helmet and while it dazes him for a second, he still is able to lift me up and throw me into the wall, making me skid several feet. I struggle to keep my balance as I go up on my right foot. Brutus runs over, brings up his leg and slams his knee into my stomach. I groan, losing all the air in my lungs.

He hits me in the face twice and my ears start ringing. He gives me a third punch and I topple over onto all fours with my back towards him. I pretend to be stunned and groan angrily. He runs up to put his foot in my back and I roll to the left. He misses me and goes to the ground on one leg. I get on all fours and he has enough time to look at me in surprise as I kick the side of his head, sending him into the wall.

He lets out a higher pitch of pain as his head lets out a loud clink. I don’t give him a second to recover. I get to my feet with a desperate leap and stomp on the side of his head again. He doubles over, covering his ears. I grab the back of his chest plate with my right hand and slam my fist into his face with my left. I hit him three more times before he tries out in rage. Before I can react, he snags his knife from his boot and catches my shoulder with it. I fall back, crying out. The knife stays there for a few seconds, almost mocking me before I pull it out and toss it aside.

He gets up and yells so loud, it hurts my ears. He goes to tackle me, but I duck before impact and fully extend my arm into a punch that tears open his stomach. He stops and his eyes bulge. He looks down as blood pools out. He looks me in the eyes right as I bring my helmet spike down, catching the middle of his jaw. He screams and falls backwards, forcing my helmet spike out of his jaw. He holds his mouth which hangs loosely and disconnected. His cries are a mix of gurgling and screeching.

He takes his eyes off me and it’s the last mistake he makes. I run forward and with a leap at the last second, bring my knee spike up through his top jaw. It exits through his left eye. He falls to the ground twitching and gagging as I slide my spike out.
Brutus looks up at me, still full of fury and hatred, his remaining socket twitching wildly. I narrow my eyes and smirk.
“I don’t know where you’re going after this, but I promise I’ll be leaving you out of any history books we write.” I spit blood to my left. He opens his mouth but all that comes out is gurgling as all manner of liquids ooze out. I lift up my leg, remove my knife and slam it into his forehead. His face relaxes and he stares ahead blankly. I gently push his face back and he falls to the ground as a corpse. Some men die by the sword, some die when they never really lived and some die because they were forgotten.

I stumble out of the hallway with blood all over my armor. Lucretia walks up with everyone else curiously. I fall to my knees and my eyes bulge.
“You see?! This is what I’m talking about! What are we preserving?! What are we?! What are we supposed to pass on?!”
Lucretia cocks her head with a confused frown. “Raiden...what the hell happened!?”
I motion to Brutus.

“He was going to drug you all so he could get you pregnant!”

I gesture to the walls and all of us.

“This! All of this crap! What are we?! What is Taraska!?”
One of my soldiers with long, brown hair steps forward. She crosses her eyes with a triumphant grin. “We’re Taraska, the ones who kicked the crap out of the Og Nag!”
I give her a big, painful shrug in reply.
“See?! That’s what I’m talking about! What do we tell anyone?! Do we tell them about the time that we trained the troops of Monza, just to end up setting fire to the town and killing anyone who flees because they had an outbreak of Mana Fever?! Do we tell them how almost our entire culture and possessions were looted from destroyed towns?! We, as humans, defeated Zaran and the Og Nag, but how much of that is Taraska?!”
I stare at the ground as I start sobbing. I toss my helmet which skitters across the stone floor. It sprinkles droplets of blood as it goes. Everyone looks at it in shock. I wipe my eyes and get to my feet.

“It’s decided. We fade into legend. I’m not doing this crap anymore. We’re not passing this curse to anyone. It ends with us. No more hatred, no more violence.”
Emeris creeps past me into the hallway and groans. He walks back out while nibbling on a cookie he just retrieved.

“Yeah so...pretty sure Brutus was going to try some forced marriages with the chaus powder.”

He points behind him at Brutus with his thumb.

“I think that’s going to be a closed casket funeral too.” He walks off, completely lethargic to everything going on around him.
A few more of my soldiers cautiously tiptoe into the hallway then let out gasps when they see what I’ve done to Brutus.
Sergeant Crispus looks around before speaking.
“So um...if we’re making changes, can we get rid of The Cage? Like I’m sorry I forgot my supply of arrows, but I shouldn’t get locked outside for three freaking days for it. Also, it makes me make more mistakes since I’m so scared of the consequences.”
Lucretia looks around curiously, shrugs then joins in.
“Yeah, and then I find myself willing to do worse things to cover it up like pin it on someone else...usually Brutus if we’re being honest.”
I stare at them all, completely shocked how little they care about what I did. I look over my shoulder and see Emeris standing in the hallway totally dumbstruck. Another soldier speaks up.
“I also think Leadership duals are completely crap. Just because you’re a better fighter doesn’t mean you’re a good leader. That’s a totally different concept. And as for leaders, can we not be cool with slapping each other around? I feel like not assaulting each other should be a rule.”
Sergeant Daytum nods while looking between everyone.
“On the off chance there’s another culture here...can we not be deceitful invaders this time? I mean I had so much fun getting to know the Equestrians. It would be nice not having that...sinister storm cloud overhead.”
The conversation continues as everyone takes turns naming things they want to change.

I hear Emeris run off and follow him. Despite my injuries, I had no idea what he was about to do, and I wasn’t going to lose another Taraskan. With one hand over my stomach, I brace myself against the arch that leads out into the balcony. He stands there motionless, his teal cape resting gently against his back. I lean over a little and see that there’s a disturbingly deep hole below us if he jumped. Probably something Luna had dug during her stay.
A few of my coughs make him turn around. He has tears in his eyes, but a smile crosses his face. I cock an eyebrow and turn my head to the right slightly in confusion. He takes a few steps towards me.

”This is it...did you hear them?! We’re...we’re finally free! We’re leaving all that...evil behind us! This Is what I’ve always wanted, to be free of all that anger! No more torturing people, no more war...none of it!” He keeps talking but he sobs so hard I can’t understand him as saliva slowly dribbles from the corner of his mouth while tears stream down his cheeks. I lung forward and catch him as he collapses. He pounds gently on my chest while crying into my shoulder.

“We’re free Raiden! We’re truly free!”