The Realms Between are a strange thing. Something that perhaps, if you yourself ever visited, you'd never be able to make perfect sense of. It was a reflection of the world you know, but not. Does that make sense? Imagine everything and nothing all at the same time, blended together into a surreal smoothie. Like any optical illusion, your eyes and your brain try to reconstruct the nothingness and everythingness all around you into something comprehensible. It is a survival instinct for all living things, as the world around you was only ever a result of your perception of it. Without eyes, your world would have no shape. Without ears, it would have no sound. And in that sense, for the Realms Between who are in a state of constant flux between the everything and the nothing, your eyes and brain fill in the spatial and sensory gap with illusions of your own world. Mostly because that was the only "world" you've ever known.

Perhaps if you traveled to more worlds, more realms, more realities... perhaps only then would you start to get a true understanding of the Realms Between and the "everythingness" described. And perhaps, only when you seize to be entirely yourself, you'll start to get a better understanding of what that "nothingness" is too.

But for the purposes of this story, let's look at what Víss ør-grandr saw with his eyes. To him, the Realms Between where a nostalgic sight. It was a forest of otherworldly, mythical properties. Many of the thin tall trees shone and sparkled in the perpetual light of dusk, all with a golden yellow glow. They made for a whimsical sight, as the light that bounced off their reflective surface illusion the sense that they were all coursing with power. The white puffy mist that permeated this forest further drove that sense home, as it was thick and low to the ground enough to feel as if it was moving with purpose, obfuscating the soil beneath and making the whole area look like divine ground. Even the golden leaves from these golden trees fell through the air slowly from the dense air, putting on an ethereal display for any who traversed through it.

There was a pressure to this area unlike any other, and it had a way to unnerve those within who were not natives to this forest.

Stranger yet, the flora within the forest was not all uniform like Víss had expected it to be. He had spent a majority of his life within the Realms Between, and never imagined that it would change for him. Despite being witness to new places and new realms and new worlds, his mind was fixated on that golden forest for one reason or another. But yet...

Some of the trees were strangely thicker and more traditionally brown than he remembered. Some of the flowers that poked out of the mist were more blue and magical than he envisioned. And some of the canopy was far more green than was possible for the eternally gold leaves to make. Even the air felt... musky. Damp. Wet. Like that of a bog.

Was the Everfree Forest melding with his vision of that mythical one from his memories? Perhaps his time in Equestria had really affected him that deeply... He knew he missed Cozy a whole lot, but he never expected to grow fond of the forest itself.

As if that weren't enough for the unending surprises, as he traveled through the Realms Between, he began to see more reminiscent things from Equestria. Ponyville's cots and houses nestled and tucked themselves neatly into the corners of the forest. The soft soiled ground shifted to the stony dirt roads of that familiar little hamlet. And were those... the half-built hallways of Twilight's Castle of Friendship? Surely they must have been. As if cut in half, their crystal dissection lay in the middle of the forest, decorated with Twilight's old things and even the stained glass windows the Princess had personally commissioned.

With one startled realization, Víss sighed. He lacked sleep if he was this slow to pick up on it. He closed his eyes and focused his mind on the ground. As he did so, the mist beneath his hooves began to disappear to show the ground. The ground itself was becoming like that of the ground near the pond that he had used just earlier from the Everfree Forest. Without needing to physically write the runes himself, the circle and the symbols began to appear by themselves the more the elk concentrated his mind. Once he was sure it was done, he opened his eyes. He looked all around him trying to spot something out of the ordinary in that now strangely jumbled up Realm Between. His patience wearing thin, he decided to drop the veil of obscurity.

"You shouldn't have followed me, Cozy. I'm not going to tell you twice, get over here this instant so I can send you back to Equestria. This is no place for you." His voice carried anger and annoyance, clear as day.

After a bit of silence, finally the surrounding trees shook to signal to the elk her general location. "No." Is all that was replied back to him.

"You foolish girl..." Víss gritted his teeth, now making his emotions plainly obvious. When you haven't slept in days, haven't eaten much at all, and are deeply ailing emotionally, it tends to wear down your guard and your patience. "Cozy, for once in your life listen to me!"

"Huh? What's that? What are you talking about, Víss? How can I listen if you've never even told me anything?"

"This is not a game, child!" Víss... was losing this game of wits.

"I never thought it was. And I'm not a kid anymore."

"THIS IS FOR YOUR OWN GOOD. YOU CANNOT FOLLOW ME, COZY!!" That was the loudest Víss had ever yelled in years. His voice broke as he said it, seemingly choking on his own emotion.

"And who decided that?" Cozy finally appeared before him, flying down from the canopy she'd been hiding in. She was near to the point of breaking down herself, but she was holding it all in, trying to be as calm as possible. "Why don't I get a choice?" Her body began to tremble. "Is it because of what I did?" Víss' expression softened as he witnessed the tears streaming from her face. Cozy was not bothering wiping away her eyes at all anymore. "Am I unworthy of one?"

"It's... not that..." Víss struggled to reply.

"Why am I the only one who doesn't get to know about you?" She began to move towards him.

"I just wanted..." Víss began to move back inadvertently as if trying to hide his shame. With his focus gone, the circle was now slowly disappearing back into the foggy ground. His eyes shifted nervously away from Cozy's direct gaze.

"Wanted what, huh? Say it. If you'd only said what you really wanted, I would've granted it. Even if you had to leave for who knows how long, I would've allowed it. You've done. SO. MUCH. for me, Víss. If you didn't want me by your side, I would've left you on your own forever, no matter how much it'd hurt me. When you grew so sad after that letter, I thought maybe, just this once, I could've done something for you instead."

With the ground now completely covered by that misty veil, Víss took a tumble as the rocky terrain from Ponyville's roads jutted out to meet his careless steps. He found his retreat cut off as his weakened body was finding it difficult to get up again. He could do nothing but look to the ground in his shame, as Cozy stopped right in front of him, looking down at him now that her new adult height allowed for it. This was the one and only time she'd ever been in this position. Cozy had only ever looked up to Víss, metaphorically and even quite literally. But now, it was like she was looking down at a broken husk.

"..." Víss was silent, unable to respond.

"Well, will you tell me now that you're like this? Now that I'm here, wherever this is? Will you finally tell me the whole truth, without masking it with cryptic nonsense?"

"..." More silence.

"I overheard your conversation with Twilight. Did you really think I have the capacity to hate you, Víss? After everything you've done for me? Did you honestly believe I would live my life happy without you in it? If you just up and vanished on me like that, what makes you think that I wouldn't spend the rest of my life looking for you, worrying about you?"

"..."

"Why won't you saying anything...? Why is it so difficult for you to tell me the truth...?"

Silence, once more.

Cozy had changed considerably in that last week. She was forced to. Her worry had been eating her alive that whole time, and now that she had the opportunity to smite it down, she was determined to never let it get to her again. If it had only been a week prior, if this had all happened without her knowledge, it wouldn't have tempered her resolve to this extent. She wouldn't have been able to stand before him and endure his silence. Her patience would've broken. Her sadness would've made her run away. Now though, she was going to wait in that silence until the end of time if she had to.

Thankfully for her, she didn't need to.

"I just wanted you to be free. I'm... not strong enough. Not smart enough. I can't protect you if you're with me... If I fell to my selfishness and kept you by my side like I've wanted, I'd be taking away your freedom for good." He finally responded, his voice quiet and grim. "What can I say to get you to return to Equestria? What can I say to make you hate me, so that you may live a life of peace as a normal pony?"

"Nothing." Cozy responded with no hesitation.

"Right... I thought that would be the case. That's why I kept you from the truth, all this time."

"I want answers, Víss. No more hiding it."

He nodded and finally turned to look at Cozy, who had seated herself next to him on the ground where he still lay.

"Time has a nasty way of bending the truth. I thought I would never save another soul, until I met you. And just like how I thought I would never agree with my grandfather, here I am, returning to him."

"The Great Sage Fimbulpur, right?" Cozy took this time to tell Víss all that she learned from Chrys and Twilight. "What happened between the two of you to become estranged?"

"It wasn't a fight, if that's what you're wondering. My grandfather and I both agreed that I should go and live my life as I wanted, away from our duty as Chroniclers. You see, because of my mother and father, I had grown to hate my race. As a result, I hated my duty. My grandfather was the only beacon of hope in my life, since he embodied everything good about what we did. But taking up my duty of writing the world's stories was too painful and difficult for me to endure. It brought up... old memories I'd long since buried. And so, at my grandfather's suggestion, I abandoned it."

"Chroniclers, you mean the Sages of Fate?" Víss nodded to Cozy's question.

"That's what Equestrians call us. The truth is, Cozy, we are not from Equus at all. We come from here, the Realms Between."

"From what I've been hearing and with Twilight calling you outsiders, I figured there was a chance of you being from somewhere very far away. Although I never expected something like an otherworlder. But now that I'm seeing this place, I have no choice but to believe it. Where is, here, anyway?"

"Not even we know the full mysteries of this place. This is just the birthplace for our race. Although I myself was born elsewhere. You can imagine this whole plane as a giant network of threads, connected to all worlds, realms, and realities. We call this place ᚢᚴᛏᚱᛅᛋᛁᛚ in the language that we speak of Younger Futhark. Pronounced uktrasil, in Ponyish. Translated, you would write it as... Yggdrasil. For all intents and purposes, we call it the 'Realms Between'. Though we originated from this place, most of our race make their lives out in the many different worlds. My mother, father, and I all come from a world known as 'Earth', a now magic-less world ruled by a people who know themselves as mankind."

"Earth... You said something similar when we first met. When you were changing the ritual circle. Something about an entire world being destroyed once..."

"That's right."

"What... happened to that world? Why did it become magic-less?" Cozy shuddered at the thought, since it hit so close to home. "Does it have to do with your parents and hatred for your own race?"

"You've always been incredibly sharp, Cozy." Víss patted her on the head, pride visible on his face. "Indeed, my parents are to blame for the state of Earth. Their actions resulted in Ragnarok, what we call 'The end of the gods'. But they alone do not hold all the blame. Many, many of our kind aided them. They committed true atrocities to secure a place for themselves in the world. With their innate power, long life, and 'divine providence', they influenced the many different races that once were known to peacefully co-exist. Oftentimes, for material or political wealth, they would purposely instigate fights amongst them. Known on Earth as the 'Norns', and acting often as soothsayers, prophets, and even gods at one point, they would trick adversaries into bloody wars simply by telling them of a 'future' or a 'fate' that was crafted to make it sound like their victory was assured. With their eyes, making them believe lies was simple enough. Or sometimes it was even simpler than that, as they would act like divine messengers and needed only give the different races moral and righteous justification for pillaging their neighbors. But it was never righteous or moral. Nothing justifies the loss of life."

"Víss..." Cozy placed a gentle hoof onto him. This time, Víss did not move away as he let it comfort him.

"I spent a large part of my life trying to save innocent people from the horrors that my kind were bringing about, whether they were of the magical races like the fae, or the humans of mankind. At one point, I could not stand it anymore. That darkness was too much for me to bare and I escaped to the Realms Between for a long, long part of my life. By the time I returned to Earth, magic was gone almost in its entirety. The magical races had disappeared, migrated with the help of my grandfather and grandmother. Ragnarok had already come and gone. Thankfully for mankind, they were not strictly dependent on magic, and so they outlived that catastrophe. But Earth was forever scarred, and the same could not be said for those of my kind, who were stuck in an impoverished, ailing and hungry world full of resentful souls who did not take kindly to our race's machinations. There was no point in worshiping supposedly divine beasts who fed you to a cruel fate at a whim."

"Then your parents...?"

"I don't know, Cozy. I wonder that same thing even now. After all they've done, I can only think that they reaped what they sowed."

"That's... horrible."

"Equestria is pretty benevolent in comparison, don't you think? Even in its worst, saddest history, Equus remains a far more peaceful and innocent place." Víss said to attempt to change the mood. "But now that I've told you this, Cozy. I hope you now understand why I hate who I am."

"But you did nothing wrong! You even tried to save lives instead of hurt them...!"

"Tell that to those who lost everything because of us." Víss expression was one of pure fury. And this anger was all directed at himself... For having runaway and let it happen freely. Cozy held her silence, not sure how to respond. She herself had almost caused a cataclysm of that kind of magnitude. Even until this day, she had not forgiven herself for what she'd almost wrought. So she understood perfectly what Víss was feeling in that moment. "I'm sorry, Cozy. You're right. My grandfather and grandmother always tried to tell me the same thing. But it always had a habit of falling on deaf ears." Víss proceeded to unravel the red letter he had received a week ago. He held it aloft for Cozy to see it.

"That letter...? You seemed so sad ever since you received it. What happened to you, Víss?"

"I was reminded of my duty in the worst way." He laughed sadly, trying to play it off. "This is a poem. It was written by my grandfather. It's a history and an account of the one life that we are not allowed to write about, until its end."

Víss hiccuped the sadness that had erupted from his throat as silent tears punctuated his troubled face, streaming from everywhere it could allow, even past his nose. When he opened his mouth again to explain, he could not. His teeth moved up and down in the air, and if they'd been together at that time, they would've chattered. It was not a pretty sight. Life is not always picturesque and photogenic. Crying your heart out is an ugly and unsightly thing. But when someone is willing to overlook it all just to comfort you, that's how you know they truly do care about you. Cozy wrapped her forelegs and wings around him in that moment in the most genuine hug she had ever given anyone. Skinship was so rare for her nowadays, and she couldn't remember the last time she had shared a hug with Víss. Since their meeting, almost. Her hug was tight, afraid to let go, half believing she would lose him if she loosened her grip.

"I... should've been ready for it." Víss struggled to say. "The signs were there. I thought I could handle it." His whole body trembled. "Little by little, I watched his mind slowly disappear when I was with him. When he suggested that I live on my own by running away from my duty, I knew... I knew that he was trying to protect me from more than just my past. He was trying to protect me from the future." His face dug deeper into Cozy's hug. "And... the worst part... Is that I was too afraid. I accepted it to save myself the pain of having to watch him slowly leave."

His whole body became quite still as he seemed to accept his sadness. Slowly he tugged at Cozy to pull away from their hug, which she reluctantly abided to after a while. He wiped at his eyes and nose to compose himself.

He coughed until he composed his voice as well. "I want you to understand Cozy, so let me drop the rhetoric. My race is long-lived. But we are not eternal. For my grandfather, it was only a matter of time. When that time has come, we slowly lose all semblance of our mind. Think of it like senility until it progresses to such a point that we are entirely gone. At such a point, our race has had only one unbreakable rule about what we write for the histories of the world. That rule is that we are not allowed to write about any of our own kind or of our involvement in those stories. That is why the wisest of our race found it important for us to remain as bystanders for the most part. The only time that rule changes is when our time has come. Only then are we allowed to write a personal account of ourselves. Be it our history in an autobiography, or as my grandfather chose, as a poem. Me receiving that letter was proof that he was gone, as it was a poem about himself that he wrote... to me. When my grandfather showed signs of senility ten years ago, he suggested that I move to Equestria where my grandmother lived until her final days, and where his apprentice still resides. I loved him so much, I couldn't bare to witness his degradation. I ran away like a coward. From my duty. From him. And I was doing the same to you, thinking that I was protecting you from it all."

"Then I am a coward too." She smiled at him sadly, understanding his pain. "I know what that must have felt like. I did the same, not even a week ago. I'd never seen you so sad before, Víss. It was painfully hard to watch my role model and my family break down like that. I couldn't get myself to visit you in that entire week because of my cowardice and stupid pride. But I don't want to run away from you anymore." Cozy placed her forehead to the side of Víss' neck.

"Neither do I..." He said, resting his cheek to her head. "There's something else I have to tell you, Cozy... I never told you anything because I wanted to protect you from sharing our fate."

"Hmm?"

"I took you in all that time ago with the pretense of making you my apprentice. In the same way my grandfather did with Tera Amare. It was the only way that I could protect you at the time, because the races of Equestria believed they would be obtaining another Sage if they allowed you to go with me. They stood to gain more than they could lose. You see, if I were to truly take you in as an apprentice, you..." There was a hesitation in his voice, afraid to say it.

"What is it Víss?"

"Well, you stop being a pony. You become something closer to us. You will adopt our long life span and our duty as a Chronicler. I... wanted you to remain a normal pony. A long life is an incredible burden. It's several lifetimes of uncertainties and painful memories, watching as your friends and family disappear from you as you watch the world change for the better or worse. As a Chronicler, you'd be burdened with a long and arduous task that you might not want, with no real power to gain from it unlike Equestria's alicorns. It's likely you would've lost any form of magic within you, making you unable to ever fly again. It's more than I could've ever asked from you. Too large a sacrifice to expect from you. And so I silently kept you as an apprentice in name only."

"I'd get to live as long as you?"

"That's right, Cozy. We age much more slowly than all other races. Mentally, you will remain the same for several centuries if you were to change to us now. I am now two thousand five hundred years old myself, and I feel like I'm not much older than if you took away the two zeroes from that number. By the time you feel like you're in your thirties, nothing will remain the same of the world you know as Equus. That much I can guarantee."

"So where do I sign up?"

Víss sighed, but now with a visible smile on his face. "Are you just not listening right now?"

"Of course I am. So what if I lose everyone and everything changes? Do you even have any idea of how I feel living in Equestria now?"

"How's that then, Cozy?"

"I don't know. I just don't feel like I connect with everyone. Ponies are far too innocent and happy-go-lucky. Everything they talk about feels like pointless nonsense to me, as if they can't see the bigger picture. Frivolity is the word I'm looking for here? I feel like... an outsider. Ever since I met you, actually. I even like rainy days more than I do sunny ones because of you."

"Maybe you've been hanging around me too often." He laughed for the first time in weeks. A gruffy and worn-out laugh, since he rarely did it. But a laugh all the same. "Still, this is a serious thing to consider Cozy. You might think that you want this now, but it is as I said, time has a way of bending the truth."

"If I get to live multiple lifetimes by your side, I don't think time would matter much then." She said with a cheeky smile.

"I hope you don't eat your words a few millennia into the future." He smiled right back at her.

The both of them helped each other up to continue their walk across the Realm Between. What once was a moody mess between two forests with some scattered architecture here and there, now became a much more pleasant atmosphere. Orbs of light seemed to float down from on high, almost if signaling to Víss how Cozy was feeling. These motes reminded him of a soothing spell that a certain friend of Cozy's often used.

"I still have so many questions, Víss." Cozy mentioned along the way.

"Shoot. We've got a ways to go still."

"Well, for starters, what did you mean by Ragnarok, the end of the gods?"

"Do you know what gods are, Cozy?"

"No, not really."

"In almost all worlds, the gods are recognized as forces of nature. Fate and Destiny is often one of them. Although different peoples and places will imagine earthly names and entities to embody them, with many cultures still having multiple different deities for the same god, they all at least recognize that Fate is a power beyond their control. It is why we are often seen as Divine Beasts wherever we go, since 'fate' is something that we laud. Another such god for all worlds is Magic. Magic is often depicted in the form of a woman due to magic's connections with life and willpower. Usually seen as a pragmatic goddess that gives and takes as it pleases, since anyone no matter their intentions can wield it for any purpose. Our race is believed to be descendants of the branch of Fate, because of our pension for recording history and because we lack magic altogether."

"How can that be? Are your ritual circles not magic?"

"Well, while we can't produce any magic ourselves, it's not like we can't use it either. Those circles are not magic, actually. But they do use magic. They take that magic from their surroundings to manipulate it into spells. That's what the runic configurations are for. We're long-lived, so we've researched all sorts of ways to use magic without being able to make it ourselves."

"Ah, I see. Guess that does make sense. But why can you use magic with the circles to come to this place, but every other form of magic just doesn't work on you?"

"That's... a pretty good question. Huh..."

"Hoho, did I stump the know-it-all?" She nudged him in the rib.

"Hmm. Can't say for sure. The secrets of the universe are much bigger than us, no matter how high we think we are on the chain. It's likely that the gods might have an agreement with us? But this is all conjecture. The gods are not really thinking, feeling beings like many picture them to be. If there is some specific interaction there, it's probably more like a universal rule of the greater cosmos, like how gravity is."

"That's a lot to think about. It's kinda hurting my head. So what happened on Earth that caused Ragnarok anyway?"

"Like I mentioned, I wasn't there for it when it happened. I don't know. Earth became... dark. No Magic, not even Fate. Even the last of the three gods, Harmony, has disappeared from it. The surviving peoples were no longer controlled by a destiny, and could no longer influence the world on a magical scale. In a sense... Earth became truly free. The people there have all the freedom in the world to be as cruel or as benevolent as they want. And I fear to find a hellscape in its place from the utter annihilation that freedom might cause, once I return there."

"Whoa, wait! You're actually thinking of returning to Earth after all that?! Is this what you were telling Twilight at the castle?!"

"You heard that bit too, huh?" Víss sighed. "Do you remember what I said when we first met?"

"Vaguely."

"I mentioned Ragnarok at that time too." Cozy hit her hooves together as she remembered it from his say so. "I fear the same thing is going to happen to Equestria sometime soon. The signs have been there for a while, just like they did when it was beginning to happen to Earth. I've been ignoring them in my complacency and fear, running away from it like I had everything else in my life... But my grandfather's passing made me realize that I can't just stand around forever and do nothing. He made me realize that if I really did care about you, about saving you, then I would have to fight it. I need to return, so I can find out what really happened in Ragnarok, and so I can understand how to stop it for Equestria. I thought all I wanted was to protect you and your world, but now that you're here, I'm realizing that I can't do this alone."

"This isn't just my world we're talking about, Víss. This is yours too. We have a home there. We have friends. Family. And you will always have me, so please let me help you in this." Cozy put her hooves onto his, which Víss gladly took.

"Thank you, Cozy. But I warn you, Earth might be incredibly dangerous now. There's no guarantee we'll even make it back. With Magic gone, our return circle might not ever have enough power to get us back. I'd planned to say goodbye to my grandfather first before heading there."

"I don't care about the danger. Now I'm just mad that you planned to do this alone without ever giving me a proper explanation and a goodbye."

"Sorry..."

"That's better." She harrumphed in the sassiest way she could muster. "But then, if you think that Earth's loss of the gods is a sad thing, why did you look like you were regretting saving Equestria's magic when you stopped me all that time ago?"

"Because for the longest time, I thought Equus' Magic and Fate were as bad as Earth's. I thought they were the same cruel and careless ones that brought Earth to ruin and allowed our kind wreak havoc as they pleased. Pony cutiemarks were especially egregious. Branded by the thing you loved to do and were destined to become good at. It felt like a twisted joke on all that I knew to be good, because yours was in the shape of a rook... But..."

"But?"

"The more I learned about Equus, the more I changed my mind. Especially after I met you. Fate there... seems to truly care. And it seems impossible to me! No other world has gods that have the capacity to care. But then... You've all been protected for so long. Not with false peace, but by some truly benevolent force of nature that, despite having to create harsh lessons on occasion, always turn out for the better. And so when my grandfather passed, I thought... 'Is this why my grandmother and him chose Equestria as their new home all that time ago?'. And the more I thought on it, the more I realized that was the case! And then... I felt I had to protect it. To save you."

"But I don't need protection."

"Well yeah, I realize that now too. I'm learning a lot lately, honestly!" They smiled at each other again.

"Your grandfather and grandmother, what were they like?" Cozy asked gently, wishing to hear it since Víss seemed to take great joy in talking about them.

"My grandfather was the wisest of us all, and if it had not been for his departure from Earth, it's likely he could've changed history there. But he was the one who suggested never to interfere with the stories of the world, and so I'm not sure if he would've put a hoof forward to stop Ragnarok. My grandmother on the other side... she was by far the kindest of us all. She had such a strong love and curiosity for all worlds. Even her name, Svass'ver, translates into "A love for the world". She adored Equus and would often speak of it fondly. But I don't remember much of her, as she passed on much earlier than grandfather."

"Your names translate to something? What is yours and your grandfather's?"

"Funny you should ask, Fimbulpur means..." He paused for dramatic effect. "Great sage!" He laughed as Cozy's face grew confused. "Well, it's a close approximation that just makes it sound like Great Sage. He told me that the moniker people used for him just kinda stuck after he told this to others, and eventually, he grew old and wise enough to fit into it with grace."

"It's very fitting though, from everything I've heard of him."

"Quite."

"So then what about your name?" Víss coughed, a bit embarrassed. Cozy snickered to herself. "What's this, what's this? Something wrong, Víss ør-grandr?"

"N-no. My grandfather named me, so I wear it with pride." He cleared his throat while rubbing at his coat anxiously. "It uh. It means 'Honest' and 'Wise'."

He scrunched his face while enduring the loud guffaw's of the Pegasus mare besides him, waiting patiently while she got it out of her system.

"No yeah, I see it. But you're not going to tell me that's why you take such a hard stance on always trying to tell the truth, right?"

"..." The silence made the laughing continue for a while longer.

"Okay, okay, I'm done." Cozy said as she huffed the last few laughs out of her. "One last question Víss..."

"What's up?"

"I heard about it from Twilight, about your job in Equestria. You were an important Arbiter. You had so much political power. Why did you despise it then?"

"It... made me feel like my parents. They had similar jobs on Earth, but they misused that power all for their own gains. It's not that I hated it, but I was just scared."

"Scared?"

"Of myself. If I had the power to cast judgement like that... what were the chances that me becoming my parents was just one misguided ruling away? And if you were ever threatened by someone... would I really not abuse it to save you? I felt like it was a necessary evil I had to undertake."

"I see..." Cozy walked closer beside him so that she could almost lean on him if she wanted, feeling grateful for everything he'd done for her. "I don't say it enough, Víss. Thank you."

"You've been awfully honest this entire time, Cozy."

"Whose fault do you think that is?" She said while hiding her face.

Their walk down the mixed forests of the Realm Between were a pleasant jaunt as Víss described to her the strange works of why the realm was manifesting itself in this way for them. On occasion, they'd see something from the many locales that Víss had seen, which he would purposely manifest by concentrating so that he could give a visual reference of mankind's inventions and architecture, like when he would create a still room of a human home. Cozy spent that time trying to replicate her own mental images within the Realm Between with mixed success, as she was brand new to the intricacies of it and could hardly make a few things appear from memory alone.

But there were things that were beginning to appear despite being almost entirely lost from both their memories. For Víss, his subconscious was creating the ruined burned villages of mankind's innocents and several desecrated grounds that magical creatures on Earth used to once roam around. The haunting images of his past.

For Cozy, she would occasionally picture Twilight's School of Friendship, where she had spent that entire time backstabbing others. It would remind her of her own childish cruelty. One particular building that they saw far away almost hidden by the trees, was a particular generic house. A large house nothing like the homes of Ponyville. Just by catching a slight glimpse of it, Cozy's eyes had widened and her head had dropped to the floor.

"Want to talk about it, Cozy?"

"What's there to say? Can't your eyes guess what I'm thinking?"

"Only what's on the surface. It helps to voice your concerns."

Cozy clicked her tongue, playfully pretending to be annoyed. "Okay, if you must know. That was my old home. The orphanage I lived in."

"Did you ever meet your parents?"

Cozy shook her head in response. "But if they were anything like the younger me, or even anything like your parents, maybe I was better off that way." She tried to laugh it off, to no avail as Víss' expression remained concerned. "The oldest caretaker was like a mom to me. I eventually did something that ruined that. I ran away and never returned. Didn't even think much of it, until the point I met you. I heard Twilight mutter to herself when she found out about what I did... she said, 'Where did I go wrong with her?'. Almost word for word what that caretaker did too. It... broke me. But then, you put me back together again. And I'm better than okay now."

"Do you still think about it, Cozy?"

"Occasionally. Mostly about wanting to go apologize for what I did. But I don't want to reconnect with them, if you're wondering. I've already found the home I was looking for all that time ago."

"Well once we return, how about we drop in for a quick apology then?" Cozy nodded with a large smile across her face.

After a mild trek more in blissful silence after the two had aired out all the things they wished they had said so long ago, they were finally met by a different view of places and things that were not from either of their memories. Giant gothic clock towers peaked out of the ground like bony fingers. Whole cathedrals twice the size of Canterlot in its entirety seemed to span the skies, as if hanging from the clouds themselves. Even their path had been replaced by a large open hallway ornately decorated by strange symbols along its sandstone walls, illuminated only by golden scones burning with a slow flame uniformly at its sides. It was a sign that they were getting close.

"Cozy, there is one last thing you should know. Being before my grandfather will be an extreme experience."

"Before your grandfather? Isn't he supposed to be... gone?" She tried to word carefully.

Víss shook his head. "His mind is entirely gone, but his body will persist for several more years to come. This creates... an issue. He will be unable to control the power of his eyes. Standing before him will be the most agonizing thing you will experience. It will be like having your very soul torn apart as his eyes peer into the very depths of it."

"His body can still act without a mind?"

"Yes. The loss of mind is not the loss of brain functionality. It is why we can see his memories still filling the space of the Realm Between. He has been reduced down to the most primal instincts of what we are. Cognitively, he is now less capable than an animal, and far, far more instinctual. So ready yourself.

Cozy gulped as she walked behind Víss, becoming increasingly more afraid as they walked towards the source of the ever changing structures and things that they could see making the Realm Between an absolutely surreal place. Then, suddenly without notice, the ground gave out before them as they plunged into the misty ground beneath them. Cozy felt like she were falling through a sea of clouds, trying to beat her wings as hard as she could, but they were not giving her any amount of lift within that dense and heavy fog. She would've lost her head in panic had it not been for Víss' foreleg and body wrapping around her. He was yelling through the rush of wind to keep calm. Finally, they softly landed upon a solid cloudy mass that bounced them forward into a clearing where the mist had dispelled. All around them where the tall, ancient trees of the forest much like the one Víss had imagined for the Realm Between. The only difference was that these looked, much, MUCH older. All shrouded by a ceiling of mist that permeated all around the walls and ground. One tree at the center of this area was otherworldly in its size. So much of it was shrouded by the mist, but just by the scale and bend of its trunk, one could imagine spending days trying to circle it, and still get only half way around its circumference. Strangely, this tree was not made out of any kind of wood either of them could recognize. If you looked closely enough, and closer still, it didn't seem like a tree at all.

Something at the sight of it was giving Cozy a strange sense of deja'vu. Before she could try to think on it, suddenly, she felt an immense wave of pressure push her from all directions. Her head felt like it would split open in that instant as she tried to fight back against it. Beads of a cold sweat formed all along her body wherever her sweat could manifest. She had felt this same feeling before too. From Víss' stare when they'd first met.

She forced her gaze upwards from where it was being forced to the ground to get a good look at what was causing it. And there they were. Two impossibly yellow eyes that burned like fire to gaze upon. They were brandished by an old, old elk, whose white mustache and beard connected with each other to hide his mouth, and whose length reached all the way to the floor where his body had permanently fallen to the ground. His tail was long, long and silky. Nothing like an Elk's tail. More akin to that of a pony's. It draped across the floor like a white river of strings. His coat was mostly brown, but due to his age, it was dotted and overrun by white strands all over it like an old dog's, making a beautiful tapestry of it. His hoof nails along with his antlers were so blindingly white. They seemed to have a highly reflective sheen that made them them glow in the sunlight.

The true stand-out thing about this elk lay in his antlers. To call them massive was an understatement. He looked more like a tree than he did an elk. They branched so erratically and beautifully in all directions into the sky above him. All along wherever there was space, there where sheets of small red paper dangling from red strings, identical to the poem that Víss had received. And jutting along his antlers replacing that reflective sheen where black runic markings in the same language that Víss had written in, carved into them.

Fimbulpur, The Great Sage. A race of divine beasts, was it? That moniker never seemed so apt than it did at the sight of him. He looked a world different than he did from the photo that Chrys had shown him. The size of his antlers alone was massively different and seemed unmanageable. Was there some form of magic that could obfuscate them? Shorten them perhaps? How would he move through a forest without them snagging on everything otherwise? They were impossibly large, and they were likely the reason that the old elk was not making any attempts to move. Too heavy for him to even get up off the ground...

"Cozy... are you... alright?" Víss managed to say in struggling grunts.

Strangely, Cozy was alright. After she lost herself at the sight of him, returning her focus to her own body seemed perfectly fine. That pressure was no longer pushing against her, despite those eyes trying to bore holes into her soul. She got up from the ground where she'd been forcibly knelt, and began to make her way over the aged elk.

"Cozy...?" Víss was bewildered by this, not understanding how Cozy was being unaffected despite him being bombarded by a kiloton of force holding him back.

The Pegasus mare was moving over to him, as if being called. Like a moth to a flame, she could not break sight with those fiercely brilliantly gold eyes. Then, not even inches away, she felt her senses return to her. She hadn't even a second to be startled when the misty ground beneath her gave way to the sight of an enormous runic circle across the ground just short of reaching Víss himself.

The circle immediately began to glow with a blinding white light, illuminating its numerous letters. It wasn't written solely in one language. It had many, many languages. Some dead, some still very much in use. Cozy even recognized Ponyish as she quickly scanned it. But she hadn't had the time to read it before what the circle was meant to do, went off.

For a brief moment, she felt blind. A white light permeated every corner of her vision and it disoriented her to no end. It felt reminiscent to getting a cutiemark or waking up at the first light of day being right in one's face. But as her eyes slowly adjusted to the light, she could finally see all the things around her. The first thing she saw was the ground, who had been covered up by the mist again. Looking further down at her own body and later her chest, she immediately startled at the sight of a peach-colored fire at the very center of her abdomen. She tried swatting at it with her hoof to put it out, but ended up just gut-punching herself in the end. She tried rolling on the ground for a bit before checking to see if it was still there, and this time, as she wondered how it hadn't gone out, she realized it didn't feel hot at all. Despite it being attached to her. Or, was it inside of her? How strange.

Finally she turned her gaze upwards to see the things around her, and was met by the greyed out eyes of a blind, old elk. She fell backwards in her surprise as they stared at her silently, and then she noticed another fire in this elk too. It was such a gentle and beautiful shade of white, but it was small. And somehow, she noticed that it was getting smaller. It would take time, but she imagined that it would go out soon almost intrinsically.

"Am I...? Going crazy..? Did he... really just plan this whole thing? Even with his mind gone? Grandpa..."

Cozy turned to look at the younger elk, whose golden, healthy, and glowing fire seemed to teeter from side to side, as if expressing sadness. "What... just happened, Víss? Why am I seeing a fire inside of us?"

"It's because you're now officially my family. My grandfather has given you a Sage's blessing. I... was still on the fence about giving you our duty. But it seems my grandfather chose for us."

"Is this what you can see too, Víss? And Chrys as well?"

"Yes. Those fires are the manifestations of our soul. Tell me, how does my fire look to you right now?"

"It looks... conflicted. Sad."

Víss turned to his grandfather and knelt before him to get on his level. Without the power of his eyes, the elk could not impose his pressure on anyone, and so Víss had no issue in doing this. Despite staring into his eyes, the old elk did not react to this. Whimsically, it looked down to the ground, now reduced to a blind, immobile animal.

"Grandpa... I... took your words to heart. I saved someone again. And I... realized what you meant about what you told me when I left your side." Cozy stayed quiet as she realized that Víss was now stating his final goodbye. "I met someone I really care about. I'm sure you'd like her too." He was taking in a deep breath before every delivered line, trying his best to stay composed. "I'm ready to take on my role finally, as I'm sure you'd be happy about. And I just wanted to say..." His face twisted into a powerful scornful face full of regret. "That I'm so, so sorry I wasn't able to say goodbye to you in your final hours. You did so much for me. You kept me from despairing for so long. And yet... I didn't give you so much as a letter in all these years. I'm a terrible person, and an even worse grandson. But I'm here now, and I hope you can hear my words, wherever you've gone. I throw the words you gave me back at you! Know! Know that I will continue! To love you always! Until the end of time!"

Víss took out the stringed poem he had received and had stashed away ever since showing it to Cozy. He proceeded to tie it around the aged elk's left antler, where there was a perfect little place for it to hang freely. Then, to Cozy's surprise, he took out another identical piece of paper. The same in make, but different in the ways that it mattered. It was perfectly white and carefully kept on canvas. The writing on it looked like very intricate Ponyish calligraphy written in beautifully ornate gold ink, strangely not in the same language as the one she'd seen Víss write in previously half expecting him to choose what looked to be his native language. Was this his way of saying his heart and home had changed? On it, it read a very simple story.

There once was a Chronicler by the name of Fimbulpur. He was known as a Great Sage, but he was an even greater grandfather. He was the wisest and smartest of us all. His legacy and his heart will continue to live for much, much, much longer than he ever did. For the love that we share for him lives on, eternal.

Víss tied this story to his own antlers. The first of many more yet to come.

"Say, Víss, are my eyes going to stay this color?"

"Yup. Amber not your look?"

"No, it's not that. I really like them. I'm just wondering how this whole colored iris thing works, since you said they weren't magic."

The duo had finished saying their goodbyes and were now making small talk while Cozy waited on Víss to complete the ritual circle that would take them to Earth. It was taking him longer than usual since Víss was trying to find countermeasures and loopholes to the situation going on there. Ultimately, he was trying to make a more concrete "bifrost" connection between the two realms that could siphon magic from either of the two realms to function properly, in case Magic truly was gone from Earth all together.

"Don't ask me. It's one of those great universe mysteries."

"When's the circle going to be done?"

"Well, if you let me concentrate, sooner rather than later. The Realms Between are tricky if you don't have a good mental picture of what you want to make appear."

"I'm bored."

"Boredom is good. That means you're safe for now. I feel like once we get to Earth, that's going to change all too quickly."

"Hey, Víss?"

"What is it now, Cozy?"

"I was thinking back to something I saw in that room with grandpa Fimbul."

"What was it?"

"That big ol' tree! It was ginormous!" She exclaimed from where she was lying on the ground, throwing her hooves into the air. "Does it actually exist, or is that a Realm Between thing?"

"Well... I'm not sure about that either. Maybe it was something in grandfather's mind? Uhm, the trees in that place looked a lot like the ones here. And this place is from my memories. They're my home from when I was newly born. I stayed in these woods until I was a hundred and fifty years old, but I've never stopped thinking about them since they're so near and dear to me. But yeah, that big tree didn't look like any of the trees here. Or the ones around it. Is it just me, or did it not look like a tree at all?"

"Yeah, yeah! That. It didn't look like a tree."

"But it was in the shape of one."

"I guess. Not like you could see much of it's true size what with all that mist. But you know, I bring it up because I had a really strange feeling like I'd seen that thing before."

"Really, Cozy? This is concerning my grandfather. I doubt that's a coincidence. Think hard about it. Where do you remember it from?"

Cozy wracked her brain for a long while, trying her darnedest to summon the memory by force. Almost as if stung by a bumblebee, she remembered.

"AHHH!" She yelled, startling the young elk as well.

"WHAT?! What is it Cozy?"

"I remember! When I met you! I saw that tree!"

"Huh? What are you talking about? We were underground, beneath the School of Friendship. There were no trees. Not even in the hallways when you were trying to kick me out initially. Unless you're talking about the potted plants."

"No no no, I strictly remember it then! Underneath the school!" She put a hoof to her chin to think on it. "Hmm hmm, what the heck. I didn't think it looked like a tree at all at that point either."

"Can you get your story straight, Cozy? You're throwing me for a loop here."

"No its... well, you see... Uhm uh. What was it?"

"Okay then, I'll just get back to writing the circle until you figure it out."

"When Twilight said that thing! You remember... about how it hurt me to hear it." Víss' face become troubled after hearing her connect to that moment again. He stopped what he was doing to listen more intently, now believing everything she was saying. "Well, uhm, I don't know how to explain but in the past, whenever I was at my lowest, I've always seen threads connected to people. Like thin almost invisible spider silk strands. I used to have one too. When it was connected to me, it felt like... the only thing holding me down to the world. Like my last connection to it. I don't know how to put it."

"Symbolic threads, Cozy? What happened that you lost yours?"

"Well, it was that thing Twilight said. I was already heartbroken to hear how much danger I had almost brought Equestria, feeling insurmountable guilt over it. And then to hear those words repeated back at me... I felt so alone. So very sad. I think that's what made my thread snap. It was so weird. I felt myself actually falling, despite being on the ground."

"What happened after that?"

"Hmm? That's when you saved me. And, I've never felt myself falling like that again."

"Did your thread return?"

"Why are you so interested in this tale I might just be making up? Even I don't know if what I saw was real. No, I don't think it did. But I haven't needed it either, so I'm fine without it."

"So what about that tree?"

"Oh yeah! A tree that wasn't a tree! That's what that thing behind Grandpa Fimbul reminded me of. It was a huge, HUGE collection of golden threads in the shape of a tree! It was so pretty. And it was tied to you, Víss."

"Ha." Víss slumped to the ground, floored by what Cozy was saying. Her story surely was no coincidence. If what she was saying was true... "I'm guessing you have no idea about what the symbolic meaning of threads and great big trees for us Chroniclers is, right Cozy?"

"Bingo!" She said playfully.

"Well that's fine. Maybe I'll tell you about it some day." Cozy bolted up right at hearing this, her face scowling with annoyance.

"No more secrets!"

"It's not a secret, I swear! It's just inconsequential mystical mumbo jumbo that we don't need to concern ourselves with right now. This runic circle takes precedence."

"Okay, but I'm expecting to hear it and soon! I will bring this up often. Mark my words!"

"Loud and clear, Cozy." He said as he returned to it.

Now done after several moments of quiet contemplation, he wiped his bushy brows with his foreleg to get rid of the sweat that had built up on that spot. He felt quite a bit of pride over it. It'd been a long time since he had practiced the art of magicraft. How many years had it been since he had made his own original circle? The one that took him to the Realm Between had been the first circle in a decade that he had used, and the one that he rewrote for Cozy when they first met had been his first real foray in magicraft in a century. Neither of them were his inventions. With everything going on in Equestria, he was getting a deeply rooted feeling that was calling him to study and research magic more in length. Maybe his grandfather's influence was beginning to rub off on him somewhat, as he felt a desire to continue his legacy in all its forms. Both in the ways of his duty, and that of his magical research that propelled Equestria's understanding of it by several thousands of years.

"Alright, time to make the jump, Cozy. You ready?"

"Finally!" She picked herself up in a hurry to walk over to the center of the circle.

"This should give us enough power for both the transport to, and fro. We just need to protect this circle once we're on the other side."

"Never thought I'd go on an adventure. And to save Equestria, of all places!" She let out a toothy smile as she made the elk chuckle. "Wait! I still had one more question before we go!"

Víss sighed. "Well, after keeping you in the dark for ten years, I suppose I owe it to you. Alright. What is it then?"

"What was in grandpa Fimbul's poem anyway?" This made the young elk actually laugh, with a merry start.

"You would've have thought that was a question for an earlier point! Alright, I guess it'll be important to know mankind's language before we go there. Come over here and I'll read it to ya. See if you can pick up the Younger Furthark alphabet and its meanings."

Cozy huddled around him as he went over to a clean patch of dirt and began to inscribe on the soil the runes that Fimbulpur had used for his small poem. Little by little, he showed her what it all meant.

Know that I lived.
Know that I sang when my heart was full of joy.
That I painted the pictures in my mind.
That I wrote of when I loved.

I am one of many, in cosmic entropy.
My fuse has run out.

But with you, I live eternal.

But that was just the front part of the letter. Written on the back of it, Fimbul had written the last of his words he had meant to give to his one and only grandson.

And know,
Know that I will continue,
To love you always,
Until the end of time.

Author's Note

Thank you for reading. This story was for all intents and purposes, an introduction to my character Víss, as well as the introduction to my version of Cozy. It was originally conceived with the intent to speak on Fimbulpur himself, and as you can guess, the story reflects my own experiences with my grandfather. When he started to develop Alzheimers, I began to visit him less and less despite him being the biggest role model in my life. The things that I could tell you about that man... would make you believe in saints. It hurt me to see him deteriorate into what he became in his last moments, and till this day, I regret not being strong enough to be there for him until the end.

There are scars you will never live down, no matter how much you change or push yourself to be a better person. Knowing my grandpa, I doubt he'd condemn me for my cowardice. All the same, I don't think I can ever forgive myself. The most I can do is to continue his legacy and respect his memory as I remember it.

"When an old person dies, a great library burns to the ground."