Author's Note

I know it is a short chapter, but I put a lot of my free time going back through old chapters and trying to make them less shit. But felt a little chapter would help move my process along.

Stay safe

Finding out

Alice flew through gears, keeping his r.p.ms just out of redline. With one headlight out he speeded down the road, only down-shifting before a sharp corner using the transmission to help slow the car, then quickly up-shifting after coming out. Alice was no race car driver but at twelve his dad showed him how to drive their old five-speed Mustang and with a little bit of gear grinding he quickly picked it back up.

"Alice, come in can you hear me? ALICE?" A commanding male voice yelled in his headset.

Taking his hand off the shifter he quickly turned his mic back on then quickly downshifted just in time. "You're coming in clear, sir."

"Good, now how's the rest of the team there not responding on our end."

"I don't know sir, we got split up after eliminating are targets"

There was a pause, the only sound coming from the big v8 in whatever supercar Alice hot-wired.

"Did you get all three? Or just the two primary?" The voice was calm now no longer yelling.

"Yes sir, after that we got sp-"

"I don't care about the rest of the team Alice, they can be replaced YOU can't, 'll be sending over-extraction cords. Get there."

"But sir we can't ju-" Alice was cut off again.

"We already got confirmation on their K.I.A, Alice stop wasting time on them, they knew the risk now shut up and go to extraction."

Alice went to speak again, only for gunfire to ring out, every window blew up, broken safety glass bounced off his flash bang-resistant glasses. Gritting his teeth he ducked down and put his foot too the floor, hoping and praying he'd survive.

Alice shot up looking around frantically only for the night sky to look back, running his right hand through his long hair he unknowingly knocked his hood down showing his human head to all who could see.

"FUCKING CALM DOWN!" Alice yelled forgetting about Dusttravler.

A small groan on the other side of the fire made Alice pause, his hand interlaced with his hair, still not realizing his hood was down.

"Sorry Dusttravler, I just had a bad dream nothing to worry about." Alice took his hand out of his hair looking at it in some strange attempt to ground himself back in his new reality.

"Its fine Alice I get the-" Dusttravler paused looking at the clearly human face across the fire.

Dusttravlers sudden pause made Alice look over at him in confusion.

"What up, somethin wrong?" Tilting his still uncloaked head.

Dusttravler while on his haunches began backing up, doing little but pushing sand into the fire.

"Hu- hu- hum... HUMAN stay away I don't know what you did to Logan but I beg of you please have mercy on me." Puer terror-filled Dusttraveler and what looked to be tears filled his eyes.

Alice slowly brought his hand up to his head, the lack of a hood making itself vary aware, and with a long sigh Alice spoke.

"Dusttravler please listen to me, I'm Logan I me-" Alice was cut off by Dusttravler.

"No Logan was a minotaur, NOT a Human he was not a fallen angel in service to the fucking devil himself." His voice cracked with the volume.

"And what makes you think I serve the devil?" Alice spoke with a bit of anger in his voice.

"Don't play dumb demon all ponys know fallen angels or humans who follow the devel get turned half-minotaur."

"And what if a human was not half minotaur, who would they serve then."

"They'd serve God, what we think is the creator of our world and is holy in nature they'd be one of the ten angels left still defending the heavens from the enemies of God."

Alice grabbed at his cloak and with a quick pull it came off showing the rest of his pale and now very lean muscular body.

"Would they look like this?" Alice gestured to his shirtless body.

Dusttravler just stopped, he stopped blinking, stopped breathing and for a moment Alice thought he was gonna pass out, but with a sharp restart to his breathing, Dusttravler spoke.

"Why?"

"Why.. what?" Alice stood up and grabbed his sword putting it back on his back.

"Why fake being a demon?"

"Dusttravler I had no clue of what you just told me."

"How does a Human not know, gosh darn Logan, I knew your name was strange for a minotaur, and thinking a minotaur had a name meaning devoted to God was strange but since you are an angel I guess it makes sense. But then why hide it, and why act like you don't know nothin." Dusttravler was calm now and as he spoke a small smile filled his pony face.

"Explains how you can run and jump so fast." Dusttravler chuckled.

Alice then and there decided something, he would keep his name change. He was a whole new person and to think the name of an old friend would mean so much in this strange place like this, this only gave him twofold the reason, he would not let his past failures define him and a name change seemed to help.

"Dusttravler, if I walked into that town of yours like this what would they do?"

"Well, I'd reckon they right on shit them self, hell they might go on begin for mercy then and there."

"You don't say." Alice looked up at the beautiful night sky above, deep in thought.

*I planned to keep myself hidden till I gained enough good favor with the ponys, but being seen as an angel gives me endless amounts on that.*

Logan, still in thought looked at the time left till his punishment quest was over 9:43.56.

*I still have just under ten hours to wait.*

"Logan you never answered my question, why did you fake being a demon?"

"Im no angel Dusttravler."

"Logan, how could you not be?"

"I'm pretty sure I'm not even of this world."

"Well obviously, angels are from heaven."

"NO DUSTTRAVLER." Logan yelled in frustration.

"Sorry I mean, I'm just trying to say I woke up in this strange place no more than a week ago I turn twenty-two soon I'm no angel from creation itself, Dusttravler I know only war and pain, and just as soon as the war is over just when things started to get better I wake up in some fucking forest with power I never had before. I am no angel."

"Well, angle or not the ponys and well pretty much any living thing will see you that way."

Logan fell down on his knees and then hunched over using his hands to prop himself up.

"I wonder if God sent me here for that reason." Logan almost whispered.

"What reason?"

Not realizing he spoke out loud he stuttered out a reply.

"Well, I mean, I look like an angel in the eyes of this place, and was brought from mine just after I fraught and killed in a war of good vs evil, I mean I got a... what you could say direct message saying God was happy after my deeds the first night I arrived." It was not a complete lie, he did get a perk called Happy Gods after not taking any damage and saving that little pony.

"See Logan, you might not know it now but you might be like an angel in training or something."

"Ya Mabey."

"I don't know about you Logan but I'm gonna get some more sleep before the big fight tomorrow, and knowing I got an angel on my side I might not have any nightmares. I hope."

"Sounds good Dusttraveler, I'm gonna go pace around nervously, maybe think about dealing with their magic some more."

"Logan I told you yesterday your speed is far to fast for any spell to hit you."

"I get that, but I can't be moving at top speed the whole time, fuck if only I could practice against someone with magic as I did with your flying."

"Logan, the little I know about how magic works I told you already, I can't help you any more than I already have." Dusttravlers voice grew a bit annoyed, but he understood why one would worry about any fight in the bag or not.

"I know, I know what you told me. Spells get cast in three steps while a few have four but most are three, the first being gathering energy and putting it into a spell then directing the spell or aiming it then letting the magic in their horn go, some can build up energy faster and aim faster but the letting magic go part can only go as fast as magic can travel."

"Yes Logan and you run so fast just the magic letting go part takes too long for them to hit you, they'd have to blindly guess where you're gonna be and then hope you don't see it."

"Okay I get it, I'm gonna go float in the water a bit and try and calm my self down. Good night."

"Good night Logan."