“...and that’s basically everything. After she “urged” me to never use that type of magic again I came back to my senses and the thestral was alive. I just don’t understand her position though, if she was going to be that standoffish about it then why even let the revival succeed?” I gave Luna the run down on the conversation with Harmony while we made our way to our sleeping quarters. Right now I’m just laying on my back with one hand behind my head.

“That decision isn’t up to her. Harmony is merely an observer of the world and she aims to steer it in the right direction with minor influence. The more interesting thing is that she said you shouldn’t exist. Tia and I had been operating on the assumption that She was the one to actually bring you here, the timing of it lined up too perfectly with the end of my banishment. If you aren’t in her pages though…” Her words taper off and she stares at me while seemingly deep in thought.

“Do you think I’m… in danger? Do I need to be careful of my every move now to not earn her ire?”

“No… I think she was merely warning you that you’re altering the events of the future in a way that even she cannot foresee. Imagine you were reading your favorite book and suddenly half way through the story some new character shows up seemingly out of nowhere for no reason. Out of all the dozens of times you read this story that character never existed before, and now things are seemingly the exact same until one chapter the character does something that completely alters the ending of the book. This is the important part, you are so familiar with the story that you are able to quite accurately predict every future event will be impacted by this change, but even after all of your predictions are correct for a hundred pages or so all of a sudden this new character does something else that completely throws you off. Everytime you adjust your plans and predictions for the story the character changes something else that you hadn’t anticipated. That’s you right now for Harmony.”

I don’t really respond as I think of the implications and Luna decides to explain even further. “You are causing her book to change in real time, but if it was just once it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. The problem is that you are continually causing the pages to shift, likely to the point that she is no longer able to confidently predict the far off future and make plans around it. You appeared in this world and the pages shift, you became my paladin and the pages shift again, you grievously wound the dragon near Ponyville and the pages shift yet again. You’re causing her to be extremely uncomfortable.”

“But what if… the changes have been made now but in the future Fate actually intends for me to revive another soul, and I don’t do it because she warned me not to? If I don’t know what I’m supposed to do how can I be sure that I’m doing the right thing? This is a paradox Luna.”

“Her warning you not to use revival magic might actually be part of her plan. You might be right and now Fate says you will revive somepony in the future, but Harmony see’s the future where you revive somepony else and it’s the worst outcome. Something changes so catastrophically that she has now warned you to stop reviving souls to prevent that specific revival. Even I'm unsure of what you should do now. Reviving a soul has always been a fundamental law of our magic that cannot be broken. It’s not that we’ve been warned not to and so no mage has ever pursued it, but that it cannot be done. Thousands have tried and it just cannot be done. On one hoof it’s quite amazing and I know all of the good you could do with it, but on the other hoof… breaking one of the fundamental laws makes me uneasy.”

“Is there a force higher than Harmony? Maybe she was warning me because that higher power can take action against me?”

“Not that I know of… let’s table this for now, we both could use some rest.”

Well she’s the boss. Luna lays her head down on, what is now apparently the default position, my chest and closes her eyes. I just stare at the ceiling with too much on my mind to sleep.

It’s better to not overthink things like this. Just continue as you normally would, but I would be more reserved on when and who you use your revival magic on. However I should add that dear Luna does underestimate how much Harmony can exert her influence. She can rarely ever change things in the physical realm, but in the metaphysical realm she is much more…absolute.

Speaking from experience?

Indeed, my entire being at one point was entirely metaphysical. I had to resort to possessing a creature to safely use my power. I could always feel that she was present as I navigated and hid in the ethereal background. Since souls operate in a similar way I’d wager she actually does have the capability to prevent you from reviving a soul. It’s likely she just doesn’t know of the method.

Doesn’t sound very omniscient of her.

Revival was not something that was considered to even be possible until just a few hours ago. Why would she investigate how to prevent something that isn’t even possible? The question is how long will it take her to learn of a method?

I guess you have a point.

I meant what I said originally. Continue moving forward as you normally would, but just… don’t be surprised if your next revival fails.

Alright… switching topics I think I might have a way to free you, but I need some information.

...yes?

If you had to choose between a fiend, devil, abyssal, or celestial, which one would you say fits you best?

I think the most likely trait is celestial, but I could see myself being classified as a fiend.

I was hoping you had a more definitive answer. I also narrowed it down to those two choices. I have a few different summoning spells that might let me bypass your seal since it seems like most of my weave magic seems to ignore things like that. The problem is that it’s only a temporary measure. I can't summon you for a prolonged period of time, but I was thinking about using it to let you attend the gala. If you were interested… that is.

Nightmare actually doesn’t respond and I can’t tell if she’s angry or flustered. Probably the former as she doesn’t seem like the type to get flustered.

Don’t think this means that I want to attend with you! I just want the opportunity to get off of this rock.

Oh. My. God. She’s a tsundere. Uh huh, sure, we’ll do some experiments this weekend after Forces knighting ceremony. We’ll need to get you a dress too.

That is.. acceptable.

Thanks for the distraction. I’m gunna grab some sleep.

Exhaustion Level: 1

True to Luna’s prediction it’s around 11:30 when we wake up and not only is this house completely silent but the entire city is as well. I guess it makes sense though since it’s basically noon outside and these guys probably sleep during the day, but I didn’t think all of them would sleep during the day.

“Are you alright, Ignis? This is the first time in a while I’ve seen you look so tired” Luna asks me as she zaps a teleportation circle onto the ground.

“Yeah I just had a hard time going to sleep, had a lot on my mind.” I’m not going to tell her about the dream I had. It’s definitely going to be a problem if this becomes a recurring issue, though. I was walking through a swamp and a bunch of hooves covered in thick mud came out of the water and tried to grab me. I started to fly upwards cause I had my temporary wings but it ended up being futile as all of the hooves turned out to be changelings. They climbed on top of each other and made a pile of bodies so they could pull me back down. Some of them were charred and the others were covered in cuts. The guard that got caught up in my fireball was there too even though I know he survived.

“I know it’s more than that. You don’t need to hide anything from me.”

“It’s not that I’m trying to hide it, I just don’t want to worry you unless it becomes a recurring problem. I’d prefer to try sorting through it on my own before relying on someone else.”

Right as I finish my sentence we appear in the courtyard of the castle. “Was it a nightmare? I checked on you a few times while I was sleeping and I never noticed any indicators that you were troubled.”

Sighing, I explain the nightmare to her, and she gives me a look of pity as we head into the castle proper.

“I’m afraid I can’t do much for that type of nightmare. I can make you aware that you’re dreaming so your rest can at least be peaceful, but that is not a long term solution.”

“It’s fine, I might just stick to meditating for a while. I don’t dream in that state, and I only need to meditate for 4 hours to feel as rested as 8 hours of sleep. I know Force’s thing is on Friday, but did we have anything planned for today?”

“I was planning to meet with Tia so she could be debriefed on everything that happened while we were gone. I was hoping you’d join me so we can talk to her about your conversation with Harmony, but you can talk to her tomorrow if you’re truly that exhausted.”

“No, if it's just talking I can handle that. Are we going right now?”

“Indeed. We’re meeting for lunch. Cadence and her guard will be there as well.” Oh I get to see Force too? That’s perfect. I was going to try and track her down before I went to meditate.

“Sick, let’s go.”

“Damn dude, you look like shit.” My favorite pegasus decides this is the perfect thing to say after not seeing me for damn near two weeks.

“Gee golly you really know how to make a guy feel special. I miss anything important while I was gone? Besides the hydra memorial, of course.”

“Not really. Did you wanna grab dinner with me later now that you’re back~?”

“Unfortunately no, I look like shit because I feel like shit. As soon as we’re done here I have one errand I need to run down and then I’m going to bed.”

“What’s the errand? I wouldn’t mind helping out.” Luna also looks interested to hear my answer to Force's question.

“I need to go find a guard from the Summit. There’s one I accidentally hit with my fireball when I was targeting a group of changelings. As far as I know he made it out fine, but I uh… was reminded of him recently and I want to check in on him.” Luna gives me a knowing look.

“That was Silver Lance. He’s actually on duty right now. I can take you to him when we finish here.” I shoot a smile to the pegasus across the table and then look towards Celestia.

At this point Luna goes over the entire journey leading up to the thestral colony. For some reason she even talks about our new sleeping arrangements, to my embarrassment. Cadence and Force seem to take more interest in that part of the story, but Celestia really locks in when she hears about the move I did to completely obliterate half of an Ursa Major's leg. She doesn’t make any comments about it, but she does stare at me for a few seconds with a calculating look.

Then she covers all of the political shit that happened in the thestral colony and it seems she’s saving the most interesting bit for last. Suddenly Luna lights up her horn and projects a very light blue dome around all of us. “Clear the room.” Once all of the staff that were cleaning different parts of the room and the guards that were standing in the doorway have all left she finally speaks again. “This next bit of information is Top Secret. It’s likely already spread among the thestral’s but I’ll speak with them about it before they get into Equestria proper.”

“Lulu…” Celestia looks at me and Force. “Is it alright for the knights to know as well?”

“That’s up to Cadence. Ignis is the topic of the information he knows more about this than anypony else.” Cadence tells Force that she can stay and Luna continues. “During a confrontation with a thestral squad inside of a magical sparring arena in the dreamscape Ignis used a spell that unknowingly hurt the target in the waking world and ended up killing her.”

Force seems to think that’s why I look like shit, and Cadence does a dramatic gasp thinking this is the actual news. Ha. Luna continues, “Then he demonstrated a new magic he had learned during our travels and proceeded to revive the thestral.” Celestia starts to speak up, but Luna doesn’t let her. “Yes, revived. Not healed. That pony was not on the brink of death; she was completely dead for over a minute.”

Now everyone at the table is just staring at me looking a bit stunned, Celestia looks a bit… afraid? “There’s more. At the very end of the revival process Harmony pulled his consciousness into her realm and spoke with him. Ignis, can you tell them exactly what she said? The wording here is extremely important if we want their help interpreting her meaning and I don’t want to leave anything out.”

I go over the entire conversation basically word for word. As I continue on Force looks confused, Cadence still seems stunned, and Celestia’s face becomes unreadable half way through. Then I go over the questions I brought up to Nightmare as well as Nightmares own explanation just to get their opinion on it.

“Nightmare’s explanation is not that far off, I’d say. I can’t think of a reason why Harmony would disagree with your logic about old age and illness. If someone is murdered then they clearly are not part of the natural cycle of life and death. That makes me think that whatever future she sees is one where you revive somepony and it spells disaster for the entire world. I’d advise against reviving anypony for the foreseeable future. As much as it saddens me to know that in the future we will be unable to save a creature... her warning must be heeded.”

There’s an uncomfortable silence and I decide to ask the question that I think needs to be asked. “Even if it’s Force? What if it’s Luna? What if it’s you, Celestia?”

The uncomfortable silences hangs for several seconds until the sun horse finally responds. “You’ve put me in a very awkward situation. I can’t tell you it’s ok to revive my sister or one of your friends while at the same time say that you can’t revive anypony else. That implies that our lives intrinsically have more value than others.”

“Your lives do have more value than others… to me, anyways.” Luna gives me a small smile.

“Instead I’ll just amend my suggestion. If you’re in that situation… do what you think is right. Was there anything else?” Celestia sounds much more mentally exhausted now than she did when we first sat down.

“I just have 1 more question and I want everyone's input. If Harmony says I shouldn’t exist and my quest still implies that I have a way to return home… does that mean my return home is not a matter of if, but a matter of when?”

Author's Note

I did not want to end the chapter here but I got writers block after Ignis asked the last question at the end of the chapter and it's late af. So we're just gunna send it and let it be a cliff hanger I guess. Also I'm lowkey sick af right now so I was just moving alot slower in general today.

I guess I could just not release a chapter today, but I kinda want to cause I'm not sure if I'm gunna have it in me to write for a few days until this sickness leaves my body. I am fucking miserable rn.

Thanks for reading <3