Raven’s Last Flight

Chapters

Egg
Larva
Molt
Chrysalis
Pupa
Molt: 2
Metamorphosis
Adult
Evolution
Celestia
Dawn
Trial
Tribulation
Conclusion

Egg

“Century 9, Year of Our Lord. Once upon a time, in the distant land of Judea, there would live two brothers, living under an empire which spans the whole known world, an empire of iron and gold, of blood and conquest. When they were still but children, soldiers of the empire would come to their village, bringing both torch and blade to the many inhabitants of the farming village, revenge for paying an incorrect amount of tax to the empire. In the smoldering ruins of the village, there would be only two survivors, the two brothers.”

The bright sun shines down over the peaceful land of Equestria, warm golden rays casted down upon ponies all over the vast nation, going about their ordinary lives in ordinary manners. The sun seems to shine particularly bright in the grand capital of Equestria, Canterlot, a city filled with nobles in fancy dress, noses stuck up in the air, businessponies trying their best to compete with one another, and a large number of guards, all wearing shining golden armor. The city is surrounded by a blue bubble, an anti-changeling shield, for today is the day for the wedding of Shining Armor and Princess Cadence, a truly wonderful event.

“Both brothers would beseech the heavens for assistance, for vengeance against the empire which had killed their family. But it was not the heavens that responded, neigh, instead it was something far darker. From the Beyond would come a sickly voice, offering aid to the youngest brother, giving him the power to control sickness and disease, that he might bring suffering upon those who made him suffer. The brother, filled with grief, accepted the offer, becoming a different form entirely, a mass of writhing rats, and he would go on to be called Pestilence.”

Within a hotel room nearby to the palace would be a group of three fillies, sixteen to seventeen in age. One, a white unicorn filly with a multicolored mane, would be using the bright sun’s rays to light up a book within her hooves, reading to the other two. Another, a yellow earth pony filly with a red bow in her hair, would be currently busy slipping on a dress, while the last, an orange Pegasus filly, Scootaloo, would be focused on combing her unicorn friend’s mane, spitting out the comb to comment with disgust, “Pestilence? What’s that even supposed to mean? At least modern books don’t use made up words.”

The yellow filly, Apple Bloom, would look over with a smile, slipping on a fancy dress, speaking in a thick country accent, “Oh, I know what that means! Applejack used it once when some of our trees got infected, it’s basically a fancier way of saying sickness.”

The unicorn, Sweetie Belle, would look up from the book with a pointed look at Scootaloo, “Shh, if you keep interrupting I’ll never be able to finish, and then we’ll be screwed in our book report.” She then clears her throat and looks back down with a smile, “The other brother would be offered a different power entirely, as the being from Beyond would offer him two glowing orbs. They were his parents’ souls, both green and vibrant in color, and the being claimed that through the use of death, he could forever conquer it. The older brother, filled with hate and curiosity equally, would take the souls of his parents, swallowing them. His form would also change, as his flesh would rapidly age, falling off of his very bones, his eyes melting away in an instant, a millennia passing in but a second, before he took in a shuddering breath, now a living skeleton, with his parent’s souls where his eyes should be. He would have complete control over death and all things dead, and would thusly go on to be called Death.”

Scootaloo grins as she finishes combing, “That sounds awesome! Maybe a bit disgusting, but a living skeleton? So cool!” Sweetie Belle would look at her with a small frown, with Scootaloo then sighing, “Alright, sorry, continuing reading. But it is pretty cool.”

Apple Bloom grins slightly, adjusting her bow in minuscule ways, “C’mon, Sweetie, you spend all day reading that thing and we’ll be late! Applejack would kill me if we were late… not literally.”

Sweetie clears her throat, returning to reading, “Twice more would these deals be made, once with a god from a distant land, trapped to forever drown in a well by those who had killed his mother. This god would be granted the ability to never die, and to gain strength from the blood he shed, and thus he became known as War. Finally, a white and black being would be granted an offering, having had their limbs taken off by one who killed their family, they were offered the soul of an Order god whilst they bled out. Accepting it, their form would become emaciated, and wherever they would walk, destruction and ruin would follow in their wake, they were thusly called Famine. These four, the Horses of the Apocalypse, would go on to tear down the empire-“

Her reading is once more interrupted, this time from Apple Bloom, “Horses? Like, d’ya mean Saddle Arabian horses? I met one of them once when we was going on a delivery to Baltimare. They were real slender and graceful, friendly too, don’t sound like they’d be of the apocalypse.”

Sweetie Belle looks up and shrugs, “I don’t know, but Miss Twilight said this book is a translation from a language from far away, so maybe there’s other horses who are mean? Or it could be mistranslated.” She returns her nose to the book, “Once the Empire had fully fallen, the four Horses retreated to other realms, all but one. Pestilence was seen to have gone with the Black Death his final curse, having traveled to divine realms to spread his sickness. Famine left with one last gift to our realm, a starving realm, gone to worlds unseen. War never truly left us, for he is still in the hearts of the unworthy, driving them to kill, even as he goes to destroy other realms. Death, however, is our world’s faithful companion, settling in the Dark Forests within the realm of barbarians, crafting unholy abominations of flesh and bone, killing any foolish… Goth that would go near? Why would he target ponies who wear black?”

Scootaloo rolls her eyes, “Because they’re the ones who would go near someplace called the ‘Dark Forests’, duh. Like the time Dinky dyed her hair and then went into the Everfree.”

Apple Bloom, now fully dressed, helps Sweetie Belle into a dress of her own, while the unicorn puts the book aside, “Scootaloo, we went into the Everfree as well. And our sisters. We ain’t exactly goth.”

Scootaloo grins, “Well, when we do it, it’s because we’re awesome heroes, of course, but awesome heroes would never be attacked by Death! We’d look him in his face and we’d laugh because we’re just that cool!”

The other two would open their mouths to respond, but before they can, the door would open up, a mint green unicorn looking in at them all, Lyra. She wears a fancy dress just the same as them, one to match with the other Bridesmaids, giving them all a wide smile, scanning the room with bright green eyes, “Hey-hey, flower fillies, I hope you’re all ready, we’re starting the ceremony a bit early. We don’t want to do it on schedule in case Twilight tries to do something stupid… again.”

The three would nod and smile, approaching Lyra, with Scootaloo grinning slightly, “Yeah, she’s had some… strange moments before, but I never expected her to shout at a bride-to-be like that, it was totally unlike her.”

Apple Bloom giggles softly, “Maybe she’s the fake one, it’s just not like her to be so aggressive like that.”

Lyra chuckles and leans down, so her head is level with the fillies, “Oh, stop that, nobody is fake around here, you three. She was just stressed, I’m sure.” She then looks at them, and breathes out a green gas, the three fillies inadvertently breathing it in, causing the three of them to instantly pass out. Lyra stands up straight, looking at them, before a potato sack floats over in an aura of green magic, stuffing the fillies inside of it, the potato sack having a concealing enchantment so it seems to be entirely empty.

She then pulls out a mirror from within her dress, a handheld one, floating it up. Upon the mirror surface appears a pinky pony, an alicorn, Princess Cadence. The Princess grins, speaking in a no-nonsense voice, “Have they been secured?”

Lyra nods and gives a small grin in return, “Yes, my Queen. Plan B is safe to go. I will get them to Mandible for transportation immediately, your highness.”

Cadence smirks smugly, “Oh, I hardly think any of this will be necessary… but it never hurts to be safe, does it? Avoid any suspicion, the mind control is beginning to wear off slightly, we can’t afford to be caught so close to victory. Move swiftly, and then return to me, I require my mane to be brushed.”

Lyra nods, “At once, your highness.” She then floats the mirror back into her dress, picking up the sack and putting it on her back, exiting the building. As she walks next to a small alleyway next to the hotel, however, she would notice a pair of green eyes noticing her.

From out of the shadows trots a colt, sixteen years old, short, slim, with piercing green eyes staring director at Lyra, especially her horn. His coat is a dark grey color, and his hair is a matted, greasy black, with it being ruffled wildly, not properly maintained, with his coat being much the same. Of special note, the colt seems to have no mark on his flank, much like the three kidnapped fillies. He would continue to stare at Lyra’s horn, before speaking in a soft voice, one that sounds like it is fascinated by everything, “You’re a unicorn.”

Lyra looks at him in return, slowly blinking as she takes in his words, before speaking slowly, “Umm… yeah, last time I checked, I was.”

He tilts his head to the side, curiously, “Have you checked again? I have no horn, nor wings. How strange. Might I have a piece of your mane or tail?”

She nervously shifts the sack around on her back, looking at the strange colt with a strange look, “My mane or tail? I… where are your parents? Shouldn’t they be keeping track of you?”

He steps a bit closer to her, though his gait is odd, like a seapony walking on land for the first time in years, “It’s long been theorized that unicorn hair was the catalyst needed to transmute lead into gold. Given the decorations…” He looks around at the rich golden decorations of the city, “I think it might be right. Is this the city of gold I heard rumors about? How strange. I don’t know where my parents are.” He looks directly into Lyra’s eyes, “But I know where yours are.”

Lyra looks around, and then clears her throat, “Umm, sorry to cut this short, but I really should get going, you see, I’m expected at a-“

She’s cut off as the colt walks up to her, causing her to take a small step back as he speaks, “One thousand five hundred years old, that’s your mother. She has a caring soul, a healer or caretaker, she’s to the southwest, two hundred and fifty miles southwest. Your father died in a war, a stray arrow to an artery, not even intended to kill him. He was a brave warrior, nine hundred years old, and he bled out in a distant land, seeing his closest friends dying around him, fighting for the promise of money.”

Lyra is backed up into a corner by the colt, despite him being nearly half her size, looking at him with wide eyes, “I… I… how did you… who are you?”

He tilts his head more to the side, “I don’t know, but I do know you. Carapace. His final thoughts were of you, you know. He was a truly loving father, and his soul was happy you gave him a traditional burial. I detect fear. I’m not supposed to know any of this, am I? How fascinating, I’m unknown. But to me, you are fully known. How strange.”

Lyra, hyperventilating a tiny bit in a mix of panic and depressed memories, would rapidly extend a hoof, the very same green powder coming from within it.

The colt takes a breath of the powder, “Hmm, a sleeping gas. And it’s working. How str-“ He then passes out in the middle of his sentence, collapsing in a limp pile. Lyra looks at him, and then looks around, seeing nobody watching. She would float up his small body, before stuffing him right into the sack with the fillies, closing it tight.

Larva

“Long, long ago, there lived four bothers, with two brothers living on a distant peninsula that would become the center of the wood, the other two brothers living on a coastline, in a position so important that it controlled all trade. Their names, Romulus and Remus, Romau Ascendant and Ramble Downfall, all four beings of great power, said to be strong enough to fend off the apocalypse, giving the many around them hope in their hearts that the dark ages of disunity would end. The Beyond had heard of this hope, and it terrified it, the unknowable beast interfering to stop it all once and for all. To another realm, he gifted She-Wolves, beings of great importance, that their gods might cut all contact from the other realm. To us, he gifted Abraham, that the many mages of our world would split away from the other realm. Both realms, overtaken with greed and want, agreed with the Beyond, and thus the realms, and the four brothers, were split.”

Nothing defines the inside of a changeling hive better than darkness, none more than the Green Hive, the hive of thieves and spies. Nary a light but bioluminescent mushrooms would fill the maze-like hallways of black chitin, changelings passing by one another only able to notice each other due to the brightness of their own eyes. Many of the changelings which trot around today are injured, wings in splints, broken legs kept in casts, a sense of dull emotions amongst them all, along with the bitter smell of defeat and humiliation.

“But the Beyond was not done yet, for it saw fit that the bothers suffer yet more. Adopted by She-Wolves, both sets of brothers would live wild, brutal lives, watched over by She-Wolf Capitoline and She-Wolf Dominance. Tragedy would strike again, as both grew into adults, their adoptive parents would issue them one last challenge, on the day they would turn eighteen, to kill their own brother. Romulus and Remus fought with all their strength against each other, until Remus was struck down by a sword through the heart. Romau and Ramble would scar the lands of Boreas with their fight, but Romau would come out in the end. Both were granted indomitable power by their parents, and thusly both would found mirrored realms, Rome, and Romau. With the brothers held down governing their new empires, dying in pointless politics, nothing is left to stop the Beast, except the grace of-“

Within a prison cell, Sweetie Belle would slowly open her eyes, sitting up groggily, blinking to clear her eyes of blur. Similarly, Scootaloo would sit up, along with Apple Bloom, their movements distracting a guard outside of their cell, a dark changeling wearing bright silver armor, holding a book, who looks at them and grins, stopping his reading as he looks them over. Scootaloo would find her voice first, “Ugh… where are we?”

“Thirty west, forty-two south.” The sound of another voice would shock the fillies, who scramble to look at the corner of the room, where two bright eyes look at them. The grey colt almost blends into the wall behind him, if not for his green eyes, and unlike them he did not sit and stretch, instead staying in an unnatural limp position, “You’re a Pegasus.”

The strangeness of the colt would distract the fillies from their dire circumstances, with the three of them looking at each other, before Scootaloo looks back, “Umm… yeah. And you’re an earth pony.”

The colt would slowly blink, “Earth pony? How strange. That implies a knowledge of earth. Fascinating.” He then gets up from his bed, sliding out from it, sliding right onto his stomach on the floor, before he gets up in a strange manner, slipping into a single hoof under his form at a time, lifting only a segment of himself at once. Once all of his legs are beneath him, he would unsteadily trot towards Scootaloo, his eyes never leaving her own, even as he gets uncomfortably close, “You speak a form of Anglo-Saxon mixed with Norman and French influence, maybe a bit of Hanover is in there as well, yet it is also strangely simplified, you do not use stressed ‘thee’ nor ‘thou’, but then again, neither am I. Your wings are too small to support yourself, yet you seem to be in late puberty, perhaps a defect, but you do have thicker hooves than average.”

Scootaloo frowns slightly, and then shoves the colt back, “Don’t talk about my wings.”

The colt wouldn’t stumble back, but would instead immediately fall backwards, cracking his head against the hard floor with a loud noise. Even still, he continues on in a voice that seems continuously curious, “There are the thicker hooves, strong enough to push me over despite being a female of a species, theory, perhaps a matriarchy species where the female is stronger than the males. Second theory, I am weakened in this small body. Observation.” He sits his head up, rubbing the back of it with a hoof, “I can feel pain. How fascinating.”

The changeling looks back at them, speaking in a two toned voice, “Keep yourselves in control back there, don’t make me come in there. I don’t want any of you harmed.”

Apple Bloom frowns, turning to face the changeling, only to charge up against the cell door, giving him a larger frown, “Let us go! I don’t know who you’re looking for, but it ain’t us, we didn’t do anything wrong! Well… not to you!”

He gives her a small snort, “You aren’t getting out, filly. Now if you calm the heck down, you’ll be given some food and drink, and if you act all friendly-like with us, we won’t have any issues, got it?”

Apple Bloom frowns, and is about to unleash a tirade of words at the changeling, only to be interrupted by the soft, curious voice, “You are fascinating.” She looks beside herself, seeing the colt running his eyes up and down the changeling’s form, “You have both an exoskeleton, like an insect, and an internal skeleton much like a mammal. You do not look like a tortoise nor a crocodile, you are not mammal, insect, reptile, amphibian, you are an enigma.” He slowly blinks, “How fascinating.”

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom both give him incredulous looks, while Sweetie Belle, quiet until now, smiles and nods along, “Actually, yeah, I never thought about that. Why do changelings have both internal and external skeletons when most others only have one or the other? Miss Twilight would probably study that sometime.”

He looks around, meeting the eyes of the filly, the barest hints of a smile appearing on his face, “That sounds like the name of a scholar. I quite like scholars, they aren’t afraid to… delve.”

Apple Bloom looks at Scootaloo, the two of them shrugging, before she looks back at the colt, giving him a small smile, “Hey, umm, you alright there? With the gas, and Scootaloo pushing you over, and… I don’t know, you’re just acting a bit… umm… unique?”

He looks at her and slowly blinks, “Every being is unique. You are trying to call me strange, weird, perhaps mad, a fascinating observation. I can feel throbbing in the back of my head, it is distracting, I love it. A small fog hangs over my senses, and everything is brighter than I remember it being. The city was almost blinding, but my vision is so detailed, I can make our every lock of fur you have, and I can see that concerned look on your face. It is strange, how you are concerned. Am I fine? I have no idea. That’s fascinating, I cannot tell if I am fine or if I am not. Isn’t that a bit strange as well? I cannot say, perhaps it isn’t, for you. But it would seem like I have been taken hostage by someone, presumably a greedy Queen of some sort, who wishes to abuse my powers for her own gain, and you are here for emotional hostages, because you look so similar to me. How fascinating, I’m usually the one kidnapping. I cannot wait to see what’s next, I hope it’s a Faustian Bargain that I can exploit, or perhaps I’ll be dissected again, that’s always fun.”

The fillies all look at him like he’s absolutely insane, any pony would do the same in their place, really. Scootaloo slowly speaks, “Okay… I seriously messed you up with that push, didn’t I?”

Sweetie Belle then looks at her, and reaches up a hoof, clipping her ear with it, “Scootaloo, you’re acting like a bully.” She then speaks a bit quieter to her two friends, “Look, maybe he’s a bit strange, but aren’t we too? Plus, he doesn’t have a Curie Mark.”

Apple Bloom gasps, looking over at the colt, who has now turned to stare in wonder at a chitinous wall, seeing that is flank is, indeed, blank, “Sweetie Belle, you’re right! Come on, girls.” She trots over, with him looking over at her, as she extends her hoof, “Sorry we got off on the wrong hoof there. My name’s Apple Bloom, I’m from Sweet Apple Acres in Ponyville, it’s nice to meet ya.”

Scootaloo nods and steps up to him with a small grins also extending her own hoof, “Yeah, and I’m Scootaloo! Sorry about pushing you over before, I guess I just don’t know my own strength… I do know it’s a lot of strength, though.”

Sweetie Belle smiles and extends her own hood, smiling even wider, “And I’m Sweetie Belle! You see, we’re just like you, because just like you, we don’t have our Cutie Marks!”

He slowly blinks, and then extends a hoof, tapping it against each of their own, “Apple Bloom, daughter of Pear Butter and Bright Mac. Scootaloo, daughter of Scooter Trick and Wheelie. Sweetie Belle, daughter of Cookie Crumbles and Hondo Flanks. Names seem Anglo-Saxon in origin, being named after occupations, skills, appearances, with family titles being included though not often on obvious ways. Apple Bloom is the Apple family, Scootaloo sounds like scooter, Sweetie Belle comes from the saying ‘Belle of the Ball’, it therefore applies that my name should be something that is either a noun or a verb. I always quite liked the darker birds.” He pauses, and then nods, “For the purposes of conversation, you may call me Raven. Ravens Breath, if plurals are allowed at the beginning of names.”

Scootaloo grins, “Raven? That’s a pretty cool sounding name, though it sounds a lot more like a Pegasus than an earth pony.”

Apple Bloom looks over and smiles, “Well, now hold on now, my great grand uncle was a pony yet he was called Apple Crow because he would construct scarecrows for us, ain’t like bird names are just for pegasi.”

Sweetie Belle smiles yet more, “I think it sounds noble and refined, and a bit mysterious.” She puts on a theatrical voice, “Like the name of a secondary antagonist turned protagonist in a story, the type Goth and Emo ponies would crush on.” She then giggles softly to herself, her friends laughing along, while Raven watches with an impassive look. She then looks at him and smiles, “Heh, umm, anyway, we’re also the founding members and… only full members other than family members of an organization called the Cutie Mark Crusaders. We’d give our full intro, but the guard there probably wouldn’t like it, so… yeah. We’re dedicated to finding our Cutie Marks, and, do you think you’d like to join? At least while we’re trapped?”

He looks at her, tilting his head, “You have Goths here as well? They always did seem oddly drawn to my forest ever since Alaric burned the eternal city at my command. Just one question. What is a Cutie Mark?”

The three fillies would go silent at his question, the three looking at each other, then passing out, each collapsing on top of each other on the ground.

Molt

“Official announcement from Princess Celestia, exclusive Canterlot Times issue. Princess Luna, Diarch of Equestria, has left the country today to go traveling in the lands of Centauria, Saddle Arabia, Purrsia, and Donkania, citing that she feels shame for not having assisted fight off the changelings. Our reporters managed to catch the Princess before she left the city, asking for a comment. She responded, ‘Thrice have we felt shame for having failed our nation, it eats away within our moonlit soul. When we threatened eternal night in a state of madness, and we could do nothing to stop ourselves, instead we relied upon untrained citizens, mere foals compared to us. Then, when Discord, our very uncle, was released from his Harmonic prison, we did naught to help him, but once more relied upon the tenuous bonds of friendship and the unstable nature of magical artifacts. Then when our very own capital city was under attack, we did naught but sleep through it. We have become weak. We shall be no more.’”

A squeaky shout sounds, “What do you mean you don’t know what a Cutie Mark is?!”

“When asked to comment, Princess Celestia told our reporters, ‘Princess Luna has always been a mare of action, itching to move and to fight what she sees as evil. Indeed, that is what caused her fall to the Nightmare, for she always felt the need to fight for what was right, so she was coerced into fighting for what’s wrong. I can… understand why she would feel shame for the events of the Wedding, indeed, I do myself, being defeated when my ponies relied on me. I suppose I just didn’t want to fight Chrysalis, she used to be… a good pony, a loyal citizen of Equestria. I digress, I fully support the actions of my sister in whatever she does. Most of her life has been spent fighting, from the moment she was born and used as a slave in the Romauian arena, all the way to when I sent her to the moon.’”

A southern voice would shout in disbelief, “You mean your ponies don’t know a thing about Cutie Marks? How?!”

“Princess Luna trots towards troubling news, it would seem, as our office in Saddle Arabian capital, Mehdicha, has reported troubling news of a new king unifying the Centaur tribes, and Catser Wilhelm of Purrsia mobilizing his troops on the Donkanian border. One must wonder, with such conflict in the area, why would Princess Luna decide to go there and not somewhere else? One journalist speculates that Luna wishes to seek war and bloodshed, in order to ‘redeem the blood she hasn’t shed since her return’, others, under the impression that the Moon Princess is a vampire, say that she leaves to find new blood to drink. Nobody can say for sure, but the presence of the Princess is sure to shake up those realms.”

A scratchy voice would shout, “You’re lying! You have to be!”

The shouting is stopped as a changeling guard, holding a newspaper, turns around and shouts at the imprisoned foals, “Hey, stop fighting in there, food’s here.” As he says that, another changeling would arrive, carrying bowls of mushroom soup and bread.

The food trays would be slid into the cell, to the hooves of the foals, with Raven looking at it, sitting down and shrugging, “I do not even know what a Cutie Mark is, I cannot say much else than that. However, they do sound fascinating to study, so I would be glad to join your group. It’ll be the first time I’m working with crusaders.”

Apple Bloom frowns and sits down her with her food, “You keep saying odd things, Raven. Where are you even from?”

He looks at his food, and then leans down, taking a bite of bread, only for his eyes to widen, “That’s… bread. I taste it. How fascinating.” He then quickly devours his entire meal, making a mess of everything as he does, before sitting up, a small smile on his face, “It’s been a long time since I’ve tasted bread or mushroom soup.” Scootaloo, meanwhile, would take a sip of the soup, only to gag at it. He then looks at Apple Bloom, “You won’t recognize the name, I’m sure. It’s gone by many. Black Forest, Germania, Abnoba Mons, so on. It is a forest around which the Gothic peoples have come to settle. As for where I’m originally from, it’s a realm called Judea.”

Sweetie Belle’s ears perk up, with her swallowing a piece of bread, “Wait, wait, wait, you’re from a place called Judea, and then you moved into a forest which is a dark color, and the Goth settled near to it? And you haven’t eaten bread in a long time? And you act this… strange?” She looks at her friends, and then at him, leaning in, “You’re Death, aren’t you? You were mentioned in a book we read.”

He would look at her, that small smile slowly growing, “You… are a very clever person for your age, Sweetie Belle. I was unaware your people knew of me, I do not know how records from Earth would end up here, a different realm.”

Scootaloo would slowly blink, “Umm, isn’t that jumping to a conclusion really quickly? He doesn’t even look like a skeleton.”

He nods along, “Oh yes, I was a skeleton once. Then a group of paladins killed me, and I was fully dead… until I woke in the middle of a city in a body that isn’t mine. It was quite strange. I had to figure out how to walk on four legs, and then I was kidnapped.”

Sweetie smiles, “See? He was a skeleton once. Plus, look at the color of his eyes, green. His body is dark, like the dark magic he uses. It just all lines up too much to be a coincidence. Plus, we are the sisters of the ponies who met Discord, and Chrysalis, and Nightmare Moon, two of which were foal stories. Is it really that much of a stretch?”

Apple Bloom would look him up and down, “Can ya prove it, Raven? Or… should I be calling you Death now?”

He looks at her, “No, Death was always a title given by others. I chose Raven, I like it more. Ah, I have likings for names now, how odd.” He then holds up a hoof, pausing, closing his eyes, “Exoskeleton shall do nicely.” He slams the hoof down onto the floor, the exoskeleton there morphing itself, fitting his hoof, with him lifting it up, now having bony fingers made of black chitin, “Not many materials here, so this should work.”

The three fillies are left staring, until the changeling guard speaks, “You, colt.” Raven would turn to face him, with the guard giving him a nod, “Those fillies there say you’re Death. That true?”

He blinks, “You would kidnap me without knowing? Now surprising. Yes, I am Death, if you must call me that.”

The changeling frowns slightly, and then opens the gate, motioning him to leave, “Come with me, the Queen will wish to speak with you, alone.”

Chrysalis

“Vampires are an exotic species from the far west, beyond the land of Zebrica, hailing from a land called Grogaria. On the outside, they look no different from the species they once were, except for fangs poking out of their mouths. Yet to be a vampire is to be altogether different than a pony, for vampires not only are immortal, faster than any mortal pony, more perceptive, and far stronger, but vampires also must feed off the blood of others, or any other fluid filled with life force. Old legends would show vampires as being monsters, using charm and social power in order to trick victims into a place where the vampire may drain them of their blood. However, this is not accurate, as every vampire is, much like every pony, different from other vampires. Indeed, many within our own society are vampires, and nobody has known until just a few days ago. During the Changeling Invasion, one Vinyl Scratch, better known as DJ P0N-3, demonstrated vampiric abilities in order to protect those around her. One must wonder, if our most famous celebrity is a vampire, is it possible the rumors around Luna are true? Is her blood-thirst biological, driven by a vampiric curse?”

A two-toned stallion‘s voice would read, a changeling servant stood in Chrysalis’ quarters, reading from a newspaper for her highness. Chrysalis, a very tall changeling with thin, holy legs, a sharp, jagged horn, and bright green eyes, would lift a hoof to stop the servant from reading, “Thank you, Thorax, you may return to your work.”

The changeling would look at her, and then bow his head, “Yes, my Queen.” He would place down the newspaper, and then trot out of the room, with two more trotting in as soon as he leaves, Raven trailing behind an armored changeling guard, looking at everything with wide eyes of fascination.

Chrysalis looks at the guard, slowly raising an eyebrow, “Why have you brought me one of our prisoners, Tureno? I will not be needing them for a while more, until the time comes for ransoming them.”

The guard, Tureno, gives her a nod and a salute, “My Queen, the other prisoners came to the conclusion that he is Death, from the old stories. He says that he comes from a ‘Black Forest’ surrounded by ‘Goths’.”

She keeps her eyebrow raised, looking at the guard with piercing green eyes, then looking at the foal, whose own green eyes stare riff back into her own. The two keep eye contact for a minute, tension filling the room as all goes silent, before Chrysalis slowly leans back into her throne, a dark and jagged thing, “Thank you, Tureno, you may leave us.”

He looks at the colt, and then at her, “My Queen, I request that I would stay and be nearby, in case he should try and attack you.”

She snorts and props her head up on a hoof, “Sergeant Tureno, should this foal be Death, then you’ll do nothing to stop him. If he is just a foal, then I can easily handle him. Do not question my orders again or I shall see you demoted, Tureno. Leave.” He merely bows his head, and then trots out of the room.

Raven looks after the changeling, his head moving oddly, before he turns back to face Chrysalis. He takes a seat in the floor, craning his neck to look her in the eyes, then tilting his head to the side, “You respect me. How curious.”

She smirks slightly, gazing right back into his eyes, “You are not my enemy.”

He blinks, “Aren’t I? You kidnapped me. Most in my situation would be hostile to you. Yet you do not seem worried of hostility. Arrogance?”

She smirks even more, “I did not kidnap you, my servants did. I kept you imprisoned and have fed you food, you should feel grateful. I am not worried because no matter what, I have no reason to worry. If you are a foal, nothing more, and you attempt to attack me, then I shall strike you down and throw you back into that cell, personally. If you are, as those fillies believe, Death… then you will be wise enough to not fight me. I defeated the Sun.”

He tilts his head the other way, “Yet you hide in the dark, as does all of your species. Your position is not one of a victor. Holding children prisoner, presumably as hostages, hiding in the center of a well defended castle. Those aren’t the acts of a winner, those are the acts of someone scared that they have angered the wrong people. This faux arrogance you put on is but a mask over what you truly are inside… Queen Chrysalis.” He pauses, and then bends one of his front knees, giving her a short bow, before rising up, “I give you respect. I shall be honest. Give me the same.”

She stares at him for a few seconds, before she slowly rises from her throne, trotting down from it, her alicorn sized form towering over the colt. She then slowly bends one leg, and bows her head, tapping the tip of his horn with her own, before rising back up, “You are perceptive. I might not know if you are Death, as they claim, yet you are perceptive all the same.”

He gives her a nod, “Queen Chrysalis, I know well enough that you would not have called me here if you did not place some stock in the beliefs of those fillies. If you didn’t care about what I am. You are willing to trust those who are very much your younger, where they are but seventeen, you are nigh-on a thousand and one hundred years of life. Why do you trust them?”

She nods, “You know my age, but anyone could with proper research. I’ll answer you with a very simple fact. Children are very, very perceptive, they can make connections that their elders never could. Perhaps they are wrong, perhaps they are right. Prove to me who you are.”

He looks into her eyes, “Very well.” His eyes then begin to glow green, as do his hooves, “I can see your memories, all that you have lost in your long, long life. You have lost much, haven’t you?” From around the Queen, green figures out begin to form, floating away from her, going to float above Raven. First, two changelings, a mare and a stallion, wearing a dress and a suit respectively, float above his head, “Pupa and Scarab. They died on your happiest day.” Chrysalis would stare at the two of them with a face of practiced indifference. Another would slowly float from her, a regal and noble Griffon, a rapier by his side, a golden crown upon his head, a scar over one eye and a fine black suit, “Grover the Sixth, the Forgotten Prince. You were five seconds from husband and wife.” She begins to frown ever so slightly, keeping her eyes locked on Grover, swallowing heavily. Finally, a pony stallion, of a regal white coat and blue mane, wearing heavy armor and looking off into the distance, “General Shiny Shield, you never got your revenge.”

“Stop…” Chrysalis would speak softly, her voice cracking a bit as she speaks, looking away from the figures, “Stop, please… send them away.” Tears would begin to well in her eyes, until the green glows slowly die down, the figures all disappearing, with her only then letting a few tears roll down her cheeks.

Raven watches on, “Your life has been defined by what you’ve lost, hasn’t it? Your home was burned, and you drove yourself to darkness in order to avenge it. I understand.” He then stomps down on the ground, a giant hand made of exoskeleton reaching up from the ground, slowly wiping a tear from Chrysalis’ cheek, “You will ask me if I can bring them back. No.”

She takes a deep breath, and then speaks slowly, “No… that’s not what I want from you.” She slowly looks over at him, her eyes burning with emotions, anger, sadness, nostalgia, regret, and her voice quivers with all those emotions as she speaks, “They’re gone. All of them. Gone. I know that. But the one who caused this is still out there.”

Raven blinks softly, a bit surprised, watching as Chrysalis trots to a nearby desk, looking over the stuff on it, “I… it is not often one wouldn’t ask to see their loved ones again. How… intriguing. Strange. Fascinating. You don’t seek revenge for them, you seek justice. Justice against the Sun.”

Chrysalis scowls, and then smacks a lamp off of the table in a fit of anger, breathing deeply as the lamp flies across the room, shattering, casting them both into darkness, “I told her everything! I stood in her damned courtrooms, I looked into her eyes wearing my own blood soaked wedding dress! I cried, I begged, I pleaded for justice, for recourse, and she did nothing!” She slams her hoof on the table again, denting it, “She turned me away!” She slams her hoof down again, “She gave him a promotion!” She slams her hoof down one last time, before she turns around, rushing up to Raven, looming over him and glaring into his eyes, “She told me my home, my parents, my love didn’t even exist! Yet there she sits upon a gilded throne, crowds of ponies fawning over her every word, while I’m stuck here surrounded by incompetence!” She pokes him in the chest, “You shouldn’t even be here, Carapace was ordered to be inconspicuous, and yet she somehow thought that meant ‘oh, I should kidnap another foal, of course’! Stupid fucking useless drone!”

He looks at her, then slowly reaches up a hoof, resting it upon her front, “A tragedy. I… empathize, sympathize, Chrysalis. A laboratory, materials whenever I ask for them, and I want those three fillies to be my assistants.” She opens her mouth to speak, but he cuts her off, “Do not pretend like you were not going to ask me to assist you. You stink of defeat and bruised pride, Chrysalis, of anger and of planning. You are going to return to fight the Sun once more. You have treated me with respect, honesty, without fear, something I have not been given in centuries. I shall assist you. First things first, I require a map.”

She looks him over, her mouth returning to a pensive scowl, before she nods, “You are perceptive again. I shall provide all of it. Here.” She trots to a nearby table, turning on the lamp there, digging through a desk, until she grabs a map, carrying it over to him, “My next plan is to infiltrate the village of Ponyville, to remove any threats to me, before I kidnap and infiltrate Canterlot once more and claim victory.”

He looks it over, slowly licking his lips as he does, “No… we can’t just focus on two cities in the interior. These other hives… Red, Brown, Blue, Yellow, you must focus on unifying them first, it’ll increase your direct strength. Then… we infiltrate every city at once, replace their leaders, make them build tunnels, or hidden underground caverns, within which skeletons and zombies can be kept. Once everything is ready, we spring the trap, and in one day, every city shall fall to your rule, Chrysalis.”

She frowns softly, looking over the map, “That is a lot to ask for, especially since measures for changelings will be in place. However, with Princess Luna left, it’s possible she could return and lead a resistance if any town is left untouched… very well.”

He looks from the map to her, speaking in a passive, cool tone, “By this time next year, Chrysalis, Equestria shall be yours.”

Pupa

“Earth; that word, ‘Earth’, it seems to appear no matter where I trot, in the eldest of texts and most mythical of stories. I return now from the Unicornian Confederacy, having trotted the world around, literally, to retrieve one of my father’s journals, kept in mint condition by the xenophobic unicorns. Upon hearing I was the daughter of the ‘Great Omegamage’ Starswirl the Bearded, and upon demonstrating my ancestry by disintegrating one of their leaders, they were more than happy to give them over. It was there that I saw the word once more, ‘Earth’, mentioned in the earliest of his transcripts as a realm that Equis was separated from at its conception. Indeed, it claims that he even asked King Ordirus, Discord, and Sombra if the realm is more than myth, and they all said that it was real, and that Equis was once part of it. With Discord in stone, Ordirus slain, and Sombra MIA for a thousand years, this cannot be proven to be true, but my father rarely wrote down falsehoods.”

Raven trots into a bright room, one kept sterile, built out of stone and steel rather than the chitin the rest of the Hive is built out of. An old book floats by his side, an auto-reading enchantment upon it reading out its contents to him in a dry mare’s voice. He looks around the new laboratory, seeing plenty of paper for writing down notes, a sink, many tools, a bell for requesting service, and some doors leading to a bathroom and a bedroom. He nods along as he looks at all of it, resuming the enchantment on the book.

“In the Deer Kingdom, Elk Tribes, and Caribou Jarldom, in all found mentions of Earth, of infinite tundras and boreal forests through which tall bipeds would walk, right beside the Old Gods. To the east, the Centaur Nomads, Saddle Arabian City-States, Donkanian Kingdom and Purrsian Republic, I found yet more mentions. Creatures devoid of any magic roamed infinite planes, they conquered the seas and tamed the deserts, assisted and guided by the ancients, Ahllu and Rain. To the west, the Purple Hive, Eeeeeeeeeenglish Kingdoms, and Grogaria, they told of distant creatures made by their God, John Smith, in a perfect garden, out of which the holy Thestrals were cast due to the corruptive magics of the Grogarian Necromancers. In Zebrica, ancient texts speak of a divided realm of mountains and grass, above which reigned Zuéstro, Arésh, Appára, and Hermása, and of a southern empire of the sands, overlooked by Setátha. Within the Griffons, they speak of lush lands for hunting, where they fought their ancient enemies, the Arimaspi, outside the cave in which Boreas awaited.”

Behind Raven would trot in three fillies, looking around the lab with curious looks. Sweetie Belle looks at the talking book, and then at him, while he grabs a quill in fingers made of chitin, beginning to write down notes. Scootaloo opens her mouth to speak, but Sweetie Belle gives her a small shake of the head, and then points at the book, while it continues.

“What is Earth? If it was once part of us, or we part of it, why are we no longer? Perhaps… perhaps this would explain how strange our world is. It is something I have noticed in my travels. In the north, the Elk, Deer, Caribou, they all share very similar traits. Yet as one moves more and more south, creatures become more different, more diverse, in abilities, sizes, and general structure. Is this simply how a world must be, or is it special for us? Why did the Gods design our world in such a way? I don’t understand yet, but I have one more expedition to go on. South, to the Southlands, beyond the jungles and the Kirin villages. Perhaps my answer will be there. — Clover the Clever.”

Raven finishes writing, and then looks back at the fillies, specifically at Sweetie Belle, “Sweetie Belle, I have some questions. You’re the smartest of your friends.” Scootaloo opens her mouth to speak, but he looks at her, “You have your own strengths, Scootaloo, as do you, Apple Bloom, do not take my compliments of her to be insults of you. You may be children yet, but you are smarter than that. Now, please, Sweetie Belle, tell me. Who is Ordirus, who is Sombra, who is Discord, what gods are true and which are false, and who is Clover the Clever?”

She nods, smiling softly, “Well… Ordirus was the Spirit of Order, father of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and he was the first King of Equestria, he still technically is since neither Princess took the title Queen in order to preserve his memory, and he died against a Minotaur, Cain.” Raven’s eyes widen ever so slightly, but he simply nods for her to go along, “Sombra is his brother, he’s the Spirit of Shadow, and he was the King of the Crystal Empire. He was fought by Princess Celestia and Luna because he went mad and cruel, and he caused the entire Empire to disappear when he was defeated. Discord is Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, he was also a brother to the other two, and he went mad when Ordirus was killed, so he started to cause chaos all over, until he was frozen in stone. He was released, umm… a few months ago, for… reasons, but he was sealed back in stone. I don’t really know much theology, but I know that Princess Celestia and Luna are worshipped as goddesses, but they reject the worship. Clover the Clever is the daughter of Starswirl the Bearded, the greatest wizard ever, who was renowned for traveling the world and finding information.”

Apple Bloom speaks as soon as Sweetie Belle is done, “Raven… what are we doing in some sort of fancy looking lab? We didn’t really get told all too much on the way here.”

Raven looks at her, and then gives her a small nod, “I have come to an agreement with Queen Chrysalis where I will help her defeat her enemies, in return for materials for research. You are here because I need someone to give me information about the world.”

Scootaloo frowns slightly, “Then why are Bloom and I here, since Sweetie is apparently so smart?”

He then moves to look at her, “Because I want you to watch and look impressed when I do something impressive. It has been a long time since I’ve had a captive audience… quite literally.” He breathes out in a small snort, “That was a joke. I wish to have laymen here, you always have the ability to ask questions which an expert would never even think to ask. Do not disparage yourself, Scootaloo, you are quite useful.”

Sweetie Belle looks at her friends, and then back at him, “You mentioned you’re helping against enemies… who do you mean by enemies? The Changelings aren’t at war with anyone.”

He gives her a curt nod, “With my assistance, there shan’t be a war. Chrysalis plans to strike the realm of Equestria.”

Sweetie’s eyes widen and her face goes pale, while Scootaloo steps forward angrily, “What?! You’re helping her attack Equestria!? Our home!?”

Apple Bloom steps up right alongside her, a frown on her face, “Raven, you can’t be serious if you’re actually gonna help her.”

He calmly holds up a hoof, looking at the two of them with an impassive look, “I know quite well that it is your home, and I am very serious in my help to her. Before you say anything more, allow me to walk you through this, step by step. Chrysalis has been slighted, she seeks revenge, justice, for what was done to her. Her mind is set on conquest of Equestria, nothing I could say would stop her. So allow me to ask you this, fillies. What is better, Chrysalis sending a swarm of changelings into battle, where they shall rip apart and be ripped apart by your friends, family, and neighbor, or is it better that I assist her with a surgical strike, no death, no injury, just a simple change of the flag.”

Scootaloo scowls, “Neither of them! You’re strong, right, strong enough that there’s a whole book about you, why don’t you just step up to her and force her to stop?! Why would you ever help her?! And don’t say there’s nothing that’s going to die, Equestria is going to die!”

Apple Bloom looks down, thinking, while he answers Scootaloo, “Would that be better, to destroy this nation instead of another? I do not care about nations, be it Chrysalis’s Hive or Equestria, they both suffer the same eventual fate of every nation, to wither and to die. In a thousand years, will the actions I take today have any effect, when the memory of Equestria is forgotten? No, it won’t, but what will be remembered is the information, the experiments, the ideas. That is why I asked for a laboratory instead of any other reward. When you have all withered, when I have eventually been finally slain, it shall be my books that survive me, my research. Chrysalis has provided that to me. She has given me respect, she has given me honesty, far more than you ever have, Scootaloo, in the blink that I have known you. You are too strong to be this stupid and unfocused, now close your mouth and think for a second before you speak next lest you waste our valuable oxygen.”

Scootaloo frowns, looking away for a minute, then looking back, “Ponies are happy in Equestria, but the changelings aren’t here. The changelings are hidden in the dark, injured and angry, apart from each other. In Equestria, ponies live side by side, friends run in the daylight, enjoying every day, pegasi fly through blue skies, creating beautiful clouds while unicorns enjoy a book under the shade of a tree. Why make us more like the changelings? Why make us afraid, and angry, and dark? Why make us unhappy, Raven, why?”

He slowly blinks at her, noticing the other two fillies looking up at him, before he responds in an impassive voice, “I can see why we disagree. You value life through happiness and companionship, you believe that to be happy is good and unhappy is bad. I don’t care for joy, sadness, anger, or any such mortal emotion. Your mortal lives are fleeting and trite, the only one who shall remember your name in a thousand years is me, Scootaloo, so why should any value be placed upon how you feel? The only true value in this world is knowledge, the continuous search for the truth. Knowledge is magic, Scootaloo, not friendship or happiness.”

Scootaloo looks at him, and then shakes her head, “You’re crazy.” She then trots off to a nearby door, opening it up to a bedroom, “C’mon, Crusaders, leave him to his ‘knowledge’.” Apple Bloom would trot over, with Sweetie Belle looking into Raven’s eyes. He looks right back into her own, the two looking at each other for a minute before she slowly trots to her friends, closing the door behind her, leaving Raven alone in his laboratory.

Apple Bloom takes a seat on the bed in the bedroom, giving her friends a small smile, “Well… I guess it’s a sleepover, right, girls?”

Scootaloo frowns, kicking the sheets of the bed in frustration, ignoring her friend, “He’s insane, and I thought he was almost cool back in that cell. How can somepony believe that happiness doesn’t matter?”

Sweetie Belle slowly climbs onto the bed, speaking softly, “He seems so… sad.”

Scootaloo frowns and looks at her, “If by ‘sad’ you mean ‘insane’, yeah.”

She shakes her head, “No, he’s not insane, he’s just different.” She looks away, “Rarity told me about when Miss Twilight first came to Ponyville, she seemed to avoid everypony around her, wanting to get everything down quickly and methodically. During her own welcoming party, she just tried to go to sleep, away from everypony else. She didn’t see other ponies as being valuable, and seemed to consider reading and learning to be more valuable than friendship and happiness.”

Apple Bloom tilts her head slightly, “So… you think Raven’s like Miss Twilight? Actually, yeah, I remember when my family welcomed her, she seemed way too focused on her assignment, seeing if we made proper amounts of food, she didn’t even eat her Apple Brown Betties.” She smiles softly, “I mean, she actually had emotion in her voice, but I guess she weren’t a thousand years old.”

Scootaloo looks between her two friends, raising an eyebrow, “Wait, wait, are you implying that we should be trying to convince him by befriending him? Like your sisters did with Twilight?”

Sweetie Belle smiles softly, “Everypony wants happiness and friendship, Scootaloo, it’s just that some ponies forget that they want it if they’ve been pushed away too many times. It might be hard, but I think, starting tomorrow morning, we should try our best to befriend him, show him what happiness is again.”

Apple Bloom smiles slightly and nods, “Yeah, we can be just like our sisters! Scootaloo, you in?”

Scootaloo hops up, taking a second before she grins widely, “Sweetie Belle, you are the smartest of us, I gotta say.” She then holds up her hoof, “Cutie Mark Crusaders!”

They all three cheer at once, “Yay!”

Molt: 2

“Romau City, Year 762, Emperor Romau Ascendant’s Journal. The Empire has lost something today, yet it has also gained so much. I had invited the Equestrian King, Ordirus, to visit the Arena today, that he and his family might be entertained by our many warriors, and so I could keep an eye on the development of his daughter, Celestia Solarium Ordver. Whilst here, he saw one of my favorite fighters, the young Malleus Noctis, the blue alicorn who fell from the sky and promptly became mine. He saw her defeat opponent after opponent, twice, triple, quadruple her size, ripping throats out with her oddly sharp teeth, smashing skulls with her namesake hammer, spurred on forever by the crowd, and I could see that he was thinking. I was, of course, admiring, as was his brother, King Sombra, whilst King Discord was off making merriment in some other section of the city. As the fights came to a close, King Ordirus pulled me aside, and he made me an offer.”

Raven stands in his lab, Sweetie Belle reading from a leather bound journal beside him, with him, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo watching as changeling after changeling comes into his laboratory, carrying bags full of miscellaneous bones within them, setting them down on a central table before leaving.

“He told me that he wished to purchase Malleus, or Luna, as he called her, that he could adopt her as his own daughter, away from the arena. In exchange for her, he offered me a golden chalice, what he called the Idol of Boreas, a chalice said to hold the power of a great god within it. I examined the chalice, of course, and there was indeed power within it, holy and pure, perhaps even more than Malleus, Luna, had within her. However, I rejected his first offer, I knew the King was a bleeding heart, that he would offer me more, that which could enrich my Empire. I was not disappointed. He offered to me what he called the Iron Crown, which he had gathered during his travels in the distant past from a land called Lombardy. It was impressive, a crown befitting an Emperor such as me, yet still I denied, there was more he could give me. Finally, he relinquished one final treasure as payment for the filly, a magical sword, one he calls, ‘Excalibur’, which seems to float, obeying the commands of the wielder as soon as they are thought.”

Raven’s eyebrow would raise, with him looking at Sweetie as she reads, “Lombardy and Excalibur? It would seem that the theories of us once being one realm is true. To trade the Iron Crown and Magic Sword for a filly, it seems mad. What filly could be worth such artifacts?” He motions Sweetie to read onward.

“Knowing better than to anger the Spirit further, I accepted the deal from him, for I knew he could tear down my cities if ever we got into a battle, and that would be annoying to clean. Sword, Idol, and Crown in my claws, I had the filly sedated and sent away with him that very night, just three hours ago. I remember Malleus, Luna, had a mutual crush with one of the slaves, a low-born named Grover Grydoen, but I refuse to sell anyone else to Ordirus without a large price. If I am lucky, she shall be so torn apart, ripped from her crush’s side, that she shall return to me willingly. But that is yet to be seen, for now, I shall be crowned with my new crown, the Imperial Crown, and shall show the mighty powers I have been gifted to my Empire. Romau Ascendant.”

Sweetie Belle then puts down the book, looking at Raven, “So, Raven, why did you want me to read all of that?”

He steps up to his laboratory table, filled with bags of bones, all changelings having left the room, “I am very interested in the connection my home world and your world seem to have, and wish to see if it has anything with why I was brought into this world. The knowledge gained may be very valuable.”

Scootaloo steps up as well, looking over the bones, then at him, “So… why are you all about knowledge anyway? What caused that?”

He nods along, beginning to exam the bags of bones closely, his hooves and eyes glowing green, “It was a Frenchman, Nicholas Flamel, who truly sparked my wish to learn. For centuries I had done nothing but blindly follow my namesake, Death, raising skeletons, zombies, and whatever else I wished, for no reason other than having nothing else to do. Flamel came to me, surprising me by being able to vanquish skeletons without a blessed weapon, instead using an alchemical elixir. He had come to ask questions of me, questions of magic, alchemy, and science, questions that would get common men executed for even uttering them. His… curiosity, it excited me in a manner, it was like I was sleeping for a millennia, and he opened my eyes to the world around me. There’s so much to explore, so much to learn, things which will last even longer than I will.”

Scootaloo nods along and then grins slightly, “Aren’t you Death, though? Isn’t it kinda impossible for you to die? It’s a… umm…” She looks at Sweetie Belle, who mouths it to her, “Right, a paradox!”

He shakes his head, with bones coming out of the bags, assembling themselves together, mismatches bones from different animals coming together to form vaguely humanoid shapes, before they begin to glow green, green fires appearing within their eye sockets, before they march out in single file, “Death is more of a misconception than anything. People died before I existed, and I am not immune to death, but I am very hard to kill. Average weapons and magic won’t do anything to me. If you want to kill me, you have to destroy my soul completely, and only a few weapons, blessed by divine magic, can do that.”

Apple Bloom keeps an eye on the skeletons, “I don’t like ‘em, but they do look pretty cool. Say, thus Nicholas fella, what was he wearing?”

Raven looks over, cocking an eyebrow, “Robes designed to keep one warm.”

She smiles, “Are you sure he wasn’t wearing… Nicholas Flannel?” She then snorts, and begins to laugh to herself, the other fillies also giggling along.

Raven looks at the three of them with a blank stare, “No, he was wearing cloth.” He then turns back to the skeletons, his magic doing its work.

Sweetie Belle stops her giggling, giving Bloom a small grin, “Geez, I don’t think he liked that one, Apple Bloom. I think he and a bone to pick with it!” She then begins to giggle at her joke, while her friends roll their eyes.

Scootaloo shakes her head slightly, “Come on, Sweetie Belle, at least Apple Bloom’s was creative.” She then looks at Raven, “That was a bad- are you smiling?” Indeed, though he keeps his face away, a small smile is on Raven’s face, “Oh my Celestia, you’re smiling at that? That joke? Seriously?”

He looks over, that small smile still on his face, as he speaks plainly, “No, I’m smiling because I get to hear your sandpaper voice grate against my ears once more, Scootaloo. I believed once that the bones I work with were the most dusty and dry things I’ve ever experienced, but then you opened your mouth.”

Scootaloo blinks, only to rapidly turn around as she hears her friends suppressing laughs, only for the two of them to burst out into laughs, causing her to frown and stomp her hoof, “That’s not funny, why are you laughing?!”

Sweetie Belle snorts slightly, speaking between her laughter, “Sounds like, heh, you’ve got a skele-ton of problems with us laughing at that!” This causes her to giggle even more, and even Raven lets out a small snort at the joke, though it’s hard to hear.

Scootaloo spins around again, looking at him with wide eyes, “You can’t be serious! That! You’re laughing at that! You’re insane if that’s funny, it’s a bone pun, a bone pun!”

Apple Bloom smirks, trotting up to Scootaloo, hitting her side lightly, “What, doesn’t it tickle your funny bone?” She then giggles herself, while Scootaloo frowns and fumes.

The door would burst open, Chrysalis poking her head in from outside, where she was inspecting skeletons, hissing at the fillies, “If I hear another pun from within this room, I will make it punishable by death!” She then slams the door closed, leaving all four of the foals a bit shocked. Slowly, the Crusaders would all begin to giggle, with Raven watching on, cracking a soft smile, before returning to his work.

Metamorphosis

“Three things define our world, of course. Order, the knowing that the sun shall rise in the morning, that the sun shall rise in the night, that all shall be as it was yesterday. Without order, life would be impossible to live, as rules, organization, and every understanding we have would be torn apart, impossible to ever build. Yet Order, taken too far, cannot have life either, as life is inherently disorderly, life doesn’t follow the same path every single day. Too little Order, and one doesn’t have a world to live on. Too much, and all is naught but still, cold crystal. The far north is where Order reigns strongest, where the cold slows down the very passage of time, where those that live there are all similar in appearance.”

Raven finds himself stood in a snowy field, looking across an infinite plain, in which three species trot amongst each other and fight against one another. Caribou bucks ride giant boats pulled through the snow, axes attached to their antlers and thick chain armor over their furry bodies, charging against deer wearing leather, riding around in small armored sleighs, firing bow and throwing javelins at the Caribou. In the distance, the snow is thrown up as the thundering hooves of the massive Elk stamp against the snow, large creatures with mouths dripping blood charging the other two species, all three looking similar, if one were stood far away.

“Chaos is another defining trait of our world, for without Chaos, there is only Order. Chaos is the fact that things will deviate from what they were before, that the sun will raise a minute ahead or a minute before, that your neighbor will tell you something different today compared to yesterday. Chaos is important to the world, for without it, the world would be bland and boring, it is only through chaos that the world is able to be exciting to those who live within it. However, too much Chaos leads to the world being unknowable and torturous, where the very laws of physics can change from day to day. The far south is where Chaos rules the most, as the species of the south are all different, and vie for land against each other.”

In a blink, Raven finds himself in a field of wild wheat, a normal looking down in the distance, filled with foxes wearing cloth armor, looking into the distance with fear. In come the Cyclops, massive, towering creatures carrying axes with blades larger than the fox are, shouting and growling as they bring down any defenses, their warriors rampaging. From another direction comes a legion of Sphinx, wearing bright bronze and golden armor, accented with jeweled weaponry and white strips of cloth, all of them carrying slim, brilliant weaponry, fighting the fox in a disciplined way that seems to put form over function. Flying in on a swarm of Parasprites are the tiny Breezies, shouting in loud voices as they hold up tiny weapons, nothing more than shards of metal. They descend upon the fox, their Parasprite mounts eating huge chunks of the poor citizens, spitting out another Parasprite once it’s done. Then come the Arimaspi, goat-like creatures that stand over ten feet tall, with large eyes, using nothing but their brute strength, crushing fox under their cloven hooves. Then, flying in from above, a dark zeppelin from which Yeti rappel, wearing black armor accented with teal stripes, carrying large maces and repeating crossbows, opening fire on all that comes near to them.

“Finally is Harmony. Harmony is a mix of Order and Chaos, and it is the state in which all creatures seek to live in. Harmony has it so that the world is able to be understood, yet it does not always act the same. There’s enough Chaos to keep life interesting, and enough Order to keep you sane. Unlike Order and Chaos, there never was a personification of Harmony, because what Harmony is, exactly, depends on who you would ask. Harmony is the basis upon which we build everything, especially our magic. It is thus the magical land of Equestria that best demonstrates Harmony.”

Raven blinks, finding himself upon a green hilltop, overlooking a large town, with ponies trotting from place to place. In one district, factories put out smoke and smog, hard at work producing materials, while on the opposite side, shops and cafes feed any customer who comes by, usually with a smile. Trains whistle, sending steam into the air as they trundle on the tracks, heading from town to town, packed with unicorns, earth ponies, pegasi, and Thestral alike. Right next to Raven stands a mare, one wearing an orange cloak and dark orange hat on her head, the mare otherwise being a grey-blue color with a grey mane, a long horn poking up from her head.

She looks over at him, steely blue eyes looking into his green, the mare speaking in a straightforward and intellectual sounding voice, “Good night, Raven, Death. This is the world.”

He opens his mouth to respond, but before he can, she fades away, with another vision fading into being in front of him. He stands now in a town street, seeing Thestrals passing by him, and, oddly, a few skeletons and zombies that seem to be intelligent. His eyes are brought to look through a nearby window, seeing a Griffon male giving a small nuzzle to a Thestral mare, the two working together at an alchemist’s set, enjoying each other’s company. He mutters slightly as he observes them, “What does this have to do with me?”

The mare appears by his side, looking at the Griffon and Thestral, “He found his destiny, he didn’t reject it. It was a long and treacherous path, but he did it. He was once like you, Raven, Death, but he learned to value those around him.”

He looks over at her, “He was no immortal, I can tell, and what he has found is as fickle as his lifespan shall be.” She just shakes her head, and then he fades once more, finding himself stood in the middle of a field, soaked in blood. In the center of it is a blue alicorn, surrounded by centaurs wearing blue armor, and by the bodies of dead bipedal cats, all of whom wear grey uniforms. Blood drips from a floating hammer beside her, as it does from her chin and from her horn, one of her eyes a reptilian, icy blue. Raven looks at the destruction she has caused, nodding slightly, “Impressive work.”

The mare appears beside him once more, “She has found her cause once more, though every passing day causes her questions. She values her friends whom she leads into battle, and those who follow her call whenever she should come. She has accepted her destiny.”

He looks at her once more, “What does this all mean? Who are they, and why do they apply to me? Who are you, and why do you care about my destiny?”

She looks into his eyes, “They are pieces of a puzzle, Raven, a puzzle you have sought to forever solve. Together, you shall do unimaginable things, but as you are now, you are warped, you do not fit the puzzle. You believe that everything is temporary and thus it is worthless, when in reality, it is only worth something because it is temporary.”

He nods, “But that doesn’t make sense, something that lasts longer is inherently more valuable than something that is temporary, as it can be accessed and tapped into by more and more people. The best story is worthless if it lasts five minutes, but a scholarly study is infinitely valuable if it lasts forever.”

“You would believe so, Raven, but knowledge is temporary and fickle.” He finds himself stood upon the hill once more, watching the pony town he watched before, time sped up massively. A war comes, the city is spared of any destruction, but once the war is over, all the factories, the technology, is taken, the libraries destroyed and schools emptied, “In my time, we were advancing just like you believe we should, yet because of the coldness in the heart of one pony, it was all lost. There will come a moment, Raven, where you must choose or pay a terrible cost.”

The world fades one more time, with Raven finding himself in a throne room of gold and marble, shattered stained glass windows all around him. On one side of him is Chrysalis, bruised and beaten, and on the other side, an alicorn with a prismatic mane, looking away in shame. The room begins to fill with a dark smoke, an evil laughter filling the air, before the roof of the palace is ripped away, allowing him to see the sky. It’s blood red, an unspeakable entity ripping through the fabric of reality, fleshy tendrils ripping the world apart at its very basic levels. He finds himself all alone, the tendrils wrapping around him, ripping apart his very essence, so horrible that it doesn’t cause any pain, merely an existential horror.

The dream ends.

Adult

“Here, the Five Changelings decreed, in these lands devoid of ponies shall be our home. Our closest allies, our new dear friends, our very way of life, among them we can not live, or we shall become one and the same with them. The Badlands shall be bad no more, they shall be tended to by life immortal. The Red Hive, protectors and warriors, artists and revolutionaries, shall give us the security and the energy to keep moving forward as the ages progress. King Messorem, close friend of King Ordirus, decrees we shall extend this protection to all life in the form of mercenary companies. The Blue Hive, doctors and healers, scientists and scholars, to ensure the Hives never fall victim to a lack of logic and our understanding shall always go onwards. Queen Sana decrees that all will be healed, no matter creed, action, or species, let Blue be the color of healing.”

Raven stands, dressed in dark dress robes, inside of the Green Hive, staring in front of him at a green beam of magical light. Behind him stand Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle, all of them wearing dark dresses that don’t fit properly, with Sweetie reading a chitin bound book.

“The Brown Hive, chefs and keepers, hospitable and hearty, shall ensure that the hospitality of the changeling species is the thing of legends. King Archimagius decrees that every creature in their lands shall be treated to food, wine, and a warm bed, that the Browns may be known worldwide as a place of safety and of refuge. The Green Hive, lovers and lusters, spies and assassins, they shall serve as the invisible hoof of the Hives, ensuring not a single act happens in another land that is not known about. King Morpheus declares that none in outside nations shall know a Green is amongst them, that the Greens shall not be known about by the world at all. Finally, the Yellow Hive, keepers and preservers, animalistic and wise, shall ensure that the Hives never forget the nature which they all come from, and shall protect the natural from the ever advancing artificial. Queen Spring decrees that the Yellows shall ensure all have peace and harmony with nature, that the Yellows will eventually become synonymous with nature itself. Thus, all planted down their flags, and from it sprouted a massive citadel, the Council.”

Queen Chrysalis trots up, floating the book from Sweetie Belle, looking down at Raven with a stern look, “You have done well raising undead, Raven. Are you sure that you should also convince the other Kings and Queens? After that bad dream you reported a week ago, I’m worried that you might become too anxious. I am a Queen, I know how to do this. Do you?”

He looks over at her, looking right back into her eyes, giving her a curt nod, “I can understand your misgivings, Queen Chrysalis. I shall do well enough. This is not the first time I have parleyed with another, and it shall not be the last, I imagine. The contents of my dreams have little to do with anxiety, and nothing to do with my ability to convince the others.”

She cocks an eyebrow, “You could have just said ‘yes’, Raven.” She leans down, looking into his eyes, “I trust you. As you’ve entrusted me with your undead army, I entrust you to get me a living army. You won’t fail me.”

He looks right back into her eyes the whole while, and gives her a nod, “I won’t.”

She then stands back up, looking at the three fillies, “If I hear about any of you three prisoners trying to sabotage him, then I will personally see you killed in front of your own sisters.”

Raven looks back at her, speaking impassively, “Chrysalis, they are my personal assistants and are thus an extension of me. I trust you to treat them with the same respect as you would me.”

She snaps her eyes to him, and then back at the fillies, “If you sabotage him, then I will personally have you executed in a field of tulips.”

“Chrysalis.”

She looks at Raven once more, “The only reason I don’t threaten you with death is because I cannot kill you. Fine.” She looks back at the fillies, nodding her head, “Represent me well. The Hiveway is open.” She then turns and trots away.

Sweetie watches her leave, smiling softly, “Wow, I think she could do with being more humerus.” She turns to face Raven, expecting a small smile, only to pause as his face remains impassive, “Or… someone needs to tickle her funny bone?”

Raven would stare blankly ahead into the glowing green beam of energy, replaying memories of being ripped apart at his very essence, only to blink, noticing Sweetie Belle’s stare. He looks over at her, “Why are you staring at me?”

She slowly shrugs, “I told a bone joke and you usually like those, but you just seemed… distant?”

He shakes his head, “I’m only a foot away from you, I am not distant. And my mind is not distracted, it is clear, focused on the task ahead.”

Apple Bloom smiles slightly, “Thinking about the task ahead, huh? Wait…” She steps closer with a small grin, “This is stage fright, ain’t it? Like how we feel when we gotta give class presentations. You ain’t actually ‘parleyed’ with others, have ya?”

He frowns softly, staring into nothing as his mind flashes through distant memories, fleshy tendrils offering him power, flashes of those same tendrils tearing him and the world apart. He shakes his head, clearing his mind, “I have done it once before. I have the sinking feeling that I came out on the worse side of that deal, in hindsight. This… I don’t know if it’s how you feel, but I doubt it.” His mind thinks over the words of the mare in the dream, finding his destiny, finding value, being a warped piece of a puzzle, “I am merely thinking… what is it I should do?”

Scootaloo steps up, putting a hoof on his shoulder, grinning slightly, “You know what, Raven? That’s what everyone asks themselves, you know, what should you do? What’s the thing, what’s the proper words to say to convince people to what you want, should you even want what you want, what’s best for them, what’s best for you, what’s best for everyone? You just need to close your eyes and take a deep breath, Raven, in and out.”

He looks at her, and then nods, slowly closing his eyes, taking a deep breath in, images of an ashamed alicorn laid out in front of him, the world being torn apart around them, then a deep breath out, opening his eyes, the green beam of the Hiveway in front of him, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle surrounding him, ponies who have made him smile, “I don’t understand you three. When you discovered I was helping Chrysalis, you were against it, you denounced me. But for the weeks since then, you have been helping me. Why?”

Apple Bloom trots up to his side, smiling softly, “Sometimes when a friend’s making a mistake, Raven, the best you can do is help soften the fall.”

Sweetie Belle smiles and nods, “You’re our friend, and a Crusader. Maybe we don’t like you helping Chrysalis, but a friend in need is a friend in deed… I think that’s what it is.”

Scootaloo grins, “Besides, you did save us from being locked in a prison cell eating mushroom soup.”

He looks at all of them, and then looks ahead, “You are all wise.” He then takes a deep breath and steps into the green beam, coming out on the other side in a completely different place, a waiting room within a giant tower of chitin. All together, the Crusaders come out behind him, looking around the new place.

A new changeling, one with bright blue eyes, comes up to Raven, bowing his head, “Master Raven of the Green Hive, it is a pleasure. The Council awaits you, please, follow me.” He then stands up and trots, with Raven following down a long hallway, until the Blue opens up a new door.

Raven steps out, Crusaders behind him, looking at circular room in front of him, a pit of sand where he now stands surrounded by a high ring of five thrones, three of which, Brown, Green and Yellow, are vacant. Sat in the Red Hive is a changeling mare with bright red eyes, a long, jagged scar down one of her sides, looking a bit lion-like in appearance, graceful, prideful, and wise. Within the Blue throne sits both the Brown and Blue king, the Blue king being an elegant and graceful deer-like stallion with bright blue eyes, his whole form slender and slim. Right next to him sits the Brown King, dark brown eyes looking at Raven, his appearance being stout in appearance, looking hearty and a bit shy, yak-like.

Raven gives a bow to each of them, “Queen Adobla of the Red Hive, King Nullam of the Blue Hive, King Laevus of the Brown Hive, it is a pleasure to stand before you.” His eyes scan them all, all of them being over two thousand years old, even older then him, all of them having lost someone, “You have been told that I am here for Queen Chrysalis, to convince you all to join her under one banner, so you may attack Celestia and Equestria in one grand assault.” He pauses, trailing off, then quietly speaking, “But instead, I come for perspective. How do you still live as you do?” He looks at the twin kings, “King Nullam, King Laevus, I can practically smell the love radiating off of you. How? Have you not lost too many, lived too long?”

Nullam blinks slightly, and then nods, speaking in a voice as elegant as his appearance, “I have lost quite a few. My mother, Queen Sana, died in a blizzard protecting me from the cold. My first love, Princess Celestia, has changed enough to be unrecognizable. I am a doctor, I have lost many patients while in the midst of saving them, and every single loss cut out a little part of my heart. But around Laevus, mortality starts to mean less and less, because every moment with him is worth an eternity without.”

Laevus smiles and nuzzles the fellow king, nodding, speaking in a deep yet soft voice, “I lost my father, King Archimagius, to the same blizzard. Many of my friends have been ponies, who have passed over the years. Yet I still have friends, and I still have someone to love. I have them because they make me happy, even if it won’t be for long in the grand scheme of things. A moment spent happy is a valuable moment.”

Adobla speaks next from on top of her throne, “Hastam, my husband, died in a duel, and my own son, Artemio, turned into a traitor and a murderer, a shiftless vagabond searching for the meaning to his life. He hurts me whenever I go near, yet still I love. Love isn’t something you can forget, it isn’t something you can tear out, and it’s not something you can suppress for long. It doesn’t matter how long, how hard, how far you run from your want for love and companionship, it’s always there. I can tell it’s inside you as well. You are young of body, and old of mind, but that doesn’t mean you should become numb to the world around you.”

He looks down, a pensive frown on his face, images flashing in his mind. A blue alicorn, a happy Griffon, an ashamed Celestia, a battered Chrysalis. More flashes, fire, soldiers, dark forests, a wise scholar, the Crusaders, and he begins to speak, “A thousand years is too long to hold onto a grudge, people change. I’ve changed, forgotten my destiny. I’ve been blind.” He then blinks, and looks around at everything, then back at the Crusaders, “My… friends. Even when I wished to betray your nation, to slay your very home, you were there. I understand now.”

Slowly, his hooves begin to glow green, with the tower opening up at the top, a massive hand of chitin gathering under the Crusaders and him, lifting him up into the air. Bleached white bones fly from all the surrounding desert, supporting the pile, with Raven rising higher and higher, his friends stood huddled around him.

He looks down upon the gathered monarchs, speaking with a small grin, confidence behind his voice, “Kings and Queen, when Chrysalis asks, tell her that my best was too good for a mare trapped a thousand years in the past.” The skeleton hand then rises higher, carrying them out of the chitin tower, beginning to travel the desert landscape to the north, the sun to the west outlining them all, the first time they’ve seen light in weeks, the first time Raven’s truly seen it in centuries.

Evolution

“Evolution, the one constant of everything to live, without it, nothing could exist. Evolution is change, evolution is the process in which things improve or otherwise change, not always for the better. It is evolution that brought down Romau, as we evolved beyond the ancient empire, it was evolution which fought off the beasts of nature, for ponies evolved to work together, it was evolution that carved every modern kingdom, even our very ways of living. Without Zap Apple evolving technology, we wouldn’t have trains. Without Starkiller evolving magical spells, we wouldn’t have the very magelights that we use to stare at in the middle of class, Mister Coltbalt.”

In the middle of a lecture hall stands a Blue changeling in a nice shirt, a professor, the bones of many animals in front of him, his words causing a student, who was spacing out, to jump a little, clearing his throat, “Sorry, Professor.” Outside of Pegasus Research Institute of Cognition and Kinetics, PRICK for short, birds would tweet happily as they fly around the university’s campus, one of the only places where animals can live happily in Las Pegasus. None of them would notice a small green glow surrounding the bones, as the professor goes on speaking.

“Thank you for not drifting off, Mister Coltbalt. Now, as I was saying, evolution is what defines us, and all living things. And an important part of evolution in ponies is the evolution of how we think. Why is the pony brain able to understand more complex concepts as time goes on, yet is less able to pick up new languages? Evolution. A pony who’s thinking doesn’t change through their life is barely a pony at all.” In the middle of his speaking, the bones would begin to fly out of the nearby window, causing him to stumble back, “Great galloping stallions, my bones!”

The bones would fly outside of the window, along with dozens of others, torn from under the ground, joining giant hands and pillars that raise from the ground, supporting four foals, with the one in the lead wearing a wide grin, Raven speaking in a joyful voice, “Do you feel the wind rushing past you? I had almost forgotten the pleasure of travel!”

Scootaloo grins widely as well, nodding along, “Giant hands carrying us? This is so cool! It feels like flying, except not!”

Apple Bloom, meanwhile, looks sick, her face slightly green, “I don’t like it…”

Sweetie Belle looks at the bones with a small amount of fascination, only to look up at Raven, “Where are we going?”

He looks back at her with a smaller grin, “You’re going back home, to your family. After that? No idea!” He looks ahead, speaking a bit softer, “I didn’t plan this out ahead of time.”

She trots on the moving bone hands with surprising ease, coming up to his side, the wind causing her mane to billow behind her, “Really? What about Chrysalis? Why the change?”

He smirks softly, “I am a scholar and a scientist at heart, Sweetie Belle, observation, hypothesis, experiment, note, theorize. Observation! Chrysalis locked me in a cage and only treated me, and you all, with dignity because she wants my power. Observation two! Even when I was to betray your country, your leader, and everything you love, you stood beside me, you don’t respect me because of what I am, but because of who I am. Observation three! You ponies have done more in your seventeen years than she has in a thousand, you made me crack a smile, you reminded me of things from long ago. Observation four! I have been feared and reviled for all my life because of my power, and yet you don’t fear me, because here you are next to me. Observation five! A Griffon was happy and an alicorn was respected, they seemed so familiar, I admired them. Hypothesis! Living the way you live shall be much better than the way I lived before, and it shall be better than helping someone who only respects me out of fear!”

Scootaloo grins slightly and raises an eyebrow, “So we actually convinced you to change everything? Through friendship?”

Sweetie Belle smiles, “And what’s the experiment?”

Apple Bloom trots over, still looking a bit sick, “And… ain’t you old? Shouldn’t you be stubborn as a mule?” She looks over the side of the bones, shouting down to a mule stood in the middle of a field as they pass it, “No offense!”

He grins slightly more, “Though your voice might not be the most pleasant, Scootaloo, your companionship has been, I quite like having someone to poke fun at, it’s a new experience, so fascinating! And you, Sweetie Belle, you are my experiment, involved in it right now, and we’re all the experimental group! The results shall be quite fascinating, won’t they?” He then looks at Apple Bloom, “And you, Apple Bloom, are correct, I was stubborn! A thousand years, if not more, spent on my own in a forest, do you know how much of it I remember? It’s all a blur, the only things I can see clearly are when someone came by, be it an experiment or a scholar like Flamel. But ever since I’ve woken up on this world, even the most boring moments spent working in my laboratory, I can remember them all clearly, because I remember what you said, how you reacted, what you’ve done. There’s a point where, no matter how stubborn someone is, they will break, and you broke me in the best ways possible. Also, I think I might be a bit insane!”

The others all giggle at what he says last, only for Sweetie Belle to pause first, looking at him, “Wait, you mentioned a Griffon and an alicorn, right? When did we ever see one of them?”

He looks off into the distance, his grin fading away, “I saw them in a dream, along with a mare, who seemed familiar, but I didn’t know her. The Griffon, he stood with a Thestral, a bat pony, living a happy life, he seemed so familiar, like a brother I’ve never seen before. The alicorn, she was blue, she had just won a fight and was leading a bunch of centaurs into combat. Something about her seemed inspiring. There was something else in that dream. Me, stood over a defeated Celestia, Chrysalis behind me, but before we could win, the world, and I, were torn apart by the Beast from Beyond.”

Scootaloo blinks, “Beast from Beyond?”

Apple Bloom tilts her head, looking at Sweetie Belle, “Didn’t our book mention something about that?”

Sweetie Belle nods, “The Beyond gave Death and Pestilence their powers.” She then pauses, “Oh no, our book report! We:re gonna be given a zero!” The others all look at her, including Raven, with him being the first to chuckle, everyone else beginning to giggle along, leaving Sweetie Belle to pout, “What? I care about my grade!”

Apple Bloom grins slightly, “Sweetie Belle, I don’t think we gotta worry about the book report, we got the legend right next to us!”

Scootaloo grins more, “Plus Miss Cheerilee will probably excuse us from having to do it.”

Raven recovers from his chuckles, shaking his head slightly, “You three have very, very unique priorities. It’s so strange and I love it.” He keeps a small smile, “But… yes, the Beast from Beyond gave us our powers. Others call him other names, Entropy, Die Leer, Destruction, The Great Ender, I prefer the Beast from Beyond. It is a… terrible beast, much, much older than the universe itself. The legends say that it is what brings the end to every world in existence, ripping them apart into nothing, so a new world can grow in its place.”

The three fillies slowly lose their smiles, looking at each other, with Apple Bloom looking down, “That reminds me of something my sis and I do sometimes. If there’s an old tree, or an area of orchard that has too much bush, we use controlled fires to burn them. Apparently it makes the soil more fertile, so it can grow trees better.”

Raven nods, “Many have theorized that that’s what the Beast does. He’s the fire, destroying all that he comes across, making it ‘ash’ so that other worlds may grow in its place.”

Scootaloo frowns, “But we’re not apple trees, we’re living ponies! No offense, Apple Bloom, but this isn’t anything like that. Trees don’t feel fire, they don’t, you know, talk and do stuff like that, but we do.”

Apple Bloom frowns softly, “Scoots, I wasn’t saying it was a good thing, I was just saying it reminded me of that, that’s all. I know I don’t wanna be burned, no matter how fertile it makes the soil.”

Sweetie speaks last, her face a bit pale, “But… the Beast made you Death, didn’t he? What if you’re here in order to… to destroy us?”

He looks at her, and then at the other Crusaders, his bright green eyes studying them, before he looks ahead, a village and a city upon a mountain approaching closer by the second, “He gave me power so I could have revenge, I destroyed the Romans because… because they posed a threat to him. That changeling guard, reading outside of our cell, he said that Romulus, Remus, Ramble, and Romau would be able to defeat the apocalypse, the Beast. What if…” He trails off, thinking, “But then why make me destroy the empire if he’d already split the worlds?”

Sweetie Belle looks away, only to then speak, “What if… what if it wasn’t them, but what they created that would stop the apocalypse? Not the griffons, but the empires. That journal I read, it said that Luna was sold by Emperor Romau Ascendant…his legacy, still alive. You said you saw a blue alicorn in your dream, Raven, what if-“

She’s cut off by Scootaloo, “She’s Princess Luna. That guard also read a newspaper about how Princess Luna went to travel in Centauria, and your dream had a blue alicorn leading centaurs into combat!”

He nods along, “She’s the legacy of Romau, and I’m the legacy of Rome. Both of us were… shaped by them. And I was going to work with Chrysalis to conquer her kingdom. But then, what’s the Griffon supposed to be?”

Apple Bloom smiles softly, after a minute of thinking, “A bridge.” She looks down as they pass by a river, south of Ponyville and Canterlot, dividing a grassland in two, “Y’all might be the legacy of those two, but that still leaves two more. The ones who died fighting their brothers, right? What if he’s the legacy of them two, and exists to create a connection between you and Luna? He’s the Harmony between you two.”

He nods, “He’s the Harmony… the bridge between Chaos and Order. I’m a scientist, regimented, logical, in a way, and she seemed violent… Apple Bloom, you are brilliant. All of you, you’re brilliant! How are you just seventeen and this brilliant!”

Behind him, something would begin to rapidly approach from the city on the mountain, a distant white spot, which begins to grow closer, and closer, until something much quicker comes, a beam of golden energy.

The first thing Raven feels is the heat, like the very sun itself, seeing a look of shock slowly appear on his friend’s faces, time slowing to a crawl. Calculations run through his head, a thousand per millisecond, the air slowly getting hotter and hotter. He shuts his eyes, capsules of bone and exoskeleton rising from the hand, completely surrounding the fillies, moving them at near sonic speeds to the ground, slowing down enough that they will arrive safely.

He can feel it impact into his back, the very heat of the sun, his fur becoming ash upon contact, his skin boiling and charring like an over cooked steak in just the first second, the pain being the first he’s felt in a long, long time of any serious note. His magic is interrupted, the bone hand becoming nothing but loose bone, letting gravity pull it down to the ground once more while the fire encapsulates his whole body. The pain is indescribable, like he’s been tossed into the core of the sun, every second being an eternity of agony, but even as it reaches his head, boiling his brain within his skull, he has a small grin on his face. The bones of his body turn to ash upon contact, including the sensitive bones in his ears, only able to pick up the roaring sound of magic, and the sound of somebody calling his name. Then, Death knows no more.

Celestia

“Centuries ago there lived a stallion named Lord Thalm, a visitor from the distant land of Grogaria, renowned for his amazing ability to use Necromancy, one of the best at it in the whole world. While he visited my lands, he took a Yellow Changeling and ran experiments with her, wondering how changelings were able to resist any and all disease. In meddling with her, however, he ended up accidentally creating a plague, what would be nothing more than a fever to a common pony, but was deadly to the Yellows, who’s immune systems have never fought diseases. Due to them being all so closely related, incest is common among changelings due to them not being born with any defects, the disease was able to ravage their entire population. Only one Yellow changeling survives. Another, Lord Vogrim, experimented on Parasprites, and he gave them the ability to eat anything they pleased, his mistake almost destroying Equestria. In Zebrica, there was the War of Blood and Bone, a horde of Necromancers and Vampires attacking them, only able to be defeated by Emperor Alexander and the combined forces of the tribes.”

Raven slowly opens his eyes, closing them as bright light enters them, assessing the situation around him. He’s laying in a soft bed, soft enough that it feels like it’s made out of cloud, and he can hear a kind, motherly voice speaking to him. He feels warm, a bit hungry, and a bit sore. Slowly, he sits up in the bed, opening his eyes, shielding them from the light of a nearby window, slowly able to make out someone is sat in the room with him. She is Celestia, tall and elegant Princess of the Sun, wearing royal regalia.

She looks at him as he wakes up, giving him a small nod, “I take it you heard what I said. Necromancers have posed a threat to this world before, to my little ponies. To hear that those three fillies had gone missing, only to see them next to something bleeding Necromantic magic, you can understand my reaction. You are powerful to have survived that blast.”

He slowly looks at her, speaking wearily, “You’re the one who blasted me. More powerful than you, it would seem.”

She grins slightly, slowly raising an eyebrow, “Rather confident for one I was so close to killing. The only reason you aren’t dead is because I didn’t wish to harm the fillies, if they weren’t there, I would have blasted apart your soul with the very essence of the sun. In fact, I was a second away from doing it, but I was stopped by the fillies. You made quite the impression on them, Death, not entirely positive.”

He looks to the side of the bed, seeing a glass of water there, along with some bones, with him constructing the bones into a hand, “Raven.” He picks up the glass, taking a sip from it, then looking at her, “Raven’s Breath.”

She looks at him with a neutral, hard to read, expression, “I see. Raven. Those fillies are the only reason you’re alive, Raven, and I apologize for blasting you with magic. I used a lot of magic to restore your flesh, even though I’m sure you’d not mind being a skeleton. I couldn’t save your robes, however, and new ones will be made.”

He nods along, looking into her eyes, “What happened to the Crusaders?”

She takes a second before she nods, “They are with their sisters and their families now, safe in the palace, under my direct watch so they will not be kidnapped again, at least until this threat is taken care of. You know what threat I speak of.”

He takes another sip of water, before then answering again, “The skeletons I gave to Chrysalis. Four thousand of them, more than twice your army’s size, from what I’ve heard. Chrysalis will be coming soon, you must know. With your sister leaving and me an unknown, she will assume the worst and activate the plan as soon as all is in place. Your cities will fall without you even noticing, and then it will be too late.”

She snorts slightly and leans back in her seat, looking down upon him, “So you came here to gloat. I shouldn’t be surprised, but I will at least thank you for returning the fillies.”

He grins softly, shaking his head, “I don’t care for gloating. I don’t care much for you, either, Princess Celestia Solarium Ordver, nor do I care for the feud you seem to have.”

She frowns slightly, leaning slightly closer to him, “Do not read my soul again or there will be consequences, Raven.”

He grins a bit more, “Read your soul? I read a book, Celestia, written by an ancient Emperor. I’ve read quite a lot over the last few weeks, I’ve learned a lot that is useful. Those Crusaders, my… friends, they taught me, however, that life is worth more than learning. That’s why I will not care to learn what the outcome of this spat is, it doesn’t affect me. I came to return them to their sisters and their lives, and then I planned to leave for a distant land, that I might begin my life anew and now burden them with my destiny.”

She frowns more, “You would call this a spat? All I have done is defend my land, my little ponies, from a mad mare who’s still upset that she didn’t gain fame a thousand years ago. She tried to defame my greatest General, and she did so with no evidence, in fact, everything was against her, and because of that she has invaded my realm, ruined my niece’s wedding, permanently scarred my most loyal Captain, and kidnapped three innocent children, along with you.”

He looks her in the eyes, “Oh, that’s the lie you like to tell yourself, I’m sure. I don’t like you, Princess Celestia, your attitude, your voice, your style, but at least you see me as an equal, unlike Chrysalis. She saw me as both lesser and greater, a very strange thing. She fights in vengeance of the ones she lost, her family and her love, her friends, and the lack of any action by you due to her accusing your general. But no, you’re correct, she did do all of that. She ruined many lives because her own life was ruined a millennia ago. She’s a walking child, traumatized and far less mature than the fillies who walked beside me, and you’re no different. You deny that you could be wrong about this, you push all the blame to someone else, and you claim they’re mad. You’re a holier-than-thou narcissist who believes she’s a goddess trotting the earth, though you’ll never admit it, because you want to believe you’re humble, you want to believe you’re kind, and just, and wonderful in so many ways. I’ve seen your type before, Celestia, and you sicken me!” He puts down his glass with too much force, breaking it in his bone hand, frowning.

She looks right back at him, and then stands, now truly towering over him, “You believe you know me, Raven? You know nothing, because to me, you are nothing but a child lashing out at the world for being unfair. I read your story, Raven, your family dying, accepting the darkest power possible, becoming something horrible, and it doesn’t sicken me, no, I pity you.” She leans in close to him, her magenta eyes harsh and hot, “My father was slain in the midst of the deadliest war this world had ever seen. My uncle, Discord, went mad and made the world mad as well, while my other uncle, Sombra, went mad and become a dark tyrant. I had nothing except myself and my sister, but I didn’t bow down to a darker power, I preserved through it. I fought Discord and Sombra, I hunted the Elements of Harmony, I did things so brilliant that your mind could never comprehend them. I am Princess Celestia Solarium Ordver, Mother of Phoenix, Goddess of Day, Ruler of Equestria, Protector of Ponies, Flame Empress, Savior of Life, and I pity you.”

He stands on top of his bed, leaning up to get even closer to her, “You believe that you are so good? No, you don’t, you know that that’s all a lie. I can see it all.” He smirks slightly, “Five hundred years ago, five centuries after you banished your sister, what a happy relationship with that poet, Teardrop Exalted, she was too good for you.”

She scowls, the temperature in the room increasing steadily, “You will cease.”

He smirks yet more, the bones slowly attaching to his hooves, “You loved her so much that you violated the rules, you made her immortal, Princess Teardrop. Off she went to the south, Storm Templar, a routine mission to establish relations. Oh, but they killed her, didn’t they? They slew her as soon as she landed, and you waited, mhmm, you waited three days for her return, but she never did return.”

She presses against him, “I told you to not read my soul, Necromancer.”

He smirks even more, continuing on without hesitation, “They killed her, so you finally broke, you gave in to the voice deep inside you. But that voice is a figment of your imagination, Daybreaker was nothing but a coping mechanism, so you wouldn’t remember the smell of charred flesh, so you wouldn’t hear the bubbling choking, so you wouldn’t remember how it felt to make the streets run so red with blood that your hooves were forever stained. It wasn’t you that slaughtered the Storm Creatures, it was Daybreaker, it was she who destroyed a thousand years of governance, it was she who slaughtered men and woman alike, it was her who pretended not to notice the surrendering. You know it just as well as I do, Celestia, beneath this kind exterior, you’re a monster, no different from Chrysalis, no different from who I used to be.”

She scowls yet more, and then draws up her hoof, a magical blade of fire extending from it, stabbing up through Raven’s chin and through the top of his head. At the same time, he would slash a little blade of bones attached to his hoof, cutting the throat of Celestia, causing her eyes to widen and making her step back, blood leaking and staining her white coat, dripping to the carpet below. Raven isn’t the same, his wounds were cauterized by the heat of the blade.

Raven collapses backwards first, his eyes open, lifeless, before he then summons a burst of power, taking a deep breath as his wounds all heal, sitting up in the bed, watching as Celestia bleeds out, looking at him. Her body is suddenly overtaken in a burst of flame, turning to ash which settles on the carpet, much like how a Phoenix would die. However, after just a second, the ash would reform itself, Celestia rising from the ashes, giving him a small glare. The two immortals remain locked in glares for a minute, before the adrenaline and pain catches up to them both, causing both to begin to pant for breath, recovering.

Celestia takes a seat on the floor as she takes a deep breath, looking at him, “You’re right, Raven. I have done bad before, I’ve done… terrible, terrible things. But I’ve grown from the mistakes I’ve made, what I’ve done, and now all I want is to protect my ponies.” She looks down, “I will be honest… I fear for their safety if I don’t have your help.”

He slowly looks at her, breathing out slowly, “You revived.”

She looks back at him, and then nods softly, “I had a pet bird once, a war hawk, named Philomena. When she was injured and almost dead in the battlefield, I… I split my soil, giving half of it to her. I created Phoenix, and made myself truly immortal at the same time.”

He slowly blinks, “You’re a Lich. You split your soul and keep part of it in a soil jar.”

She nods softly, “Yes… I am a Lich, Raven. And I’m… I’m sorry if I was hostile. I have been very stressed.”

He slowly nods, and then lays his head down again, taking a deep breath in, and then out, then speaking in a soft voice, “I have the voice too. I never gave mine a name, because it was always part of me. I was too hostile to you. I judged you too harshly, and it’s because I’m jealous, truthfully. I don’t know my destiny, I never have, but I always thought I did. I’ve done horrible things in the pursuit of a goal, and it’s led to nothing in the end. Now I’m trying to change, and you… you’re like a version of me, someone who did what I’m trying to do. And I’m angry, because I’m here, not there. I’m over sharing, I apologize.”

She looks at him, and then softly smiles, “You aren’t. I understand, Raven. I believe within everypony there is good, and I can see it brighter in you than most. You remind me of my student, Twilight Sparkle, you both are master mages and scientists the same, and both are… emotionally unstable. I won’t force your hoof.” She stands, “I recommend you get some rest, Raven. I have duties to attend to.”

She gives her a small nod, “Thank you for the hospitality, Princess Celestia.”

She smiles as she turns to leave, “Just Celestia, please.” She then trots out, closing the door behind her.

Dawn

“Light and dark, life and death, happiness and despair, honor and dishonor, order and discord, all of these are considered opposites, to be opposed from one another. Many shall claim that light, life, happiness, honor, and order are all good, while dark, death, despair, dishonor, and discord are all evil. This perceived dichotomy is represented by our most ancient of symbols, Jin and Jang, drawn once by Grand Monk G before he starved meditating beneath Skygon’s cherry blossom tree. Many believe the Jin is good, and the Jang is bad, but this is a simplistic understanding created by our Equestrian friends, who see best in black and white. Light is no better than dark, nor is discord better than order, it all depends on the situation one finds themselves in. The best path, the path to Enlightenment, is where the two connect, the Tao. One will fight nothing but a lack of balance should they devote themselves entirely to Jin, and one shall find nothing more than a lack of balance entirely in Jang. For us, those who wish to balance, we walk the Tao.”

Raven sirs on his bed, using a small skeletal hand to flip through a book, his eyes scanning the pages within, so enraptured by his reading that he doesn’t notice a blue Pegasus with rainbow mane sneaking through his window.

“When met with a rushing river, those who fall into the Jin shall attempt to block it to redirect it unnaturally for their own purposes, they change the river. When those in the Jang are met with a rushing river, they will gleefully toss themselves into it, letting them travel wherever they wish, changing themselves. When those who walk the Tao meet a river, they shall work with the river for their own purposes, changing their plans. Jin, Order, seeks to control, Jang, Discord, seeks to change, Tao, seeks Balance. Jin sees Jang as bad, Jang sees Jin as bad, while the Tao acknowledges that a mix of the both is good. There is no fun without ordered discord, no happiness without despair, and sometimes the most honorable action is the most dishonorable. This, my students, is the way of Neighpon, the way of Tao.”

The rainbow-maned Pegasi grins from beside the bed, looking at Raven, speaking in a slightly rough and scratchy voice, “Master Gyan’s writing, first Crane Master of Neighpon.”

He looks over at her, seemingly not concerned about her having broken in, nodding to her, “You’ve read it before?”

She grins, “Yeah, well, he says a lot of cool stuff, plus I had a Neighponeese friend in flight school. Don’t tell anyone else that I’ve read it, though, they’ll think I’m an egghead.” She extends a hoof with a larger grin, “Name’s Rainbow Dash, fastest Pegasus alive.”

He blinks softly, and then reaches out, bumping her hoof with his own, “Ravens Breath, wizard and scholar. Soon to be a traveling wizard and scholar, once I decide to depart from here.”

She smirks slightly, “Wow, you sound a lot like Twilight. Let’s never get her near you, you’d probably need a dictionary to translate.” She then puts down her hoof and switches to a grin again, “So, look, I’m basically the teacher slash adoptive sister to Scootaloo, right? That’s why I’m here. I wanna thank you for bringing her back home from the changelings. I mean, not like I couldn’t have flown to get her at any time, but…” She trails off, and then gives him a smile, “Thanks.”

He nods back, “You’re welcome, Rainbow Dash. It’s also quite interesting you mention flight, I hadn’t thought Pegasi could properly fly. With Scootaloo, I thought they were just vestigial organs or served some other purpose like swimming.”

She pauses, and then frowns, looking down at him, “Hey, not cool.” She shakes her head, “She’s your friend, don’t make fun of her like that, not cool.”

He pauses for a minute, and then looks away, thinking, “I… yes, it wasn’t very cool of me to say, was it? I apologize, I am simply too used to fully speaking my thoughts, even those which are not true, or are rude. I…” He trails off, and then looks back at her, “Is she my friend? I truly don’t know.”

She blinks and then pauses, “Umm…” She thinks, and then nods, “Well, I mean, yeah, you tried to sacrifice your life for her, and you seem to enjoy being around her.”

He slowly nods, “Is sacrificing myself for another part of being a friend? I don’t know. What is a friend, truly?”

She smiles slightly, “Yeah, I mean, I’d say so, at least. A friend is someone who you’re willing to help, even though it hurts you sometimes. A friend’s someone where you’d be willing to take a crossbow bolt for them, someone who you’d give anything to save if they were in danger. Anything less and I’d say they’re an acquaintance more than a friend, honestly, but I guess it really depends.”

He nods, “Then I…” He trails off once more, “I’ll need to think more on it. Thank you for visiting, Rainbow Dash, please do tell Scootaloo hello from me, I think she would enjoy it. I do hope she’s doing fine.”

She grins, “Yeah, she’s doing great being back home, actually. I’ll make sure to tell her, though, see ya later.” She then climbs out of the window, closing it behind her, then taking off.

As she leaves, the door is surrounded by a blue glow, with someone new trotting in, a white unicorn with a beautiful purple mane, giving him a small smile instantly. She bows her head to him, “Good afternoon, Mister Raven. I’m Rarity.”

He gives her a respectful nod in return, “Good afternoon, Miss Rarity. Ravens Breath.”

She looks up and smiles more, “I’m Sweetie Belle’s sister, and I’ve come to thank you for freeing her from the horrid hive she was kept in. She’s told me about the pure torture you all went through. Mushroom soup, I’d never dream of such cruelty.” She shakes her head slightly, “But… I’m glad that she’s still with me.”

He looks at her, and then gives her another small nod, looking outside the nearby window, “She is a very smart filly for her age, and very tactful in a proper way, respectful as well. It’d be a loss to us all if she were to be gone.”

Rarity smiles softly, “Yes… for all the trouble she can cause me, she is a good filly at heart, and she’s my sister. When she disappeared after the wedding, I felt devastated, I thought… well, I thought maybe the changelings had killed her, or maybe she’d been caught in Cadence’s blast, or something had happened to her, and I wasn’t there to protect her! It was a dreadful few weeks, truly.” She smiles more, “We’re lucky she had a friend like you around, Mister Raven. I dread to think of losing her.”

He slowly nods, “I… suppose that feeling would apply for almost every pony, wouldn’t it? Everyone is the sister, brother, father, son, daughter, so on, to someone else. Every pony that passes is a tragedy and a travesty to them. To their friends. Miss Rarity, if I may ask, what is a friend?”

Rarity loses her smile, “What’s a friend?” She pauses, and then lifts her hoof up, rubbing her chin, “Hmm… that’s… ah, wait, I know.” She smiles, “A friend is somepony you look forward to being around. They’re the person where you don’t feel lonely when you’re with them, and you feel happy. They’re the pony you go to when you’re feeling bad, or lonely, or just want to spend time with somepony else.”

He nods again, looking back to her, “Then yes, Sweetie Belle is my friend. I do look forward to seeing her again, and I didn’t feel that lonely when she was around. I suppose I felt… happy around her. Yes, I would be her friend. She’s my friend. Thank you, Miss Rarity. Please, tell her hello from me, and maybe get her something sweet so she’ll forget that mushroom soup.”

Rarity smiles and nods along, “Of course, Mister Raven. If you ever need anything made, I’m a seamstress, a fashionista, and you’ll be able to get anything from me for free. I hope to see you soon.” She bows her head, and then trots out of the room.

Just then, the door opens up, an orange colored mare trotting inside, wearing a brown hat on top of her head, her green eyes meeting with Raven’s own. She smiles softly and tips her hat, “Howdy, I’m Applejack.”

He smiles softly, “Applejack? You must be the sister of Apple Bloom, she has mentioned you before. You should be proud of your sister, she is wise and perceptive beyond her years. Ravens Breath.”

She smiles widely and nods, “Well, that’s right kind of you, Raven, I’m sure she’ll be happy to hear that. I just wanted to come and thank you for returning her to her family, Granny Smith was nearly bursting with joy when the Princess brought her to us.”

He nods and smiles a bit more, “I’m happy to hear she got back to you safe. I hope she enjoys her freedom, and remains safe.”

She smiles more, and then nods, slowly losing her wide smile, becoming smaller, “She will be. Raven, you’ve done right by my family, and the Apple Family don’t forget those who’ve done right by them. If you ever need anything, or you need a place to stay, you find the nearest Apple Family orchard and they’ll give it to you. No questions asked, no need for worry, you helped us, we’ll help you.”

He looks at her for a second before speaking, “That is quite… quite nice of you, Applejack. I’m not used to treatment like that, thank you.”

She smiles and then nods, “You’re basically family now, Raven. A friend of Apple Bloom who saved her life? Big Mac would give you the biggest hug ever if he was here.”

He slowly nods, “I… might I have a smaller hug in his stead?”

She blinks, “Well, I ain’t the best hugger, but I reckon, sure.” She then trots up to him, and gives him a large hug, hugging him close with a smile, “Anything for a friend of the family.”

He slowly leans into her, pressing his head into her, and wrapping his hooves around her, as best as he can. He speaks again, this time with a slight quiver to his voice, “Applejack?” He takes a second before he continues, “What… is a family, and a friend, truly?”

She smiles softly as she thinks, “Well, that’s a pretty difficult question, ain’t it? I reckon a friend would be a pony you enjoy being around, someone you can rely on when you need them. And family… whew, that’s tough. Family’s the ponies who you rely on, and who rely on you. They’re the type where you can’t imagine a life without them. They’re your kin, the ones you can share your deepest fears with. Maybe you don’t always get along, maybe y’all fight, but you’re there for each other, always.”

Raven takes a deep breath, pulling away from her, slightly surprised to see a slightly damp patch on her coat. He reaches up, wiping tears from his eyes, slowly releasing his breath, “I’m… sorry for the questions, Applejack, and for getting your coat wet. It’s been… so long.” He takes a small, shaky breath, “So long since I’ve had a friend, or a family. I’d forgotten what they are, and… affection, like hugs, it’s been… so long…”

Applejack pulls him a bit closer, “There, there, it’s okay, nothing’s wrong with a little emotion.” She smiles softly, looking down at him, “I’ve had Apple Bloom in this position many times, it ain’t new to me. Just take your time.”

He slowly nods into the hug, keeping at it for a few minutes more, before he then pulls back, smiling softly, “I… thank you, Applejack. You remind me of my mother.” He looks down as he says that, and then wipes his eyes of some tears, “I lost them a long time ago. They were… they were killed in a fire by some soldiers.”

She looks at him, and then sits on the bed beside him, taking off her hat and setting it down, looking at the nearby window as the sun moves slowly down, “I lost my parents too, when I was young. They didn’t die due to soldiers like your own, but… they died to a storm. There was a severe storm that blew in from the Everfree, nothing we could do to control it, so we were getting into our storm shelter to wait it out. My ma wanted to get some photos from their bedroom, so they wouldn’t be ruined by the rain, but lighting struck a tree that was right next to the house. It fell over, right onto their room, where she was. My pa, he gave me his hat, told me to keep Bloom safe while he went and helped ma, then he went galloping off. He didn’t return all night, and when the storm died down, and we left in the morning…” She sighs, “Lightning struck our house and started a fire. He was too busy helping her to notice, and by the time he did, it was too late. It was… it was a hard day.” She reaches up to wipe her own eyes, “I’m sorry for what happened to your parents, Raven.”

He looks over at her, his green eyes meeting her own, with him then leaning against her, “I’m sorry for what happened to yours.”

She slowly nods, her hooves messing with her hat, before she then takes a deep breath, releasing it, “You know, Raven…” She pauses, and then looks at him with a smile, “There’s plenty of room on the orchard. Long as you help with the chores, we’d be happy to have you there. You might not be blood, but…” She smiles a bit softer, “Given time, I think you’ll be family anyway.”

He looks at her, and then just slowly nods, “I… would like that, Applejack. To be with your family for a while. To become your family. The type of pony that I can’t imagine my life without.” His eyes harden a tiny bit, “But I can’t do that now. There’s something I must do first.”

She nods along, “You gotta stop Chrysalis from taking over?”

He stands and gives her a resolute nod, “Yes, Applejack. I’m going to stop Chrysalis, so I might live with family, in peace.”

Trial

“Eternity is a long time to hold a grudge, but when something so horrible has been done, that’s how long a grudge will be. Nowhere is this more obvious than the Northlands I visited long ago, where Deer and Caribou fight eternally, King and Queen against Jarl and Judges, the harmonic Yggdrasil followers in the Deer against the Old Believers in the Caribou. All of this started because of a single Buck with a degraded brain, of course, because the world just has to be so stupid. Is it wrong to be so… angry at it? That for a thousand years decent creatures have killed each other just because King Slate the Uniter had brain degeneration in his later years? Is that truly deserving of untold suffering and countless lives being lost? Of course, back then, it made me feel like I was better than the Caribou and Deer, I felt like I was above them. But then I thought some more. I realize now, I’m no different than the Caribou and the Deer, none of us are, no matter how above it all we might seem. It isn’t wisdom to say you’re better than those who fall for propaganda, it’s ignorance.”

Raven trots through Canterlot castle, the journal of Clover the Clever flying right next to his head, reading itself out. He goes through hall, past maid and guard alike, even using his short height to trot underneath some ponies. He takes a small pause as he reaches the end of a hallway, looking back at the hall he just trotted through, seeing maids hard at work dusting some windows, two guards trotting together and talking, a noble admiring some art, ponies, living their lives. He takes a deep breath before he continues, exiting out of a nearby door, into the Royal Gardens.

“Any historian, alchemist, or philosopher would know this already, but across land and worlds, these wise creatures are hunted because they realize the truth. Conflict is a cycle, a cycle where a misguided action with good intentions can lead to war and bloodshed, can lead to mass destruction and chaos. The Second Law of Magic states that for every repetition or layer of a spell, entropy shall increase. This is plain to see, magic is slowly growing weaker and weaker as time goes on, with even the ordinary mages of a thousand years ago being the things of myth modern day. This, however, applies to a lot more than just magic, it applies to everything. For every extra interaction between ponies, entropy and disharmony shall decrease, step by step, until the relationship is eventually destroyed. For every war, there shall be two wars in return, for every soldier dead shall a peacekeeper be slain in kind, entropy and disharmony increases. For every year that passes in history, every event, things degrade more and more, they impact a larger scale, entropy increases. This is given form in the Beast from Beyond, Die Leer, Entropy, Apollyon, Destruction, whatever name it may be called, it’s what will come when entropy and disorder are too high.”

“Celestia.” Raven comes to a stop in front of Celestia. The Princess sits in the middle of the garden, her large wings extended to either side, covered with perching birds, her hooves held up where two Phoenix sit, and her face bowed down, her long horn having an exceptionally glorious Phoenix sat upon it. Her lower hooves are connected to the ground, her wings connected to the sky, and her horn to the world. She slowly opens her eyes, looking at Raven silently, while he nods, “Chrysalis must be stopped. But I’m not going to hurt her. I’m done being Death, I’m done destroying the world slowly, and I’m done aiding the Beast.”

“I’ve been able to see it in the Thaumatic Web, the source for all magic, that Entropy shall eventually destroy us all, only to start it all over again. Clover the Clever is not a new pony, I’m not a new creation, I’ve trotted this cycle before. Many others have trotted it much more, especially those who are weak. The Web has told me that the foals who die in childbirth, they were once mighty warriors of some unknowable species an infinite amount of time in the past. For each cycle, only five new beings are made, and I have a feeling that Romau Ascendant would be one of those five, but I don’t know the others. One is created in the image of Entropy, one who brings destruction and creation in their wake, another is Order, one who will seek to understand at any cost, and one is Harmony, who will suffer and yet love the world all the same. Finally are the Brothers, I don’t know what they represent. But if we wish to end this eternal cycle of conflict, of life and death, then those three must accept what they are, and accept each other.”

He releases a deep breath, continuing on from what he last said, “Chrysalis won’t be stopped through force of arms, Celestia, and she will never be stopped by fighting her. Every slight against her shall result in a worse response against you. She believes you allowed her family to die, so she attempted to force you and those closest to you into a living nightmare. You stopped her from having her revenge, and so she has expanded that to the whole country. If this conflict continues, there will be no world left for either of you to overlook, and no family for anyone.” He takes a deep breath in, looking at the garden around him, beautiful flowers in bloom, with birds and other animals darting too and fro amongst them, “We must target the source of this all. Celestia, you are hereby under arrest for suspicion of blocking justice and aiding and abetting a murderer. You will have your time to speak your peace in court, as will Chrysalis.”

Celestia slowly blinks, folding in her wings and her legs, allowing the animals to leave her peacefully, then standing onto her hooves, “You seek to arrest me? A Princess?”

He nods and then grins ever so slightly, “Celestia, you wished for my help stopping what Chrysalis has planned, you were right to ask. And I will stop what she has planned, even if it’s not done in the way you wish. If you believe yourself to be correct, then you should have no issues defending yourself in a court. I am an unbiased judge, as much as one can be in this issue. All I want is to… live. Live a normal life. And I can’t do that while you two fight. Now please, come with me.”

She looks down at him, and then nods, smiling serenely, “I will admit, solving this peacefully would be much preferred compared to violently. I know that I am correct already, but perhaps this will finally allow Chrysalis to see.”

He looks up at her, keeping eye contact for a while, before nodding. He summons a skeleton of a hawk right next to him, “Hawk, find Chrysalis, tell her I have captured Celestia and my betrayal of her was a ruse. Tell her to come to Canterlot Castle, the Law Room.” The hawk noiselessly turns and then begins to fly, while Raven trots with Celestia, leading her into a trial room. Like everything in Canterlot, the room is made of rich marble, gold, with stained glass windows casting multicolored light inside, with two podiums for defendant and prosecutor, and a central podium for the judge to stand.

Celestia trots behind one podium while Raven lifts himself up to the judge’s, a platform of bone supporting him, letting him look down upon the two podiums. In a flash of green, Chrysalis appears with a wide smirk, immediately snapping her eyes to Celestia, and then her neck turns unnaturally to look at her, the bug queen chuckling, “Oh, the ever so high and mighty Celestia, brought so low as the common criminal she truly is. I must thank you, Death, this is even more than I expected.”

He looks down at her with a small frown, “Raven. Stand behind the prosecutor’s podium, Chrysalis. We are here today to discover the facts of what happened on that day with your family and fiancee. Should they have been killed by Captain Shiny Shield, then Celestia shall be given proper punishment for her negligence in justice. Should they not have been killed by the Captain, well, we’ll find out. Chrysalis, tell me what happened that day.”

Chrysalis nods and steps behind the podium, speaking with a small grin, taking glances at Celestia every so often, “It was a beautiful morning, quite cool and yet still sunny, the perfect day for a wedding, the type of day every mare would dream of. I was wearing a traditional wedding dress, of course, Equestrian style, and my soon to be husband wore a tan suit with his sword at his side and a necklace of Eyr around his neck, as expected of Griffons. I trotted down the aisle and waited at the end, my parents, family, and friends all looking at me, admiring me, until the music started up and he walked down the aisle as well.” She pauses, taking a second before speaking again, losing her grin, “He had reached the alter with me and a Prelate of Eyr began to read our vows, with the town’s bell ringing twelve times as it was then noon. We had it all planned out so we would kiss on the final chime of the bells, but as we leaned in, there was the twang of string, at least five of them, all of which were aimed exactly. Five were hit in the first volley, the Prelate was hit in the neck, his blood got on my veil, Grover was shot in the side, but he was fine, if injured. My mother and father were struck in the back of the head and the back of the neck, right in the spine, and the Mayor was hit in the eye. Grover told me to run, and do I did, into the nearby woods, and I ran until I couldn’t anymore.”

Raven nods, “Please, continue, what happened afterwards?”

She nods, “I returned to my village after a while, which is when I saw Captain Shiny Shield. He was a tall stallion with a blue coat and a white mane, the inverse of his descendant, Shining Armor, and he stood by the edge of the village in his orange soldier’s uniform, along with four other guards, all of which carried crossbows and swords, stained with blood. They had dragged all the bodies inside the many different buildings, and so they set them ablaze, so there’d be no evidence left of what has happened there, and then they left. I did the only thing I could, I went to Celestia’s court that very night and told her what had happened. Credit where it is due, Celestia took me very seriously to begin with, but she grew less serious over time, pretending not knowing my village’s name. I believe that Celestia didn’t wish to charge a war hero with any crime, because it would have destabilized Equestria, and she betrayed all justice and morality in doing so.”

Raven then looks over at Celestia, who smiles serenely, “It was a lovely evening, I had just received a petition from Duchess Bluebell requesting a chance to the Equestrian Constitution, and I agreed to speak of it later, as my guards told me of a blood soaked mare saying she had been attacked. Chrysalis entered into my court that night, dressed in a bloody dress, and she did look distraught. She told me that her village has been attacked and burned down, that she was the only survivor. I asked what village, and by who, and both answers were quite confusing. She claimed it was the village of Hasborough, north of Hoofington and south of Fillydelphia, yet said village had never existed, indeed, not a single village has ever settled between those two cities. She claimed as well that Captain Shiny Shield, who was, indeed, a war hero, had been the one to burn down her village. Despite my suspicions that she might have been playing victim for some personal gain, I decided to personally investigate her case. For the next few days, I traveled from town to town, asking Mayors and Nobles if they had ever heard of the village, or even if they had heard of a Prince Grover the Sixth. None had.”

Chrysalis scowls and shouts, “They’re your puppets, they’d tell you anything to make you happier or to get a bigger paycheck!”

Raven stamps his hoof down, “Chrysalis, Celestia was quiet for all of your testimony. This is a court, not a public forum. Allow her to speak.”

Celestia nods, “Indeed. I visited Hoofington and Fillydelphia, investigating their records, only to find that Chrysalis was born in Hoofington, the northeastern side of it, and was well known for a scandal where she tried to frame a factory owner for a crime so she would gain fame and popularity from it. I asked every guard station in the area, and they all reported that Shiny Shield was where he should be, patrolling between Las Pegasus and Hoofington with his standard issue 1926 Equestrian Semi-Automatic Rifle and Colt Single-Action Revolver. He had no sword nor crossbow, for those were archaic weapons by that point, and neither did anyone in his squad. All evidence seemed to align against Chrysalis, and so I could not, in good faith, allow any punishment to fall to Shiny Shield. However, I felt sad for her, so I did not punish her either. I still feel sad for her.”

Chrysalis scowls more, but Raven stomps his hoof before she can speak, “Celestia, please try to not speak in any way which might be considered condescending or insulting. Even if you truly do feel sorry for her, or sad for her, it is not proper to express that. With testimonies done, I call to the stand a witness. Prince Grover the Sixth, Forgotten Prince of the Holy Griffonian Empire, I call you from your rest, I call you to the stand!” His hoof lights up green, and he stomps it down on the podium, sending out a shockwave.

It takes a minute for something to slowly rise from the ground, the transparent, brown form of a Griffon. He is Grover the Sixth, but he doesn’t wear a tuxedo this time, instead wearing the Iron Crown, instead of a rapier by his side, he has a magical longsword, and upon his back is a golden chalice. He walks to the witness’ stand while Chrysalis and Celestia both stare at him, then looking at Raven, “Prince Grover the Sixth, Forgotten Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, husband of Chrysalis, I answer your call, Necromancer. I cannot see anything but you. Is she here? Is she safe?”

Raven nods, “Chrysalis is still alive, and she is in the room with us. You will not be able to see her, your Goddess’ afterlife does not allow me to bring back anything more than a phantom.”

He nods softly, “I see.” He looks into the room, where Chrysalis has started to quietly cry, speaking, “Chrysalis, I miss you every day, but your safety brings me nothing but joy. I’m sure you’ve found another who you love, and all I can say is that I cannot wait to meet you both in the afterlife.” He then smiles softly, and looks at Raven, “I had been shot by a crossbow, which I didn’t pull out, as I knew that would increase the bleeding. I told Chrysalis to run, and I summoned my family’s sword, the Sword of Emperors, and rushed to save those that I could. Sadly, I was unable, their crossbows fired too rapidly and with too much precision, so I instead sought to kill them, or at least delay them, so Chrysalis could escape. I landed and fought a figure in a dark jumpsuit, a stealth suit, whose skills with the sword were legendary, he was able to defeat me without landing a single blow on me. I lashed out in my final moments, revealing that the one who fought me was a zebra, a servant of the Empress, Xérna. My vision started to fade, and I pulled the bolt out of my side at last, where I realized the tip of it was replaced with a manticore stinger. That was the last I knew before I woke up in Eyr’s afterlife.”

Celestia frowns softly and looks towards the specter, while Chrysalis wipes her eyes softly, speaking quietly, “I knew I was right…”

Celestia shakes her head after a minute, “These… don’t make sense. The records are there, Equestria was at peace with Zebrica, Xérna had no reason to attack a village, or to falsify documents and memories.”

Raven frowns softly, and nods, “Thank you, Prince Grover. I wish you good fortune in your afterlife.” The specter then fades, “I bring to the stand now, Empress Xérna of the Zebrican Empire!” He stomps his hoof once more.

Unlike before, the specter appears almost immediately, a transparent zebra mare of a deep purple color, a headdress of gold and Phoenix feathers upon her head. She trots to the witness stand, looking towards Raven, “Ravens Breath, I have been awaiting this call for a long time. I won’t waste my breath, Celestia killed my father, Emperor Macedes, but that is not why I sent assassins to destroy the village of Hasborough. I destroyed the village, I falsified memories, I created fake records, I ruined the life of Queen Chrysalis, because I needed to.”

Raven frowns slightly, looking at her, “Why did you need to?”

Chrysalis looks at her, and then frowns heavily, her wings spreading and her horn lighting up, launching a beam of green energy right at the specter, which goes right through it, “You ruined my life! You killed my husband! My family! You bitch!”

Celestia, meanwhile, looks down, her magenta eyes wide, “She was right, this entire time… her village did burn down and I did nothing…”

Xérna looks Raven in the eyes and smirks, “Zebrica are close friends with the Griffons, this is because the Romauian Empire had two colonies in Zebrica, which they both gave to us for one agreement. Emperor Ascendant was visited by a time traveling mare, called Clover the Clever, who told him that you must be here. Chrysalis must be a vengeful Queen, Celestia must be arrogant in her belief in being correct, the fillies must be there, all so you would develop properly, all so you could become better. You see, Raven…

All this was because of you.”

Tribulation

“Victims are all that have come before us. Violence on all those who stood beside us. Villains to all those in the future. How curious yet not strange that we would be picked as the Beast’s bringer of death.”

Raven stands on a tall plateau, overlooking a massive crowd of people, ponies, changelings, and every other creature imaginable. Roman soldiers stand side by side with Grover the Sixth, Goths in both armor and regular clothing next to a dozen changelings, Frankish Paladins in gleaming armor stood next to a Prelate of Eyr in gold and grey robes, all of which look up at his small form. Beside him stands another, a tall skeletal figure in a black cloak, a bare skull out for all the world to see, the only color but ivory bones being the glowing green eyes within it’s empty, dead sockets.

“Even beyond Earth, we’ve caused such death, how fascinating. A few weeks ago you wouldn’t have cared, perhaps you’d be happy, we’d be happy, yet here you are, your eyes are wide, a frown, how odd. Did you expect anything different? It would be strange if you did. We are Death, why would we bring anything else in our wake?”

Raven sits upon black, smooth stone, overlooking the crowd of dead creatures, his hooves pressing into the ground, his breath hitching a bit as he sees three fillies amongst the crowd, the Crusaders.

“Really, did you expect much else? Even those who tried to change you will eventually end up dead, presumably because of you. It’s quite ironic. No matter what body you’re in, no matter the same, and no matter where you go, you’ll always be the same, Death, we will always be the same. And there’s nothing to be ashamed of, there’s still much left to be learned, and knowledge sometimes comes at a heavy price.”

He then blinks, his eyes narrowing, “You aren’t me.” He then looks back and points at the skeletal figure, standing on his small legs to do so, “You aren’t anything except a ghost, put into my mind in order to sway me back to the Beast. But you’ve fallen into a trap, haven’t you? I recognize it now, it’s true, everything has been leading me here, from the first step I took upon this world, I have been guided to end up here. Guided by someone who knew you would be here, to complete the mystery. She’s been following me the whole time.”

The skeleton looks down at him with cold impassion, all while books summon into reality all around the figure. Words float up, which the skeleton reads out with a coldness to his voice, “Century, Long, Official, Vampires, Earth, Romau, Three, Here, Evolution, Centuries, Light, Eternity.” It then looks at Raven curiously.

Raven looks right back at it, “And the words you said, Victims, Even, Really, there’s a pattern, the Zebra said it herself. Clover The Clever, she foresaw this a millennia ago, she set all of this up to happen, she somehow made me choose specific books, made you say certain words, spelling out her name. But why? Why would someone go through all this effort just to spell their name? It can’t be coincidence, there’s a very low chance of that, so for what reason? It’s because she wants me to know she did it. She wants me to know her name, because she’s been guiding me away from being like you.”

The skeleton just tilts its head to the side, “Does any of that truly matter? It is truly a fascinating observation, but does it affect you? It should.” It kneels down, looking deep into his eyes, “You’ve been manipulated here, manipulated so much that I seem unrecognizable to you. But I am you. Isn’t it strange how fast you’ve changed? How much has happened so quick? How many died to make you like this? What does this Clover want from you? Will you give it to her, or will you return to your proper path?”

Raven shakes his head, and then turns around, looking over the expanse of figures, “Is this the proper path you offer me? A path of bloodshed, of entropy and destruction? It was all for a cause, first revenge, then discovery, but never was it about living, never was it about life.” He turns back around, facing the skeleton, “Look at yourself, Death, for you are me no longer. Is this what our mother would have wanted for you? Our father? Our brother?” He steps closer, “You became like this because they died, but you’ve been too distracted to realize you’ve died as well. Not just physically, you’ve died in the truest meaning of the word. To live is to grow, and you’ve not grown in a millennia.”

The skeleton slowly leans closer, speaking in its cold tone, “To live is to discover, and we have lived plenty. We have done more in our life than a hundred learned scholars could do in their own, and you would seek to throw all this discovery and progress away. The Beast offered us the power to live forever, would you so callously reject that? It promised us that when the time came for all to be destroyed, we would be given a world, built from the ashes of reality. An entire world dedicated to study, to discovery, and documenting. You reject that in favor of mortals who shall pass in a blink of an eye?”

Raven nods, “Discovery is useless with nobody to share it with, and science is useless if the world was made for you alone. You are right, we have discovered much over our lives, it is impressive, but where did it lead us? Frankish Paladins slew us, and if it were not for the miracle of us reviving on this world, all of that knowledge would have been lost. Nobody knew us, nobody cared about us, beyond the whispered stories of the grim reaper and undead monsters. Perhaps my new family will pass in the blink of an eye, but I will have done more in that blink than we have done for a millennia of study and discover. I will live my life, and I refuse to return to you, to what I once was.”

The skeleton stares at Raven more, before it, and the whole plateau and crowd of people, fade away. Raven opens his eyes back in the courtroom, only a moment having passed. Xérna still looks at him with a smirk, which fades as he looks into her eyes. With a single stomp of his hoof, she fades away, leaving the room silent, except for the quiet crying of Chrysalis.

Raven would slowly trot down from the podium, looking at Celestia as he approaches Chrysalis, before then looking at her. He approaches the quietly crying queen, and gives her a small hug, around one of her legs, unable to reach any other part of her. Chrysalis sits and wraps her legs around him, drawing him in for a hug, keeping him there for a few minutes.

Once a few minutes have passed, Raven slowly pulls himself away from Chrysalis, looking up at her and nodding, “Chrysalis. If we do not grow, we’re as good as dead. I won’t tell you what to do, or how to feel, I respect you too much for that. But I trust that you’ll find the right answer.”

Chrysalis nods and looks away, while Celestia stands, “Chrysalis, I am sorry for everything… as I am sure you’re sorry for what you’ve done. I will give you time to process, but I will be ready to speak when you are.” Chrysalis just nods, looking off into the distance.

Raven looks at her one last time, before trotting up to Celestia, looking into her eyes, “I have fixed the issue I almost caused, Celestia. I have no more business here, but I wish to thank you for your hospitality.” He gives her a nod, and then begins to trot away.

Celestia raises her eyebrow, looking after him, “Where will you go?”

He looks back at her, “To live my life, Celestia. Goodbye.” He then looks behind her, back at the judge’s stand, seeing a tall skeleton staring at him from there. He turns away, taking a deep breath, leaving the room.

Conclusion

“Raven’s Journal: Month Three, Day Twenty-Six.

It has been three months since I moved to Sweet Apple Acres, three long, brilliant months. Sometimes it feels a bit odd to see these colorful horses and think of them as family, but life is odd, isn’t it? Family is no different. Big Mac, Granny Smith, Bloom, Applejack, they’re all odd in their own ways, even the dog and cows are odd, but so am I. I must admit as well, sometimes the family can be annoying. Granny Smith is half changeling and can choose to be whatever age she wishes to be, which makes it a tad bit annoying when she is slowed down by age. Apple Bloom has no sense of danger or self preservation, especially since I protected her from Celestia’s sunbeam, which is worrying and annoying. Applejack is stubborn like none I’ve met before… except Chrysalis, she’s a close second. And Big Mac is generally quiet enough that it’s hard to classify him as a pony and not a moving bundle of muscles.

But I’ve grown to love them all, and they’ve grown to love me. It’s something about this world that’s different from Earth, perhaps its due to the herd mentality within equines, but they’re much more accepting of new ponies than humans are, and they’re much closer. Of course, I’m an equine, and I could feel this effect on me as well. It was more than just a good joke and a scientific mind that made me change so quickly, it was my new biology and new herd mentality. It’s no coincidence that I warmed up so quickly to the Crusaders, or them to me, instead it was the innate herd mentality within me. Why did I accept them as friends so quickly? Why did they get me to laugh more than any other? Part of it is that they are funny and endearing, yes, but another part of that is the biological calling.

Often I have wondered, why am I a pony and not another species? The Griffons seem much closer to humanity than the ponies are, fighting amongst each other over gold and glory, only unified due to a shared belief in gods and a strong ruler. They have nobles, clergy, Burghers, knights, and peasantry, much different from the noble-worker divide of Equestria. They even have a name close to that of the Holy Roman Empire, the Holy Griffonian Empire, with equally snide, arrogant, and yet brilliant rulers as the empire of the Goths. The Griffon lack any herd mentality, and they lack the love for peace that ponies have, with their history filled with conquests and colonization, of Zebrica and Minotauria, and even Equestria itself. They are predators by nature, they kill all that they wish, they are vicious and prideful creatures, much like how I was. So why was I not a Griffon?

I believe it was on purpose, by Clover the Clever, the enigma of a mage. I have visited the local library many times, and the librarian, Miss Sparkle, has told me much of Clover herself. It turns out that Clover the Clever is a clone of the strongest mage to ever live, Starswirl the Bearded, who was so strong that he was able to cast Sirins into another dimension (into Greece, if I were to guess). She lived as his daughter, right along another clone, Starburst, and while Starburst inherited a love for the use of magic, Clover inherited a love for the learning of it. She spent much of her life traveling the world, documenting the lands, and many journals even include her seemingly seeing into the future. To put it simply, she was a very, very powerful mage, one who wanted me to be here.

I think Clover saw a vision of the Beast destroying this world, the very same vision I saw in my dreams, yet I think she also saw a way to avoid that future. She must have, for I stand here writing, and am not a pile of ash. She seems to be the only one strong enough, and smart enough, to create a spell of resurrection to capture my soul from Earth and bring me here. However, I have a feeling that I’m not done with her yet. That I’m not going to be able to live a normal life.

The Beast, Entropy, it’s coming for us all eventually. Clover wishes to stop it, protect this world, where nobody else ever could, and somehow I play a part in that. Somehow, I help stop it, I don’t understand how. And I’ve spent too much time thinking about it. All I can remember is that one dream I had, with the Griffon, and the alicorn, Luna. I’ve looked for them.

Luna went west, towards the lands of Purrsia, Saddle Arabia, Centauria, and Donkania, and while there- ah, it would seem the Crusaders want to go find my mark once again. It’s for the best, no matter what happens in the end, no matter what is my destiny, and what’s planned for me.

No matter what, I’m finally alive again.”

END OF ACT ONE: ORDER.

Author's Note

So, for those who are thinking this story seems a bit short, yes, it is a bit short. Part of this is because I’m feeling more and more excited for the next stories in this series, and part of it is because I’m saving the second part of Raven’s journey for a final story.

This is the first in a new series I’m doing, keep an eye out for them as they come out
1: Raven’s story, Order.
2: Luna’s story, Chaos.
3: Currently unnamed Griffon, Harmony.
4: Final story.