Luna watched with dread and concern on her face as they approached the treeline. He had been grumbling and wearing a face that was a blend of fear and anger. It was as if he had read it fresh again for the first time. He didn't remember making that order and something in his gut said that it wasn't his order. As they finally got to the edge of the Everfree, a gentle song floated on the air. It was quiet at first, but it became more clear as a white alicorn with a neon green mane and a rather fragile frame appeared, singing a song with his eyes closed as his magic played a harp next to him.
Sleep in peace and sleep at last
Embrace your rest and forget the past
Embrace eternity
Nestled in obscurity
Rest until time forgets us
Under the care of Morpheus
May your dreams bring you peace
May your evil thoughts cease
Sleep
Peace
Dream
And it then begun again. As he got closer, Justice could feel his mind getting light, the weight in his heart beginning to lift as his mind began to drift in the music. Seeing this Luna shouted, "No, you have to keep pushing forward! You cannot stop! Push through and remember! Remember the girls!" He looked at her with a distant look before he seemed to grip onto something. She was right.
He shouted, "ENOUGH!" the white alicorn opened his eyes, exposing his orange eyes, "Look, I know you mean well, Echo. But the time has come."
The white alicorn looked concerned but nodded, "I didn't want you to torture yourself anymore, Rune. You were always too hard on yourself. You carried the weight so none of us had to. I just wanted to repay you for all the good you had done for the rest of us."
Justice paused, not sure he fully understood what his old friend was talking about, but instead he insisted, "There are some well meaning girls that came here to help me and I don't know where they are. Stardust sent me down this path."
Echo sighed as he shook his head, "Only unhappiness lies this way. You will torture yourself. The girls must be fine as I created Morpheus for you so you could have peace and no one would force you down this road. I'm sure they are happy."
Luna was about to speak up when Justice motioned her quiet, "Echo, you were always so kind, but you never really understood people... or maybe that is just my memory of you. Either way, they cannot live here with me. It is time for me to move on. I can't waste my life here as long as others are in danger." These words weren't chosen by him as much as they were just happening. They felt hollow and like a reflex. Something was missing.
As if sensing this Echo turned his head and put a hoof to Justice's heart, closing his eyes for a solid minute before opening them with tears in his eyes, "This isn't what I would have wanted. I never meant to rip out your heart..." Echo seemed to shimmer and shift before taking on the form of AJ for a moment before becoming the yellow alicorn from the photo. "I wanted to give you peace. You have fought for too long you needed to rest. Rest before you became what you fought for so long."
Shane shouted, "You! Where are they?!" As he stepped forward he was calmly pushed back as sad look on the face that he once had.
"You cannot go on. Not without giving me your word." Shane was not tempted to agree with this former friend but he waited to hear the request, "When you wake the beast you must slay it... even if it kills you."
Shane growled, "Nobody will tell me anything! Who is this beast? What is it you fear and what evil thoughts did Echo want to save me from? No one will tell me anything! So here is MY deal. You tell me what the hell happened or you will have nothing from me, Morpheus!"
The figure sighed with resignation, "Then continue on and awaken the beast. The truth lies just ahead and when you have your answers, the beast I fear will awaken, and at the end of the day, only you can face him, but you will not be ready."
Luna moved to his side and stated, "Then we will face it together. He isn't alone in this struggle."
Morpheus smiled softly but condescendingly, "Dear moon, just like your course through the sky, we all must walk our paths alone."
Luna smacked the figure, "I don't any more. We are never alone, if we have friends." She was taken aback when her traveling companion reflexively replied to her outburst.
With a weary sigh he stated, "Friends can't be there for everything, and not everyone you view as a friend truly is one. These are the lessons you learn when you are in command of an army. Expect nothing from your friends and give everything. This way, anything outside of these things are pleasant surprises." He started into the woods as their warden nodded in approval despite the sad look in his eye, "Come on, Luna. I want you to be here when I finally find whatever crap it is that you've been keeping from me." She glared at the warden and then at the colt marching towards his own history. Perhaps to his own fate. As he did, the woods seem to darken and curl around him.
Luna asked, "Do you really believe that?" Her tone was urgent and pressing.
He scoffed back, "Why wouldn't I? Even in the fake world I built for myself, it was what I experienced. At the end of the day, I was in my own little exhibit and destined to be on my own. Giving everything and taking nothing." It was then that they came to a clearing with oddly shaped stones, or so it seemed until he got a bit closer in the dark. "Unicorns… must be the ones who came to claim the tree." Luna stopped at the edge of the clearing and watched. Noticing this, he figured this must have been the legend. That he did this… But how? Three hundred military unicorns all turned to solid stone, some of them looking like they were about to turn and run. As he looked further into the woods, he noticed a slow burning bright blue flame. As he got closer, he noticed it was a statue of... well, him... but something was wrong. The slow burning blue flame was coming from where the mane should be and where the tail should be. Feeling a pit in his gut, he didn't touch the statue and instead walked a bit further in to see it. The Tree of Harmony, or at least some vision of it. As he stepped closer a flash of memory hit him.
An earth pony that looked like Thunderhoof kicked an alpha timber wolf back into his pack, each of the beasts towering much higher than in Luna's time. Another that looked like Rose tossed a leather pouch that upon hitting the ground let out a flash of bright light and created a loud sound, scaring away the smaller ones. A white Pegasus, Echo, began to sing a lullaby to the local rabbits that seemed ready to attack until he had. His sister a dark grey Pegasus with a mane the same color as Thunderhoof removed her saddle bags stating, "Well, this clearing is as good as any. Who wants clover sandwiches? I know they aren't the best sandwich but nothing here eats them so it should be fine."
Stardust looked over to him, just a unicorn and asked, "Shouldn't we be going..." And then she stopped, moving some vines to reveal the tree. As the two stepped in, they felt warmth overcome them unlike any they had felt. And even the creeper vines were nowhere near the tree. "I sense magic here, Rune. I can tell if we stay here we will be safe."
He nodded, "It almost feels like it is inviting us to. Like it is trying to tell us that this is a sacred safe place to rest." As they all entered a light began to wash over them, and sitting down quietly with the sandwiches they all smiled with relief that they could finally relax and ate, Stardust's head resting on his shoulder as a sudden flash enveloped them.
Luna looked on with dazzled eyes, "The beginning of the Alicorn? It was started by the tree?" He nodded. She stepped forward, "And that grey Pegasus... She reminded me of a painting the royal treasury lost during Sombra's attack. She was my ancestor?"
He sighed as he shrugged, "Could have been. I wasn't around for that." He felt compelled to walk up to the tree, resting an exploratory hoof before another flash of memory came. Him in the same stance breathing heavy as he looked up at the tree.
He heard a voice behind him, one that was dark and angry, "We did what we needed to. What we did was just! This tree has brought peace to our people! It is not a prize to be claimed or a power to be abused!"
He spoke not to the voice but to the tree and to himself, "I am sorry. I failed you. I have betrayed my purpose and brought death to my own people. Please, grant me your power one more time. Before it is too late."
The voice growled again, "You are failing them twice if you turn from me! I am Justice in the absolute! I did as I needed to protect it and I will do so to all those who would come for it. If they need a demon to fear in order to keep their peace, I will become as much of a monster as they need! I will destroy all enemies of peace!"
He turned and shouted at the figure, "And become one in the process! I REFUSE! I would sooner die than continue down this dark road." He paused as he looked over a being now moving that looked almost exactly like the statue but with the stone flesh replaced with shining gold and his irises gone, a mindless husk of power. "And for their sake I will. Three hundred have died here because of me, but not one pony more. This begins and ends here!" As the tree granted him power once more he rose up stating, "I will bury you in a prison of the mind. You and I will rot there for eternity, watching as the world continues on without us. You will hurt no one and when your end finally comes you will know that your brand of justice betrays everything we have ever carried. This is the judgment for treason of the highest order by the Captain of the Equestrian Royal military."
Another flash and the memory ended but the figure did not. It stood there, looking down upon him. "And so you turned your back on the path of Absolute Justice and became this... An empty shell not even worth mocking." It stepped forward slowly, "You turned your back on your responsibility and your home because you killed traitors to the being that gave us this power. And since it wasn't us, we should have found who gave the order and taken them down as well. Put an end to the rebellions that attempted to set our world ablaze countless times. But you... you don't remember any of this. Because you are not the betrayer. You are but his empty husk. I suppose I'll save him the trouble by getting rid of his trash for him." As the being's eyes began to glow, Luna suddenly leaped into the way. "Ah, another traitor. Well, I don't have time to deal with you now. I must finish my business. If you care for this empty husk in any way, then I suppose I can put you both away in this prison until I'm ready to deal with you." Again, like a million pages of a book rolling past, reality seemed to fade and shift until he was there in the darkness all by himself again.
Floating there, slowly realizing what had happened. Why Luna was here... and why no one wanted to tell him what he had done. And so he floated here, trying to process that he had ended the lives of three hundred. He was a murderer... He had seen the demon he had become and he wondered just what it meant. The pain in his heart was gone here, but echoed through his body like a tuning fork. Here he hung, caught between oblivion and eternity and nothing to hold onto. It was there that he heard Morpheus' voice once more, "I warned you, but you chose to awaken this voice. Now there is but one path, one ending. You have brought about that which we swore to prevent"
He continued to float, not sure he understood this space. He had been told he was an empty shell and that he had been put away, and yet all he could feel was listless. He asked, "You say that, but where am I now? Which way is up, and which is down?"
Morpheus replied with a hint of hesitation, "Those words hold only the meaning you give them here. All eventually slips into oblivion, and all else is infinite and without substance. All that remains now is to wait until we are pulled into the black." He heard the resignation in the voice, but as he looked around he tried to snatch at some better answer, some truth that had eluded his other.
As he reached out with his magic for some hold on this space. When he did, a new voice came, "If it were me, I wouldn't let it end here. He wants to judge the world in fire, I say you answer with some of your own. Bring the sins of the fallen back upon him and show him the same amount of mercy he would show them. Best way to destroy a monster is to show them how pointless their little displays are."
Looking to see a thread in this odd space had moved, he pulled at another string and heard a different voice far more worn out, "He wants to exact his justice on the world, but as the necessary evil of my own world, I can tell you it will only breed greater darkness. Fear his thunder at your own risk."
He pulled at yet another string and a new more energetic voice responded, "He has just lost his path, forgotten who we are. Forgotten that when you throw time out the window and stop trying to fix the world, there is no telling what will happen. Vigilante, rockstar, or even just a boozehound. Not much of a list, but this isn't our world to fix. That world is here. Remind him of that."
Pulling on one more, he began to feel some ground on his feet, as if he was grabbing a rope to scale a cliff, as a female voice said "This world, here, is ours. We made it. This is the only one we have any control over, and what we do with it is ours to shape. It is another path and another part of us, just like The Captain. But we are ourselves. All we can do is accept our past and embrace potential. Remember this space, and know that our only limit is the edge of eternity. Until then, this world is ours, and what we do with it out there is up to us."
He began to walk on this seeming ground, holding that thread. This world was his to define. His to fix or destroy. As he tried to move forward, he could feel something pulling on him. Looking back he saw Morpheus pulling him towards Oblivion with his magic, "It is too late! We have already done all we feared we would and lost everything and everyone we ever cared about! We have lost! Let it go!."
Shaking his head he continued to climb, insisting, "We have survived it, though. We went through our worst fear and are still here. I don't know what you went through that made you break, but I'm still here, I'm still alive and I'm going to fix this!" He growled, "I can't afford to give up, not to him and not like this."
Morpheus growled, "My task is apparently at its end. Echo's last wish has fallen on deaf ears. Since that is the case, I will show you who we are, and when I do, perhaps you will see why we cannot stop him. May Echo forgive me." The figure rushed him, seeming to phase into him and as he did, he felt himself lose the thread he had been pulling. He found himself again staring blankly as he floated between infinity and oblivion, trying to process the memories that had just been thrust upon him.